Saturday, August 24, 2013

Morning Ritual III

Here I'm, 4 years later, writing about morning ritual III, after morning ritual II.

Several months ago, we moved to a new office with open space environment. That was when I decided to establish my own rule for the morning greeting : air kiss with women, hand shake with men. So every morning, once arrive in the office, I go to greet everyone, have a small talk before starring at my computer and keep pressing the keynotes (my mother's expression, that's how she sees people working in front of a computer lol).

Well, at the beginning some men were a bit confused, as they actually do the contrary : shaking hands with every man and air kissing every woman. But little by little, they get used to it.

I'm glad I made this decision. I read a woman's blog (a Chinese married to a French), after several years of air kissing her guests, she decided to just stop. She didn't appreciate the ritual, now she is just telling everyone that she doesn't "faire la bise". Some people were shock, but gradually they accepted it. I found this to be too extreme, but I admired her gut to tell people what she actually thinks.

This only applies to office environment though. I can accept air kissing people outside of work in informal occasions. Maybe one day I will accept to air kiss my male coworkers. It actually happened. One day, I don't know what got into me, I just went to air kiss a team mate, naturally. I think that was because I start to treat him like a friend, a good sign I guess.


4 comments:

  1. eh ..what is air kiss?? you mean kiss on both cheeks type?

    I only do it to close friends. Also not everybody want to air kiss with me .. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. eh ..what is air kiss?? you mean kiss on both cheeks type?

    I only do it to close friends. Also not everybody want to air kiss with me .. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, kiss on both cheeks while making the kissing sound.

    Why not everybody wants to air kiss you? In France it is considered rude if you don't air kiss or shake hands when you meet someone.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I suppose it is not really a practice here. So far, I only practice this air kiss with close friends ... I dont even air kiss with MIL every time I see her!

    ReplyDelete