Shaking Hands

After earning a business degree, I got my first full-time banking job. It wasn't my first job at a bank. I had worked at a bank for 4 summers plus holidays doing lots and lots of various jobs: I was a teller, assisted the human resource officer, assembled bank statements (back when you still got your checks back in your statement), put postage on all the outgoing mail with the big HP mailing machine (more complicated than it should have been), I was a switchboard operator, filled in for a few other accounting people when they were on vacation, balanced/audited cashier check log and other logs. One whole summer, I was the courier for the bank - I drove around to all the branches (5-7) all day long delivering interoffice mail and hauling big bags of cash and coin to each branch. I kind of liked this job b/c I was always on the go and got to listen to the radio in the truck. I probably did other stuff that I've forgotten. Oh yeah, I once had to go repossess a car b/c I was the only one in the bank that could drive a stick shift - all the women in the collections department could not drive a stick shift. So that was an adventure.
Okay, back to the full time job story..... At my week long orientation classes, one of things they taught us was the proper way to shake hands. I won't go into the details here (it's fairly simple). If you ask me, I'll be glad to demonstrate for you if you're not sure you know the proper technique. While I'm at it, I'd like to say that I probably learned as much about business as I learned while earning my college degree. The bank packed a lot of useful info into a week.
My point of this post is that soooo many people don't know how to shake hands. Once you know the proper way, you tend to notice when others don't do it right.
On Sunday, at church, there is always a greeting/shaking hands portion of the service. You shake hands with people who have dry, calloused hands. With people with bony hands. People with small, delicate hands. People with cold hands. People with clammy hands. Ewww! But that is not the problem. People can't change how their body/hands are made.
No, the problem is with their technique. Some people only give you their fingertips. Some people's handshake is like a limp fish. Some people apply way too much pressure. Some people's hands feel dirty. Ewww! Some people are just going through the motions and trying to shake as many hands as possible, and their eyes are on the next person before you even get finished shaking hands - so they're pulling away before the handshake is even complete.
After the greeting portion of the service today, Paul leaned over and asked if I had any hand sanitizer with me (No, it was in the car). He had shaken hands with someone who had "dirty, powdery" feeling hands so he felt like he needed to wash his hands for a whole hours.
I sort of play a game with the guy that sits behind us. He's the one who about breaks your hand when he shakes. Each Sunday, I try to see if I can at least get my whole hand into the handshake before his vise-like grip squishes my fingers. Paul's hand gets squished too.