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OH, BEHAVE! Keeping Manners In Mind
by Annet King
Many etiquette-experts devote lots of advice to the art of polite conversation.
But today, we live in the age of TMI. We now know things about people we’ve barely met that, a generation ago, would never have gotten outside a doctor’s office, the confessional booth, or a tightly locked diary stashed under the floorboards.
Which brings me to this: now especially, one of the truly lost arts of conversation is knowing when to simply zip it. When to put a cork in the proverbial pie-hole. When and how to allow natural spaces to easily open up, amidst all of the chatter.
Part of having good manners, and simply good sense, is knowing that sometimes other people want sweet, healing silence from us as well.
As a client who is paying for a professional health, fitness or beauty service, you may really look forward to an hour or more without small-talk. You may simply want to sprawl on the massage table or the treatment bed and turn your mind off until it’s time to return to earth and try to remember what your car looks like, and where you live. (And where did those lovely children come from???)
The skilled skin therapist needs to begin the session with professional Q & A up-front, but then should cut the chatter to a polite minimum. Likewise, for you to fully experience your treatment, try to turn your internal noise down. If you barrage the therapist with comments about your favorite TV show, etc., you’ll diminish your own experience.
If you want to send a very clear signal to the therapist about your preference for silence, ceremoniously put ear-buds in place as you settle into the treatment bed. If this doesn’t work, just speak up. Begin by using her name. Don’t be shrill, but do be firm. Speak slowly and clearly. Say simply, “Laurene, I prefer to have this service in total silence, please. No talking will allow me to more fully enjoy the treatment. Okay?”
With any luck, the next thing you hear will be, in hushed tones, “Okay, take your time…sit up slowly…and I’ll meet you at the front desk.”