The Dog Ate My Homework

I work at a company that has a great work life balance, wonderful employees to work with (thankfully since I spend 80% of my day with them) and a job I really enjoy. But work now-a-days is complicated with real time technology, being connected 24 hrs a day, virtual meetings, more time in the office, travel, etc. The day to day grind sometimes requires fudging the truth about random stuff…from explaining tardiness, excuses for taking a day off, buying more time for a deadline, blaming technology (one of my faves), and so on.

How can professionals in the 21^st century possibly perform with the pressures of punctuality to meetings, due dates, balancing budgets, 5-day work weeks (that often turn into 6 when working at night). Not to mention doing all of this and trying to get 8 hours of sleep (and a life).

No matter your stellar skill set and professional background, sometimes work will be incompatible with your personal needs, and that’s where we feel the need for workplace excuses.

When you really get down to all of these excuses – the folks you work with could benefit from these absences, as you are able to be more productive when you are refreshed. One-quarter to one-third of all workers give excuses to explain their tardiness or absence.

Of course all of this whetted my appetite for a few lists – lists of excuses heard in the office, not mine of course…

Tardiness:

1. I’m ok now, but I actually threw up on the way over.
2. You should have seen the line in Starbucks, and you do not want me here without caffeine.
3. I had another panic attack. Don’t worry – it wasn’t about work.
4. It took an hour to get over my fear of success.
5. I just wasn’t “feelin it” this morning.

Missed Deadlines:

1. Didn’t we cancel that project?
2. Nothing short of perfect will do for you.
3. Oh…I have it in my calendar for next week.
4. Every time I thought about the project it stressed me out.
5. I have it right here. Wait – where did that file go?

Technology:

1. I deleted it by accident.
2. Didn’t you get it? I emailed it last night before I shut down.
3. You can’t open it? It worked when I tried.
4. Sorry I didn’t get back to you…I think your email went to my spam folder.
5. Silly me – I saved it as a draft and forgot to send it.
6. My computer is having “issues.”

Make it simple, make it fun to read.

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