TJ WALKER - THE HABIT INFLUENCER - Personal Development | LIVE STREAM

The modern workplace environment in most places around the world, certainly in Western countries, is different today than it was just a few years ago. Things have changed, I would argue for the better, but it does mean what's acceptable and what isn't acceptable with respect to body language is completely changed. Now this first tip you're going to say, okay, obvious tj why bother telling it? Well, some people still don't get it. In this day and age, touching someone to give them a neck massage or any kind of a massage is almost a guarantee of career disaster. If you've done it before, don't do it again. Any kind of touching can be misconstrued these days and it can cause someone in the workplace to be very uncomfortable. So my rule of thumb would be for anyone, especially a manager, don't touch any of your employees in the workplace. If someone has just had a family member die and they go up to hug you, obviously it's going to be okay to hug them back. But in general the rule of thumb would be wait for someone else to initiate and even then be careful. You can't go wrong giving people a little more formal distance when it comes to actual touching than before. Because workplace environment rules have changed. People's perception of what is threatening body language and what is not threatening language is different. Some people are just touchy feely people and you may have to really monitor yourself to make sure you're not doing anything to make sure someone uncomfortable. The problem is if these are employees who report to you and you put your arm around them a lot and you ask am I making you uncomfortable? They may feel too uncomfortable to tell you you're making them feel uncomfortable. So please keep that in mind. The less touching the better, regardless of the norms of your workplace or what country you're in.