Too purty to live in town.....

Thursday 4/5/07

A while back, couple of months ago now I guess, I went on a business trip to Orlando. It was a “train the trainer” meeting, where they give a presentation on the subject matter, answer questions, and give us the materials, then we go back to our individual offices and give that same presentation to our local staff.

Two people from my office were sent, myself, and another person, we’ll call Sally. I like Sally as a person, but as a co-worker, I’m not too impressed with her work ethic. In my opinion, she sees work as a glorified high school. It’s a place where she can make friends, socialize and gossip and get a paycheck. I didn’t take this job to make friends. If I want friends that badly, I’ll join a support group. I like to work when I’m at work. Imagine that!

Sally is in tight with the big boss, so she thinks she’s “safe”. She has ridden the coat tails of her other coworkers and has slid by with little effort of her own. We all know or have known someone like Sally. She likes to be the center of attention, and tries to show leadership, but only to get noticed. Not to actually do any work, God forbid!

We were informed Monday that we need to give this presentation next Tuesday, so I asked Sally when we could get together to practice and decide who is going to cover which sections of the presentation.

She then has this bright idea that we work with another office’s representative, and as a team, give the presentation at their office, then at our office. Her intention here is to once again ride coat tails, so she doesn’t have to be held responsible for what she didn’t learn and should have. I’m not real keen on the idea, but in the spirit of teamwork, I suggested she check and see if it would be ok with everyone’s schedules.

Sally checks, and the ONLY day the other office could POSSIBLY have their presentation, is when I have to be out for a medical appointment. So she suggests that we go ahead with the plan without me, and I can join them when I can. I was not pleased with this idea. I clearly saw this as her attempt to upstage me and give her an opportunity to hen party with the other office and talk smack about me behind my back.

I explained to her that the only reason I was interested in sharing the load was so I could observe the other person’s training skills and learn her techniques and methods. Since our schedules weren’t conducive to doing it together, I suggested that we don’t tag-team it after all. She was obviously miffed at me about this, but eventually sent me an email that she conceded and her and I would give the class on our own to our office.

I responded to her email that we needed to decide who would cover which part, and as a courtesy to her, I would let her have first pick of which she wants and I would do the rest. That was three days ago. Today, I get a response to her email, telling me that it didn’t matter to her and I could choose what I wanted. So I did, and sent her an email stating so.

This infuriated me. She could have said that 3 days ago and gave me that much more time to prepare, but she didn’t. I saw that as vindictive. I met with our supervisor today and told her so. I also showed my supervisor what I had done already to prepare, and that my preparations were continuing. I shared with her my concern that I hadn’t seen her preparing and didn’t want to knowingly watch a team member fail.

My supervisor stated that she appreciated my concern for Sally, and she also appreciated how seriously I was taking this presentation, and my responsibility in being rehearsed, prepared and practiced for this class. She stated that when presentation time comes, it will be very apparent who is prepared and who isn’t, and to let the chips fall where they may.

So, I went back to preparing my part of the presentation. I fully understood the confidence my supervisor had in me when she selected me to attend the training. I also understood that if I blew this presentation I would not be given any further opportunities to be a trainer.

At 4pm today, my supervisor comes to me and asked me how I felt about teaching the entire class myself. I realized that this was a golden opportunity for me and I was not going to let it slip away. Opportunities like this do not come along very often.

I told her that I could teach the entire class, and also asked her if it would be appropriate to ask why Sally wasn’t going to do her part. She stated that there was several reasons that she didn’t wish to share, but that she knew that I would do a good job and she was proud of me being so willing to do it all by myself.

I see my supervisor’s opinion of Sally changing. The realization is dawning now of what a coat tail rider Sally really is. I also see that in the future, Sally may not be chosen to attend any more train the trainer classes.

I’m really looking forward to this. It’s a neat challenge, and exciting. I know I will do well, because I will be ready. I will show my office that I have the potential to be an excellent trainer, and the more I do it, the better I will get at it. This opportunity may very well open up future doors of opportunity for me too. I don’t take this lightly. Did I mention that I was excited?

My quote today is: No amount of planning can ever replace dumb luck!

Thanks for stopping by,
Curls