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. Like what was really scary about the drill at the time was the impression that if it did happen, not only would we be dead, but worse than that it would be our own (collective) faults. My husbands previous job did an active shooter training at their factory, with different employees pretending to be the shooter, complete with something like a pellet gun or paint gun (I dont remember exactly what was used). And if my boss gave me grief about it Id jump straight to calling a lawyer. Anything for a buck is pretty disgusting sometimes. Is there something about your workplace that makes this a particular concern? You have a medical issue an active shooter drill is detrimental to your mental health. If all else fails, you may be able to trade your drill weekend with another member of your unit. Not only was it bad in general, but he had a dumb smile on his face the whole time, using military and law enforcement terminology to make his points. Its naturaland can happen to anyone. You do not need to hear gun shots or see people play dead or whatever simulated shenanigans people want to insist on. I choked up reading that and I have no kids and am not in the US. There wont be people storming into the building. Make sure your office doesnt do retaliatory things like this. Read More Why Quiet Quitting Your Job is Not All Wrong?Continue. Im betting theyre planning it for some random time within those 7 hours. No. Heck, my dad worked in the Pentagon post 9/11, D.C. Sniper, and Virginia Tech and threat training was like an hour. Get involved in your unit. We all live busy lives and we know that there will be times when we are called on to help out to babysit for a week, a weekend, or even half a day. Wish me luck! I love the advice to take two days and do something restorative. But for moments like this and in workplaces like this where there isnt a great way out this is what these lies, excuses, or pivots are for. Hope you dont get cornered! Copyright 2007 - 2023 Ask A Manager. An online training video should be an acceptable alternative. Are you willing to orchestrate an elaborate tale about a fake aunt and her knee surgery? If he again says something ridiculous like asking if you "wouldn't be able to take it," you could say . You Had a Flat Tire 10. update: is my future manager a bigoted jerk? My friends kids were FLOORED to learn about the debacle in the House & Senate chambers on January 6. So it just doesnt arise as a thought in the way that, say, the possibility of sexual harassment or sexual violence is always part of my situational awareness. I think it varies both person to person and generationally. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. I started a new job recently, one where I wanted to impress and have significant imposter syndrome. When my coworkers started joking about it, I told them if they kept it up, Id go to HR. I worked somewhere where we had to do Run-Hide-Fight training. Re-traumatizing everyone is just so very much not the answer here to any of this. Pretty much this. Also if this bunghole tries to make you feel weak for not being up for it, remember that standing up to him is a strong choice in itself. My office recently did the same thing. I already deal with the anxiety on a daily basis; I dont need someone pointing it out in a tasteless joke. Criminals have bad aim and bullets dont discriminate. I like the idea of getting a doc note and or calling out sick but if OP does wind up going to work that day I would simply leave if/when an active shooter simulation starts. Sometimes you just dont want to go to event and thats okay, we get it. One of each type of emergency drill a year is plenty. The timeline itself would be enough for me to push back. Survivor of gun violence here. I did not encounter any of the officers because I immediately closed my door when the drill started, but my Dean and several coworkers who were standing in the hallway right next to our office did encounter one. Career success is just inches from your hands. That made a huge difference in everyones mindset regarding the training. For context, I work at a facility that stores large quantities of hazardous materials. Id either lean into something genuine and chronic (back pain? When I voiced my concerns, he made a few jokes about how he would simply redirect the shooter to a younger person, then asked if I was saying I wouldnt be able to take it. Absolutely nothing about this is funny to me, and this made me feel even more alienated. I have been battling car issues for over a week now. 7 hour training is Crisis Porn. I also doesn't hurt that our founder has a little store on there Donating to Never the Right Word willhelp us produce more free content. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Your boss sounds like a huge jerk. 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. People in hiding should expect to be there for hours. *Deep breath* Many triggering statements made below, please be advised. Your boss isnt a nice person who is cruel to young people, people with disabilities, and anyone he considers liberal. 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. Weve had active shooter trainings, but no drills in any of the universities Ive worked at (thankfully). same, but I would leave early on the day before because of said flu/stomach bug/whatever, take off sick the day of the training, and take off the next day, too, to avoid the followup chatter around the office, and maybe mitigate some of the where were you, you missed its. Never the Right Word is a participant in the Awin Affiliates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to participating merchants. 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. I still have really distinct memories of what I can only imagine was my elementary schools first-ever armed intruder drill after Virginia Tech. Categories + 18moretakeoutthe remedy diner, tupelo honey, and more; We cover a LOT of material in one day. I hope you are able to easily opt out, OP. Agree. So long that the lights went out. Stuff like this is why Im glad I always bring up early in any employment situation my chronic history of migraines; its true, but its also a convenient excuse as needed if not used too often in that fashion. I can not imagine what possible justification there is to spend an entire workday on this. As a USAR CDR I'd approve an excused absence and call it a day but really depends on what you ask for an if you have a good chain of command. Definitely. 