The Cardinal Rule: Don't Make Excuses

A friend of mine recently told me that his wife was just laid off from a company she'd worked at for over ten years.  He was more upset about how they laid her off than the actual layoff.  When his wife's manager sat her down to tell her she was being laid off he brought up a mistake she had made more than two years ago.  Two years!  So instead of just being straight up and saying that business was down and someone needed to go they alluded to this long-ago mistake as one of the main reasons.

How bogus.  Someone needs to call the manager and his superiors and tell them the cardinal rule of management - DON'T MAKE EXCUSES.  State the facts and stand behind them.  If you have to hide behind an excuse then you're failing as a manger.

Similarly, not long ago I was in a chain store and when I questioned something the manager blamed the corporate office.  She failed the cardinal rule of management - DON'T MAKE EXCUSES.  Either state the policy as if you support it or get it changed. The only thing that upsets customers more than a policy they don't like is when the company (i.e. the employees) enforces it but doesn't stand behind it.