Quote:
Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki
This is very different from the tone used above in the other posts. When a subordinate makes a mistake, I expect all of the information above. Not just an apology, not just a promise that it won't happen again, but an explanation of why it happened, and how the subordinate will attempt to prevent it from happening again. I cannot evaluate how a subordinate learns if I don't know what processes are involved.
If you would read into the "mother" line as shifting the blame to her, you would be wrong. No blame is being shifted. Blame remains on the person apologising. It was my fault for trusting my mother to be a reliable back up, just as it was mine for not checking the batteries, and mine for not having a second alarm clock.
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I think this is the huge difference between our views and opinions about apologizing.
To be quite honest - I don`t really care what combination of events led to someone being late. What matters to me is that they`re late. If someone was working below me and gave me the apology you typed up... I would be more annoyed than anything else. I really don`t care that the alarm clock didn`t work. I really couldn`t care less about mothers and friends. In fact, I don`t really care about what is going to be done to make sure it doesn`t happen again.
What I DO care about is 1) That the person realizes they have inconvenienced me / caused a problem... And 2) That they are going to take measures not to do it again.
What comes between those two bits - Why they`re late, who else was involved, what they`re going to do to keep it from happening again - come across as nothing more than overkill and excuses.
If I ASK what happened - that`s one thing. If they do it more than once, then I may want to know what is going on and how they plan to make sure it doesn`t happen again.... But if someone showed up late and gave me that spiel, I would basically write them off.
And from the other side - if I`m late for something, I don`t want to have to give a summary of my life just to "apologize". What is important is that I know I`m in the wrong, and that I`m not going to do it again.
The only times I feel differently is if there is a true emergency - someone in the family suddenly died, the person is in an accident, there is a natural disaster (although this one would probably negate the need for an apology at all...), etc, or if there is something that WILL cause the event to repeat. For example, I would expect someone to tell me that because of some change in life or the like they will be unable to keep the agreed schedule from here on out.
Otherwise, quite frankly,
I don`t care. You`ve already wasted my time by making me wait - don`t waste more with a long winded explanation.