the dixie cup class

[marcicat]

It had a name, this professional development class I took — “Supervisor’s Boot Camp” — but that was so horribly embarrassing I just called it “Supervisor’s Training” when I had to tell people about it.

Until I actually arrived, of course. Because being me, I was *really* looking forward to the free coffee that’s generally provided at these things. They’d even emailed me the night before, to let me know there would be free parking and breakfast. And there was a carafe of coffee available, I will not deny that. Sitting next to it was a stack of teeny, tiny cups. Dixie cup size! I had a dixie cup full of coffee!

Let me tell you, that was Not Enough to get through seven hours worth of four different topics.

Topic #1: How to make friends. I really felt like this one should be given in all kindergarten classes. Takeaway message: If you tell your coworkers that you’re going to give their blocks back once you’re done playing with them, but then you don’t, they won’t play with you anymore.

Topic #2: My notes from this one include this concise breakdown. “99% of people *like* being asked nicely (ex. I’d appreciate it if you would…). 1% of people are a pain in the ass.” I’m pretty sure the instructor didn’t use those exact words.

Topic #3: Stress? I’m not really sure. We spent most of the time doing a team-building exercise. My group utterly failed to comprehend the goal but had a fantastic time passing notes (we couldn’t talk). Takeaway message: if the leader offers no leadership, working can still be fun and not stressful, but only if you have no idea what your job is supposed to be.

Topic #4: Okay, this one was advertised as “Working Across Generations,” which sounded cool and helpful, but was actually titled “Mixing & Matching the Generations,” which sounds more like a dating service. I learned that everyone in the world has an opinion about texting except for me.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.