How to Give Someone Bad News That They Need to Hear

Back when I worked in an office, I had a fairly memorable purple striped shirt. One day, as I sat behind my desk, wearing my shirt (as was my habit) one of my coworkers came up and said, “You know, Scott, that’s a cool shirt, but you shouldn’t wear it two days in a row.”

I said, “I won’t wear it tomorrow.”

He said, “What I mean is, you wore it yesterday.”

I knew for a fact that I hadn’t, but he was absolutely certain that I had, and insisting that he was wrong only made him think that I was a slob, forgetful, and incapable of accepting criticism. The only way to satisfy him would have been to lie to him and tell him he was right, which was not going to happen. In the end I dropped it for fear of being labeled as argumentative as well.

I still know for a fact I hadn’t worn the shirt the day before. (I had worn it two days before, though. It was a really cool shirt.)

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