Please keep me in mind for the next book club party!" The Fine Print: When you say that you miss your partner, the hostess could reply with a suggestion to bring them along. But what on earth could take 7 hours for active shooter training alone that would actually be useful? 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. Its not worth getting worked up over. Would a forklift operator be able to opt out of forklift classes on the same grounds? So its a surprise, but not TECHNICALLY because they told everyone about it in advance. Im worried that would get her fired. I know you said your boss is normally nice, but hes being a bonehead, insensitive jerk about this if he doesnt allow you to quietly bow out. Were going to have people sit in a conference room and a deputy will speak. Hey [Name], I think the snows probably going to ruin any chances of me being able to make tonight. For anyone to work in a position where they may have to do non-violent restraint and not have hands-on training in a controlled environment is INCREDIBLY dangerous and would open your facility to a huge amount of liability, both civilly and criminally. Its not that he cant understand. 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. It doesnt matter what people think. Hey really curious, since I am in a tangentially related field; is the same true for fire drills, earthquake drills, etc. by I thought I was the only one to do this lololol. bradley james child facebook; girl jumps off bridge 2021 twitter; leonard flowers disability instagram; pickled green tomatoes italian style youtube; gary richardson rate my professor ucla extension mail I was irate several years ago when I found out an unqualified emergency management person made his own active shooter drill video and sent it to all staff at my agency. I decided to take charge of my horrific dating life and go on an actual date. 1) Get enough sleep the night before. Two toddlers during Sandy Hook. Oh my! Before starting this site, A.C. has 10+ years of experience as management professional in a Fortune 500 Company. But since you happen to be the person who. Working from home have a lot of benefits that essentially make your work life happier and more enjoyable. 3. Many generation Z are adopting the quiet quitting culture and it is not because they are lazy. What possible benefit is there to be gained from crouching and hiding for hours? Having worked near a major train station in London, we had briefings on what to do in the event of a terrorist attack, invacuation training etc. Like, first drill, then feedback, then second drill, more feedback, etc? Creating an outer impression of niceness is not that hard if a person has halfway decent social skills. Cain gives introverts the tools to better understand themselves and take full advantage of their strengths. Its not necessarily as private or discrete as you may prefer, and youll still see whats going on in the simulation. On top of that, everyone was ordered not to use their cell phones. excuses to get out of drill weekend I would call in sick. Now sit on the couch and sink into that feeling of freedom. Active shooter drills and lockdown drills are one of the few that my kids take seriously. (I am not being facetious or flip or glib here run means get away from the situation. Also, your boss is a horses ass. Have a good gaming night! A book that finally understands introverts! She has nothing to gain, and something to lose, by trying to play it by the book. Our wallet holdsall ofour important things, including cash, id, and credit cards. This is almost enough to make me start using makeup on a regular basis! Oh my god. I am so sorry for you and your child. My kid is still dealing with PTSD as a result of that incident, as are a significant number of their colleagues who were also present that day. (And get a pizza delivered to your address. Find out more about Divi Cake here. Now that I think about it, my workplace gives building-specific info for other types of emergency preparation i.e., I know where were supposed to evacuate and gather in the case of a fire, I know where in the building we should shelter in the case of a tornado/severe weather, but the active shooter training module was only a generic video with a generic office building showing fear and the run/hide/fight scenarios. Given that shes already on record as not wanting to participate and the boss reaction, this might be the first time I would ever consider advising someone to just no-call no-show and eat the occurrence. We havent been told what it will entail, but its seven hours long and weve been instructed to wear comfortable clothing. But in my opinion, your older colleagues have ZERO excuse for not empathizing with your concerns. smdh. No?). I rarely wish for a like button. Before things finally came to a head). Building layouts is easy and fast, making it ideal to create mockups and wireframes, prototyping a design, and creating the website itself. the vast majority of these trainings rely on terrorizing people and teaching absolutely nothing of practical value other than you sure might get shot at work! Often, the employees are the main reason why employees quiet quit their job. I know many of them are probably fine, but many are also horror themed. OP, go to your primary care provider. What if theyre going to do it several times? Or maybe if no one from your department is going to be there. Yup, this works, so well that it kept me using makeup! But that was just about 30 minutes, not anything we had to actually do. That sounds horrible and not at all like a good use of time. They ended up with injuries when one of the factory guys had a turn at being shooter and took out some aggression on management. This came up in the meeting: Run-Hide-Fight includes an active shooter inside the building targeting us, but what do we do for a shooter whos outside targeting someone else? But they made the change less than 30 days before drill. 