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. Once I had to go down there to switch to a new bag of soda concentrate, which took a lot longer than usual. 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. 38 Perfect Excuses For Getting Out Of Those Plans You Made Last Week My 1st grader and her classmates knew all the hiding spots in their school and when they built a model school classroom as a project, insisted they put several into their creation. Its horrifying to me that newer humans get exposed to this from day one and that some people think this is fun and games. Its much, much better. Welcome to teaching in America! Your sporting team is playing in the finals. They also handwaved off the fact that we work in a giant glass fishbowl and cant remotely lock the doors like you can with many other buildings on campus. But this comment made me want a like button. And if my boss gave me grief about it Id jump straight to calling a lawyer. If you do want to be up front about not being willing to do it, saying you have too much personal experience of gun violence is not disclosing anything about your own mental health, and its a blunt way of pointing out that its your circumstances that are different, not your resilience. Wishing you all the best with this difficult situation. Having your dog eat chocolate means youre stressed, youre worried, you gotta take it to the vet, you gotta figure out if its OK. Theres so much going on! I will never, ever attend one of these againit is worth *any* political or professional price I might pay. Generally youre not asked to disclose why youre opting out. As someone who has been in an active shooter situation all the training you do doesnt mean anything when the threat is real and all that training is going to do is disrupt the workday and traumatize employees. On top of that, everyone was ordered not to use their cell phones. If you are a National Guard member, there are certain circumstances where you can be excused from drill. Perhaps it is the most powerful excuse and totally legit, but just imagine how lame you sound when your . Call in sick, OP, please. It also can depend on what training is going on. Top 10 Excuses to Get Out of Work - Shout! Factory However, you will be expected to train regularly and participate in drills and exercises. Literally every soldier here has multiple stories they can tell similar to this. My work has a (pretty upsetting) active shooter training video they play at new employee orientation. I was forced to go through an active-shooter training despite protests, and when a group of us were able to push back as a group, I used the word consent a lot. This scenario sounds like the boss just wants to live out some of his first-person shooter video games and wants to drag everyone along with him, regardless as to their comfort level with shooting games. You do not need to hear gun shots or see people play dead or whatever simulated shenanigans people want to insist on. I had to call out that day for a family emergency. Logistics, communications, chain of command, etc. I am not quite old enough to properly recall the gun buyback of 1996. Otherwise, there is no harm in considering. who have been through it. Read More 10 Effective Ways to Deal with Gossip at WorkContinue. my boss is requiring me to do something that will harm my mental health, and has vocally denigrated mental health issues in the past, rendering me reluctant to claim formal mental health accommodations. CLICK HERE to get your copy from Book Depository. 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. Otherwise, its always a really hard day. Im sorry you have personal experience with this. I am not sure I would have managed to remain calm if I hadnt already considered what would likely be going on, if there was a robbery. Now that my eldest is in school, I am grateful every day that I married a British man and moved to his hometown. You can only use this one if its raining there. Weve had some real fires, but unless the sprinkler system fails, the building will just flood instead of burning down. They say that the time for RST has passed. This is a great excuse becauseit instills a sense of panic within the person youre cancelling on. Thanks, Tell the host a detailed story of how hectic your last week was with all the office meetings, official tours, and prepping up for the big seminar that went great today. He/She has a fever. And if that fool makes another joke, look him in the face and say Did you just try to joke about me being murdered to save yourself? There is no generational excuse. Take this as the valuable information about him that it is and think about how long youre willing to work for someone who is totally okay with causing you this kind of harm. In this article, we listed the best excuses you can use to not work weekends. I know he isnt *always* a jerk, but hes really being a jerk about this. That kind of multi-hour practical drill strikes me as very useful. These partnerships help fund this site. It took less than ten minutes and it never referenced any acts of violence. You can approach the second-in-command, if you believe that person will be more receptive than your boss. At one point as a kid, my state or school district mandated *monthly* emergency drills in schools. If this were a short (10-20 min) drill, Id say you might be out of luck. I have a parent in emergency preparedness who talks about how a lot of these simulated trainings came out after what happened during Hurricane Katrina. What's not to love? Also on the 7th floor so its not like we could break a window. Not a drill, but my church employer, with school and preschool attached, had us all watch a video of a shooting simulation at a school. excuses to get out of drill weekend Lol I was going to say the same thing. Yes, absolutely, get a doctors note so you have backup. Democrats Use Every Excuse to Disarm the Good Guys. Why is it