I don't know

@yenwie84 (1344)
Malaysia
July 3, 2008 7:27am CST
I can't find a suitable column for this topic but it affects our mood. What am I talking about? Weird...I am going to start my topic, seniors in my workplace are very sensitive with the answer "I don't Know or I am not sure".When they hear this kind of answer, they will say "what do you mean by don't know", again bla bla bla with all the sarcastic words. What's wrong with these two answers actually? What if we really don't know or not sure, what should we reply? Should we still pretend to be clever? I really don't understand what are the seniors and boss thinking,kinda weird...
2 responses
bobgao
@bobgao (18)
• China
3 Jul 08
i think the reason that seniors or boss find faults for you is that you didn't answer the basic question that they thought or have given him a bad impression once.Don't be care of that,we can learn more in our spare time and let "i don't know" away us.let the seniors feel startled of us.maybe one day they will be moved by you hard work and spirt to learn.the important rule we should know is that don't resist for them.
yenwie84
@yenwie84 (1344)
• Malaysia
3 Jul 08
You are right. They only want answers that they want to hear. It's hard to make them pleased sometimes. They always think they are right. But they never know they can be stupid sometimes.
palonghorn
@palonghorn (5479)
• United States
3 Jul 08
A better answer than just 'I don't know' or 'I am not sure' would be to add to that, 'but I'd be happy to check and see what I can find out', or 'I am not sure, but I will ask and get back to you' To just say I don't know or I'm not sure and leave it at that, just sounds like you either aren't really listening or don't care to find out any further information. As far as pretending to be clever or pretending to know the answer, that can lead to bigger problems, when it is found out that you really didn't know what you were talking about.