"I don't know"

A situation arose recently when I found myself in a position saying to people I deal with “I don’t know”. This is to do with a situation where people are waiting for something to commence and have been given start dates. However each time these start dates have failed to materialize and new dates later in the year, and beyond were given.

A couple of days ago I spoke to someone who should be in the know. He told me the expected date was in January and to pass this on to my group. While quite sceptical by nature I said I was loathe to give out this new date as I’d passed on three dates which hadn’t been met.

When I told the person in the ‘know’ that I’d told my group ‘I don’t know’ the date he accused me of not being professional.

An interesting development has now arisen. I’m not privy to decision making. Dates for an event have been announced, even at public meetings; but the dates are, time after time, missed. A group of people look to me for advice and information. The information I’m given is not sound; therefore what I pass on is unsound.

If it’s unprofessional to honestly state “I don’t know”, how professional is it to continuously give people information gleaned from an official source that turns out to be wrong?

The people in my group look to me for guidance. Getting it wrong as often as I have dents my credibility and I lose the trust of my group. Therefore I will continue with the honest line of “I don’t know”; and if this tarnishes my professionalism, then so be it.