Professionalism is an alienation of natural (read healthy) human to human interaction.
Discussion
No. This is just an excuse to be an asshole in business and feel righteous about it.
You’re correct that there is a thing that stands in the way of real human interaction, but the name for that thing is political correctness, not professionalism.
Hmm I see it differently. In corporate interactions professionalism doesn’t prevent assholery. The human is frequently bound by professionalism and their professional duties, which one must keep to be professional, into contortions which result in someone being treated inhumanly. Professionalism is the excuse I have for not giving a shit about you as a human being but instead distancing myself and treating you within the boundaries of professionalism and then also restricting you to the bounds of professionalism. “You’re having a tough day, sorry but I need you to be a professional”. It would probably be worth defining what we mean by professionalism, you reached for the morals of good business that would restrict a person from being an asshole. I reached for that thing which keeps 12 year old colleagues as strangers. I don’t see political correctness being the major source of it. It’s similar, in that it may cause self censorship in the realm of things between two people which are considered politically incorrect. But professionalism would cause self censorship between two people of who they beyond your existence as a professional unit. I’m trying to get work done, between professionals, anything that is not required for that end is unprofessional.
That’s what I’m thinking about atleast.