The Situation
There’s nothing like sitting in a meeting across from your boss, in an open room with no conference table between you, for 45+ minutes, then realizing that your fly was unzipped the whole time.
This is how I started my day today.
The Solution
Since I like to encourage my co-workers’ appreciation and amusement at the suffering of others, I returned to my desk fully zipped, buttoned & clasped (the pants I wore today were kind of complex) and promptly shared the story with Cynthia, who sits in the cube behind me.
My grandmother taught me that when you’re completely mortified because of something asinine that you’ve done, you should always tell on yourself, and laugh about it thoroughly with others.
Otherwise, no matter how inconsequential the situation, it will just fester and embed itself in your psyche so that 19 years later, when you think of first grade, all you can remember is your horrible teacher making fun of you, because apparently you can’t tell the difference between a bean and a pea. And even as I write this, I’m still cringing.
Being able to laugh at yourself somehow takes the sting out of your embarrassment. Plus, you get a good story that you can share and then forget about. I don’t know why this works, but for some reason, it does.
Incidentally, the word “embarrassing” has entirely too many letters, and should be roundly punished.
And You?
What about you? Tell me about an embarrassing moment that you handled gracefully. Or, because it’s even more fun, one that you really didn’t, and wish you had.
