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I think I understand where you're coming from, but I see the "never apologize" philosophy as having an utterly corrosive effect on the person who made a mistake
by microtherion 6y ago
I think I understand where you're coming from, but I see the "never apologize" philosophy as having an utterly corrosive effect on the person who made a mistake.
What I try to do is apologize concisely, but then feel free to ignore people who want to drag this out into "that was not a REAL apology" / "now confess to your OTHER crimes" territory.
- fastball 6y agoThings like this can be hard to ignore when, say, the angry mob is trying to get you fired.
- microtherion 6y agoAdmittedly, this can be a problematic situation, especially when part of the original mistake was speaking about something employment related without being a spokesperson for said employer. Another problematic situation can be if the mistake involves actual illegal acts. In those cases, discretion (omitting the apology or keeping it to an absolute minimum) may indeed be the better part of valor. But even in those situations, I see absolutely no upside in publicly denying your mistake at length, if in fact you've made one.
- fastball 6y agoI think people in this thread are talking at cross-purposes. On the one hand, you have the people who are talking about when you genuinely make a mistake, and recognize it as such before public outcry. On the other end of the spectrum, you have people that maybe feel that they were acting / talking / behaving in a way that is normal but are being told that they made a mistake. In these circumstances, there is usually the issue that the nature of the mistake is quite subjective. In the former case, your strategy is probably a good one. In the latter, I think the "don't apologize" is probably the better way to go, for the reasons outlined by GC.