Overhearing a manager berate a worker by saying “I want a reason, not an excuse!” brought back memories of my own dealings with a nasty boss. She asked me why a certain task had not been accomplished in the time allowed, and when I said we had been busy and I was waiting on customers (my primary function), she said she didn’t want to hear any excuses. When I countered that I had given a reason, not an excuse, she accused me of being insubordinate.
So what to you constitutes the difference between a reason and an excuse? And how can you argue with someone who accuses you of giving excuses instead of reasons?
An excuse is a particular type of reason, one that that the person offering it hopes will excuse him or her from responsibilty.You can’t really win when someone accuses you of giving excuses instead of reasons, because what they’re really saying is that the reason you’re giving isn’t good enough.
I understand it a little differently. An excuse will get you off the hook. If the bosstard wants to know why I didn’t make it to yesterday’s meeting, and I explain I had the flu and I was busy vomiting, my absence will be excused. If I say I forgot, or I was showing Samantha how to do something on her spreadsheet, I’m still in trouble. The bosstard will tell me I need to get my priorities straight. He’ll holler and pound his desk, to show what a fearsome guy he is. :rolleyes:
I think it can usually be decided by clarifying the cause/effect relationship. To use one of the above examples, if you wake up puking and call into work, your sickness caused you to miss work, and that’s a reason. If you decide not to go into work and then call in to say that you are sick, that’s an excuse. An excuse does not have to be a lie, BTW. If a teenager goes somewhere and doesn’t come home or call by curfew and later tells you that the place where she was didn’t have a phone, that might be true–but in all probability, it’s still an excuse; she decided to stay out late, then thought up a plausible excuse on the way home.
No, it’s the reverse.
An excuse is something that’s not a reason because it doesn’t relate at all.
Like “I’m here on my lunch hour, so it’s not my fault I dropped the tray of expensive crystal.”
