Im just so tired of worrying. Yes, I reject the idea that the boss is a nice person. I understand that gallows humor is a thing. 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. Survivor of gun violence here. As a parent, what do I even do with this information?! The number of are you feeling ok questions made me never skip it again. The premise is that if all these relevant gov/emergency services drill together that theyll be better prepared to work together even if the true emergency isnt an exact match to the drill. So yes, after a while you realize not much will change and there is nothing you can do about it and you dont understand why people dont careand you never see any photos of dead children so it is almost theoretical and what can you do so you just get numb. https://www.everytown.org/solutions/active-shooter-drills/ Generally youre not asked to disclose why youre opting out. We should be ashamed that we are teaching children to be prepared for violence, and to be prepared to commit violence from the time they are toddlers on. This seems to be a growing problem. Not only does a well-designed drill help participants remember what to do in a real scenario, it gives you the opportunity to identify critical issues before an emergency. If your employment requires that you work on the weekend, organizing a spontaneous weekend away might not be possible. Use an excuse. At Never the Right Word, our aim is to give you practical examples of how to handle lifes difficult conversations.
excuses to get out of drill weekend - boxingaddictions.net It can absolutely be traumatizing and upsetting as a participant. Youre very charitable in your interpretation of dark humor, for me thats a line that shouldnt be crossed. Telling David a massive no straight to his face will come across as rude and will likely hurt his feelings in the process. Thanks guys! Thanks to experiencing a variety of traumatic violence, I tend to escalate immediately to threat elimination mode. When my grandkid was 5 their school was involved with an active shooter, luckily, it was resolved fairly quickly, but thinking about how it could have happened still makes me shake. The trainings have been optional. 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. Your boss sounds like an as**. No one likes drill weekend. What are you suggesting Americans do to combat gun violence and the wide availability of guns, other than voting and organizing? When I voiced my concerns, he made a few jokes about how he would simply redirect the shooter to a younger person If he again says something ridiculous like asking if you "wouldn't be able to take it," you could say . SiteGround boasts a whole list of fantastic features at amazingly affordable prices. Frankly, its upsetting enough leaving them behind at daycare 4 days a week even though I know they both love it, and they are extremely safe. 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. That made a huge difference in everyones mindset regarding the training. If youre interested in further reading, weve also included links to our trusted resources and related posts below. Ill explain later. Dont worry about not looking tough. So weird, right? The perfect, no commitment excuse. The idea that I could be leaving them behind AND as a result, might never see them again because a twit with a gun he should never have had access to shot up their school is utterly unfathomable. So a UTA 4 would be four drill periods. You are attending a religious event 4. Can you handle yourself under the pressure? 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. Yeah, plans with MYSELF to do nothing but LIE ON THE COUCH with a family size packet of LIGHT & TANGY CHIPS. Thankfully events like this are never mandatory at my job, so its unlikely to come up. The hangover excuse is a bit of a gamble anddepends entirely on your relationship with the friend. My workplace recently made kind of a big deal about a mandatory training (DEI, not active shooter). I am not quite old enough to properly recall the gun buyback of 1996. When I commented to occupational health or whomever mandated the training with feedback about this needing an alternative, a trigger warning or both I was also brushed off). 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. At my old job, most people didnt watch it. Its just telling the kids that if a lockdown gets announced, then we lock this door, hide here, be quiet, the door handle will get tried by the headteacher, and this is the announcement that its over. Most of the employees on campus did not directly participate, but many of us had to complete a very very long online training. Maybe you can convince them to reconsider? You have to wake up early, do a bunch of pointless things, and then youre exhausted for the rest of the day. Worst case, they might show up to work armed, and their colleagues would assume its all part of the training.. 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)! My workplace had an active shooter training session prior to COVID that included several drills. Shortly after this, one of the fire stairwells smelled like dead rat. My kiddos are teenagers now, and several times a year we get a school communication (simultaneous call, text, email) that there has been a threat to their school. The problem is some people say This is horrible, we have to do something so kids dont get shot at school and suggest, to them, reasonable ideas like getting rid of automatic weapons or raising the age of gun ownership, etc. I empathize. A few days after the drill, I heard from a coworker that several faculty were sitting together in a conference room with the door open. Ill clear my head first, get in a better place and come to the next one. Rush inside? 