CLICK HERE to get your copy from Book Depository. I do NOT want to LARP a shooting. In the end, escape room idea was scratched and we did a scavenger hunt instead. I remember going to a 4th of July party thrown by a combat veteran friend-of-a-friend. Like, the drill should be a relatively calm way to practice and build some muscle memory to rely on in case the thing happens. And sad no, more angry, I think that you had to go to such lengths to get excused from that training. Why is it gaining popularity amount employees and it is not exactly a bad thing? Thanks for your practical, even-minded comment. I work in a clinic that serves LGBTQ+ patients and I live in a state that is very second amendment and extremely not LGBTQ+ friendly. BS on that one! OP, if you were to talk to your boss, and he says again you wouldnt be able to take it or something else similarly egregious, you can use the time-honored response, Im not sure what you mean.. Are they tenants in a building that is having this training for all businesses? Next time you see them, just say it was a false alarm and it got better all of a sudden. I work in an academic library. Im very sorry. From my vantage point at the organ console, there are no close exits; so should I hide behind the console, trapped in a corner?? This excuse is exclusively for ladies and its fantastic because nobody asks questions. How did we let our country get to this point? My Dad was a St. John Ambulance volunteer when he was younger, and was a casualty in drills more than once. No matter how frequent people use it,this one never gets old. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, regular physical activity improves your brain health, helps you to maintain a healthy weight, and reduces your risk of developing cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, and even some cancers. Why the hell did you make so many freakin plans? What kind of work does this company do that they think theres such heightened risk of a mass shooting in their workplace that this over-the-top training is necessary? Seven hours with comfortable clothing can only mean a drill that could be appropriate for law enforcement to have the muscle memory of what to do and where to go. (This shooting range has since gone on to have neo-Nazi ties and host fundraising events with certain family members of certain politicians. I do think that similar to an ask for PTO that saying its an appointment that cant be moved might still get pushback or be viewed as disingenuously. To effectively use these excuses, avoid any unnecessary long details. except that some law enforcement dont recommend doing this because in the event of an active shooter, its a high probability going to be an employee or former employee. There isnt a traditional HR department here, and this is an office where were really subject to the dictates of our boss. Something urgent came up that I need to attend to. Im sure Id feel differently if I had kids who were being repeatedly traumatized at school this way. They just notified me on July 24 of this change. Heck see if you can schedule an appointment JUST FOR THAT DAY. Michelle Rennex, Culture Additionally, I grew up in a part of the States that has very little gun culture to speak of; I wasnt around guns at all, didnt know anyone who owned one, never touched one till my mid-30s. Unless responding to active shooter scenarios is a commonly expected part of your job duties, theres no way this training is a reasonable requirement. Ugh you mentioning the scary videos just reminded me that my old jobs (fairly long) active shooter training involved straight up showing us footage from Columbine. Last time, it was 7 AM and only about 10% of the tenants evacuated. It involved bringing in all the relevant gov/emergency departments that would get called if the situation was real (so chemical spill scenario was complete with fire trucks) and we didnt have the agenda ahead of time because it was being externally coordinated. One does begin to wonder how much change could have been wrought if instead of drills and training we had opted to spend that time protesting or in political action. By 4pm, societal standards really will have done all the work for you. Your boss sounds like an as**. Hi [Name], Im so sorry but weve been out all day and weve found out that the train is suspended from [Your Location], the journey would be a nightmare/ we would probably miss the whole event by the time we arrived. His work has been featured in Medium, WikiHow and Chron and is currently authoring his new book on overcoming procrastination and achieving goals. Before things finally came to a head). For one we were on lockdown. I lost a dear friend to a campus shooting and every time another Active Shooter Training email pops up my stomach drops. She was fine, thank goodness. When my coworkers started joking about it, I told them if they kept it up, Id go to HR. There was a mass shooting at a supermarket at her college town two years later. As a result of that experience and the PTSD that it caused, my elder kid takes a sick day any time there is an event or training or other triggering occurrence at work. (You say you dont have traditional HR, but in a large organization theres probably someone youd go to if you needed to request medical or religious accommodations, report