> Running my own business, I now find that passive voice is the most diplomatic way to discuss user error. The customer didn't do the wrong thing, e.g., "you ma

> Running my own business, I now find that passive voice is the most diplomatic way to discuss user error. The customer didn't do the wrong thing, e.g., "you made a typo in the shipping address" becomes "the shipping address had a typo". The wrong thing just happened, with no agent bearing direct blame. :) Great observation. My rule - when I screwed up or something even peripherally related to me got screwed up, I took full accountability. "That's 100% my error, that's not acceptable, and steps A, B, and C are being taken to fix it. Do you think that will fix things?" When a screw up was on the client side, then it was, "Yeah, things get messed up sometimes, things get broken, it happens..." followed by switching to active voice to work it out.