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. 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. I got volunteer hours and free pizza, and I was 12 so I was very excited to mess around with fake blood and brains. Theres always That Guy who feels the need to comment. Just in case. SEVEN hours??? Our wallet holdsall ofour important things, including cash, id, and credit cards. Took a grand total of an hour and I was crying furiously by the end. 1 When Something Comes Up & You Still Want To See Them Shutterstock "Hey, I'm so sorry, but something came up tonight and I. 3. So its a surprise, but not TECHNICALLY because they told everyone about it in advance. Theyre valuable for kids because kids suck at hiding, staying still and being quiet. * I am at a loss as to how any sort of effective drill could possibly take that long. 2) Bring snacks and drinks with you so you dont get hungry or thirsty during drill. Yes, there are employers who know or try to get around laws meant to protect Reservists. Dropped about $1500 which basically emptied my bank account. It is not worth the cost to your mental health to try to justify your position any more to your insensitive boss or even, frankly, other people. Where the repetition is frequent, not annually at best. You can report an ad, tech, or typo issue here. We havent been told what it will entail, but its seven hours long and weve been instructed to wear comfortable clothing. Please save yourself from living through a trauma unnecessarily. You Had Other Car Issues 11. Yeah, our local transit agency shuts down a station occasionally (usually several hours on a Sunday morning) so all the emergency service people can run a training exercise. And, even calling 911 can be difficult in a real emergency. Ugh you mentioning the scary videos just reminded me that my old jobs (fairly long) active shooter training involved straight up showing us footage from Columbine. 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. I have never ever called in sick for any reason other than actually being too sick to leave my bed. In response, we offered one of the most common run/hide/fight trainings (via video). or say youd been experiencing extreme menstrual/PMS symptoms. If this article appears on any other site other than https://www.nevertherightword.com without clear referencing it is a violation of the copyright owned by https://www.nevertherightword.com. I havent read all the comments, but this makes me truly ill. To be fair, I was already angry on your behalf before reading this letter. Additionally, I grew up in a part of the States that has very little gun culture to speak of; I wasnt around guns at all, didnt know anyone who owned one, never touched one till my mid-30s. Dark humor and gallows humor is very common in my family and we sometimes get horrified looks from the comments we make (like joking about a 2-for-1 euthanasia special when we were dealing with an elderly family pet and my elderly grandmother going through health issues at the same time). All we can do is raise awareness, look out for safety hazards, and hold fire drills and practice our escape routes once in a while. Youre under the weather, the end. Somehow, the solution is always more guns. 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. I had a med student with me and I took her into my office afterwards to check in. If its that sort of training day, it would be way more involved the typical quick drill or watch Run/Hide/Fight theyd be going over all the logistics, what processes to set up to prevent it, etc. If you do not own a car, you might be thinking that you got to pass all the car excuses. If the host does not know about your dating life, you can easily go with this one. Same. And you know theyll treat it all as a big game because its all fake anyway. You only need 50 points for a Good Year. It is not unreasonable to expect a weekend rest after a hard weeks work. And your supervisor is totally wrong about saying that you cant handle it and are weak. We were located in an area where street violence was a significant risk. Things have been chaotic and I need a little time to recoop. By the same token, a person who cant deal with guns being fired in their vicinity is unlikely to be able to work as a law enforcement officer, particularly in the US. Call out sick LW. CW3 Walker, we must agree to disagree. Anyway Ive been thinking about it a lot recently because of the Oxford and MSU shootings. In this article, we listed the best excuses you can use to not work weekends. I resent our new hires for setting better work-life boundaries than our company normally has, hairy legs at work, my office sent me a random TV, and more, heres an example of a great cover letter with before and after versions, my employee cant handle even mildly negative feedback, my new coworker is putting fake mistakes in my work so she can tell our boss Im bad at my job, insensitive Diversity Day, how to fire someone who refuses to talk to us, and more, weekend open thread February 25-26, 2023, assistant became abusive when she wasnt invited to a meeting, my coworkers dont check on people who are out sick, and more. Thankfully events like this are never mandatory at my job, so its unlikely to come up. I got upset, started crying, and had to ask to leave. You Need to Take a Mental Health Day 6. There you go. My boss and his wife were directly behind me! But it might be helpful to do so. Even if it isnt, its going to take a while,and you may not be able to make it up. Guessing they will breakout into groups and tour the building to find safe places to hide or ways to block paths. In the military, missing 4 hours of a required training equals one unexcused absence. Relax away. Federal law and regulation have the greatest protective impact on a "veteran" who is now attending school . Yes. Before starting this site, A.C. has 10+ years of experience as management professional in a Fortune 500 Company. As most millennials in the US here can attest to mass shootings are incredibly tough subject