The usual response is, can’t you figure it out for yourself?
In any organisation, the latest attitudinal training module is an easy sell. In fact more than that, it is frequently mandatory.
All staff MUST attend; HR has mandated it.
Never mind that students are served a mind-numbing, eye-rolling dose of bleedingly obvious pap, it is of vital importance to the future viability of the organisation (just ask HR!).
As always, post-training feedback will fall into two distinct categories. Managers (because they’re obliged to) and sycophants (because they want to) will give it high praise. The rest will go searching for the lowest possible rating on the assessment sheet.
Only the managers and sycophants will be believed. How dare anyone think that there was a problem with our fabulous slides-and-talking-heads session.
But, I digress.
Woe betide the technical person who requests training in some new tool in which they are obliged to become expert in very short order.
It’s hard to tell if it’s some kind of god-complex or sheer stubbornness; but anyone occupying an approval role for technical training seems to immediately react with denial. The god-complexor will set the engineer on a pedestal – surely you don’t need training – you’re expert at everything. The stubborn will take exactly the same view, but for entirely negative reasons. “We can’t afford it; you’re smart, figure it out for yourself.”
This same approver will gleefully approve each and every HR offering as if it was delivered directly and personally to Moses on stone tablets.
This attitude seems to derive from well-embedded prejudices that come from a long history of enmity between the ‘cool kids’ and the ‘geeks.’
Back in high school, the geeks had all the answers, the cool kids needed coaching for everything.
The attitude persists.
Perhaps geekdom is its own worst enemy. Perhaps this aura of knowledge and skill is too pervasive. Perhaps HR’s training is actually necessary; for those who can’t figure things out for themselves. But for the geeks, let the eye-rolling commence. And good luck figuring out that new software package at home in your own time.
Of course, should they ever get approval to attend, people can be taken out of technical training if ‘real work’ arises – good luck doing that with any of HR’s mandatory sessions!
In any organisation, the latest attitudinal training module is an easy sell. In fact more than that, it is frequently mandatory.
All staff MUST attend; HR has mandated it.
Never mind that students are served a mind-numbing, eye-rolling dose of bleedingly obvious pap, it is of vital importance to the future viability of the organisation (just ask HR!).
As always, post-training feedback will fall into two distinct categories. Managers (because they’re obliged to) and sycophants (because they want to) will give it high praise. The rest will go searching for the lowest possible rating on the assessment sheet.
Only the managers and sycophants will be believed. How dare anyone think that there was a problem with our fabulous slides-and-talking-heads session.
But, I digress.
Woe betide the technical person who requests training in some new tool in which they are obliged to become expert in very short order.
It’s hard to tell if it’s some kind of god-complex or sheer stubbornness; but anyone occupying an approval role for technical training seems to immediately react with denial. The god-complexor will set the engineer on a pedestal – surely you don’t need training – you’re expert at everything. The stubborn will take exactly the same view, but for entirely negative reasons. “We can’t afford it; you’re smart, figure it out for yourself.”
This same approver will gleefully approve each and every HR offering as if it was delivered directly and personally to Moses on stone tablets.
This attitude seems to derive from well-embedded prejudices that come from a long history of enmity between the ‘cool kids’ and the ‘geeks.’
Back in high school, the geeks had all the answers, the cool kids needed coaching for everything.
The attitude persists.
Perhaps geekdom is its own worst enemy. Perhaps this aura of knowledge and skill is too pervasive. Perhaps HR’s training is actually necessary; for those who can’t figure things out for themselves. But for the geeks, let the eye-rolling commence. And good luck figuring out that new software package at home in your own time.
Of course, should they ever get approval to attend, people can be taken out of technical training if ‘real work’ arises – good luck doing that with any of HR’s mandatory sessions!
