OT: Explain decorum and etiquette

I would simply reply "f this bs". I think that covers it all.

It will vary among cultures, certainly workplace behavior which is considered perfectly reasonable in the U.S. would be considered totally gauche in say, Japan.

You'll have to explain more about the particulars of the situation before anyone could give you any tips worth anything

exactly. No-one here would ever ask their staff to explain such a thing. I think in the US it boils down to ask questions before shooting :)

For decorum you could always check out Hyacinth Bucket :)

NT

It's much too vague to know WTF the OP is talking about. Every culture, company, and boss will have their own standards. The ones worth bothering with will have their expectations laid out in writing somewhere. Don't like them then don't take the job.

Etiquette is spelled out in writing. Decorum is not.

That part sounds too much like one's task is trying to explain to a (potential hire? current hire?) who is apparently an adult how to be a "normal person" and not weird.

I'd pass on that one.

obviously, this is not for use in a community organizer setting.

Nah, there are too many innately qualified candidates out there and life is too short to waste time on nincompoops who don't have basic life skills down.

It's why businesses that value "loyalty" over competence and employ family because they think they're going to get the best of both worlds generally end up sunk.

Ask Phil Allison then just do the opposite.

Wrt electronics Phil has a tendency to point out (rudely) logical errors that an employer might fire someone over (using better etiquette/in a more polite fashion.)

Still fired at the end of the day...

To wit:

"You call this abuse?!"

As has been mentioned, both decorum and etiquette are defined by the local culture.

Decorum is about exhibiting proper behaviour - with the emphasis on being c alm and considered - while etiquette is all about knowing exactly what that proper behaviour is.

In both cases it is about what is formally expected in predictable social s ituations.

Boss/assistant interactions typically aren't that formal - the people invol ved know - or get to know - each other well enough that they can cut corner s, and the emphasis is more on the assistant doing what the boss would expe ct, which can sometimes involve estimating what the boss would want if the boss knew exactly what was going on.

The other side of that interaction involves the boss keeping the assistant informed about what is actually going on - as far as the assistant can be e xpected to understand it - and keeping the assistant informed about potenti al risky areas where they may not entirely know what's going on, and probab ly shouldn't know too much.

I'm willing enough, but as Tony Williams pointed out, the evening classes i n diplomacy never really stuck.

Blocked in the UK (and I can't be arsed to fire-up the VPN)

One interesting thing now is that a lot of personal stuff is embedded in emails. It's hard to strike the proper tone in email, as bodies and faces and voices are not there to display context. (Which is why newsgroups are so rude: jerks know that they'd get punched out in real life, so they are obnoxious here.)

Someting as subtle as the order of recipients conveys a status message. "TO" is a higher status than "CC".

The internal personal dynamics, and the way an organization treats customers, are interconnected. Some outfits stick it to customers every chance, and some are helpful and generous. That policy influences internal behavior, too. I think that being helpful and generous is good business, profitable as well as friendly. You might make some examples along those lines. Like, do we charge $250 for a replacement electrolytic capacitor, or do we ship a custom transformer overnight, totally for free, to someone whose system is down?

We don't have any personal assistants. That must complicate relationships, another layer of social insulation.

Except that 'bs' is important. Very important.

But the Japanese often admire the USian brute-force application of talent and rule breaking.

I've mostly worked for smallish companies, but we do work with giant ones. I've never seen a written policy on decorum and etiquette. Do they exist?

There are lots of people that can be very helpful/useful but aren't high social functioners. Some frequent this group.

I always thought that's because they can't put their foot down or fire them, and thus end up sticking with unsatisfactory employees.

NT

Phil Allison? Just a guess....