Don't Apologize: Expressing Regret, Reconsidered

There’s so much to be sorry about at work. We’re sorry we missed that meeting, we’re sorry for our long e-mails, we’re sorry we hogged the printer. It’s entirely possible to spend a good part of a workday apologizing for picayune offenses. I know. I’d gotten so good at expressing my plentiful regret that, to save time, I’d developed uglier and uglier shorthand. “I’m sorry” led to “sorry.” “Apologies” begat “apols,” as well as the cringe-worthy e-mail sign-off, “many apols.”

So I started an experiment. For two weeks I didn’t apologize to any of my colleagues, in writing or in person, for anything—and this part is important—even if I was wrong.