In my quest to educate My Extremely Proud and Dignified
Brother and Sister Hospital Porters, along with anybody else who is interested,
about Dignity Statements, I must once again remind you that the problems for
which DigStates were invented are not always about what people say, but also what
they do; and therefore so are the responses. There is a certain person I often
bump into at events relevant to the other sub-franchises of HPANWO who seems to
have a very high opinion of himself mixed with a very low opinion of me.
Whenever I meet him he tries to give me a power handshake. This is a gesture
that projects dominance over the person whose hand you're shaking. I remember
many years ago, in my pre-portering teenage life, reading a book about body
language that addressed this subject so even before I developed DigStates I was
somewhat prepared for them. It's his way of saying: "I'm the Mr Bigshot
here and you're my bitch." Luckily I got to know him many years after I utilized
my disarming procedure and so he never got away with it against me, nor did
anybody else. If you've had this experience then in your case it may be some
arrogant consultant or, more likely for a HP, your head porter or somebody else
in admin. This article here describes the situation very well and it actually
repeats a lot of information that was in the book, see: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-out-of-a-dominating-handshake-2012-9.
I have used this technique against the aforementioned consultants and managers,
but I developed my own adaptations that are bit more extreme. In the case of my
self-aggrandized woo-woo contact I do the same left-foot-forward ploy and
coming at him with my palm pointed downwards, but I literally advance my hand
from much higher, almost shoulder height, and bring it down on top of his; and
I raise myself up, even standing slightly on my toes. This is a form of Dignity
Statement that is as important as all the others. Serving with somebody every
day, you'll probably got only one chance to use it with each person, when you
first meet them, so it is vital to get the methodology right in advance and be
prepared at all times. As you learn and grow in your HPing career you will no
doubt adapt new tricks in your own way based on your personal experience.
Please do post a comment and let me know what they are.
