Shaking hands

I met my new dentist today.  The old one has gone on a gap year, a sabbatical to trip around the world or something.  I hope it wasn’t something that I said. 

She is called Philippa, the new one that is, a name that I will find easy to remember, Philippa Bennett.  (My old dentist was called Mrs Latifa just for the record).  I know that she is called Philippa as she told me as she held out her hand to shake mine.  Of course I duly obliged, taking her offered hand in a firm and business like grip.  Now I like to shake people’ hands, I think it is a nice way to greet but I must confess to never having shaken the hand of my dentist before and it did seem a little odd.

I did shake my doctor’s hand the last time I saw him and so perhaps it is a new medical thing, a drive to improve their bedside manner by greeting us in such a convivial yet traditional way.  It makes you feel somehow comforted whilst at the same time giving you the knowledge that you are in safe hands.  A master stroke / plan for the caring professions?

Of course on the walk back up home, while teasing the new filling with my tongue, I couldn’t help wondering why it seems odd to shake some people’s hands but not others.  When is it right to shake hands or not?  Does it work with some professions and not others?  What is the protocol? 

I do have my own set of rules however but they are not perfect.  I always shake hands with someone who does not work for the same company as me, both when we meet and when we part.  That covers customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.  I don’t shake hands with colleagues though but when I was working at Spicers we always used to shake hands at the management team meetings but then we didn’t work together all the time and so it was like meeting new people.  At our depots abroad they were much more enthusiastic shakers especially in France where everyone would shake hands with everyone else the first time they saw each other that day.

I will however bend this rule from time to time if it is a colleague that works in a remote office or we are meeting in an unusual location.  I do shake hands with colleagues when we are celebrating something though or when there is good news to share and I shake their hands if it is the first time that I have ever met them.

I even shake hands with my brother and any male member of my extended family when we get together, so how does that work and why not the females?

I haven’t written these rules down, until now and it all seems very complicated on reflection, especially if you are in a room with a bunch of suppliers and one colleague, where there are hands everywhere but your work mate gets left out.  We usually have a laugh and end up chucking the rule book out of the window and shake hands anyway.

The thing is though that I have a check-up coming in a few weeks’ time and the big question is going to be – will I shake Philippa’s hand or not?  I wonder if they teach the protocol at Dental School.  I think I’ll wait to see if she makes the first move.