My elder kid went through a shooting at their workplace a few years ago. It could also make the shooter more effective because it could very well be an employee in this training that becomes the shooter. But if thats not the case, tell them you were here (at some distant place) to pick up some work. None of these excuses should be used regularly, because inevitably the second you say you need time off for dental work because you have a job interview, you then also need time off for dental work. But does it require the full drill, or can you do a security discussion instead? 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. Its a good idea to discuss this with your employer so that they can arrange alternative working arrangements for you. This includes a family event, religious obligations, volunteer work, having a side hustle, or simply needing to rest. who have been through it. No?). Im in charge of working with our local law enforcement to conduct an active shooter training. No job is worth having coworkers or your boss threatening to put you in harms way, joking or not. Its the worst. What's not to love? Call or text the host andtellthemthat your pet isnot very well,andyouhave to take them to thevet. She has nothing to gain, and something to lose, by trying to play it by the book. Then you can avoid the worst of the after-event commentary. Why the hell did you make so many freakin plans? As for how to do it, realistically youve got four options: 1. All branches of the armed forces are also open to women, currently our highest-ranking female officers are lieutenant colonels. Emergency response training can be very useful because the correct thing to do can vary for different scenarios and in different buildings (go to x interior room in a tornado, versus get out of the building via the stairwell in a fire, call campus police first and then 911 or vice versa for a medical emergency). Unless responding to active shooter scenarios is a commonly expected part of your job duties, theres no way this training is a reasonable requirement. Michelle Rennex, Politics Practicing locking doors/closing windows, leaving the building like in a fire drill, knowing how your employer sends out emergency info and the basics of what to do are perfectly sufficient and are applicable in many situations. #2 "I Have The Runs" Good Reasons to Call Out of Work (Physical Jobs) 1. Oct 21, 2005 #2. 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. This! Ive seen it enough years that I opted to just skip past the video in this years training module. 38 Perfect Excuses For Getting Out Of Those Plans You Made Last Week 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. As a side comment, if you have not yet sought out a mental health professional who is experienced in dealing with PTSD, you may wish to explore that at some point. However, you will be expected to train regularly and participate in drills and exercises. A SEVEN HOUR drill would definitely be too much for me, too, and Id seriously consider quitting if I was forced to do that (especially if there were pellet guns like another commenter said, thats horrific.). Heres a list of foolproof excuses thatare sure to get you out of any weekend plan. My workplace does building-specific workplace shooter training and it lasts maybe 30-45 minutes tops. I would say that the same principles apply as the LW. If you have a medical condition that prevents you from participating in drill, you may be able to get a medical exemption. A FULL DAY training is incredibly excessive and triggering, unless you think people dying is funny. Thats insane. As a result of that experience and the PTSD that it caused, my elder kid takes a sick day any time there is an event or training or other triggering occurrence at work. Its gone on far too long, we need real societal changes, not bandaid drills. Yet this person always wants the group to come up with brilliant ideas to keep people from having normal human accidents, such as twisting their ankle or getting a door slammed on their hand by some other careless person. Look, Im a school employee, a military brat, and an LEO wife. Nope , its not. I am stuck on *seven hours. A side hustle is any job that you do in addition to your normal or main source of income. We had a few students around our county die in drunk driving accidents that year, and I imagine it was very upsetting for the parents, but there was clearly NO understanding that these were our friends and peers and maybe making grieving teenagers sit through this wasnt as helpful as they wanted it to be? 1. The university police ran the session and they were very professional yet laid back, which made the training far less stressful than it could have been. To be clear I am not an emergency response person, so feel free to respond if you are and correct me. I grew up in an era when everything American was super cool and aspirational. "My parents." The blanks are left for you to fill, as you indirectly blame your parents for standing in the way of your weekend plans. Because lets be honest, who does not want to have a hot mug of coffee on the terrace while watching the rain pouring onto the glass of your windows, making a thud sound and yet so calming? How awful. A man that old fashioned is going to shut you down fast and tell you just stay home. Its extra depressing and pointless when the core training package for a UK-based company with US offices includes active shooter modules. It is a valid excuse to not attend a MUTA 6 or annual Training? Jeez, people go to work to *work*, not to LARP or to do choreographed dance routines. The problem is you have random, unqualified people thinking they can provide effective active shooter information when thats clearly not the case. Failure to call before you miss your drill weekend or immediately thereafter is considered an unexcused absence by the military. Any time this has come up at a job, Ive just had stomach flu the day of. Hey [Name], I think the snows probably going to ruin any chances of me being able to make tonight. So, maybe next time? Privacy Policy. There is no active shooter education for the workplace that should take seven hours, unless maybe if your workplace is law enforcement or something where you will be the ones actually dealing with a shooter. Because lets be honest, who does not want to have a hot mug of coffee on the terrace while watching the rain pouring onto the glass of your windows, making a thud sound and yet so calming? Its stupid and sexist, but it works. Hey you! If you know WHO is conducting the training maybe they could give info about what is happening that day. Because its unnecessary. 