This week I went to a work related training, it was a long one 3 1/2 days. I pretty much figured out I didn't like the trainer from day 1. The problem is I can't stand people who think they know it all and this woman certainly did. She knew it all and she knew things she didn't even know she knew, according to her anyway.
As someone who trains folks,I've always looked at training as a give and take thing. Sure the person doing the training knows alot about the particular topic but that dosen't mean there isn't something they can learn along the way. I always learn something new at a training I give, sometimes it's topic reated, sometimes it's not and sometimes it's about what I can do better...that's OK with me. Obviously this woman was there to impart knowledge but her receive function was truly shut off. The best ( or worst) part is this woman was training people on how to mediate difficult situations with many parties involved. In my obviously wrong thinking what topic could lend itself more to a healthy give and take about what works, how styles differ and how personalities can effect the process.
Anyway I sat and basically listened to this woman read me her Powerpoint slides ( which I had a copy of in my training manual) for 3 days. I wasn't alone in my agony and many people at the training were reaching their maximum boredom level when she suggested a role play.
This would have been a fun and meaningful learing experience if she hadn't broken in in the middle of the "mediation" to correct the methods of a woman who's been doing this for over 16 years in a very rude and authoritarian way. For a moment I smelled revolt in the air but the assembled folk...all mediators for the most part took the high road and just told her they thought she'd been rude and she wasn't always right(many people told her this as politely as they could through clenched teeth).....this almost made sitting there for 3 days worth it.
So I guess the message is even the great ( in their own mind) can fall and it's up to us lesser mortals to determine how hard they land.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Giving to Others
Today I went to help out with our local United Way food drive. Every year the United way collects food from local individuals, school classes, organizations and stores and then they divide it up between 18 local food pantries in our community.
I was amazed to find out there were 18 food pantries in our small (in population)community. I Know the average income up here is not high and I know a good portion of the county lives below the national poverty level but 18 food pantries was amazing to me.
The good news is that they estimate the donations were twice this year what they were last year. Funny you'd think just the oposite might be true when you condiser rasiing fuel prices and the cost of just about everything rising. In my life I've found that many times people who have the least are the ones that give the most. Maybe because they understand what it's like to be in need or maybe because they were helped once upon a time. I don't know for sure but I've seen it time and time again. Or maybe I just look at it differently than others, to me someone with not much giving a portion of what they have is much more meaningful than a major corporation writing a check. Granted they both help people in need and I'm grateful for that, but somehow the individual sharing one can of soup when they have two means more to me.
So anyway, I was happy to be able to help the United Way and I hope they can help many people in need this year.
I was amazed to find out there were 18 food pantries in our small (in population)community. I Know the average income up here is not high and I know a good portion of the county lives below the national poverty level but 18 food pantries was amazing to me.
The good news is that they estimate the donations were twice this year what they were last year. Funny you'd think just the oposite might be true when you condiser rasiing fuel prices and the cost of just about everything rising. In my life I've found that many times people who have the least are the ones that give the most. Maybe because they understand what it's like to be in need or maybe because they were helped once upon a time. I don't know for sure but I've seen it time and time again. Or maybe I just look at it differently than others, to me someone with not much giving a portion of what they have is much more meaningful than a major corporation writing a check. Granted they both help people in need and I'm grateful for that, but somehow the individual sharing one can of soup when they have two means more to me.
So anyway, I was happy to be able to help the United Way and I hope they can help many people in need this year.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
September
On the whole I like autumn. I like the leaves changing color, I like the cooler weather, I love the smell of apples at the local cider mill that envelopes you when you get out of your car. I like to go apple picking and enjoy a brisk autumn day. When my son was young I liked September because that meant he went back to school just about the time he was bored with the summer.
There are things though, that I could live without. Shorter and shorter days just make me want to go to bed earlier. Also in the summer my office has "summer hours": which means we work from 8:30am-4:00pm with a half an hour for lunch, unlike the rest of the year when we work 9am-5pm with an hour for lunch. Let me just go on record as saying I LOVE the summer hours and I'm depressed about the winter hours. I also don't understand the reasoning behind getting out of work early in the summer when it's light out until almost 9pm but having to work an hour later in the winter when it gets dark so darn early! To be fair we just follow the county offices schedule but I don't know what they were thinking when they made this arrangement. Someone will probably say it has to do with farmers or something like that....I'm not so sure.
