【正文】 your need to cancel may be more selfish. You may have a better offer. That is where etiquette and consideration e in. Reading B How to Cancel an Appointment Politely Your first order of business is to begin your change of plans by calling and cancelling with style. Yes, I did say call. In this day of , having to make an actual phone call might be a bit of a shock. But you are now impinging on someone else’s day. Convenience is no longer about you. You allowed inconvenience to rule you when you decided to cancel the appointment. Now you need to make your decision convenient for the canceled. Proper etiquette insists the least you do is make a phone call and personally take care of this. If it’s possible to talk to this person face to face then all the better. Odds are, however, that a phone call is much more reasonable. Reading B How to Cancel an Appointment Politely Your phone call should begin with you asking, “Is this a good time to call?” Actually, most phone calls should begin with that little question. Making sure your call is convenient for them. Let them know you care enough about what they are doing, and you are willing to call back. Next you need to explain what your call is regarding. Simply say, “I’m calling about the appointment (or lunch or phone call, etc.) we have scheduled for Wednesday at 3:00.” Letting them know that you are talking about a specific time in both of your week allows the listener to realize that you have them in your calendar and it’s a quick recall for them. If there is something specific you were supposed to talk about you can mention that too. Reading B How to Cancel an Appointment Politely Now that you’ve called, made sure it’s a good time to talk and identified what you are calling about, all that’s left is to simultaneously apologize that you need to cancel, explain what happened (or why you need to cancel) and then reschedule if necessary. Beginning by saying “I’m really sorry, Mary, but I’m going to have to cancel our appointment. You see, I’ve accidentally doublebooked that time and the other appointment involved three other clients.” Let Mary know that you’d like to see her but rescheduling with her, the one person, is easier than affecting three other people’s lives. Follow this up by apologizing again. “Mary, I realize this is inconvenient and I do apologize. Could we please reschedule for Friday of the same week? I have the same time of 3:00 available. What does your schedule look like?” Reading B How to Cancel an Appointment Politely Finally, it’s a matter of ironing out the details of when to meet again. And make sure there are no possible conflicts for this future date. Once that’s done you need to thank them for taking the time to talk, for understanding and rescheduling and then reconfirm when your future appointment is. Something like, “Mary, thanks so much for taking my call. I really appreciate your understanding about this cancellation. I’m looking forward to seeing you on Friday, the 22nd at 3:00. I’ll see you here at my office. Thanks again, Mary. Good bye.” Schedules are full and there’s bound to be a conflict here and there. When you do need to cancel an appointment with another human being, keeping in mind that you are affecting their schedule and being conscious of that will make cancelling easier on them and on you. Reading B A Professional Way to Reschedule a Job Interview How you go about doing rescheduling a job interview reflects on your professionalism and ability to handle conflict and stressful situations. You can talk yourself out of a job if you try to reschedule inappropriately. This is as bad as if you did not show up for the interview without calling. Employers are more likely to sympathize1 with your need to reschedule if you approach them as a professional. Dramatization and overblown excuses are not the best ways to relate your problem to interviewers. Calm and polite requests to reschedule an interview are the way to go. Reading