Excuses for doing non-work related activities on your work computer:

  1. All work and no play …
  2. Connecting with the outside world is motivating, and therefore your productivity actually increases, so this apparently irrelevant web-surfing or emailing or job application writing is, in fact, in your employer’s interest.
  3. You need to find out what inappropriate activities other people are doing so that you can ask them to stop it.
  4. In an holistic cosmos, everything is inter-related, and you resent the implied distrust.

Excuses for arriving home late

  1. The boss needed someone from the team to attend an executive meeting about the group’s future viability, and I was selected as the most persuasive member.
  2. You met an attractive salesperson, had a few drinks, booked a room at a hotel, made passionate love and then had a romantic, candle-lit dinner, though not necessarily in that order.
  3. You had a consultation with a marriage guidance counsellor.
  4. You went to the kids’ school, as you thought it was parent-teacher night.

Excuses for having children

  1. My partner and I were bored with each other, and we felt that kids would keep the relationship alive, and there seemed little downside in testing the theory.
  2. We did a cost-benefit analysis, and they seemed better value than renovating the house.
  3. They would be company for the dog when we were at work.
  4. We needed the aggravation.
  5. It wasn’t solely your fault.
  6. It was an investment decision: we hope that parenthood will pay off during our retirement.

… … … … … …