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. Because then a bad guy could find them. My dad was a teacher for 15 years (+7 as a sub) and never had to deal with an active shooter, fortunately. This means that a significant proportion of the volunteer labor force comes from people who are already occupied with paid labor elsewhere. Multiple employees thought it was real, panic ensued, injuries occurred, and theyre all traumatized. Culture Warning mentions simulated situation and actual shooting. Call in sick is what I would do. cristina's restaurant salsa recipe. Its always on the government to do something, never on the 99% to effect change by living up to their rebel ancestors they sure do love bragging about. The shooting didnt follow most of the normal scripts for these things, so it was mass chaos anyway. I appreciate that my kiddos school practices emergency in a general sensehere are our hiding spots, could be something weather related or physical security related. Im looking around to get away cause Im scared of gun being pulled. It isnt helpful. Forcing people to pretend theyd died???? My school ran its fire drill annually, in the autumn term when the weather was still nice enough that we could reasonably stay outside for a bit without freezing. 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. *Deep breath* Many triggering statements made below, please be advised. No questions were ever asked. Except the trainings are ongoing so new employees can take them and so we keep getting emails. I do not feel safe. And as others have pointed out, experts question whether they drills really help anyone anyway. No one will ask an explanation for this one as we all know how severe it hits. If youre a party person, in your teens or early twenties, a party at Davids is news that will stir a lot of excitement. Often when you are communicating at work, youll need to write a formal email to a coworker, HR, or client. But its hard, if not impossible to learn anything when in the throes of a panic attack or PTSD symptoms. Ive even had to go so far as to use a very light dusting of a slightly purple-y matte eye shadow to emphasize the dark circles under my eyes for one job (company was populated by a LOT of ex-military). No one ever said anything to me. Also, youre making some broad assumptions here about the quality of training delivered in all workplaces. how do I get out of an active-shooter drill at my office? Lets Deal With Quiet Firing In The Workplace, 8 Signs of Quiet Firing You Should Know Now, 10 Good Excuses for Not Working on Weekends, 1. Repeated training hones the reflex actions needed in terrible situations. You already know so much more about what to do in this instance than any of us Olds who didnt do this in school. I suspect he died chomping on a fire alarm wire. Training as part of orientation. One of our providers is a speaker in an education day for LGBTQ+ providers and there was a threat called in to the event this year. Same shoes. I did see those and book.arked them all to read and to support my reasons for making the training optional. Next time you see them, just say it was a false alarm and it got better all of a sudden. You might think this sounds a lot like thecorny my dog ate my homework excuse, but trust us. The US is particularly bad because of its gun laws. In the past 10 years, both employees and employers have recognized the importance of fostering a work-life balance. Before you comment: Please be kind, stay on-topic, and follow the site's commenting rules. My friends kids were FLOORED to learn about the debacle in the House & Senate chambers on January 6. 4 is not just a valid option but a truthful one. Your sporting team is playing in the finals. Im in Finland, and the situation isnt nearly as bad as in the US, but we have had school shootings here, too. You dont owe anyone any explanations. 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.. Nope , its not. I cant imagine how traumatizing a full day of that stuff, in person, would be. Happy Me time! These drills are not helpful! New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. I actually now feel I did not stress enough that this is an exceptionally dysfunctional and terrible approach, and should only be used if a) LWs knowledge of their boss says it will work and b) theyre out of other options. 