Manners Matter

MannersMatterUK:

"Great, you found us. We guess you have a question about protocol or good manners. We also guess that you want to get it right. That’s what we are here for."

It took me a while to actually find a site where good manners are explained. Why? We were talking today about how some simple courtesies seemed to be lacking and that we believed they should be reinstated. Something as simple as looking someone in the eye when you shake their hand, even exchanging a word or two with them, or smiling and saying hello if you walked past someone in a building. We started talking around it. If you were unaware there were such things as social graces you would be oblivious to the fact that public toilets are a social space, that the Japanese have a BBQ etiquette, that the Scots have a kilt culture and that what you consider to be polite would be considered offensive elsewhere. In Australia when you go shopping you prefer to be left alone. You walk into a shop and quietly or independently peruse what you wish. If you go to a bakery shop you quietly wait your turn. In some countries people would think it very rude to walk into a shop and not acknowledge the owner or the sales staff...at least say hello to them. In some countries you also need to chat to the shop owners as you peruse their goods. We would consider that being a bother to the owner and getting in their way. Then the mobile phone etiquette. We have more or less reached agreement they should be turned off in meetings and no one should pick up during a meeting. Some people persist. Fewer and fewer people are on mobiles on public transport because anyone privy to a mobile call on a train or a bus is getting way too much information a lot of the time and we have rethought that. You can do that in Adelaide because the word goes round pretty fast. So, we need a forum to jog people along about manners and politesse because they do smooth the way if they are not excessive. They really are social niceties.