In recent weeks, I’ve had two different junior associates miss an internal deliverable deadline (e.g., end of day Thursday) and, after I ping them to check in after the deadline (e.g., Friday afternoon), then claim they emailed me the deliverable before the deadline but it must not have actually sent (i.e., they closed their laptop before it left their outbox so it must’ve gotten stuck). Sometime thereafter, they’ll send me the deliverable.
Is this some new excuse folks have come up with and think others are stupid enough to believe? Or is this for real?