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The class was given to help those of us chained the the oars of the ship as it sinks beneath the waves find other gainful employment. Preferabbly not as a galley slave again, but you never know.
The lady that taught the class was knowledgeable and enthusiastic. The materials supplied seemed to be current and well written. The facility, well, it was a state facility... you can't have everything.
But the Desk got the impression from the majority of the attendees that they were there simply to get out of work at the office for the day. Not all of them, no, but most. A lot of the soon to be ex-employees had the attitude that they had been with the State for twenty years or more, and that was enough to get them another job doing more or less what they were doing now elsewhere. They didn't need the lady's expertise or services.
Well, truth be told, nothing... no, make that... NOTHING ...is guaranteed. Well, one thing is, sorry. It is guaranteed that the current office and staff are going away. There will be a New Department, New Boss, and New Way of Doing whatever it is we do.
Face it, a lot of what this place does is simply make work for themselves and each other. A great deal of the software and systems in use here are only in use here, and perhaps by the Office of Taliban Information in what is left of Kabul. Several of the bosses of the bosses seem to spend most of their time scheduling meetings with each other to discuss the meetings they scheduled to talk about other meetings. Justifying your existence and finding something to make yourself look busier and more important than the person in the next office with exactly the same duties occupies line one on many job descriptions throughout the building.
Given those facts, ANY reorganization that means anything is going to be more than simply a retreading of an otherwise worn out tire. If all the old brass is refitted into the new bathroom, what have you actually accomplished? If when you are done the sink still drips and the shower sprays more water on the ceiling than on you, was there any point to the exercise?
So with that in mind, the Powers have deemed it a good idea to give everybody a shot at building a Resume and learning how to fill out applications and do interviews and all like that way. OK, gee, thanks for your concern for our future.
Well, the Desk was grateful for the gesture if nothing else. So it went to the class with what documentation it could pull together, a six-year-old copy of its resume, and other assorted odds and ends. Including a large notepad, a couple of pens, and a travel mug full of coffee.
Let's give some of the others the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they are going to retire instead of look for another job. Maybe they think the tooth fairy will bring them a new job. Maybe they really didn't want to be there and be reminded of the fact that before long they'll be getting very familiar with the old magazines in the waiting room at the unemployment office. Whatever the reason, if they didn't want to listen and take notes and do the dance, they should leave the ballroom. Or at least sit there and sleep through it and let those that want, or desperately NEED, the help offered get it.
The teacher lady had the patience of Job the Patriarch. She would stand there and wait until the chatters finished their personal conversations and then continue. Or she'd use a line she repeated many times (and, to be fair, once to the Desk as it was answering a question of one of the chatters asked it) 'My Turn'.
But when others are sitting around chatting during the individual project times, and rocking in their chairs, and even talking on a cel phone, it is almost impossible to do something as involved as write your resume and get everything in the right order with the correct dates and exactly what kind of job stuff you were supposed to be doing between coffee breaks.
But the Desk managed to get at least a rough draft of what passes for its resume done. The Instructor thought maybe it wasn't a good idea to go back to the Desk's bartender/drywall hanger/short order cook days. Also such jobs as Chinese Junk Salesman, auto mechanic, and landscaper also may not be appropriate on a resume pushing technical abilities and customer service skills. So it was rewrote, rewritten, recomposed, redone, rejected ... well, 'rejected' comes later...
At the very end of the two day session the Lady asked if the class had any questions. They did. And two of the questions were along the lines of 'When are you going to go through thus and so?'
The presenter smiled, then she explained that we had already gone through that.
And we had. Yesterday for one, before lunch today on the other.
She was too much of a Lady to go on to explain that if they hadn't been running their mouth and complaining about vacation time buyout or something, they would have heard it.
So. Bottom line. Was it two days well spent?
for those that paid at least enough attention to know what the topic was?
At least for the Desk. Yes. Yes it was. And the Desk would recommend it to anybody whom the Governor has fired lately.
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