This no-hand shaking thing is really starting to get traction now. Since my rant in May we’ve seen startups ban the medieval practice at board meetings and mainstream press jump on board.
And now a city in Germany, Würzburg, has apparently banned hand shaking within city walls. The translated version of the article is here. If anyone speaks German and can do a better translation, please let us know.
I say we start asking cities in Silicon Valley to ban handshakes, too. Or at least lets get rid of the ridiculous National Handshake Day.
Thanks for the tip, Robert.
Update: Some German speakers in the comments below correct this post, it is apparently city staff only. Still, it’s a step in the right direction.
you and hand shaking (shakes head)
I can help out with translation if still required.
Take a look at this, incredible!!!
http://www.clasilistados.org
Why? Because of the swine flu? Or do they just think it’s dirty?
No more hand vibrating? =(
Pathetic.
Ever heard of Purell hand sanitizers? If you are so paranoid about germs, keep one with you at all times.
Lol! why are these guys getting so finicky about handshakes! Go take your laptop and live on mars if you are so allergic to humans!
Reading the original article, they didn’t actually ban hand shaking. The mayor’s office building decided to refrain from shaking visitor’s hands and will smile at them instead.
Hand shaking in German translated to English as ‘hand vibrating’.
Whoops that’s a definite mistranslation. A handshake is the traditional way to show you agree, seal a deal, and that you highly value the person you are greeting. It’s unfortunate that some don’t comprehend the functions, etiquette, or the importance of a real handshake (not the fish like grip of some politicians). The grip conveys the sincerity.
Does this affect computers as well?
If someone lives in that city and their computer needs to do anything with another computer it has to handshake.
Will they come arrest the computer or the owner for instigating the handshake? And if they arrest the computer will it be melted down and turned in to a rubix cube as punishment?
This is Y2K all over again. Next, they will ban negotiating.
why are you so weird, michael arrington, why are you soo weird
It’s not the entire city. To prevent swine flu, city hall employees in Würzburg don’t shake hands with visitors anymore.
Thank you Markus.
Hopefully the Howard Hughes of Sili Valley is reading the comments to his post.
Please don’t let anyone translate that article into real German. It is too hilarious as-is.
By the way I’m totally with you on the hand-shaking business. Not only am I always self-conscious about my clammy hands, my office shares a (thin) wall with the men’s bathroom. Let’s just say my personal research shows that 9 out of 10 men do not even bother turning the faucet on, let alone lather up and hum the ABCs before returning to work.
actually you got it pretty wrong. they just introduced the policy that employees of the townhall won’t shake hands of people coming at their desks and counters (for to h1n1 prophylaxis). that’s all, weird too, but not that weird.
so its not city walls, but townhall walls.
OMG I used to live in Wurzburg, there is a castle, but no town walls lol.
why not replace it with something funny. i suggest we extend our right leg instead of handshaking
But of course this would make old people fall down
You are a neurotic
Namaste, Michael!
i refuse to give up my western origins
That’s funny. We’re a startup from Wuerzburg and I hadn’t heard of that jet. As Joost said: it’s just the clerks in the town hall. There haven’t been many cases of swine flue in Germany, so people are not to worried.
how about open mouth kissing instead?
right. there are so many organs in our bodies
LMAO @foobar2000!
“how about open mouth kissing instead?”
Would that include a reach around? I would take that over a handshake!
It’s not really “around” if you’re kissing…right?
As some of the other commenters said, it’s not the entire city. It’s just the local town clerks who don’t shake hands with visitors any more. They are supposed to smile at you instead which actually is the more exciting news.
smiling government workers in Germany IS big news….
Most accurate assessment of this ridiculous situation so far.
No doubt, I’m suprised they didn’t say scowl at visitors in lieu of handshaking, more in keeping with the reality. Alas, I digress… ban handshakes, but… make them smile? Curiously this is occuring during the time when most all the Germans are on vacation, could a rule to smile have made it through if they were in town during the decision making process?
Seems silly to actually ban handshaking. I understand not wanting to do it and even getting rid of it in a business atmosphere. But for a city to ban handshaking…seems ridiculous.
This is idiotic, not just for the sensationalism but more for the implication that if the city actually did ban handshaking you would really support such a fascist move.
what about at family get togethers? are you no longer hugging/kissing/hand shaking family members? is it just one big “hello” waves to each member of the family?
Here’s a translation for the first part of the article. The second part I can’t really translate because there’s a lot of vocabulary concerning covernment institutions that I don’t know the English equivalents for. But here you go:
When visitors of the city hall in Würzburg are being brushed off by the employees, then that has nothing to do with being unfriendly. In fact, the rebuff there is considered good manners. Or, more precicely, it’s a precaution against being contracted with the swine flu.
