You’ll Never Believe This!
Posted by drpezz on January 30, 2008
This morning, during finals mind you, the teaching staff was mandated to attend a staff meeting concluding 15 minutes prior to the first final of the day. We sat down, already grumpy since our time is crunched because of a special schedule we use for finals week, and we received a 20 minute lecture about ladder safety. Ladder safety!
Not only do I feel staff meetings are unwarranted during finals, but I can think of only a few topics less pertinent to my job which could’ve been our focus. What a complete picture of disrespect for our time!
Ladder safety!? You can’t write this stuff.
wetlandstom said
Obviously someone in your “Home Office” decided that you needed a lecture on how not to fall off a ladder. I looked at your last post and decided that you might change the title of this post to “Do We Need Staff Meeting Rules?”
As a side bar, in a past life I was a commercial insurance underwriter and a claims investigator and adjuster. Insuring ladder manufacturers was a no-no for the standard insurance market. They are a high risk product. I once investigated an accident where a man fell from a ladder. He didn’t break anything but certainly suffered from a lot of pain because of the fall. Ladders are inherently unsafe.
Don’t you have a union that can address these types of problems? Not the ladder but inappropriately timed staff meetings. I’m sure that there must be some procedure in place where you can bring this grievance to the attention of the management.
Peter Stinson said
Hmmm… they couldn’t put a note in your box for that? Or send you an email? Or force you to take an online refresher course? Or limit the lecture to those teachers who have ladders in their classroom? Old School, doc. Old School.
drpezz said
W –
Unfortunately (or fortunately), I’m the union’s rep for the building, and I was inundated with e-mails today to that regard. Looks like I have some work ahead because our leadership can’t create useful and timely training.
drpezz said
Peter –
I seriously thought it was a joke when I walked in, until I saw the guys setting up two ladders. I figure they could just send the PowerPoint presentation in an e-mail and have us sign a sheet by the mail boxes stating we read it and we are responsible for the information. Too easy I guess.
drpezz said
W –
By the way I like your alternate title for the post. It sounds much like what people are asking that I set up with the administration. I actually thought that the local paper should see what our staff “training” is and how it’s helping the kids become better students. Yuck!
mrschili said
I wouldn’t believe you, except that I totally do. You’re right – you can’t make this stuff up….