Dear Bad at Their Job

Dear Bad at Their Job,

On June 19, 2007, I wrote a letter ("Dear Teacher Training") after getting some "professional development" in the form of a day of training. I am in a position right now of writing almost an exact copy of that letter after attending a Proficiency Training. However, instead of completely repeating myself, I have decided to shift gears a little bit and direct this letter towards being you, Bad at Their Job.

Now, most people - I would think - would not continue to do a job that they were absolutely terrible at. I think that, after a few years (tops), they would see the light and realize that being you is not only horribly painful for coworkers and clients, but also for themselves. I mean - who would want to continuously be horrible at something day after day? That would be frustrating in so many different ways. To me. And normal people.

But I learned something today. Or at least had some previous knowledge reinforced. Not everybody feels this way. Not everybody actually CARES or has a sense of pride. Some people are perfectly content being you for years on end. People who are so ridiculously you that they don't even REALIZE that they are, indeed, you. People who will put all those around them through misery for the duration of their careers because they are not smart enough to pick up on all the signals that tell them that they are, indeed, you.

And that's really sad. Pathetic. It makes me want to cry. Because today I was in the same room as somebody who was horrendously you for seven hours. And I am really not sure if she was even aware of it. While the people who had come and paid for (or whose schools had paid for) the training slowly started leaving, she continued to talk and talk and talk about irrelevant nonsense while clicking through the worst PowerPoint slides I have been subjected to. There wasn't even any Flash Animation or star-wipe transitions. The two "videos" she showed (one was actually just a faster slide-show set to music) had NOTHING to do with the content and just had everyone scratching their heads afterwards. And she really never did anything other than talk AT all of us. Except for the times when she allowed random attendees to start talking and debating school politics (again, irrelevant) for fifteen or more minutes at a pop.

Oh - and when she talked, she did it in this sort of robot-y, monotone voice in the manner of somebody slowly reading a teleprompter that was really difficult to see. Times seven hours. Getting the picture?

Throughout, people were talking to each other (not that quietly), leaving, openly complaining . . . And nothing changed. Not a whit. She never broke character for a second. She never changed expression. It could have been a fascinating psychology experiment if I hadn't been so pissed off at the waste of time.

Because while she was talking and stealing my life-forces, I had a sub in my classroom trying to administer quizzes. And Lord knows how that probably ended up. I spent extra hours (hourS, plural) after school on Friday putting together my sub plans because of this training. And this is what I got. Seven hours in a room with a person that was unapologetically you. And bad is being very kind.

So what makes that type of person tick? Are they so miserable and sad that any further abuse is just business as usual? Are they mean, evil-spirited people that get a kick out of putting others through Hell (for money)? Do they just not care? Are they totally unaware?

Or are they geniuses?

This woman got paid $120 a head to lead this training. Now I'm sure a chunk of this money went to renting the space, and travel expenses, and the food. But there's no way that didn't leave AT LEAST $50 a pop as profit. Multiply that by the 60 people there (maybe more), and you get a minimum of $3,000 for seven hours of being you. For sucking so bad that 3/4 of the attendees left before the thing was even over. And there was no guarantee, warranty, or anything else that makes her have to pay back that money.

So maybe she's just an evil genius. Somebody who has no problem stealing that kind of money from the Oregon public school system. Maybe that blank look on her face was just a mask to conceal her sh-eating grin as she mentally counted the money she was making.

I think that is probably it. And that I should probably start figuring out something I can "specialize" in, so I can become a teacher training facilitator.

But there was one good thing from just one more person being you, Bad at Their Job. Because it was so horrible, we all left early, and I got home a little after 2:30pm on a sunny day. And for that, I truly and sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart.

At Least it Wasn't MY Money,
CVT

*My Reader should really read my "Dear Teacher Training" again, because it is so spot-on. June 19, 2007. Read it.