2) HIDE! I didnt want to go to the active shooter training (not a drill, a presentation) but went anyway to be a team player. While I was there no one was ever hurt, and no one brought a weapon onto the property (one person was once apprehended with a weapon in the parking lot by police while trying to come in), but the callousness of upper-management was galling. We cover a LOT of material in one day. So our poor security guard is stuck with trying to clear the error before the fire department responds. Career success can be easy only if you know how. The training process can take awhile, so dont expect to be an expert overnight. What About Attending a Trade School Instead of College. Thankfully my boss was fantastic and made sure I didnt have to attend an actual training. And you know theyll treat it all as a big game because its all fake anyway. Published by at June 22, 2022. This individual lived through a civil war in their country of origin and understandably was not keen on the idea of triggering difficult memories in a professional setting. Just type I got a call from my father in the morning today, and he is here in town for some work business. ****WARNING FOR SENTENCES BELOW*****. by Its not that he cant understand. I dont think I could do a drill again. 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 was a no-brainer to help them with the very small procedural hurdle to opt out. Intruding boss never asked detailed questions again. single. . Lastly, if you found this content helpful or want to share your own examples, let us know in the comments. Bomb threats were a constant fact of life. On a serious note this post and the sheer volume of responses speaking to this issue as being so common scares me so much. If your employer or client asks why you can't or don't want to work on the weekends, you are not obligated to provide a reason. its kind of a variant on calling in sick but honestly, recruiting a trusted accomplice is what i would do. no one is going to know that you are bluffing. They dont have to be genuine for you. No pressure if you cant! -Get together with some friends and head to the range. There are many reasons why people volunteer, including: Women volunteered more than men (28.3% compared to 21.8%), as measured across demographics including age, education level, and ethnicity. Be prepared for unexpected expenses. 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? You Were in a Car Accident 8. Im so sick and tired of people acting like theres no way to stop the shootings and we all have to just learn how to not die when they happen. But drill arrangements could totally be communicated to adults on an email. How horrible. All The Hidden Clues In Squid Game That Pointed To That Twist Ending -You are in school and cannot miss class (you must provide documentation from your school) If you do work full time or have family obligations and work part-time, you can only study in the evening and on weekends. You know what would be more effective than repeated active shooter drills that traumatize people and trigger trauma responses in survivors? That was about it. Anyone else attending Berklee College of Music? This is basically a formal warning letting you know that if you miss another drill weekend, there will be consequences. You got aninvitation to go for a hike on Sunday? But in my opinion, your older colleagues have ZERO excuse for not empathizing with your concerns. training like that. Which could be related to all the drywall replacement weve had to do after the fire sprinkler floods. We dont need to be afraid, we need to be prepared. Theres not much evidence that active shooter drills even work, and in some cases they can cause more harm than they prevent. 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). You could call in sick that day. It turned out nobody really cared that I wasnt able to make it to the training and nobody mentioned it ever again so hopefully your absence will be a non-issue. I already know how to do nothing. I think about my plan a lot bc the patients we serve make us a target. That means if you click and buy a product, we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. The peak factor was approaching 4.5 or I couldnt find a single driver in my area will work. Id call in sick, but if I felt thered be any room or worry about grief Id schedule a doctors appointment for that day in advance to get some kind of note related to headaches, gastric distress, bad allergies or any other kind of generic ailment that could be having a flair-up. Here are some valid excuses for missing drill: 1. Even if it doesnt, she would still have to face a conversation about it the next time she shows up to work, so it doesnt help the problem any. They are not going to find out; unless they know your father very well. In fact, many units have had to cancel their Drill Weekends due to budget cuts and other constraints. Law enforcement continues to train others and practice drills. You say hes a nice guy, but When you look back on yourself even 6 months from now, youll be glad you did. This is a good perspective I can take to my leadership to let them know that while SOME of our employees might want this, it could also be detrimental to others. Weve had some real fires, but unless the sprinkler system fails, the building will just flood instead of burning down. I lost a dear friend to a campus shooting and every time another Active Shooter Training email pops up my stomach drops. Soif anyonewants to talk about it later,; you got yourself a listener.
How to Decline an Invitation Gracefully - MyDomaine I am not sure why the school wanted you to do this, but the drills are a regular thing for Emergency Services. Two weeks ago, we had our first active post-Covid drill, meaning we were meant to act it all out. 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. Look at my complete answer. Im sorry about your boss, OP.