harassment or discrimination, or turn in paperwork for FMLA. I hope you are able to easily opt out, OP. I can give you your card then. Well, the car seemed like it was fixed so i drive to work and back the last couple days with no issues. All The Hidden Clues In Squid Game That Pointed To That Twist Ending Ive been fine since then knowing in advance it would happen and simply closing my door. If youre curious I can expand on that, but I dont want to derail the thread. Commander's and NCO are told to have everyone present but service will not allow them to give true problem Soldiers discipline for attendance issues. Here are some tips from some of the worlds best mentor for you to jump-start your career to get that sweet promotion and excel in your career. So long that the lights went out. I was the first person they tried to take as a hostage, it was something new. Theyll probably be asking if youre okay the second they see you. Im late to the post, but you dont even have to be a kid for it to be all you know. My mom worked for a large company and has to deal with several (not at her location, thankfully, but as HR she had to deal with the aftermath). 2. There are contingency plans in our family if we were on a plane during a hijacking. Failure to call before you miss your drill weekend or immediately thereafter is considered an unexcused absence by the military. No?). Maybe its one hour of active shooter drill, and then an additional six hours of getting everyone to calm down, because there is NO way I would be a productive worker after that. Wed also be delighted if you shared this article and joined us on social media too! Even reading the emails about it made me so anxious that my hands started to shake. https://www.everytown.org/solutions/active-shooter-drills/ Hey [Name], my stomach is not in the best of conditions at the moment so its probably best for everyone if I stay at home this evening. If youre lucky or skilled enough to have made it to the finals, theres no reason why you should have to miss out because of work. if your boss asks, just say you woke up feeling too sick to work that day. Id call in sick. Please save yourself from living through a trauma unnecessarily. Thank you for sharing this; Im sorry that this has to be a continued topic and continued trauma. Like what was really scary about the drill at the time was the impression that if it did happen, not only would we be dead, but worse than that it would be our own (collective) faults. If something comes up that requires your immediate attention (such as a death in the family), this is considered a valid excuse for missing drill. I would be looking for another job immediately if my boss said that to me. I dont remember anyone ever failing a fire drill, but I definitely went home that day with the impression that wed failed this one. Have a great night. This is awful, and overboard, and I want to have some firm words with your boss. OP, Im sorry you have to deal with this. Take care of yourself first and foremost. what about people who cannot lift a chair? But ours was completely voluntary and staff were told multiple times prior to the session that they could opt out if they werent comfortable attending. or say youd been experiencing extreme menstrual/PMS symptoms. Somebody is implementing this program, and is either intending it to be voluntary (and your boss is going rogue) or intending it to be mandatory and *really* not thinking it through, and either way I would think the CEO/Owner would want to know about it if you cant get anyone else to listen to you. And if you have a top in a color that washes you out, that will help if youre younger or have naturally fabulous eyelashes, or if you normally wear no or minimal makeup. His video gave at least one employee a panic attack at her desk. Basically it was a whole thing staged as if some classmates had gotten in a car with a drunk driver and died, involving the local law enforcement, paramedics, etc., and framed as if it was actually happening and not a drill. However, if the OP schedules an appointment with their GP in advance for the day of the training they can use that appointment to discuss anything theyre dealing with. I didnt know any of this when I went to school that day and it was one of the worst days I can recall (my friends accident hadnt involved alcohol, but the response was almost identical). The storeroom was in the basement, where the ceiling was low enough for me to reach without standing on tiptoe. What poor timing! This is especially true if you have school-aged children. In the United States, the First Amendment of the Constitution (namely, the Bill of Rights) proclaims that all citizens have the freedom to practice their religion and that there will be no laws prohibiting the free exercise of religion. 