It’s not unusual for something out
of the ordinary to happen at work. The
subprime mortgage industry blows up. JPM
loses $2 billion on a bad bet. The
Eurozone is in a crisis. PIMCO makes the
wrong bet on Treasurys and I spend months explaining their poor performance. Having to roll with the punches of the
market is nothing new. But what happened
at a recent client meeting was definitely new.
And I’m not just talking about the committee member who referred to a
choir as singing “Acapulco.” Yesterday
at a client meeting, I got bro hugged.
People who know me know that I am
not a very outwardly affectionate person.
It takes a long time for me to be comfortable hugging friends. The rare exception being the friends who
would hug a tree upon meeting it and thus don’t give me a choice. Given the option, I’m more of a high-five
person. I have a very large personal
space bubble. It’s shrinking, but it’s definitely
still bigger than the average persons.
And everyone who has met me is aware of this.
Luckily, finance is centered on
the firm handshake. That I can do. No need to enter anyone’s bubble and only
your right hand has to touch.
Brilliant. What I failed to take
into account is that many Trustees do not have finance experience. This usually just rears its ugly head when
you’re trying to explain what the hell a hedge fund is, or some other industry
jargon. Yesterday it resulted in a bro
hug. I went in for the handshake with a
new Trustee and found myself bro hugged.
Besides the obvious fact that I
am not a hugger of friends, much less people I don’t know and my abnormally
large personal space bubble, I discovered I don’t know what to do with a bro
hug. Girls do not bro (or possibly bra
for the female tense) hug. We shake,
high five or hug. We are all in or all
out. None of this modified hugging that
implies manliness because you only have one arm wrapped around the other
guy. The purpose of the bro hug was a
bit befuddling to me to being with.
Finding myself in one was completely flummoxing (I was going to with confounding
here but then I used the thesaurus and flummoxing just sounds way more intense.).
It’s not all together unheard of for
me to be fuddled. The bro hug
though? I did not see that one coming.
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