I went to a leadership class one time and there was a fancy dinner on the last night of it. The last day of the class was all about table manners and etiquette. There were a few instructors throughout the 12 day marathon where we took a college course in 12 days in a row. Each day was at least 12 hours. At 7pm they gave us a team assignment and we'd work on that "after class"
The last day of the course the head instructors wife taught us a bunch of stuff to know when meeting prominent people. The people attending were largely people considered to be eventual leaders in business so some day would be rubbing elbows with other business leaders. I was there for the continuing education credits.
Now they told us do not wear a tie to the dinner. Only the prominent folks would be wearing ties we were told. I learned to tie one anyway, but as we left the classroom the instructors wife said "and don't forget to NOT wear a tie"…"your peers will be wearing ties, not the students". I arrived 5 minutes early for the fancy dinner and I was the only person not wearing a tie. Doh! I remarked to a co-student "glad I didn't wear my ballcap"…
Man, some of those so-called peers had horrible table manners. Made smacking sounds when chewing, slurped their beverages, stabbed food with a fork and ate like caveman. Yet somehow the "powers that be" consider those folks to be the classy ones. Hell, one so called leader grabbed a waitress butt while she was pouring his drunk arse another glass of wine.
As a way of making fun of those jerks I kept my pinky poking out the entire time.
In order to have "class" you don't say "no thank you" when they go to serve you wine. Nope, according to those folks you let the server fill the glass. There's all kinds of silverware laid out. Even a shrimp fork to dip it in sauce although they didn't serve shrimp at the dinner.
I couldn't get out of that place fast enough. After the meal I went to Wendys and got Frostee.
