[ZoFreX]

In situations like that, the real reason is often deeper than the "excuse". I'm a big fan of "five why's' [1] for root cause analysis. I think finding the root cause is far more important than differentiating between reasons and excuses, or belittling people because you think their reasons aren't good enough.

Example: "Laptop ran out of battery" - is that really a bad excuse? What if there aren't enough charging points in the office, so not everyone can keep their laptops topped up all at the same time? Analysing the surface reason alone is not enough to know whether it has merit, there may be a valid root cause for what appears to be a poor excuse.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys