Most of us have made mistakes, inconvenienced others or rubbed someone the wrong way at work – we might have missed a deadline, forgotten about a meeting, or not responded to a client who was eagerly waiting to hear back from us. While saying “sorry” is probably what’s needed to redeem ourselves in such cases, it’s important to know where to draw the line, because there is such a thing as going overboard with an apology.
Over-apologising – that is, apologising too much or too intensely – is not uncommon in the workplace. It can be hard to move on from knowing that we upset someone or did something wrong (even if the situation was beyond our control).
