There are 2 sides to the Face-to-Face issue. The world as we know it today is avery different world from when business etiquette was established. We need to face up to the challenge and evolve. Not everything needs to be done vis face-to face and can be done quite efficiently.
I live in an area that is very interactive. I can not go to a place without seeing someone I know 3 and 4 times over. If I am going to the post office to mail bills, I will almost always see 2 people I know standing in line to ship. Counter productive. Whereas, I can go on-line, create my payments and then created these bills to be mailed and paid. Very productive.
However, I still believe there s an etiquette for things that wont ever go out of style such as announcing a death, accepting an award, voting, graduating, and interviewing.
@Toni - We're so much alike. I have always been inclined to want to be as efficient as I possibly could with all my time and energy. I felt if I was efficient what tasks I had on my list, I could get to the things that I really wanted to do. However, reading this book has lead me to think a bit differently -- outside of my survival mentality towards being a contribution. What would happen if we looked at what we formerly saw as obstacles to us getting our stuff done as new possibilities for being a contribution?
ReplyDelete@ Toni... I totally agree with you that the world is constantly changing but I think that one thing is always going to be constant and that is that we still need and require face to face contact. If we do not have this then we will become recluse and fearful of the world around us. The world itself is an awesome place and people, for the most part, are a wonderful asset to it. I think that the next generation needs to be reminded of this especially in the time when online education is becoming more and more the norm. If today's students do not have any type of face to face socialization and just live through a media of text messages and Internet, then they will lack several social graces. i see this with my own daughters. They could be sitting right next to each other but yet they choose to text messages to each other rather than engaging in conversation. This is very scarey. So my word to them and to others like this... Don't ever loose the power and gift of conversation. It is important!
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