gaining popularity amount employees and it is not exactly a bad thing? For more information, please view our Privacy Policy and Earnings Disclosure page. We hope that these excuses will help you get some much needed you time. Because all you need to do is say these four words. Written materials and a review of the buildings exits and safe(r) rooms is more than sufficient. Say you have cramps and start launching into period talk. There are plenty of hours in the day to work, but youll only get one chance to attend that special occasion. Your Child Is Sick 5. By 4pm, societal standards really will have done all the work for you. But some gossip can cause harm to your team and the organization. But we do talk about it at home. When the drill ended, they came back, all laughing how they had been shot and if they were dead, could they go home for the day. Gathering up glassware in the science lab, students making comments about taking bullets for each other or even their teachers (which, just, no). 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. Some places would accept that and back off, others would, horribly, demand details. Dear god. Yes. So is drill. A person who cant handle those wouldnt be able to work those jobs. Mass shootings have been happeing for years im sure he remembers sandy hook, Virginia Tech, etc. But its traumatizing for the kids to practice these drills, and honestly, if we just had some gun reforms, there would be literally no reason we should have to be subjected to this in the first place. It happens so much and theres nothing we can really do about it (other than vote and organize), so \_()_/. 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. Hearing it makes me think well, of course but I might not have thought of that when telling my staff about it. My current campus is in a denser urban core, and what my director has decided to do is to ask our public safety team to come in and evaluate our workspaces one-on-one rather than do some kind of generalized training that would probably be of little use. I dont think any of my coworkers wondered why I never went to the storeroom again, nobody certainly said anything to me if they did. We had to hide in our offices under the desks. Im so sorry youre in this position, OP. Telling David a massive no straight to his face will come across as rude and will likely hurt his feelings in the process. The drill was ultimately canceled after my employers legal counsel also reviewed the release and advised that an employer should not be asking employees to sign it. Updated: Monday, March 20, 2017. The irony of school kids being taught run-hide-fight when theres so little that they could use to fight withat my desk I have tons of makeshift weapons that could indeed inflict great bodily harm if I had to. To use this excuse, you need to make a story of how awful that Tinderdate went to be described later to the party host. A year or so before COVID, our state decided to mandate active-shooter drills for schools. (everything turned out all right and he actually used the time to talk about chemical reactions, Because Teacher, but it was not a happy day for him). Im a big proponent of safety drills. Youre going to move on from this job at some point, and his opinion wont matter so much anymore, but reliving trauma sticks with you. Sometimes I go through that employee if I really want to raise an issue, but I cant always count on their support. Guessing they will breakout into groups and tour the building to find safe places to hide or ways to block paths. Im sure your guests wouldnt want me coming and spreading the germs anyway! 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. Apologize for not making it upto them,but you cant do anything about it? elizabeth baptist church pastor oliver. ^^ this is the kind of thing you get when absolutely everybody involved in planning thinks this is a fun game to role-play like youre in an action movie. 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. A book that finally understands introverts! This boss has been giving the impression of niceness, but his reaction to LWs distress concerning this drill has revealed that the niceness is only skin deep with him. You are studying 7. To effectively use these excuses, avoid any unnecessary long details. Theres always That Guy who feels the need to comment. If you feel you need to address it with your boss directly, you could do that while being vague. Has your boss given you any information on who is putting on this training, what their credentials are, and what evidence they have that this exercise is in anyway effective, informative, or safe? Sotraveling, without one, is not a good option even if traveling means going across two blocks. I am tired and frustrated that my unit has decided to disrespect my schedule and time. If your employer doesnt want you to opt out of the subject matter entirely, they can provide alternatives to a shooter simulation like reading training materials or creating an individual safety plan. I found out by accident that our in person Non Violent Intervention training at another facility was PHOENOMENALLY triggering for me and I am keeping all of these in mind because I would have to get an accommodation. update: how can I turn down training requests from my clients? The key to success is planning and communication. 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 have to wake up early, do a bunch of pointless things, and then youre exhausted for the rest of the day. But they made the change less than 30 days before drill. They cant ask to leave them alone at home nor do they. I had a young kid when Sandy Hook happened, as many of us old folks did, but even those who are childless should at least be able to imagine the trauma these drills can cause. 