3) Train everyone! Her students are fifth graders, so ages 10-11. Or deliberately schedule a doctor/dental appointment that day and say sorry it was the only time they could get you in. But I don't anymore. Theyd just experienced one in their community. Want to write a professional email at work? No one is bringing in a wind machine and throwing debris around classrooms during a tornado drill. Does this count as an excuse if its likely true? There is no excuse for him to be joking about this, calling you names or otherwise mistreating you. Agreed, why is this training seven hours long? We did an active shooter drill at my organization and I thought it would be similar to the same drills I grew up doing (also a millennial) but it was so much worse than I imagined. Literally every soldier here has multiple stories they can tell similar to this. Then laughed. Your boss isnt a nice person who is cruel to young people, people with disabilities, and anyone he considers liberal. this training means theyll know all the plans. Its gone on far too long, we need real societal changes, not bandaid drills. An excuse thatshuts down anypossible follow up questions. For example: "Due to some past history that I don't want to go into at work, I am going to opt of out Tuesday's training.". Never had a garish, clashing lip color since I learned that trick years ago when I worked in department store cosmetics and was a model for make up/hair when my friends went through state boards for their cosmetology licenses. I hope that, some day, no child anywhere will ever have to even think about doing something like that. I dont want to do it either. If my staff had this conversation to me, Id take it immediately back to leadership b/c my leadership is older than me. That would be my guess too, but we cant know. I feel similarly to the O0: If it had been an active shooter drill I would have eaten the takeout. I will never, ever attend one of these againit is worth *any* political or professional price I might pay. Could we catch up at a less hectic week? We will be presented with a PowerPoint (or similar) and a handout. The only way to conquer your fear is to face it. Tell them how you were all dressed up for this party, and you are afraid that the mechanic workshop m, Even if it isnt, its going to take a while. Because when you get out of working on the weekends, someone else will take your place. My apartment building has so many drills (false alarms) that maybe 12 people out of 102 units (some with 2 people, so more than 102 tenants) bother to evacuate when the alarms go off in the apartment AND hallway. And where the training is done by people who are professionals *in the topic they are training*. Im sorry that anyone has to deal with this. Anyone else attending Berklee College of Music? Its probably an insurance thing. Make sure to tell them that your boss has been dismissing your concerns and you dont trust him to handle mental health issues with any seriousness. #2 "I Have The Runs" Youre exhausted from your week and want nothing more than to collapse on the couch and watch an unhealthy amount of Netflix. Here's a list of foolproof excuses that are sure to get you out of any weekend plan. The cop who did presented on active shooter protocols casually started discussing a mall shooting in another state part way through the training. But there are ways to make it better. As a result, theres this whole industry of emergency preparedness which means some are doing useful drills coordinated with governmental departments and some are just selling useless single day trainings so companies can check off a box that says they did it. Theyre homeschooling now. If you do not own a car, you might be thinking that you got to pass all the car excuses. I mean your boss sounds delightful so maybe he is concerned he may be a target, but the chances of you ever needing to use that mass-shooting situation at work is low. We have a lot of jerks in my city who flout the fireworks bans (wildfire risk) and he said the clouds of smoke glowing with fireworks and sunset accompanying intermittent booms and crackles had an uncanny resemblance to firefights where he had been stationed. Take more than a day offI suggest you take the following day off, too. Woke up this morning for drill and my car would not start. We didnt have ours as often, and the threat seemed a little more distant, but some of those early ones were poorly handledand (given what weve read about the boss in question) I think letter writers office one sounds like it has the potential to be as well. Im looking around to get away cause Im scared of gun being pulled. A seven hour training would be insane for any work place that isnt on a military installation or the Capitol/Pentagon/etc and EVEN THEN it would be bananapants crazy. 