This article originally appeared in the March 2020 issue of Security Business magazine. When sharing, don’t forget to mention @SecBusinessMag!
By this point, everyone knows about the coronavirus fears as we all descend upon always-crowded Las Vegas. I was recently in Vegas during the week when it is perhaps its most crowded (CES week), and let me attest: Personal space was at a premium!
From overcrowded walkways to train cars packed tighter than a sardine can, people were forced to get uncomfortably close to each other that week, with more than 175,000 people from at least 160 different countries added to the city’s already huge population. I can tell you honestly that as I came home from Vegas that week, a sore throat and a cough were following close behind.
Even though ISC West is early this year and it coincides with the first crazy days of NCAA March Madness, there won’t be anywhere near that many people to contend with as we weave our way through the casino and walkways at the Venetian and the Sands. Still, with everyone’s concerns over coronavirus, being kind to your fellow professionals when it comes to germs should be top-of-mind.
Everyone knows that clean hands are the number-one recommended way to prevent the spread of the flu. Even besides germ transmission, have you ever shaken hands with someone who has real clammy, or heaven forbid, wet hands? You know you have. Have you ever noticed someone skip the sink on the way out of the men’s room? Darn right.
As you shake that off your mind, I propose that we ditch the antiquated and often gross handshake. This is 2020, and we have the ability to make a change. Let's create a groundswell for the professional fist bump!
Many scholars believe the handshake probably dates back to Greece in the 5th century B.C., when soldiers and others would use the greeting to show that neither person was carrying a weapon. During the Roman era, the handshake evolved into grabbing each other’s forearms to check that neither man had a knife hidden up his sleeve. In 2020, unfortunately, the weapon is much smaller – microscopic in fact. The CDC says 80 percent of infectious diseases are transmitted through hand contact.
I found an amazing article in The Atlantic from 2013 entitled, The Fist-Bump Manifesto (www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/11/the-fist-bump-manifesto/280175). The article describes scientific, tested evidence that the fist bump is cleaner and safer than a traditional handshake.
The article cites research published by The Journal of Hospital Infection, where surgeons at West Virginia University hypothesized they could reduce the spread of infection by fist bumping instead of shaking hands. Tom McClellan led a research team that directed a group of clean-handed research subjects to shake hands and fist bump at various intervals. “The handshake exposed more than three times as much skin surface area as the fist bump, and the contact averaged 2.7 times longer. More bacteria were transmitted, as expected, with the handshake,” The Atlantic article reported.
“We surmise that the fist bump is an effective alternative to the handshake,” McClellan et al. wrote in the journal. “[Bumping] may lead to decreased transmission of bacteria and improved health and safety of patients and healthcare workers alike.”
How has this not caught on yet, people? I understand that tradition is something difficult to overcome – after all, business deals are sealed with a handshake, right? But I feel like we are making strides in the anti-handshake arena. When someone offers you a hand to shake and you respond with a fist, the other person generally realizes what you are after and reciprocates with a fist bump.
It may be awkward at first, I get it. With so many old-schoolers in this industry, it would probably be a painful transition, but getting over the fist bump as a bro-culture move and seeing it more as a practical business courtesy would be super cool, bro.
Paul Rothman is Editor-in-Chief of Security Business magazine (www.securitybusinessmag.com). Email him your comments or topic suggestions at [email protected].
