Every work team has one. An employee who can always be counted on to offer an excuse why his or her project wasn’t completed on time. Or why he couldn’t arrive on time for that important meeting. Or why she can’t possibly attend the company retreat.

The GO train was running late. My mother-in-law needed a ride to the dentist. The electricity in my apartment was shut off last night. My brother arrived here last night from Romania and I had to pick him up at the airport. Bell Canada said it would be here between nine and noon. My bird died. My street was piled up with snow. My cousin just won a trip and wants to take me along. My cat died.

It’s no different in academia.

Just like an employer, I can usually predict which students will leave e-mails, voice mails or come by my office to offer an excuse as to why they’re unable to meet a critical deadline. These Calamity Janes and Johns quite often are beset by multiple events that prevent them from succeeding.

My printer broke down. My apartment’s flooded. I have to take my landlord to court. I’m fighting a parking ticket. My computer broke down. I lost my USB key with all my notes. The security guard wouldn’t let me in the student lab. I’m suffering from food poisoning (that’s a really popular one!)

Student excuses are fodder for all kinds of jokes. They’ve almost spawned an industry with academics trading notes about variations on “my grandmother died.” With some students, it gets to the point where you ask: “just how many grandparents do you have?”

As in the workplace, professors and students engage in a little dance. The student knows the professor really isn’t buying the excuse and the professor wants to give the student the benefit of the doubt. So they dance the familiar dance. For the student, it’s a bit of a crap shoot. Sometimes an excuse works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

I really value honesty. I respect students who tell me straight up:

  • I missed my deadline because I didn’t plan
  • I slept in when I should have been up and printing that assignment
  • I totally forgot
  • A bunch of us were out clubbing last night; I left it too late to finish.

I admired the student who told me this week–when I asked her why she booked a shift as a volunteer at a local event at the very same time when she should have been in class:

  • ” I wasn’t thinking.”

Good for her. She chose not to offer an excuse.

So, what’s the psychology behind excuse-making?