My old manager told me to stop apologizing to customers and I thought he was crazy

I used to say sorry for everything. Wrong change? Sorry. Line too long? Sorry. My manager at a burger joint in Cleveland pulled me aside after a week and said stop it, you're training them to think you messed up. I ignored him for like two months until a customer got mad at me for apologizing when I literally did nothing wrong. He was right. Has anyone else had a boss give advice that sounded dumb but actually saved your sanity?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_kai6d agoMost Upvoted

Ask if it took something specific to break the habit, like did you have a moment where you caught yourself mid-sorry and just stopped? I had a similar thing at a retail job where my boss told me to just say "no problem" instead of sorry, and it felt forced at first but it really changed how people treated me. What was the final straw that made you finally listen to that old manager?

verac406d ago

Caught myself apologizing to a chair once. It was in my kitchen, I bumped into it, and said sorry out loud before I even thought about it. Stood there for a second feeling like an idiot and realized I'd hit rock bottom with this habit. Started keeping a tally on my phone every time I said sorry for nothing, just to see how bad it really was. Hit 20 by lunch most days. That visual of the number climbing made me actually stop and pick my battles with the word.