Sorry Not Sorry

Women at Work

Harvard Business Review

Business, Business/careers, Workplace, Business/entrepreneurship, Resources, Harvard, Management, Equality, Progress, Gender, Business/management, Careers, Women, Entrepreneurship, Human, Hbr

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2019

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do women really apologize more than men at work? We speak with a psychology professor and a leadership consultant about the impact that saying “sorry” and using other minimizing language has on job success, and what words and phrases to use instead. Guests: Karina Schumann and Sally Helgesen. Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Harvard Business School Executive Education develops leaders who make a difference in the world.
0:06.0	In their programs, experience the power of fresh perspectives and connect with a world of new ideas.
0:13.0	Learn more at HBS. Me slash work.
0:17.0	That's HBS.
0:18.0	M. E. slash work.
0:22.0	Amy B.
0:24.0	When was the last time you said sorry at work?
0:27.0	That's a really hard one for me because I don't apologize idly,
0:32.0	but I'm pretty sure it was when I interrupted someone it was
0:35.5	rude and I needed to acknowledge it right so an apology was in order totally in order
0:40.5	yeah so and and I'm sorry it's a good thing to say at work, especially when you are at fault, you've done
0:45.7	something you need to apologize before, but it's also a bad thing and we've all heard the
0:51.5	advice that women need to apologize less at work.
0:54.5	Yeah, in fact, I just learned about an email plug-in that flags all the minimizing language
1:01.5	we've been warned about, the I'm sorrys and I'm just and I'm no expert but kind of language and it
1:08.7	it pointed out to you before you hit send.
1:11.1	Right, which I it's funny we need a plug in for that
1:13.9	because it is a hard habit to break.
1:15.9	Oh yeah, especially an email, and especially
1:18.3	in the kind of email we have to send.
1:20.2	Yeah, I'm sorry this is 30 weeks delayed.
1:23.0	Maybe you should apologize for that.
	...

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