Choosing Life

As I anticipated, the training session SN forced me to do on Monday was a disaster. If not for my dark skin, I would have been beetroot red throughout the whole session. To make matters worse, Emilio was made to sit with me as I was training that particular topic to his delegates. Strangely, we had to bond together to get through that course because the material was so bad and I did not have a clue what I was training.

I was training to a class of techies and they knew their stuff. Telling them "you don't need to know what that button does..." did not wash it. When I got in on Monday, the training environment was down, the delegates had to wait an hour before it was fixed. Then the slides were not where they were supposed to be, it took another 30 mins to find them on the network. By that time, the delegates were fuming. The fact that the course made no sense, was illogical and did not address pertinent issues was the straw that broke the camels back. The training team need to present a united front so it was hard but I had to take the critism without pointing the fingers at the stupid person who wrote the material without consulting with the right people and my manager who refused to listen to my concerns.

By the time the evaluation forms were completed, the feedback was atrocious. Thank God, they absolved me of some of the blame but stated the course was half-baked and a waste of their time. But at least the ordeal was over and I had captured their issues and prepared a document with enough guidelines for the course to be reviewed. When SN came in after the training session, I told him how bad it had been and how he owed me an apology for insisting on this class when I'd clearly stated that neither me nor the material were ready. He was gracious and apologised.

I had told my housemate, Louise, last week that I was definitely not going to be wanting to renew my contract but I did not expect her to have another tenant lined up so quickly, as Monday progressed, I got an email from her that she would like to show my room to someone that evening. Mondays are not good for me, I have to wake up so early, drive 90 miles, usually do a full days training so by the end of the day I'm shattered and am often in bed by 8pm. This person was coming at 7:30pm and I was not even sure my room was in viewing state because I left in a rush on Friday. I sent her an email saying I was not expecting to have to be conducting viewings so early and I'd prefer if, after this one time, she does not arrange any viewings earlier than 6 weeks to the end of my contract. She wrote back apologising and I realised I was a bit abrupt, I wrote back apologising for my tone... It was just Monday and I was having a rough week already!

I had been feeling quite down the week before and I got some really positive and encouraging comments on my blog so this week, I was determined to 'Choose Life'.. 'Choose Joy', even after I heard the other lady who trained us last week had complained to SN, Fran and her own manager that I was being difficult in the class by asking too many questions, being rude and acting like I did not want to be there. This was after I'd left but the rest of the trainers defended me saying that that was absolutely rubbish. They told SN and the big boss Fran that her delivery and course material was bad and that I did not express myself any worse that the rest of them did and infact some were more vocal. I did not let it affect me instead I sent her an email apologising for upsetting her, saying that it was not my intention, like everyone else there, I just wanted to gain a good understanding of the topic she was delivering by asking the sort of questions delegates would ask.

Praise God! The rest of the week went okay. It was SN's birthday on Thursday, he was 24. After wishing him Happy Birthday, I said "At last, I have an older manager!" He found that quite funny.

The weekend came really quickly because I was trained Monday, Wednesday and Thursday so before I knew it, 3pm Friday afternoon came round and I was off.