I'm in training for the next three days (today, tomorrow and Thursday). I'm of a mixed mind about the whole thing. On one hand, it's something to do. On the other hand, I feel badly for the trainer and it's almost painful to watch the whole thing. See, we're an ecclectic group ranging from the PM who seems to have the technical literacy of my great-great-grandmother to full-time software engineers like myself.
Now, I suppose I may be doing my great-great a bit of a disservice in questioning her technical capabilities but I also think she would probably have been just as flummoxed as said PM who is clearly struggling with the idea that the back button on the browser will not simply take you back in a frame (it's a frame-based app that we're learning) and thus you must use the pretty little back button provided within the frame.
However, the training is made slightly more interesting by the fact that the trainer is from Montreal and, I think I can say this with 99% accuracy, would much rather be teaching this class in French. Not that he doesn't have wonderful mastery of English, mind you, just now and again you can catch him mentally changing a word at the last minute. From his French pronounciations, I'm guessing that he's changing words from French to English. Then again, he may be changing from "No, you ignorant buffalo!" into "That's not quite the right idea." Cause this man has the patience of at least one saint, perhaps two or three added together. Between the less-than-technically-savvy and the other tech people who are trying to jump ahead and design the system after, oh, two hours of instruction in how to essentially open the application and browse its capabilities, I imagine he's going to go back to the hotel and have a stiff drink.
It has, however, neatly reminded me why I am no longer a corporate trainer and quietly quashed any "grass is greener" thoughts that might have been surfacing in my mind. So there's one benefit from the training just right there. (It's really the second one though - the training is from 9 to 5, so I got to sleep in for an hour this morning. Woohoo!)
13 hours ago
So if I'm imagining you blogging while also participating in said training, would that be an accurate picture?
ReplyDeleteI love the image of rude French saints you've conjured up as well. ;-)
LOL! Love the ignorant buffalo image.
ReplyDeleteGwynne, oh how I wish I could sit in training and blog - it would be much more interesting. But check out this cruelty - there is no Internet connection in our training room. It's really, really sad.
ReplyDeleteSo I've been playing freecell instead.
Glad to help with the rude French saints. ;)
Michelle, there are these pauses and it's just hillarious to combine them with the looks he tries to mask. You know he has to think we're morons. (And frankly, after today's training, I think anyone who's confused about using this application - of which there are several in the class - might actually qualify for said designation.)
What's a PM, cause in NZ it stands for the Prime Minister hehe. Reduced to free cell - Oh dear!
ReplyDeleteAha. PM = Project Manager in this particular instance. Sometimes it means Program Manager. Sometimes you're pretty sure they just left off an S. :)
ReplyDeleteNon, vous buffle ignorant!
ReplyDeleteI could have gotten that withOUT Babelfish's help, I bet, but oh well.
See if you can beat my record: 199 straight wins on Freecell. Oh, sure, I had to shutdown in the middle of a game a few times to keep it alive, but it's not like I was obsessing or anything.
The streak ended when one of the Random Kids (hereinafter referred to as "Crewmember #4") thought freecell "looked like fun." Fun? FUN!?!?!????
Bret - ha! 199 in a row. I'm lucky if I can win one. Tim insists that that's why freecell is better because every game is winnable but ...well, could've fooled me. :)
ReplyDelete