On Tuesday, July 7, 2015 at 12:13:40 AM UTC-4, dsi1 wrote:

> My understanding is that people on the mainland don't typically hug people that are non-family members. I did not know this. Things sure are different on the mainland! I typically will hug my clients although my understanding is that's considered unprofessional behavior over there. That's a pity!

It varies. I used to hang with a really huggy crowd, but not so much
anymore. The only one of my company's customers that I'd consider
hugging is one who used to work here but defected to work for one
of our customer corporations. Of course, we're all engineers both
at my company and at the customers' companies, so we all tend to be a bit
standoffish. Plus, only our sales force sees them in person; it's all
e-mail and telephone contact for most of us.

There's probably regional variation, too. We Midwesterners tend to be
a trifle reserved. Honestly, I'm a little uncomfortable hugging my in-laws,
but it seems to be expected so I do it.

Cindy Hamilton