3. My library system makes staff watch Active Shooter Training videos each year, but theyre just videos. My kingdom for sensible, trauma-informed, non-security-theater workplace safety training. One got a note sent home from school because they were fidgeting and whispering too loudly during a drill the kid was 6 at the time. Which brings me to active-shooter training. Communicate early and often with both your NG chain of command and also with your college professors. I have been battling car issues for over a week now. Youre talking about the kind of training that professionals receive. Personally I think if there are ways to prepare people that dont involve trauma, then we should do those. Workplaces do need to do security training, but it should not be hard to provide training that is specific and actionable without turning our offices into a badly-planned cop LARP. Maybe its one hour of active shooter drill, and then an additional six hours of getting everyone to calm down, because there is NO way I would be a productive worker after that. This is a terrible approach in many ways and I genuinely hesitate to suggest it, but if you feel that #3 is your best option, when I had bosses like that the times when I could manage to, I guess, meet their style, went better than times I couldnt. Im so sorry for what you went through, Doc of the Town. Im a boomer and if I can understand I dont know what your bosss problem is. LW, I know youre worried that your boss will call you triggered or a snowflake or otherwise weak, but it is in fact very strong a brave to calmly stand firm at your limit. Happy Me time! 100% agree with Alisons statement that active-shooter drills are counterproductive. Regardless of that, though, opting out should be a reasonable accommodation for anyone with cause to believe the training will have mental health ramifications for them. 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.. I spent a little time thinking about what I would do if we were robbed. Are there board members who are pushing for this? There isnt a traditional HR department here, and this is an office where were really subject to the dictates of our boss. (I mean, safety is great, but this person is hilariously the most accident-prone person we all know, and always has a story about falling down the stairs or getting a ticket for speeding on the way to work. I feel you, OP. And 1 drill type is not sufficient: tornado response is different than responses to fire or ; so the more, the better. It was a Jewish Organization, and the week prior was the shooting at the Temple in Pittsburgh. Heck, my dad worked in the Pentagon post 9/11, D.C. Sniper, and Virginia Tech and threat training was like an hour. Im sure its some package a security company sold someone. Yup, this works, so well that it kept me using makeup! Just FYI, likely the accommodation would be You dont have to complete the training, but then you have to work in an admin role/non-direct care role. The trainings I have had have been locally-created garbage not based on evidence. That was about it. I graduated high school a few years before Columbine, but can still completely empathize with what people who are younger than me have been through. (Like Alisons proposed it wont be possible.). Its a little trickier because youve already told him youd rather not attend, but if this is the easiest of the options for you, you can do it. Only if you think the person will understand. Which is even stupider than forcing everyone to do active shooter training in the first place. 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! There wont be people storming into the building. My high school did that as well. And just like that, my butt is covered. Thats a totally reasonable length for something so complicated and so intertwined with our everyday work, especially where we may be needed to provide specialized assistance to professional EMS/Fire personnel who have less experience with the particular hazards involved. It makes it less obvious that it was about the training. My direct boss fought it and tried to get me excused, but her boss was firm that it was required. If all else fails, you may be able to trade your drill weekend with another member of your unit. You should be wearing whatever you would normally be wearing at work, which just further underlines to me the uselessness of the training other than to provoke anxiety and fear. According to the National Guard, these circumstances include but are not limited to: If you get any pushback, then escalate it to whoever has authority. by Also want to say: I hear that there are differences between younger folks experience and us middle aged people who grew up prior to mass school shootings being so frequent. Take the day off. This site does not constitute as legal, mental, or medical health advice, please consult a competent licensed professional. As someone who has frequently been the only woman on the team, I certainly understand the concern of being additionally seen as different if you opt out. Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us. Im gobsmacked. Most mass shootings happen at schools or venues where there are a lot of people because the shooter wants notoriety. 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. 9 drill periods in one year it typically starts the discharge process. Should issue directions? Large auditorium. Id call in sick. 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. Question regarding missing drill weekend : r/nationalguard - reddit Thanks for your practical, even-minded comment. Have you been complaining about work lately? That said, carrying a concealed weapon is forbidden, and most cops only carry a taser unless theyre dealing with something like a hostage situation. smdh. -You have a family emergency (documentation may be required) So,I am going out on dinner with him. Not sure if this is the case for the OP, but when my previous employer planned a mandatory active shooter drill, they sent a liability release/waiver that we were expected to sign.