German etiquette group targets workplace kissing

[Feuer Frei!]

Now this is funny

A society in Germany which advises on etiquette and social behaviour has called for kissing to be banned in the workplace.
The Knigge Society says the practice of greeting colleagues and business partners with a kiss on the cheek is uncomfortable for many Germans.
The society's chairman, Hans-Michael Klein, says he has received concerned emails from workers on the issue.
He advises people in the workplace to stick to the traditional handshake.



"We can't forbid [kissing in the workplace]," he told the BBC.
"But we have to protect people who don't want to be kissed. So we are suggesting that if people don't mind it, they announce it with a little paper message placed on their desk".
Mr Klein said he had received 50 emails this year alone on the rise of kissing on the cheek - sometimes both cheeks - as a greeting at work.
"People say this is not typical German behaviour," he said.
"It has come from places like Italy, France and South America, and belongs in a specific cultural context. We don't like it, they say."
The society held a meeting on the issue, and carried out a survey of people both on the street and at their seminars, he said.
"Most people said they didn't like it. They feel there is somehow an erotic aspect to it - a form of body contact which can be used by men to get close to a woman."
He said there is, in Europe, a "social distance zone" of 60cm (23in) which should be observed.
The Knigge Society, named after the German term for a guide to good manners, is based in a castle 80km from Dortmund in western Germany.
It has reportedly previously ruled on the correct way to end a relationship via text message, and how to deal with a runny nose in public.


SOURCE


11 August 2011 Last updated at 10:23

[MH]

Only workplace kissing i'm aware of is ass kissing.
Strange.....

Originally Posted by MH

Only workplace kissing i'm aware of is ass kissing.
Strange.....

And you'll never see that banned in the U.S.A.!

[Anthony W.]

Originally Posted by privateer

And you'll never see that banned in the U.S.A.!

Damn straight and (as long as it's figurative lol) I don't see anything wrong with THAT either. Nothing like being invited to the family barbecue to gain favor for a promotion.

But... I really don't see much of a problem with kissing or other PDAs as long as they aren't overt and intended to be offensive. Hell, only reason I can think of for banning it is to coddle the poor saps that can't get dates.

Originally Posted by Anthony W.

Damn straight and (as long as it's figurative lol) I don't see anything wrong with THAT either. Nothing like being invited to the family barbecue to gain favor for a promotion.

Might not be wrong in a legal sense but it could make the work place Hell for any that partake of booty kissing.

I've seen it happen many times.
And most times the 'kisser' gets canned by the 'kissie' when those who work under the 'kisser' refuse to deliver.

As I run my own business?
Anyone who starts 'kissing' up?
I give them one warning, and one warning only.

Damn straight and (as long as it's figurative lol) I don't see anything wrong with THAT either. Nothing like being invited to the family barbecue to gain favor for a promotion.

I agree with privateer the ass kisser gets shown the door, they are unreliable and very bad for making money.
I work on a merit only basis, the person may be the most obnoxious bastard going and may openly hate my guts, but if he can do the job and fill my bank account then he is like gold dust.

[Jimbuna]

The reciprocant of a Geordie or Glaswegian kiss tends never to forget the experience...well those were the sort I often encountered in my area of work

[Skybird]

I take grim pleasure from rebouncing in a somewhat Klingon attitude every stranger trying to hug and kiss me. While it may be social convention developed over long time in Southern America and mediterranean countries, it certainly is no social convention in Middle and Northern Europe.

I already feel pissed when walking through an Ikea market and every sign and poster there adresses me with "Du" instead of "Sie". That may be convention in Sweden. But in Germany, it simply is crude and chumming up.

But as I see it there is a massive trend for infantilisation of social conventions and media.

As a German comedian, I think, put it some time ago, today the mother does not go to a parents meeting at her son's school and introduces herself with "Guten Abend, ich bin Frau Meier", but she trills: "Hallöchen allerseits, ich bin die Mutti vom kleinen Linus!"


Bootcamp. All of them.

^^^^someone appears very sad lonely angry and extremely mixed up again.
can someone give him a hug

[Feuer Frei!]

Originally Posted by Skybird

I take grim pleasure from rebouncing in a somewhat Klingon attitude every stranger trying to hug and kiss me. While it may be social convention developed over long time in Southern America and mediterranean countries, it certainly is no social convention in Middle and Northern Europe.

I already feel pissed when walking through an Ikea market and every sign and poster there adresses me with "Du" instead of "Sie". That may be convention in Sweden. But in Germany, it simply is crude and chumming up.

But as I see it there is a massive trend for infantilisation of social conventions and media.

As a German comedian, I think, put it some time ago, today the mother does not go to a parents meeting at her son's school and introduces herself with "Guten Abend, ich bin Frau Meier", but she trills: "Hallöchen allerseits, ich bin die Mutti vom kleinen Linus!"


Bootcamp. All of them.

You know, I was wondering about that.
When I was growing up in Germany, It was all about formality. After I left I heard that Germans were becoming "lockerer". More relaxed.
But I was also wondering wether the courtesies and formalities had gone out the window. Or is this only confined to the younger generation nowadays?
I would hazard a guess that the older generation would still address with: "Guten Abend, Herr Maier hier".

[Skybird]

When pedagogics took over the education system, manners and bad behavior, not to mention parent's education of children, went right out of the window. While some laid-back relaxation after the tightened 50s and 60s certainly was welcomed, in the late 80s at the latest relaxation turned into simple lack of manners and education more and more. The public taste reflected by what the media delivers in daily shows, is a nice reflection. So is a decline in consent on values, and respect for authority - I do not mean submissive, cowardish respect for authoritylk, but the healthy trust and friendly kindness you for example pay for the policeman doing his patrol in your neighbourhood.

That our self-declared elites also cannibalise themselves in their eternal greed and hunger for more of everything, does not help to revitalise this society's insight into the need of consent over a minimum of manners, respect, and rules.

So, from the 60s to the present, it seems to me that the pendulum swung from one extreme to the other.