When you’re at work, you’re on display. And when all eyes are on you, it’s that much more likely that you’ll say or do something you’re embarrassed of. But don’t sweat it. We’ve all embarrassed ourselves in the office. The trick is how to recover. Here are a few common scenarios with tips on how to move past them.
Making a Mistake
So you’re super excited about your big client presentation. The team flies in from across the country, you settle down in the conference room with your coffee and notepads…and there’s a major typo on the opening slide.
Everyone makes mistakes. They’re part of life, work, and love. The trick is how you respond to them. Whether it’s a small typo or a major blunder, don’t try to cover up your mistake. Admit you didn’t do the right thing and that you’ll do your best to make sure you don’t make the same mistake. Be contrite, but lay off the self-pity. And if a boss or colleague won’t let the matter drop, don’t be afraid to say when their criticism is no longer helpful.
Offending a Co-Worker
Work is strange because it collects a lot of people from different backgrounds and forces them to interact day after day. So it’s not out of the question that you might verbalize a political opinion that someone doesn’t like or accidentally say something horrible about your boss’s favorite baseball team. An apology will do wonders in a situation like these. Let them know you simply weren’t thinking, and try to put it behind you. Now, racial slurs or sexist jokes are a different story, and if you’re letting these fly at work, you could probably use a semester or two of charm school. But like most things in life, relatively innocent slights can be fixed with a simple “Sorry.”
You Get a Bit Too Merry at the Office Holiday Party
Sometimes the merriment—and let’s face it, the stress—of the holiday season can lead even the best of us to overindulge at the office holiday party. If it happens to lead to you embarrassing yourself on the dance floor, chances are you don’t have to explain yourself to your boss. However, if it leads to you drunkenly confessing that you never, ever check your work email, you need to set things right with whoever was around when you let that tidbit of information slide out. And as a general rule, stay a drink or two behind your usual limit. And if you really need to get wild on the night of the holiday party, sneak out of the larger work event and end the night with your closest work buddies at a different venue a few blocks away.
Forgetting Someone’s Name
We’ve all been there. The new girl in the office walks up to you in the kitchen and you realize you have no idea what her name is even though she’s told you several times. Everybody has their own way of coaxing a name out of someone when they can’t remember what it is, but if you’re stuck in a situation that requires you to come up with the name on the spot (like an introduction to another coworker) just bite the bullet and say you forgot. Yes, it’s an uncomfortable moment, but life is full of those. Laugh at your own stupidity and move on. And if forgetting names is common occurrence for you, try one of these techniques for helping you remember names.
Personal Life Bleeds into Professional
Many of us like to keep our private lives and work lives as divided as possible. That way office stress doesn’t ruin your family dinners, and family troubles don’t negatively impact your work performance.
But sometimes these worlds meet, and not in a good way: a colleague overhears you having a disagreement with your spouse on the phone, your crazy aunt shows up at the office asking for a ride to the bank, or your child shows up because he or she lost the house key.
You may like to keep these two worlds separate, but sometimes that may be out of your control. Real life is a 24/7 affair, while work is only a fraction of your day. They may be some overlap now and then, but handling it with grace is part of life. And remember: there’s no shame in allowing your coworkers to see you as a human being with a life and emotions that extend outside of work.
What embarrassing moments have you survived?
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