The Week Of Supervisory Training

Wheee.... Well, that was fun. A whole week of going to bed too early and getting up too early and eating too much and sitting on my butt way too much.

That was just..... phenomenal. I got to spend a week of them telling me how hard and how much hassle being a Sergeant is going to be in the very near future.

And that was only the stuff they decided that I needed to know ahead of time.

Well, two months after the fact, but a glimpse of the future nonetheless.

I'll get to the picture above in a minute. Er... I plan to, anyway.

Days one and two were devoted to "Basic leadership Skills." A veritable smorgasbord of random information dished up to us by a very nice and engaging lady who managed to make this rather dry subject matter entertaining and informative.

If it wasn't for her, I would have slipped into a coma before the first break.

As it was, I spent alot of the time doodling on the graphics in the manual:

It was also a very good thing that both Drew and the Watcher were in the same class. We kept each other awake and alert and provided a measure of humor for the rest of the class. The instructor knew if she wanted a certain answer for a question she was asking she could look to one of us.

If she wanted a well reasoned but sometimes cautious answer, she'd ask Drew.

If she was looking for a more thoughtful and "deeper" answer, the Watcher was her man.

When she wanted the rougher gut-reaction and "don't do this" answer, she'd ask me. There always has to be at least one person in each class who gives the exact wrong answers. I usually volunteer for that position.

Anyway, the lady was wonderful. She kept us entertained and made us think for the whole week, which I'm sure was quite a feat. Even when we were all staring with mounting horror at sentences like: "Through analysis of the duties of the workplace, differentiate between technical and conceptual tasks and determine how to make the transition."

Yeah. They write like that. In some technical book factory somewhere for people with Masters degrees. Be darned if I knew, even now, what that means.

We learned about delegation and time management and giving feedback. And we took a self-assessment quiz that supposedly showed what our management style was.

I'm apparently an Amiable.

I don't see it, but there you are.

Days three and four were taken up by learning the computer system that we use for our annual ratings. Making that process interesting was a feat of superhuman strength. She should have been nominated for a Medal of Honor.

And today's topic was "Addressing Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation in the Workplace."

Don't think that topic wasn't keeping us on the edge of our seats with glee.

Basically it all boiled down to "Report It, Report It, Report It! Because if you don't you'll leave yourself open for a lawsuit."

Reporting good. Lawsuit bad. Got it.

So during the week Watcher and Drew and I spent a good part of the time playing class clown. We were all given name cards for our places at the tables. Ours changed on almost a daily basis. Mine went from my name to "Rev" to "Arf" to "Here To Nose Sat". The second to the last day mine said "Watchers Dad."

An old joke. After second break I came in and found out my name had been changed to "Watchers Great Grand Daddy." I gave both of them the universal sign of disrespect.

On the next break I was looking at Watcher and Drew (and most of the rest of the class) and realized how young they really are. It was kind of depressing, in a way. And I wondered aloud "Should I consider it at least mildly depressing that I've gone from being Indiana Jones to being his dad?"

When they hassled me about being old I chased them back into the building saying "We named the dog Watcher!!!"

Hey, at least for a second there I thought I was Sean Connery. That second was long enough to make me feel better.

Anyway, it was long and tedious and too freaking early in the morning and it's over.

Huge sigh of relief.

Until the next time, anyway.

One day off and then it's back to my regular schedule. So here's the schedule:

Saturday: I Want You To Be Happy Day, Peach Blossom Day, National Anthem Day and National Cold Cuts Day.

Sunday: Holy Experiment Day, National Pound Cake Day, Benjamin Harrison Day and the International Scrapbooking Industry Day.

Really. Scrapbooking Industry. My wife will be so tickled.....