Social Etiquette - Business Idea

Great post Firefly. Good social etiquette is just common sense. It is not a fetish; it is not the cause of female castration etc. (How did you know who come up with this?).

In these days of trying to get the best person for the job where employers are looking for excuses to fail somebody, I would hate to think of front-runners killing their own chances at dinner or in the canteen.
 
lisshen hi, I'm going to load ye all on bus and drop ye into Healy-Rae's pub and I'm tellin-u, by the time ye get out ye'll be delighted to get back to the big scchmmoke and the refinement.


(Point being that everything is relative, apart for the obvious gob-wide-open-eating, or stinking of B.O., a lot of the stuff listed here is fairly harmless/inadvertent and you'd want to be particularly 'on edge' for it to really bother you.)
 

I don't dispute any of that Leper - but I find it hard to extend common sense to using this fork before that fork etc...

I don't know who came up with "female castration" as you call it (which by the way is a completely different thing to female genital mutilation), any more than you seem to know which bright spark came up with the convention of eating with the fork in one's left hand. It simply was an observation on societal norms.

Etiquette is described as "a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group".

I believe that the norms that are espoused here indicate that the people promoting them as somehow being important, belong to a social class or group which I would describe as snobby. Each to their own.
 
I know many of us had a laugh on this subject and the only reason I posted the matter was that I believe there is an opening all over the country for a nice little earner for some forward thinking people and at no cost.

One little story (believe it or not) I was once a salesman of pretty expensive stuff. Before I left the job I was training my successor. He was au fait with sales techniques, dress sense, presence, knowledge, etc.

Anyway (to make a long story longer!) we had completed the deal with the hotel owner with which we were dealing and all that remained was to have the contract signed - this would arrive by post days later. We were offered lunch and although I had nearly stood on my colleagues foot - he accepted the offer and we were joined by the hotel owner. My colleague ate lunch as if there were another famine coming and could not get enough apple crumble into his stomach fast enough while leaving a fairly extensive mess on the table and on the floor.

He (my colleague) didn't know it (I did) and he blew the sale. A sale the company could well have done with at the time. Still, I cringe when I think of it.
 
mandelbrot said:
I found this poorly constructed sentence by bullbars
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I think it goes beyond poorly constructed, it was just wrong! Although, I will note it's a forum. Had it been a business related issue I'd review it a bit more before sending obviously.

The point I was trying to make was that 'text-speak' and short one line answers to clients are simply not acceptable. We've actually had to stop some people from replying to emails/letters/fax etc.
With email, it's too easy to fire out short, sharp replies. I've seen email replies along the lines of
"Ok, will do.

Thks.

MG"

This was a response to a client who had submitted a long list of queries and requests.
 

It was just too deliciously ironic not to point out!

Totally agree with your point in relation to work-related correspondence, particularly to clients.
 
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Leper I still maintain that you wouldn't get the numbers. Your colleague had no idea that he blew the sale so it's unlikely that he would sign up.

So tell me about pizza. I was out with a few friends and we all had pizza. I cut mine into smallish pieces and ate with my hand as did the rest of us except one. One girl used her knife and fork and imo it was a painful process. Should we have been asked to leave?
 

I would not have asked you to leave.
 
I would not have asked you to leave.
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Jeez, I don't know Leper: You might be giving too much slack to the slackers.

Debretts.com:

Pizza can be eaten with your fingers or a knife and fork, depending on the formality of the situation. When eating with your fingers, hold the slice by the crust and bend the slice lengthways. Take bites from the pointy end and beware unsightly strings of melted cheese. Using a knife and fork is a better idea if you're in a restaurant.

Marion
 
You see Becky and Marion, people like me tend to remain silent during any such occasions. Like I said earlier, people who let themselves down (I'm not talking using wrong knives, cutting pizzas into cubes etc) don't realize how stupid they appear. You can bring a person out, dress him/her up, buy a beautiful meal, supply entertaining conversation etc and then you smell their body odour, listen to gnashers munching loudly and conversation that would have a docker duck and suddenly the prospect appears like the source of unwanted entertainment for the subtle well behaved.

There is nothing snobbish in this. Once again, I reckon there is an opening for some cultivated person to make a few bob here. People pay for interview techniques and even the presentation of cv's. Money wasted if you behave like a starved dog gnawing at a suddenly presented bone.
 

Absolutely, whenever I attend family gathering at restaurants I always insist that my kids eat what I eat.
My 2.5 year old has developed quite a taste for chowder soup, lobster and paté..
 
Email - My manager insists on everyone putting the entire Email in the subject line. Anyone who doesn't follow this diktat gets an email from him reminding them of the 'correct' format.

 
Bill Struth said:
Email - My manager insists on everyone putting the entire Email in the subject line. Anyone who doesn't follow this diktat gets an email from him reminding them of the 'correct' format.

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I'd draft it in the body of email and copy & paste it into the subject line (leaving it still in the body).

If he asks why the text in the body of the email tell him "Just for normal people".

Meaningful subject lines are good, but putting all the text in there (unless its a pure 1 liner with ....eom (end of messadge) at the end of it) is madness.
 

I think we were okay so, as we did cut into smallish pointy bits. It was a meet up after work so not too formal.

The girl who used her knife and fork, she is one of these people who can balance 2 peas on top of fork while talking. I can't do this (life's too short).

I don't understand 'bend the slice lengthways' though.
 
she is one of these people who can balance 2 peas on top of fork while talking.
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Hi Becky

Agreed. There is nothing better than heading out for an enjoyable meal.

I was out myself last evening with 2 friends. We went to a lovely Italian restaurant. One of us had a pizza and used both methods - knife and fork and sometimes just picked up a piece. A sliver was shared by all. I don't think Debretts would favour this. But, I didn't complain when it was passed over - it was delicious.

I had to think about that bit as well about "bending the slice lengthways". I think it just means that you hold the slice between your fingers at the crust end and fold it inwards - I suspect this is to ensure that nothing (cheese or tomato sauce) spills over the edge.

We shared a dessert between us - a lovely trio of home-made ice cream in a glass pedestaled bowl . It arrived with 3 spoons. I don't think this would be favoured by Debretts either. And,I'm quite certain that we all had our elbows on the table at the end of the meal as we chatted and finished the wine.

Verdict: a great evening.

In a formal setting we would not have been so casual.

Marion
 
mandelbrot said:
.... Etiquette is described as "a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group". ...
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or so some American web-site or other would have you believe
mandelbrot said:
.... I believe that the norms that are espoused here indicate that the people promoting them as somehow being important, belong to a social class or group which I would describe as snobby. Each to their own.
Click to expand...
Nah. I'd say some are just ordinary good manners, some might apply in "formal" dining settings, and others are a bit old-fashioned, unlike me.
 
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