61% of Professional Women Over Apologize At Work

Statistically speaking, women are inherently known to apologize more frequently than men. Many articles address this imbalance.

During Women’s month, Blind, the largest anonymous professional network, ran a survey from 3.12-3.22 and asked over nearly 3,000 users:

Do you wonder if your email is being received positively on the other end?
Do you tend to apologize at work, even when an apology isn’t warranted?

According to data gathered by Blind, 67% of male professionals and 71% of women wonder if their email is being received positively on the other end. This change may seem only marginally higher for women; however, you see a stark difference once you look at a company breakdown. 100% of women professionals at Deloitte, Accenture, VMware, and Intuit wonder if their email is being received positively on the other end.

Women tend to apologize at work nearly 10% more. 52% of male professionals and 61% of women professionals tend to apologize at work, even when an apology isn’t warranted. While men and women were both willing to apologize, women found more infractions to say sorry — even when it wasn’t justified.

100% of women professionals at both Accenture and Intuit tend to apologize at work, even when an apology isn’t warranted. At Amazon, 52% of male professionals tend to apologize, significantly lower than the 68% of women professionals who tend to over apologize at the same company.

An easy first step to stop over-apologizing is to simply change your vocabulary. While there are clear opportunities where you should apologize to your boss, there are times when an apology isn’t necessary. Some examples could include instances where you use phrases like: “Sorry, could you send me that report?” “Sorry, I won’t be able to make it that day.” “Sorry, could you repeat that?” or “Sorry I was late.” As you become more self-aware, replace the word “sorry” with more appropriate words and phrases like:

Could you please send me that report?
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it that day.
Excuse me, could you repeat that?
Thank you for waiting for me.