So I just spent about an hour today undergoing one of the many online training courses available (read: required) at John Hancock. On today's menu: HARASSMENT (though it's definitely funnier when said by a British person). I'm sure everyone knows what I'm talking about here - a course, taken on an annual basis, which teaches us bonehead employees the limits of harassment from all different angles - sexual, age, gender, ethnicity, religion, etc. - you name it, and we'll show you how not to do it.
First of all, I always love wasting an hour of my time to cease doing actual work and take these courses. Not only can you not fail them no matter how hard you try (trust me...they don't let you), but they are absolutely hilarious. I'm not sure if this is simply due to the unintentional comedy found within the scenarios provided, the fact that the person behind these may actually have a sense of humor, or that my mind is just absolutely warped....could be a combination of all three.
Secondly, I look at the pictures of these supposed "co-workers" of mine, and their professional appearance certainly appears to leave something to be desired. Sign me up for the company that allows people to show up to work like this. One of the main characters, Dan (a gaunt fellow in his lower 20's) clearly has not shaven for a few days. Not only is he in the awkward stage in terms of "is it a beard or is he just lazy and/or disheveled?" but his facial hair is spotty at best. I was able to grow more facial hair than Dan when I was 13. And then there's Darrell, who not only sports well too large of a hoop earring than any male should (not that there's anything wrong with that...), but is wearing some semblance of a coat (or a shirt...can't tell) that can only lead me to guess that either he is on his way out to, or has just come back from, an African safari.
Also, the phrases used within this thing are amazing. The creators must have been going with the "let's be trendy" direction with the language used throughout the training, but clearly could only do so to a point, ostensibly to make sure that the older crowd would understand the terms being used just as easy as the younger crowd would. As we know through training, we don't want to offend anyone over the age of 40, as this may be seen as a form of age harassment. But to use the phrase "dirty dancing" when talking about "her hips swaying from side to side," how is someone not going to find this amusing? This is one of many examples throughout the video.
Talking about age harassment, there was a great scene in the age harassment section in which there is a 61 year old woman by the name of Beverly (these names are great) who is being verbally accosted by her 54 year old co-worker about being too old to know anything; I believe the quote was something like "I didn't know they had television in the Stone Age, Beverly," in response to poor, innocent Bev telling fellow colleagues what her favorite show was growing up. Though I tend to agree with Beverly that the statement was quite offensive, there are 2 problems here: A. Beverly is 61, and her picture is that of a 61 year old, but the voice used for her sounds like she's about 85, and B. Beverly has other problems to worry about - if I were her, I'd be less concerned with someone making fun of my age and more concerned with a co-worker cracking endless jokes about how I sound like I'm Arnold Schwarzenegger's mother. I realize the creators of the training course were trying to be PC here and include people of all cultures/backgrounds, but really guys?? Couldn't you help Bev out a bit here?
For my other readers also involved in the mindless rat race, good luck to you, and I hope your training courses provide as much enjoyment to you as they do to me.