and quite traumatizing. To this day I can remember everything about Columbine and it felt like there was this huge shift that altered the rest of my school experience. Im so sorry. training is going to be useful, sensible, or anything besides a nightmare. I remember going to a 4th of July party thrown by a combat veteran friend-of-a-friend. OP Thank you for writing in. Save yourself the heartache and the stress. No one will want you near them or ask any more questions. Its just easier that way, unfortunately. It was a labyrinth of shelves, and being the basement, there were no windows. Get the paperwork in place for legal accommodations. I hope she takes option #4. and rejoicing that you get to go home for the day is messed up too. They ended up with injuries when one of the factory guys had a turn at being shooter and took out some aggression on management. No?). If you have a doctors note stating that you are too ill to participate in drill, this is a valid excuse. Youre very charitable in your interpretation of dark humor, for me thats a line that shouldnt be crossed. Ive seen plenty of law enforcement response to school additions. 2) Probably wont happen hereright? I dont want to teach my kids to be afraid, but also dont want to misjudge a safety situation. My last workplace did the hide in your office training, which was lackluster in different ways I definitely found it mildly triggering due to experiences Ive had, and we received no training on how to protect our customers. If you are in the military, or a reservist, there are times when you will be required to attend drill. In the last year we had a shooting at another campus in my district, and a lockdown on my campus for a suspected shooter (someone on the street with a gun who did not end up coming into the building). You should absolutely opt out if you want to. You are studying 7. While participating in this @#$% drill would be doubly-triply horrible for you, it is not good for anyones mental health and, as Alison mentioned, most likely wouldnt do any good. Im a big proponent of safety drills. But theres no reason why you cannot ask in advance for a weekend where youre not rostered on. NTRW is supported by adverts and affiliate marketing links. But I was wondering how can reasonable accomodations include opting out of mandatory safety related training? We highly recommend these tried-and-tested tools: The Elegant Themes membership gives you complete access to 87 amazing themes and 3 awesome plugins, including Divi, the ultimate WordPress Theme and Visual Page builder. 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. Something tells me the response on the other end of the phone wont be get well soon.. I spent a little time thinking about what I would do if we were robbed. I work for a public-facing government agency. It was a tough meeting. We remembered the event very differently. And then, afterwards, we got the WORST LECTURE EVER from a crying teacher telling us that if this was real wed all be dead because of our collective inability to JUST BEHAVE OURSELVES and BE QUIET for half an hour. I wanted to go to school and cared about awards. Ugh I feel for this OP. I have done this several times throughout my career. But since you happen to be the person whorenegesquite frequently,havent you already used that one? The drills at my college last about 15-20 minutes. This sounds like the episode Emergency Response from Parks and Rec, so interesting to hear about a real-life counterpart of it/how true to life that show really was. CALL IN SICK. In 2019 Never the Right Word was born to fill the gap of how-to websites with copy and paste examples showing you EXACTLY what you need to say to steer difficult conversations into positive outcomes. You could call in sick that day. The whole realistic reenactment thing makes people in charge feel like theyre doing more than they are. If you graduated high school in the last 15 years, youve done active shooter drills. I know the whole flight/fight/freeze thing. Well. And dont give up. (And get a pizza delivered to your address. Your boss can think you are a snowflake all he wants, but the fact is your boss is being an insensitive jerk. I didnt read through all of the comments, so perhaps this is addressed upthread. My high school teachers kept hammers and baseball bats in the classrooms and told us where they were when we did ALICE days. If you want to make memories with your family on trips away from home, you will need to take advantage of the weekends. Boost your business with the right images. For most permanent types of employment, workers in the United States are entitled to between 10 and 14 days of paid vacation per year. Agree. It makes it less obvious that it was about the training. Last time, it was 7 AM and only about 10% of the tenants evacuated. Not the building burning down. I think its 100% okay to stonewall/lie/be vague about your symptoms to protect your privacy if your boss pushes back. My direct boss fought it and tried to get me excused, but her boss was firm that it was required. Culture College is not a good excuse for not attending drill. You can go the formal accommodations route. We all know how hard it gets to pull off financially at the last dates of the month. Are you getting a lot of spam which is very annoying and want to avoid them? I could possibly be out all day for medical reasons planned in advance, but that wouldnt actually work for the specific reasons I have to list (medical appontment or illness dor myself or a family member). -Your job prevents you from attending (you must provide documentation from your employer) They cant ask to leave them alone at home nor do they. The five most popular were: golf, basketball, baseball/softball, soccer, and running. All branches of the armed forces are also open to women, currently our highest-ranking female officers are lieutenant colonels. Generally if you submit early enough in advance and have a compelling reason, it will be approved. There have been several studies that have shown that the methods used in many trainings end up causing PTSD and trauma. THIS. If not, why is this particular emergency getting such outsized priority? They're basically faster, safer, and more supportive- you can check them out here. Dear god I have done this too.