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. If you do, there can be some pretty serious repercussions. They know what has been happening and alsoif you say you dont want to participate, that should be good enough. Agree. I hope you can push back on this and would hope theyd realise that its inappropriate for it to be mandatory, but at the very least, please call in sick and protect yourself, OP <3. I would imagine that it helps by not being another unexpected thing going on (if it came down to it) that might throw off someone even further. Unfortunately I really doubt the boss is going to be at all receptive to having his eyes open, just based on the description of him. The trainings have been optional. Cain gives introverts the tools to better understand themselves and take full advantage of their strengths. Self-defense probably included too. Our society (U.S.) has gone around the bend and its valuable for reasoned voices to call it out. The key to success is planning and communication. except that some law enforcement dont recommend doing this because in the event of an active shooter, its a high probability going to be an employee or former employee. 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.) Criminals have bad aim and bullets dont discriminate. Call in sick and deal with it later. 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. 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)? This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. We cover a LOT of material in one day. This means that if youre a devout member of a particular religious faith that has weekend devotion, you have the right to do so without fear of losing your job. 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. There is an entire industry built around mass shootings. They say that the time for RST has passed. My library system makes staff watch Active Shooter Training videos each year, but theyre just videos. Another employee came in and joked that with the door wide open, she could have killed them all if she was a shooter and didnt they learn anything about locking doors from our recent drill? Standing up for yourself now gets my vote. I interned at a plant that had an annual disaster training day where they would pick one scenario and do a full day simulation + training on it. Calm combines extracts from fascinating neurological research with wisdom from history's great thinkers and the real-life experiences of individuals across the globe. I am well into Gen X and we did an active shooter training and I hated every moment of it. Maybe there are social consequences to that, I dont have enough context, but they wont be more severe than triggering yourself to this extent. I told her that going forward, I would like the opportunity to work remotely on the days of drills or just use my leave entirely and she seemed open to it. This sometimes makes it extremely hard to complete college assignments by their due date. Next time you see them, just say it was a false alarm and it got better all of a sudden. My employer has Active Shooter Training videos, but the intro states that if the viewer doesnt want to watch for any reason, you dont have to and heres a transcript. It demystifies mindfulness and shows you the many simple ways to be mindful while carrying on with your life. Depressing, yet so effective. Some of them screamed when the police and campus security came in with the biggest freakin guns I have ever seen. I planned out my escape routes the first time I walked into the office and figured out which things on my desk would make the best projectiles by week one. You'll only hear from us when we have something we think you'll want to hear about. 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. Some say that the siren is extremely loud and frightening when it goes off suddenly, sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes when there is no earthquake, and that the sound/experience itself is traumatizing. We should be marching and burning government buildings and performing citizens arrests of corrupt politicians and 1%ers over this. 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. 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. Including expert advice, conversations with wise friends from all walks of life, easy ideas to try, activities to complete - and the little things that have made a difference to her own, sometimes-bumpy life - this book is a friendly reminder that Calm is a place that exists in us all, we just have to find our way back to it. 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. Those chatty folks? So why not plan this up again someday?. However, your commander then has it in his authority to deny you attendance of drills. Its not that he cant understand. Take more than a day offI suggest you take the following day off, too. I hope it goes well, and click send. The introvert/extrovert divide is the most fundamental dimension of personality. *sounds like a mass-shooter drill from the jokes the boss is making. Small brush and matte eye shadow that even slightly matches your under eye circles, like taupe. Many of us work in professions where we are obliged to work on the weekend, and there are some benefits to weekend work such as higher pay, and more freedom from your boss. We were left on our own for that. Find out more about Divi Cake here. he is not a nice guy. Im just old enough to have gotten out of high school with very minimal active shooter type worries. Its not worth getting worked up over. Edit: please understand I am NOT a highly motivated soldier. Thankfully my boss was fantastic and made sure I didnt have to attend an actual training. I have to do the Run, Hide, Fight video at work. 10 Good Excuses for Not Working on Weekends 1. 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. Sure, have trainings on the specific places at your workplace that you should go for various disasters (and which types of scenarios you should evacuate the building and which you should shelter in place), but the training should encompass various disasters, and there is absolutely NO need to have live-action drills to simulate such a traumatic experience. Your Child Is Sick 5. And the best part is that no onedoubts them a pinchbecause they all sound so real, dont they? To enhance the dramatic effect, you can fill up your voice with tears and can have a catharsis you were longing for. 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. Heck see if you can schedule an appointment JUST FOR THAT DAY. Seconding the idea that there is an industry built around these things. Everytown has some resources regarding that as well. To unsubscribe, please use the link included in the newsletter. Many religions have weekly religious events. something to consider! Lavender Baj, Culture For more information, please see our Earnings Disclosure. A good chain of command knows who these employers are as well as are able to come up with ways to work with the Soldier to deconflict. 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.