Wir haben Plakate aufgehängt, die die Bürger darüber informieren”, erklärt Pressesprecher Christian Weiß. Darauf steht: “Wir geben Ihnen nicht die Hand, aber wir schenken Ihnen ein Lächeln.” Bislang gebe es keine Beschwerden von Seiten der Bürger. Und er selber habe heute auch noch keine Kollegen-Hände geschüttelt.
“We put up posters that inform the citizens about it”, spokesman Christian Weiß explains. The posters say: “We don’t shake your hand, but we give you a smile.” According to Weiß, there have been no complaints by citizens so far. And he himself has not shaken a colleague’s hand today.
While companies and agencies still prepare for the virus, the preparations for the planned swine-flu-mass-vaccination for more than 35 million German citizens has suffered a setback.
A better idea would be to ban Comic Sans from your graphics (most of them, anyway).
Are you related to Howie Mandel?
That’s pure nonsense, and in fact they did not ban in any way handshaking. It’s just a policy.
I wonder what they’ll do if you stick your hand forward and try to shake theirs.
What about the sign of peace at Catholic church? Shall we abandon such a gesture?
Bacteria are cool, they keep us alive.
For every human cell you have, there’s around 10 or so bacterial cells living in or on you. Thats about 10 TRILLION bacteria just doing their thing inside or on you every minute of every day.
You are transferring bacteria inside and outside of your body every minute of every day. Everywhere you go, everything you do. Every time you take a breath, every time you exhale, every time you touch something.
Michael, you have OCD, get a grip man.
Sorry, bad pun
Happy to do the translation. Please send me the german website link.
this is ridiculous. they should ban hi-5ing first.
Michael,
Im am based in Munich Germany and this newspaper soruce is very much on the conservative siet – doing “political work” at the moment.
In Germany the “Bundestagswahl” is end of September.
We just vote every fourth year like you!
And polical lobbying and pharma groups trying to push the “Swine flu” Issue
So that´s like a poltical linkbait !
Just my 5Cents
Is that a tech news channel or a or linkbite spam news site? This is one of the foolishst post i ever read on techcrunch. Embarrassing and wrong!
at least it wasn’t about twitter or facebook
I’m shocked! The Germans are really big on shaking hands (they also start counting with their thumbs, and snap their fingers when applauding!).
Ich bin empört!
Arrington is just bitter as nobody finds him worthy enough to shake his hand.
Please Michael….. still with the handshake phobia? Get over it. There are more germs in your house (check out that remote control):
http://www.vent...he-dirty-truth/
Good Lord man, don’t give him something else to worry about!
I checked some german articles. The local administration advides their employees in the twon hall not to shake hands and smile instead. It is an advise from “Rober Koch Institute” cause of Swine Flue. It is the 1st city following the advise.
It is only in the town hall. There are 37 people infected by swine flue in Wuerzburg
here´s another source that´s just telling – it´s not a law – It´s just a recommendation to all the 2400 City Employees of Würzburg
to prevent illness.
http://preview....yurl.com/mncbwf
Sieg Heil!
that was completely unnecessary
I just read the article. They also banned chinese food delivery to the town hall. Chinese food has a lot of swine in it. Swine swine swine, swine evawear. I had lunch the other day at Sushi Zen and they fortune cookies were full of swine!!!
We should just suck on each other’s fingers when we first meet.
Crissy that’s SO crass! We should just suck on each other’s toes when we first meet!
The Führer is dead!!! The Führer be dead!!!
C’mon guys. Everytime something about Germans comes up a few morons go crazy with Nazi references. The war is over for more than 60 years now – a lot of the Germans try to move on and maybe it’s about time for you to do the same.
Swine flu might help you a lot in your fight Mike. Don’t give up, lol.
Stop picking your nose after shake someone’s hand.
Oh, Mike’s blogging about his phobias again instead of seeing a shrink.
Hope you’re a hugger then!
)
I accidentally shook your hand at the Fortune Conference. Sorry about that — was caught thinking of how to pitch to you, and fell into the routine of the handshake. Growing up a basketball player, I always have loved the fistbump ironically. I hope the ban grows. Next time – I won’t forget!!
“In times of the pig flu the hand vibrating is no longer seen gladly.”
A for effort. A+ for lolz
Any actual research that links handshaking to disease transmission?
They didn’t ban handshaking. It’s just recommended not to shake hands during swine flu season. It’s good manner to smile at each other instead of a handshake. This article is quite exaggerating what is actually written in the German article
.
awesome, more old people fist bumping. can i also ban fist bumping with anyone over 35? even 35 is pushing the limits…stick with hand-shakes.
Enough already. This is supposed to be a tech blog. We don’t care about your neuroses.
Do you even *bother* trying to report actual news anymore?