my employee never apologizes for mistakes
A reader writes:
I manage an employee who’s in his first year out of college. He’s a great employee and has impressed people at all levels of the company and has received recognition for his good work. But there is one thing recently that has been driving me up a wall and I can’t tell if I’m being overly sensitive: for big projects with tight turnarounds he will turn in work that is wrong in major ways, and when I point this out (or sometimes am forced to fix it myself) he will thank me for the correction but not apologize for the error.
Should I be speaking up about this? Is he actually being rude, or do I just have a bruised ego? I know women have a tendency to over-apologize, and I am absolutely one of those women.
I answer this question — and three others — over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.
Other questions I’m answering there today include:
- My colleague says I don’t respond to his emails — which I never received
- Should I thank my husband’s company for their great holiday party?
- Should I disconnect from coworkers at my toxic old job on LinkedIn?
