【推荐3】Apologies are commonly known as a sign of empathy(共情) in the workplace. But over-apologizing or excessively saying sorry when you don’t need to is a bad habit that can weaken your authority, and more importantly, it hurts your pride.     1    , what can you do? Below are four alternatives to saying “I’m sorry”:

When someone bumps(撞) into you or they’re in your way

When someone bumps into you, saying excuse me or pardon me is more appropriate than saying sorry.     2    .

When you have a question

Practice speaking up in meetings without apologizing first. You’re not interrupting or annoying if you have a question, so don’t assume you are.

    3    

“Thank you.” These two words are often more powerful than an apology. Try replacing feelings of shame with gratitude. Saying “Thank you. Let’s begin.” acknowledges that your colleagues waited for you.

When someone makes an unreasonable request for your time

Instead, say, “No, I’m not able to do that.” If people make unreasonable requests for your time, it’s wise to learn how to push back.     4    . You may be worried about saying “no” because you fear people will dislike you or get upset. Typically, the opposite is true, and people will respect your honesty.

    5     On the contrary, a well-placed apology can be very powerful.

【推荐1】After working an extra shift, Dr. Jessica Gold returned home feeling burned out and submitted herself to the urge to watch TV and sleep most of the day. As Generation Z would say, she was “bed rotting”. The phrase describes staying in bed all day, just like “rotting” (腐烂) there, according to Gold, a professor at Washington University. It is similar to having a lazy day, but it is more of an immobile term with less activity. She said, “It is OK as long as you understand why you are doing it and turn to other activities as well.

“Lying in bed for more than a day is concerning and could lead to different mental health issues, ”Gold added, “The urge to rot in bed all day, especially if it happens more seriously, is likely about something more than just catching up on sleep or needing a day to do nothing, but avoiding the feelings, stress or pain of being awake. This sort of behavior has been linked to symptoms (症状) of depression and anxiety.”

Bed rotting could be affecting more than just your mental health — it could also have a negative impact on your sleep. “Bed rotting is exactly the opposite of what we want people to do,” said Baron, associate professor of family and preventive medicine. “As a general guideline, if you are not asleep within 30 minutes during the night, you should get out of bed, ” said she.

Bed rotting after a long day is normal, but if it is affecting your work, social life or other important activities, then you should turn to professionals, Gold suggested, because they can help you get to the root cause and get you to learn to do something that you may think of as hobbies.

Recharging activities can energize us and better prepare us for the unavoidable stress we face daily. “Some options include hanging out with a friend, seeing a film or exercising, said Rego, a psychologist from New York, “If you don’t want to leave the house, try activities like reading a book or journaling instead of just lying down.

【推荐2】People who cross the street while looking at their phones may be fined in the city of Xiamen, Fujian province, as traffic police officers are enforcing (施行) a local regulation that was put into effect on August 1st.

A pedestrian who was crossing the street on Tuesday while looking at their phone was given a warning, becoming the city’s first to receive a reprimand (训斥) for the behavior.

The Traffic Safety Regulation on Zebra Lines in Xiamen Special Economic Zone, made into a law on Tuesday, states pedestrians should not browse their electronic devices or engage in other activities that may end anger traffic safety while using crossing lanes. Those who violate this rule and delay or stop the progress of the normal passage of vehicles are supposed to be given a warning or a fine of 50 yuan($7).

The regulation was made in response to motions by legislators (立法委员) to the Xiamen people’s congress. “Through putting uncivilized behavior right via legal means, we hope to create a better environment for drivers and pedestrians to better understand and interact with each other,” said Wu Tao, an official at the local congress.

Su Guoqiang, a deputy to the congress among those who raised the motion, said more than 20 percent of traffic accidents in Xiamen happened on crosswalks. “We hope to use the punishment of the ‘small’ act of browsing phones as something to prevent people from doing such a thing,” he told China Central Television.

Peng Chong, a traffic police officer in Xiamen, told CCTV for the time being they will mostly educate and warn violators and make everyone involved in traffic aware of the rules.

【推荐3】Young Chinese couples are increasingly abandoning large formal wedding ceremonies for smaller, intimate ones at unconventional locations and coffee shops, wedding planners said.

When Sun Hongxu started a wedding service business in Beijing in 2012, she found most weddings were celebrated in a “typically Chinese way” at venues such as hotels and restaurants, with a large number of guests, often 200 or more. There were friends and relatives of the young couple, or their parents, sitting at 20 or more tables, waiting the bride, groom and their parents enter the venue. Then the couple exchanged vows and rings.

The newly weddings would give out presents and even cash to show their appreciation for the attendance of their guests. Despite some couples not wanting such traditional nuptials, they felt obliged to meet the wishes of their parents who thought this was what a wedding should be like.

However, a reporter released in July by wedding service website Hunliji and science and technology media platform 36Kr shows that the generation born after 1990 is against formal weddings with too many complex procedures. Instead, they are paying more attention to having a happy and joyful small wedding that reflects the personalities of the bride and groom. They may only choose to have a meal with their family members, or have a trip with his or her lover in a romantic site. In their eyes, it is more meaningful , economical and unforgettable.

According to a survey, the average cost of a wedding in 2020 was 231,000 yuan, 3.7 times higher than five years ago, the reporter said.

However, it added that the majority of young couples take cost into consideration and spend reasonably on their weddings. XuLin, a wedding planner in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, said compared with those born in the 1980s, who took into consideration their parents’ wishes for grand traditional indoor weddings, couples today prioritize their own wedding preferences.

【推荐2】Things were looking great for Alexi McCammond. Black, female and 27, she was named editor-in-chief of a famous magazine Teen Vogue.

But an unexpected incident ended her career before it began. A group of employees wrote a letter stopping her from being the editor-in-chief because of several online tweets (推文) she had written ten years earlier, when she was a teenager. In them Ms McCammond wrote how to avoid waking up with “Ugly, Asian eyes”. She complained about her poor grades in chemistry: “Thanks a lot, stupid Asian teacher”.

She had apologized for these comments in the past, but a killing in Georgia on March 16th, in which six victims were Asian women, made her apology look even worse. Two days later, Ms McCammond wrote on Twitter again—to say that she had agreed to give up the Teen Vogue job.

Why do tweets keep destroying people? The answer may lie in the language. In form, the language of social media is written—but in style, it is far more like speech. Twitter’s word limit encourages short posts that are like talking. People write them as they speak, using incomplete sentences, slang, informal spellings (to show pronunciation) and so on. Language experts use Twitter to study changes in vocabulary, grammar and usage, which shows that the language of tweets is very similar to oral chatting. Finally, those who are direct or outspoken in speech may be more popular on Twitter.

In order to be one of those popular, people especially teenagers, may make wrong remarks just as Ms McCammond did. Posts may seem to disappear as time goes by, but unless they are deleted they live on forever. In other words, the Internet has its memory, so be careful that something improper one post online can destroy him or her someday.