You're listening to a way with words to show about language and how we use it.

I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. We had a call a few weeks ago from Casey in Dallas

who was talking about the fact that there was a coworker who kept showing up late for work and would continually

apologize, but that apology wasn't really that useful, right?

It was more like an excuse.

And so Casey wanted to know how to deal with that.

We got a lot of great responses from listeners,

and one of them came from Kat.

She works as a receptionist in a hair salon.

And she says, a big part of my job is to make sure

that all the appointments run as smoothly as possible. Many times this goal is

hindered by clients being tardy for their appointments. Management stylists and the front desk team are constantly trying to devise creative

and non-offensive ways to tell the client they're late and kindly suggest they show up

on time for their next appointment.

Some have worked better than others, but my favorite so far has been with the owner of

our salon and a stylist of more than 40 years always says to her clients when they're

late and they apologize for the dozenth time.

She says, okay well we've got a lot of work to do so let's get started.

But she's not really saying you're late, you're stopping everything.

Right? What is she, why is she saying only that?

She's saying, we've got a lot of work to do

because you don't look so good.

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