My example was a volunteer setting (religious organization) with clients from a mix of different cultures.
Overall we were less formal than a traditional office* but more so than a purely social situation.
I think some of the staff/volunteers from other cultures would might have done consensual culturally-appropriate casual touch with clients once or twice, and a lot of the clients were rather cuddly with each other until they recalibrated to American norms.
To be fair, most traditional offices don't involve: - teaching people how to talk about things like childbirth - having to tell people 'don't say/do that, it's rude' as part of the job - routinely having small kids running around - having to reorganize your schedule based on a crisis or a bill or # of staff/clients or someone having an emotional thing, or ....
Re: Thoughts
Overall we were less formal than a traditional office* but more so than a purely social situation.
I think some of the staff/volunteers from other cultures would might have done consensual culturally-appropriate casual touch with clients once or twice, and a lot of the clients were rather cuddly with each other until they recalibrated to American norms.
To be fair, most traditional offices don't involve:
- teaching people how to talk about things like childbirth
- having to tell people 'don't say/do that, it's rude' as part of the job
- routinely having small kids running around
- having to reorganize your schedule based on a crisis or a bill or # of staff/clients or someone having an emotional thing, or ....
And we all mostly got along.