To do further damage control?

[caramellatteart]

Had a bad day at work recently. Was giving a talk to a huge group of people and just froze on the podium. I'd had some stressful news and a bad night's sleep the night before.

I did my presentation ok but couldn't answer the participant's questions. I thought I was going to pass out.

I'm very senior in what I do and this is completely out of character for me.

I don't think anyone even really noticed but I was so mortified that I was in pieces,

I ended up texting some even more senior colleagues and talking about it, a bit frantically, as I was worried word would get out about how bad it was.

The texts were basically me saying I needed advice because I'd done so badly, and that I was thinking of resigning or taking a demotion, and asking their views on that.

I cannot stress how out of character this was for me. I'm usually a total professional and so resilient,

The female colleagues all replied really nicely but a couple of men ignored the message, or replied coldly.

Now a few days have gone and obviously I feel better but I feel so so embarrassed about texting them. I'm wondering if I should address it, or just move on. I cringe every time I think about it, which is about 1000 times a day.

Just send a blanket text to the same people.

Sorry for the blanket message as some of you know I had received some very stressful news and this affected my performance during the day and i wasn't as slick as I normally was. For that i apologise but just to let you know this week I am feeling much better and back to business as usual. Thanks for your support. What a team!

This. Sounds like you had a bit of a mini breakdown, do you need a break from work? Some counselling? Don't just pick yourself back up and move on- you need to address this properly so this doesn't hit you harder later on.

Agree with the above poster. Except maybe leave off “what a team,” at the end. Don’t mention it again, make sure your next presentation is flawless.

And never, ever ask advice about resignation or demotion for something so trivial again. It’s an overreaction. A man would never. You said it yourself - you had a bad day. We all do!