3. Youre talking about the kind of training that professionals receive. If youre a party person, in your teens or early twenties, a party at Davids is news that will stir a lot of excitement. Thankfully my boss was fantastic and made sure I didnt have to attend an actual training. We were about 1hr 25 min away. I dont even have anxiety on this topic and I would still nope out of a 7-hour training. So is drill. Get involved in your unit. Can I skip this seven-hour training? According to the National Guard, these circumstances include but are not limited to: Since the official communication didnt call it mandatory Im guessing its not deny PTO-level mandatory. I was very glad to not witness that or it would have left me in tears again. These drills are not helpful! Would you mind if I took you out for some drinks another time? Stealing superficially affable for later use. Essentially, it is suppose to identify potential issues ahead of time; example, local, state & federal departments all using different radio frequencies and needing to figure out what they would use together in an emergency (this was an issue during Katrina). I wish very much I had opted out. Im so sorry this is happening to you. Weekend is a great excuse to get out to the movies. If someone has a heart attack in my vicinity, I can call emergency services or run a few hundred yards to get the defibrillator, but someone else will have to start CPR. What Not to Say: "I miss my spouse." What to Say: "That sounds like so much fun, but unfortunately, I have a date night scheduled. Large auditorium. My 18 year old brother called me in a panic because his girlfriend was in one of the buildings they thought the shooter was in, and Im pretty sure the panic in his voice is going to stay with me for the rest of my life. Read More 10 Effective Ways to Deal with Gossip at WorkContinue. This whole topic is not funny in the least, but I have to admit I snort-laughed when I read about that factory worker. Ours was a few days long, they played a sound over the PA every [whatever number of minutes it is that someone dies from drunk driving], and they staged the crash on the football field and made us all go look. Sure, but like, a real fire evebt would also take a lot longer than a fire drill takes, and I dont think anybody ever suggests that fire drills should be lengthened to be more realistic. And leaving them alone would be a big question mark to the whole face of humanity. In 2019 Never the Right Word was born to fill the gap of how-to websites with copy and paste examples showing you EXACTLY what you need to say to steer difficult conversations into positive outcomes. Learn more about NTRW here. Somehow, the solution is always more guns. The waiver was problematic in many ways and I declined to sign it (and to participate). Afterwards, I refused to go down there alone again, and thankfully none of my shift supervisors gave me a hard time about that. Theres always That Guy who feels the need to comment. I have two high schoolers, my spouse is a professor, and I work at a university too. No. I HATED that we had to do these trainings it felt like being given a band-aid for a hemorrhage. Its not necessarily as private or discrete as you may prefer, and youll still see whats going on in the simulation. Amazing- they hire someone to assess risk, then ignore what they have to say about risk to staff in the lobby. Soif anyonewants to talk about it later,; you got yourself a listener. But more than that, your boss thinks it would be funny to direct a terrorist or mass murderer to go kill someone younger? Ive never been through an active shooter drill. I hope she takes option #4. Forums We have to let the videos play and take multiple quizzes to get a certificate, but Ive now done them enough that I can let the video play while not really paying attention, and my anxiety has disappeared over the trainings. A training session with law enforcement might be okay if it was structured like a q&a or generally sought to give information rather than simply a mocked up experience. Thanks guys! I have no polite words about your boss. Career success is just inches from your hands. (I was not told there would be role-playing including people pretending to be people with ptsd or other mental illnesses who NEEDED TO BE NON VIOLENTLY RESTRAINED. I work in a large hospital. You might still be able to get them to modify how they do the drills, and who they choose to be the instructors, etc. It is never a fun conversation but it is a necessary conversation in this era of teaching. Oh my! In the last year we had a shooting at another campus in my district, and a lockdown on my campus for a suspected shooter (someone on the street with a gun who did not end up coming into the building). The introvert/extrovert divide is the most fundamental dimension of personality. Sotraveling, without one, is not a good option even if traveling means going across two blocks. All-day first aid training? At my old job, most people didnt watch it. Seven hours at work, doing not-work how much of a backlog will there be the next day? We had one at my former workplace. and rejoicing that you get to go home for the day is messed up too. I thought I was the only one to do this lololol. then you can divert questions with details also to the oh no, im afraid its a private matter, they asked me to not divulge all the details, hey mom, would you like to have an emergency where you slip and fall and twist your ankle next tuesday. You also get children with really poor emotional regulation (like, toddler level) and they absolutely need the practice. Sick of this a-hole you work for! They say that the time for RST has passed. No one is bringing in a wind machine and throwing debris around classrooms during a tornado drill. Ive never done a training myself, but my children have since preschool (note: they are