1,614. Fast forward to this current moment in your life, (. When you want to enhance your professional skills with expert-led, online video tutorials, the only place to go is LinkedIn Learning (Lynda). The fact that there is no apparent option besides hands-on training is deeply concerning, as is the length of the training. I have a perfect non-attendance record for the last 10 years of active shooter training at my firm. Children. Also, your boss is not a nice person. Calm is author Fearne Cotton's mission to find the simple things that can inch us away from stress and over to the good stuff. You can also request a leave of absence for personal or medical reasons. Are there board members who are pushing for this? Its all for workplace harmony and best if everyone signs onto it rather than facing the truth. Hide in your house or go to goat yoga or whatever helps you. Definitely take the day off. Get involved in your unit. I work in an academic library. I am having a hard time seeing why this is even necessary for a company so small it doesnt have HR. I was rather pleased when, about six months after I quit, my favorite former coworker mentioned that theyd installed motion sensors to replace the timer switches. Oh, I just had a horrible thought. Talk to your units First Sergeant or Commander if you believe you have a valid reason for being excused from an upcoming drill. My administrations seem to recognize that they dont actually work. I have two high schoolers, my spouse is a professor, and I work at a university too. What's a Good Excuse To Tell Your Boss Not to Work on the Weekends? Yes, maybe some people had left for work already. Thats about all you can do to prepare for such a horrifying, unpredictable event. He might be trying to joke, of course, but. Some of them screamed when the police and campus security came in with the biggest freakin guns I have ever seen. Id develop a migraine toward the end of the day before and call in the next day. If its that sort of training day, it would be way more involved the typical quick drill or watch Run/Hide/Fight theyd be going over all the logistics, what processes to set up to prevent it, etc. That means if you click and buy a product, we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. You're going to an important family event, 9. Somake a call and tell them how your place is flooded with water and you need to fix itas soon as possible. 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). Absolutely, the outdoors are great! Large auditorium. The younger ones did. Forums Can I skip this seven-hour training? I doubt random company is coordinating with outside agencies. Same shoes. I had an NCO tell me that the soldier should not take a class during Annual training dates. for 2 weeks of training out of a semester? Assuming theres no policy requiring a doctors note for more than 1 consecutive sickday. Her eyelids dont SPARKLE today! 2. Theres not much evidence that active shooter drills even work, and in some cases they can cause more harm than they prevent. Husband noped right on out of that and worked from home that day. The conference was originally scheduled to take place during AT but when they learned I couldn't go they rescheduled it for specifically me. They left FEMA after Katrina to join another agency which was setting up an emergency preparedness team as a result of what went wrong during Katrina. Im so sorry your workplace is putting you through this. I wanted to go to school and cared about awards. Not only was it bad in general, but he had a dumb smile on his face the whole time, using military and law enforcement terminology to make his points. I was 5th grade when Columbine happened, young enough my parents tried to keep us away from it, old enough I knew everything anyway. You can only use this one if its raining there. 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. My high school teachers kept hammers and baseball bats in the classrooms and told us where they were when we did ALICE days. Hey [Name] Ive got some stuff going on and I think that would make it difficult to be around me at the moment. Published by at June 22, 2022. So it just doesnt arise as a thought in the way that, say, the possibility of sexual harassment or sexual violence is always part of my situational awareness. LW, your boss is being extremely blas about his staffs mental health. Even if that number never shows up. 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. I had to call out that day for a family emergency. Run around with fake guns pretend shooting you. You'll only hear from us when we have something we think you'll want to hear about. Some of them can be a lot of fun if the team already works well together, but I dont think any of them are useful if the team dynamics are bad. If you do, there can be some pretty serious repercussions. There were public safety officers walking around with labels as the shooter, and they were shooting people, meaning they were telling them that they were shot. A person can seem nice on the surface without actually being a truly caring and empathetic person. Plus,no one wants to hear the details. For some unknown reason, my school decided to get all the terrible feelings trainings done at once, so wed be subjected to trainings on school shootings, teenage suicide, and abuse and neglect issues all in a row. Seven hours is unbelievable, but sounds more like a training event for the police than your workplace. One year we had an active shooter trainer come in who said anyone in the lobby would be killed right away, including our receptionists (we didnt have bulletproof glass)! I would say that the same principles apply as the LW. I am lucky in that my dean is sympathetic. Its just easier that way, unfortunately. So, as you can see, its very important not to miss a drill weekend. and rejoicing that you get to go home for the day is messed up too. Good luck! Her lashes arent jet black! Im a teacher and this comment might be where I have to stop reading this thread for my own mental health. It will not be possible for me to participate.. Jenna Guillaume, 9 Foolproof Excuses To Get Out Of Your Weekend Plans, All The Funniest Reactions To Facebook And Instagram Shutting Down For Six Hours, Dominic Perrottet Is Officially NSWs New Premier So Heres Everything You Need To Know, All The Hidden Clues In Squid Game That Pointed To That Twist Ending, All The Best Squid Game Memes For Those Still Reeling After That Twist Ending, Everyones Crying Over Adams Poem From Season 3 Of Sex Education, Heres The Correct Way To Binge The Marvel Cinematic Universe In Chronological Order. One of the victims was paralyzed instead of dying and there was a lot of stuff about how tragic this was, implications that it was worse than death Not much fun when youre a physically disabled teenager being forced to attend this event. Asking the host for a favor right before they are holding a party is going to result in your favor. If its that long Im going to insist that they outline their full plan for workers compensation, life insurance beneficiary process etc in the event of an active shooter situation. