Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Embarassing Business Flubs

I just interviewed Debra Benton, author of CEO Material: How to Be a Leader in Any Organization (McGraw-Hill, April 10, 2009). I enjoyed her stories so much, that I got her permission to share one with you. It’s a funny thing that happened to the author while speaking in front of a group of people.

Debra Benton was not returning to work, but doing a new kind of work. She was very nervous and was going to be in front of a group of people. Afraid there would be perspiration stains on her blouse, she had idea of having panty liners on her underarms to contain the sweat. As she was speaking in front of people who were about three feet away, she had a little problem.

“All of a sudden, I see a pantiliner coming out of my sleeve! I balled it up, thought I dealt with it and then saw one of them was lying on the floor!”

Benton stopped and decided to explain to the group before here. She was mortified, but explained what was going on. After she did, she asked, “Did anybody see this?” A man at the back of the room confessed that he thought she was doing a magic act.

The point of this story is that humor can take care of any social faux pas, even one as embarrassing as having a pantyliner fall out of your sleeve while speaking in front of a group!

Do you have a funny story to tell about a workplace flub? If you do, drop a comment here so we can all enjoy it!

1 comment:

Deanna Lynn Sletten said...

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