intentionally vague at that age, calling it bad guy training). Empowering for LW, maybe. Echoing others concern about this training being from a valid source. Its basically go to X room if you can, use Y furniture to block the door, use Z panic code on the phones to silently call law enforcement to your location. I am going out on dinner with him. Im so sorry youre in this position, OP. It can absolutely be traumatizing and upsetting as a participant. Theres not much evidence that active shooter drills even work, and in some cases they can cause more harm than they prevent. There is a solution that has worked just about everywhere else in the world, and its not this. Its a good idea to discuss this with your employer so that they can arrange alternative working arrangements for you. Add me to the chorus of people saying #4 is both legitimate and honest. I know I would. A professional email will be expected and it is often a great way to make a great impression with your professional counterparts. We were left on our own for that. But its a good skill to have that will serve you well in your career. College is a priority. Assuming theres no policy requiring a doctors note for more than 1 consecutive sickday. I know the whole flight/fight/freeze thing. Im so thankful I dont go to that mall anyway; now I have yet another reason to avoid it. You have a work conflict . 2. Hes a nice person but has very deeply entrenched ideas about mental health, anxiety, young people, and triggers, and I dont want to have to disclose my own mental health diagnoses to him, make him think Im simply not tough enough to handle it, or come across like a millennial snowflake, etc.. Its about 80% victim-blaming) with an actual drill, andI would not be able to. My heart goes out to you, OP. Michelle Rennex, Film Weve had active shooter trainings, but no drills in any of the universities Ive worked at (thankfully). I mean, there are so many reasonable and sensible and logical ways to respond to being told to toughen up, and theyre all better than this, but sometimes If youre making me do this I want it in writing that when I forget this is a drill and deck somebody you pay my legal bills and I dont face any disciplinary action whatsoever is the way to their dear little dinosaur brains. Not because she is a cold person (quite the opposite) but because its as common in the States as hearing about a traffic accident in Australia. My organization has gone through several stages. I really hope this changes some day in the US. Ive had to listen to presentations or watch video training on this throughout my career, and I always thought wouldnt an employee or student who became an active shooter have gone through this training too? Along with multiple growth options, free site transfers and domains, built-in Content Delivery Network integrations, WordPress support, AND human support we wouldn't go to anyone else. I do agree that theres a difference between physically practicing something and reading about it (and frankly, at some of my performing arts jobs, Id have really loved to have even talked through some sort of emergency response plan for an increasingly not-unlikely situation). Id develop a migraine toward the end of the day before and call in the next day. Agree. I am fairly traumatized by all this, because what if it IS a fire and/or flood this time and not just a glitch in the system? Our annual emergency response/operations training for chemical hazards is 8 hours. You Had a Flat Tire 10. Our local high did one that lasted several hours. Also want to say: I hear that there are differences between younger folks experience and us middle aged people who grew up prior to mass school shootings being so frequent. its kind of a variant on calling in sick but honestly, recruiting a trusted accomplice is what i would do. Know what youre signing up for. related excuse is only going to work if its not a work gathering. Joking about the shooter choosing another target is horrifically awful. When the drill ended, they came back, all laughing how they had been shot and if they were dead, could they go home for the day. We hope that these excuses will help you get some much needed you time. For example, you can offer to work when others would rather the time off such as during the school holidays, on public holidays, and days when people would like to be away from work such as New Years Eve and Christmas Eve. oh no, youre coming down with a bad cold the day before & have to leave early & advise youll wont be in the next day. Its stupid and sexist, but it works. You want to spend the time with your family and friends, It has a positive impact on your physical and mental health, You have the opportunity to develop networking opportunities, Yor provide a service or goods to the community. Creating an outer impression of niceness is not that hard if a person has halfway decent social skills. this one never gets old. I was there for maybe 20 minutes in total before my shift supervisor missed me and came along to investigate. These are done periodically at the large state university I work at. I really dont know what to say to that. So, emotions were really high the week following. Often when you are communicating at work, youll need to write a formal email to a coworker, HR, or client. I worked somewhere where we had to do