App that can stop women saying sorry

WOMEN should stop apologising in emails because it undermines their careers, claim the makers of a new app.

Comments such as ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I’m no expert’ make the writer seem weak, they warn. So to help women succeed in the workplace, the Just Not Sorry app promises to weed out phrases that make the sender seem unsure of themselves.

It works like a spellchecker, underlining offending terms in red when you use words or phrases that ‘undermine your message’, say the app’s makers Cyrus Innovation. Other expressions it promises to weed out include ‘I’m no expert in this, but’, ‘actually’ and ‘I just think’.

It will also explain why the expression should be avoided – but in the end it is up to the sender to decide whether to follow the advice. The app is said to have been inspired by US life coach Tara Mohr, who advises women against apologising for what they think in order to appear more likeable.

She says using ‘just’, as in ‘I just want to check’, makes a woman sound defensive while omitting it sounds more confident.

And ‘qualifiers’ such as ‘I’m no expert in this, but’ undermine your opinion before you’ve even stated it, she claims.

‘Many women, especially more junior women, [say that] when they took all the qualifiers out of their emails, they started getting much quicker and more substantive responses,’ Miss Mohr said.

Psychotherapist Joan Kingsley said: ‘Saying sorry is a very British way of doing things and sets up a negative tone right from the start. You’re making the recipient think that you’ve already done something wrong, when you haven’t.’