So I guess like everything else, September has it good and bad points, I can live with them but I'd still like to be leaving my office at 4 instead of 5!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Visiting the Emergency Room
Last night I took a friend of mine to a local hospital ER on the advice of his GP. It seems he was in horrible pain from what turned out to be a kidney stone ( those of you who have had the "pleasure" can relate I'm sure.) Anyway he was hurting and I offered to accompany him because I can't think of anything more depressing than being in an ER all alone and in pain.
He signed in and told them that on a scale of 1-10 his pain was a good 7 , they were appropriately sympathetic and then told him to "have a seat in the waiting room". Well we sat there for well over 2 hours which involved a "recheck" by the intake staff who ; I was told have to do that if a patient has been there over an hour...I suppose that avoids patients turning up missing or deteriorating to much worse condition than when they arrived.
During the course of our wait my friend used the rest room and when returned he said he felt much better. We both were relieved, now believing that it was a kidney stone and although painful not life threatening.
Finally they took him back to the examination area and I followed. They put him in a cubicle and pulled the curtain around him and a PA came in and took a brief history ( including how he was now feeling better) and asked for a urine specimen. While he ( my friend) was gone I heard her tell a colleague that he probably had passed the stone and the laughing comment was made " see if you leave them out there long enough ( in the waiting room)they heal themselves" What????
The specimen showed that indeed it was a kidney stone and he was prescribed an antibiotic and sent home.
I know the health care system needs help and I also know that dark humor is necessary when you work in a high stress situation like an ER but frankly I'd rather have been somewhere else with my friend than waiting for him to "heal himself " in the waiting room.
He signed in and told them that on a scale of 1-10 his pain was a good 7 , they were appropriately sympathetic and then told him to "have a seat in the waiting room". Well we sat there for well over 2 hours which involved a "recheck" by the intake staff who ; I was told have to do that if a patient has been there over an hour...I suppose that avoids patients turning up missing or deteriorating to much worse condition than when they arrived.
During the course of our wait my friend used the rest room and when returned he said he felt much better. We both were relieved, now believing that it was a kidney stone and although painful not life threatening.
Finally they took him back to the examination area and I followed. They put him in a cubicle and pulled the curtain around him and a PA came in and took a brief history ( including how he was now feeling better) and asked for a urine specimen. While he ( my friend) was gone I heard her tell a colleague that he probably had passed the stone and the laughing comment was made " see if you leave them out there long enough ( in the waiting room)they heal themselves" What????
The specimen showed that indeed it was a kidney stone and he was prescribed an antibiotic and sent home.
I know the health care system needs help and I also know that dark humor is necessary when you work in a high stress situation like an ER but frankly I'd rather have been somewhere else with my friend than waiting for him to "heal himself " in the waiting room.
Friday, June 20, 2008
A Little About Alot
Many of the blogs I read are about specific topics. My conclusion is these folks know alot about their chosen blog topic whether it's politics , gardening , sewing...I guess the reason I don't have a topic is because I'm not sure I know enough about any one thing to write about it consistantly. I do though, know a little about alot of things. This makes me pretty good at trivia but not really great at in depth conversations about alot. I guess I've never felt enough passion about one topic or issue to learn all I could about it and want to share my knowledge.
I know there have been times in my life when something caught my interest and I read everything I could about it and then when bored with it, moved on to something else. These days I have enough puzzlements at work that when I read for pleasure it's simply that, fiction that will take me away from my world and place me somewhere else for awhile.
My world, my life...now there's something I could write about and in fact have been encouraged to because it has taken very odd twists and turns and somehow I manage to always find my way back to normalcy ( or at least my version of it).
Random thought for today: Why do people rush to get in front of others to open a door at a bank, store, etc and then not hold the door for the person 2 steps behind them? Who besides someone on their way to a life threatening emergency could be in that much of a hurry?
I know there have been times in my life when something caught my interest and I read everything I could about it and then when bored with it, moved on to something else. These days I have enough puzzlements at work that when I read for pleasure it's simply that, fiction that will take me away from my world and place me somewhere else for awhile.
My world, my life...now there's something I could write about and in fact have been encouraged to because it has taken very odd twists and turns and somehow I manage to always find my way back to normalcy ( or at least my version of it).
Random thought for today: Why do people rush to get in front of others to open a door at a bank, store, etc and then not hold the door for the person 2 steps behind them? Who besides someone on their way to a life threatening emergency could be in that much of a hurry?
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