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Which is even stupider than forcing everyone to do active shooter training in the first place. It was horrendous to experience. If they wouldnt let you out of a fire drill, theyd be unlikely to let you out of this, and I dont know how things would shake out with saying you need to skip important safety drills as a reasonable accommodation. The LW said this drill was being run by law enforcement. If not, I would call in sick the day before and after to solidfy the excuse. Id call in sick. You dont even have to do it well! My civilian job has a mandatory work conference from Aug 2-5. I dont want to teach my kids to be afraid, but also dont want to misjudge a safety situation. So weird, right? The perfect, no commitment excuse. She cant even bear to see guns on tv. (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. Empowering for LW, maybe. There were two separate school shootings in my district in the time frame that I was middle school through high school. Im a big proponent of safety drills. Now, chill and relax. It was 3 hours of my life! If you know ahead of time that you wont be able to make it to drill, try to work with your units first sergeant or commander to see if theres any way you can make up the training. It was a joke call. 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 didnt read through all of the comments, so perhaps this is addressed upthread. Im now almost 36 and Ive never held a gun, and aside from police (who have it bolstered), Ive never seen a gun in real life. Regardless, it may be worth a try anyway. No job is worth having coworkers or your boss threatening to put you in harms way, joking or not. Most of the employees on campus did not directly participate, but many of us had to complete a very very long online training. Absolutely take a sick day. I think its 100% okay to stonewall/lie/be vague about your symptoms to protect your privacy if your boss pushes back. Id call in sick the day before as well better cover story. 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. no one is going to know that you are bluffing. With 58th BfSB, it looks like i only have one drill in conflict with this semester. how do you handle soldiers and college? Im so sorry and I hope that things can change, because this is so cruel and unfair to OP, to the kids, to you, to everyone. Ive worked at a college for two years, administrative assistant to a Dean. I always break down and cry when they get to the part where it tells you to, if need be, abandon your patients so that you can save yourself and live to help others later. The two are not the same. If you are sick, you must report to your unit and be evaluated by a medical professional. I bet too many people at work would opt if they could (even just for if Im going to be at work I have actual work to do) and make it not useful training. If you call in sick and they run this drill again in a year or two, youll be in the same position, and making yourself sick with worry. If you're looking to develop your communication skills for professional environments even further, we think youll like the following video course from LinkedIn Learning. My high school did that as well. Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosures, we werent told our active shooter drill was just a drill, coworker uses our guest office as her personal phone booth,, our office showed a disturbing safety video, am I a mentor now, and more, asking job candidates to go scent-free, baggy clothes at work, and more, my entry-level employee gave me a bunch of off-base criticism, my manager and coworker are secretly dating, boss will never give exceeds expectations because he has high standards, and more, update: I supervise a manager who falsified an employee write-up but I dont think she should be fired, stolen sandwiches, disgusting fridges, dish-washing drama: lets talk about office kitchen mayhem, interviewer scolded me for my outfit, job requires an oath of allegiance, and more, update: a DNA test revealed the CEO is my half brother and hes freaking out. There are many reasons why you might just not want to work on the weekend, such as: In this instance, you can propose a better alternative. Its very ableist to assume that all people can crouch/somehow hide for hours at a time without feeling pain. We had to hide in our offices under the desks. These are typically held one weekend per month, and they can last anywhere from 8 to 12 hours. Officially remove hes a nice guy from the way you think about June because he is, in fact, not. That said, there is a little bit of the risk involved because either you will end up making them feel bad or you will actually have to leave your house if they say yes. Unfortunately, not all units are able to participate in Drill Weekends. Ugh, so sorry OP this is a