Shake Three Times

My brother Bob, the doctor, also has a blog. It's called DB's Medrants. Recently he was ranting about last week's congressional hearings on the marketing practices of the pharmaceutical industry.  He's not a fan saying,

"Now I know that some will argue that this just represents free market salesmanship. However, I do believe that pharmaceuticals should be held to a different standard than cars, clothes, or refrigerators.

I refuse to meet with sales reps - because I do not believe a word they say. This article reinforces my paranoia. "

Here's an excerpt that Bob shared with his readers.

Instructions to the company’s sales crew were as detailed as how long to shake a physician’s hand — three seconds — and how to eat bread when dining with doctors — “one small bitesize piece at a time.”

Sales representatives were offered $2,000 bonuses for meeting sales goals, and worked in campaigns with such code-names as “Project Offense” to try to boost sales even as regulators were about to increase warnings on the drug’s label.

Who thinks up this stuff? And how have I gotten through almost 30 years in business and not known a whit about the 3 second rule. A quick search on Google uncovered that lots of people have been thinking about handshaking. My search on handshaking etiquette provided about 5000 results.

And, I now know where they got the idea for the 3 second shake...its right there in Business Etiquette for Dummies.

"In U.S. etiquette, an appropriate handshake begins with the introduction:

1. Extend your hand and grip the other person's hand so that the web of your thumbs meet.

2. Shake just a couple of times.

The motion is from the elbow, not the shoulder.

3. End the handshake cleanly, before the introduction is over.

If you want to count, a good handshake is held for three or four seconds."

So that explains it. I don't think I'm a 3 second shaker. As I visualize my past history of handshaking ,it's feeling like I'm more of a 1.5 sec to 2 sec shaker.

Turns out, according to the American Psychological Association, this may explain a lot of things. ( Full disclosure: my dad worked for the APA in the 1970s). Back in 2000, the APA did a handshaking study. Turns out, women have a distinct disadvantage.

"We think that the implications of these analyses for self-promotion strategies used by women may be important. Women have historically been at a disadvantage relative to men when competing for jobs. Glick, Zion, and Nelson (1988) argued that to remove this historical disadvantage women need to overcome the general impression that they are less competent or qualified. However, overcoming this impression has costs for women, because behaving assertively and confidently often results in a more negative impression for a woman relative to an assertive and confident man. Our results provide one instance in which women who exhibit a behavior (a firm handshake) that is more common for men and that is related to confidence and assertiveness are evaluated more positively than are women who exhibit a more typical feminine handshake."

So if I am interpretting this correctly, if women were to just shake a little firmer we would make a better impression but at the same time by giving the impression that we are confident and assertive we will be emoting a negative impression.

N'est pas?

Which is why on many days I like to quote from my favorite poem, Ladies and Jellyspoons. " I come before you to stand behind you. Next Thursday which is good Friday there is going to be a mother's meeting for father's only.