Run-Hide-Fight training. None of these excuses should be used regularly, because inevitably the second you say you need time off for dental work because you have a job interview, you then also need time off for dental work. The hangover excuse is a bit of a gamble anddepends entirely on your relationship with the friend. Thankfully events like this are never mandatory at my job, so its unlikely to come up. Fortunately weather intervened and caused the part of the activity with the anxiety trigger to get canceled, but I absolutely would have called in sick otherwise. I planned out my escape routes the first time I walked into the office and figured out which things on my desk would make the best projectiles by week one. Seven hours of training is far more likely to be a poorly designed hands-on training that will only cause stress, fear, and trauma, possibly leading to worse outcomes if there ever is a real shooting. Im so sorry for what you went through, Doc of the Town. You're going to an important family event, 9. And so on. I am not sure why the school wanted you to do this, but the drills are a regular thing for Emergency Services. No joke, they slipped and fell WHILE managing a video shoot for a safety video, resulting in yet another work comp claim.) Training taken out of orientation, alert system stays. That said, carrying a concealed weapon is forbidden, and most cops only carry a taser unless theyre dealing with something like a hostage situation. (Funny how this rarely happens when the rental office is open; some hapless security guard has to try to decode the alarm system fault codes and tell the fire department what happened.). Someone (I think it was Maya Angelou) said that when somebody shows you who they are, you should believe them. Im so sorry you had to go through that. As someone who has been in an active shooter situation all the training you do doesnt mean anything when the threat is real and all that training is going to do is disrupt the workday and traumatize employees. The last time we had an active shooter drill, HR neglected to tell emergency services that it was only a drill. If you want to make memories with your family on trips away from home, you will need to take advantage of the weekends. My kids know no other world and Im sad and sick (and voting and advocating) for them. No one wants to hear me out. It is such nonsense. Exactly. They are not going to find out; unless they know your father very well. Hey [Name] Im really sorry to leave you hanging, but my dad just got into to town and Ive got to be on good daughter/son duty. I empathize. Those types of drills like you did are really for the outside agencies to practice their plans, plus the company has a specific issue like chemical spill that they need to practice. This. No, you cannot call out sick for drill. I work for a public-facing government agency. Im very pale, so my under eye half moons have a purplish tone. Not sure if you can find information about it in English, but here in Japan we have frequent fire and earthquake drills; there is also a very loud and scary alert that goes from the earthquake detection center to your cell phone. I didnt want to go to the active shooter training (not a drill, a presentation) but went anyway to be a team player. I still have really distinct memories of what I can only imagine was my elementary schools first-ever armed intruder drill after Virginia Tech. Yes, I reject the idea that the boss is a nice person. I understand that gallows humor is a thing. He took one look at me and sent me home, I was obviously in no fit state to work. 2. But safety training for a forklift operator absolutely includes accident prevention, and so does HAZWOPER. Boost your business with the right images. I guess they need more real time training. Hes a cruel person, who happens to be nice to you. Call in sick and dont ever apologize for it. We had fire drills when I was a kid; that was back in the 60s. The great thing about the working late excuse is that all the blame fallson your unassumingmanager. If you are in the National Guard, you may be wondering if you can skip a drill weekend. In addition to being traumatic for employees, it also seems like a poor use of time. otherwise you are going to end up in a more awkward situation. She has nothing to gain, and something to lose, by trying to play it by the book. Seven hours of active shooter training for ordinary office employees? Its not a video game. The first thing that could happen is that your commanding officer could give you a verbal or written counseling statement. When you miss nine drill weekends in 12 months without contacting your commander or the Navy Operational Support Center to which you report, your commanding officer can declare your . I got upset, started crying, and had to ask to leave. (They literally had us hiding in our offices while the public was still in our spaces creating a safety hazard while doing safety training!) I cant fathom why that level of training would be required for active shooter response. It is also a less confrontational and frightening way to approach those issues, putting the onus to explain on him rather than on you. Stuffing pretend bullet wounds in dummies with random cloth to stop the bleeding.
What Happens To The Soul 40 Days After Death,
Kim Kimble Salon Atlanta,
Articles E