terrible idea on your companys part. If approved, you will be given permission to miss the drill and will not face any penalties. You may not even know who the person is, but as long as your friends are going, youre good to go. NTRW is supported by adverts and affiliate marketing links. Thankfully events like this are never mandatory at my job, so its unlikely to come up. You have a family trip planned 3. If youre interested in further reading, weve also included links to our trusted resources and related posts below. My library system makes staff watch Active Shooter Training videos each year, but theyre just videos. Its about 80% victim-blaming) with an actual drill, andI would not be able to. I have a hard time figuring out how a small company with no HR jumped to the conclusion they need to train for a mass shooter. Lastly, if you found this content helpful or want to share your own examples, let us know in the comments. Because yes the event itself is life and death but an employer should be held accountable for not re-traumatizing the survivors or the deceaseds family with nonsense about health insurance coverage or pressure to return or paying out of pocket for funeral expenses to be potentially reimbursed later after a bunch of paperwork. You have a family emergency. You got aninvitation to go for a hike on Sunday? If you also skip the second cup of coffee your ability to be perky and focused will fade through the day (confirming that the dreaded no makeup flu is getting worse!) My workplace has fire drills, tornado drills, etc. Just reading the stories in this letter and in the comments has given me nausea. Even if it isnt, its going to take a while,and you may not be able to make it up. Really, you could. So. Yeah, the duck and cover drills for nuclear war were equally not reassuring when I was a child, Im not clear on how those were helpful. And leaving them alone would be a big question mark to the whole face of humanity. How do you say no to working on a weekend?. My unit was pretty strict though, so who knows. And seven hours long? The shooting didnt follow most of the normal scripts for these things, so it was mass chaos anyway. As most millennials in the US here can attest to mass shootings are incredibly tough subject and quite traumatizing. The active shooter training was a short part of the overall agenda. Theres no need for public participation. Dark humor and gallows humor is very common in my family and we sometimes get horrified looks from the comments we make (like joking about a 2-for-1 euthanasia special when we were dealing with an elderly family pet and my elderly grandmother going through health issues at the same time). LW, I am so sorry. Hey [Name], sorry cant do tonight. As everything that could go wrong did go wrong, they ended up doing a whole a lot more than IT as it basically became an all hands on deck situation. It is usually best to work these issues out with the chain of command or have someone do it for you. Welcome to teaching in America! Id never treat a younger person badly for refusing this. He/She has a fever. OP shouldnt give a reason for calling in sick at all if they can possibly get away with it. It can be a good time to start getting migraines I genuinely get them and I cant even look at a screen to email / call in. the fact that we cant talk about that but have to do all this security performance theater instead AND cause additional trauma for questionable results makes me rage. I live in Washington, DC, Honestly, we (Americans) have become desensitized to it. Could you tell your boss that you already have expert-level knowledge on active shooter drills (and that goading the shooter to kill someone else constitutes a failing grade)? 4) Events start to fade, we dont want to be known by that one day, we can slack off on training. Minus the psychodrama? You asked about the information parts of the training, and I can say that I have learned some first aid in these sessions that provides a little peace of mind (wound packing, improvising a tourniquet, etc.) Maybe they dont want to relive their experiences either? Your boss is not a nice person. I mostly worked the busy evening shift anyway because I was at college during the day, so there was always someone else who could go instead of me. Regardless, if you want to tell your boss you dont want to work on the weekends, you should be honest and genuine, oftentimes your boss will not force you to come to work as it will be bad for the teams morale and productivity. we had to watch those run-hide-fight videos at the old job and the entire time Im like how is this going to work for us. Shorter, optional training for those who have not had experience could be useful for those who might need to think through where they would go and how to react. Agreed those, and other things like kids figuring out to hand out scissors, bother me too. Thats ridiculous! ] (which is, essentially, the adult version of the fire drill) and an active shooter drill (which, in my understanding, usually implies some level of re-enactment beyond what Ellis Bell (the teacher above) was describing as lockdown drills at school). Unfortunately, David is your work colleague, and this party is a big deal for him. We didnt find out until later in the day that it was staged. (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. You are studying 7. But in my opinion, your older colleagues have ZERO excuse for not empathizing with your concerns. In public places, in crowds, out and aboutits not a risk thats on my mind at all. I had a stalker threatening to kill my family / loved ones for (years? If this were a short (10-20 min) drill, Id say you might be out of luck.