On 7/7/2015 3:30 AM, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> 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
>

It was a person from the Midwest that told me that where he's from
hugging is considered unprofessional. He was a private investigator that
did background checks so I guess his profession had something to do with
it too.