A former mentor of mine, an uncompromising newspaper editor of the old school, once told me that he could tell whether a job applicant was going to be successful by how they walked into the interview. Anyone who didn’t stride in purposefully was not going to get a job with him. This, by the way, was a man who fired someone because he saw them walking too slowly to the photocopier. Yes, different days, all right.

I mention this because I wondered what he would have made of someone walking in for an interview holding a matcha in a disposable cup. I doubt they would even have made it to the sit-down bit of the meeting. I think he would have regarded it as disrespectful. Or unprofessional. Or maybe a sign of slovenliness. Or of a distracted mind. Or even of poor time management. Or maybe all of them.

Today’s boss class, undeniably, is much less harsh in its judgements and less intransigent in its reliance on first impressions, but nevertheless the clutching of a coffee cup has become a touchstone topic in the modern culture wars.

On social media channels, a........

© iNews