Temporary Archive: Suzanne Brockmann's Message Board

I use the phrase 'I'm probably being really stupid but....' quite a lot at work. The department I work in gets called in whenever something has gone wrong and the people doing the job can't fix it, for whatever reason be that lack of knowledge, experience or time. I'll often end up having to work with the person doing the job to find out what went wrong and frequently they are defensive about me being there.

If the person I'm dealing with is on the defensive I will often throw the 's' word into my questions as the last thing I want to do is sound like I'm accusing them of something.

Do I actually think my questions are stupid...nope. Do I think less of myself for asking the question...nope, how else am I going to learn if I don't ask? Am I belittling myself by using the phrase....not sure...does the word itself have the power or do I need to believe it as well...gonna have to think about this.

Cheers Tom

Linda