Panamanians don’t take responsibility for their actions nor apologize when they do something negative

So I have come to learn in the last several months that Panamanians just refuse to take responsibility for their actions. That of course is part of being immature (see my post on how Panamanians are immature).

I thought it was only me, but I’ve since heard other expats say the same thing & most of these expats enable this behavior. I’m not like that. I don’t believe in enabling negative behavior.

Can I change the entire country, of course NOT, but that doesn’t mean one can’t make a difference one person at a time.

So as an example (I wrote a post about this)… if they drop something of yours, they won’t apologize. Now I realize this may have been an accident, but normal people automatically apologize, right? Nope, seems they are unable to. Why that is, I have no idea.

That means anything they do to screw up they won’t admit to doing (see the cable & wireless story), they will just ignore it, keep arguing, or blame you instead.

I am telling you these things because I was never told before I moved here. Once again, this goes well beyond customer service, this is a problem emotionally & intellectually. And of course if you make friends with a Panamanian & you never hear an apology, that can be tough to handle.

Even when the driver left me stranded 2-3 times at Riba Smith, not once did he apologize for his actions.

Something to think about & if you think you will NEVER deal with Panamanians, THINK AGAIN! I was stupid enough to think that myself & I was living in a dream world.

First I didn’t want to ONLY deal with expats. Second, you can’t live in a country full of people & NEVER deal with them even if you do surround yourself with tons of expats. It’s just not probable.

Michelle