We handle PCBs all the time at my company, but mostly they are stuffed boards and we build assemblies; it's rare that we handle raw components. Last week all ESD workstations normally used for assembly were busy, it was a rush order, and our Production Manager thought, "PCBs are safe to handle, right?" so she had an assembler put five systems together at her desk, on top of an acrylic desk mat, with no thought to ESD at all. And, since it was a "rush" order they bypassed QC and shipped the parts. To Taiwan. Where two failed on initial power up. Guess who gets to hand carry replacements to Taiwan and explain things to TSMC? I do like the food there though so it's not all bad...
Don't shortchange ESD precautions when handling electronic components.