Yes, absolutely, get a doctors note so you have backup. Ive asked for a more specific agenda but Im not sure I will get one. This is almost enough to make me start using makeup on a regular basis! If you have a doctors note stating that you are too ill to participate in drill, this is a valid excuse. But last summer I had to attend one of these trainings at work (though much shorter) and I completely melted down. The employer would be viewing and treating it like drills for other types of emergency. Our local high did one that lasted several hours. If you get any pushback, then escalate it to whoever has authority. They are not going to find out; unless they know your father very well. He/She has a fever. Between 2014 and 2015, about 62.6 million people volunteered through an official organization, and many more did so privately. I dont need to sit through seven hours of that garbageagain. I have no idea what kind of training could possible take seven hours. If you graduated high school in the last 15 years, youve done active shooter drills. What do you think of attending college while on Active Duty, Marginal 1059 while attending Drill Sergeant School. My workplace does building-specific workplace shooter training and it lasts maybe 30-45 minutes tops. Finally we learned they had just been required to offer an active shooter training by their insurance. However, you will be expected to train regularly and participate in drills and exercises. An excuse thatshuts down anypossible follow up questions. OP shouldnt give a reason for calling in sick at all if they can possibly get away with it. I think we had more on a Friday afternoon at 3 PM, but we also have them at 11 PM and other times the office is closed. Without fail, some jackass tells me how terrible I look. I am not quite old enough to properly recall the gun buyback of 1996. All rights reserved. dental?) What I really want is to skip it entirely but if I can, how do I explain this request/decision to my boss without disclosing my mental health struggles, explaining (in vain) the anxiety I feel about this training, or looking like the only person not tough enough to participate (as the only woman in my department)? Heck any drill fir any length of time, for that matter. * I am at a loss as to how any sort of effective drill could possibly take that long. Scripts & Templates for Lifes Uncomfortable Conversations. With 58th BfSB, it looks like i only have one drill in conflict with this semester. how do you handle soldiers and college? Know both your annual drill schedule and your college course schedule. My friends kids were FLOORED to learn about the debacle in the House & Senate chambers on January 6. I felt so absolutely enraged and panicky by the first 5 minutes of this asinine presentation by a law enforcement officer that I just left. Sobe verysureof both of these conditionsotherwise you are going to end up in a more awkward situation. Took a grand total of an hour and I was crying furiously by the end. For more information, please see our Calmis about simple, achievable habits that workwith the demands of your busy life instead of pretending those demands don't exist. The next thing that could happen is getting an official reprimand. OP, I am so sorry youre in this situation with insensitive unthinking people. Its probably the post practical workplace safety training Ive had since the generic mass produced run-hide-fight videos are worthless in a real situation. And what happens, sir, when the commander isn't interested in working with the Soldier to deconflict? Another pro-tip for basic make up: if you want to pick out a lipstick/tinted lip balm that will look good on you, apply the sample to the tip of your middle finger then pinch your finger just above the first knuckle. I could see someone thoughtlessly approaching it like rehearsing a play. 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. Soif anyonewants to talk about it later,; you got yourself a listener. No job is worth having coworkers or your boss threatening to put you in harms way, joking or not. also, to clarify, it needs to be an employment lawyer. Lavender Baj, Culture 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. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. If youve been in the Army for more than a year, you know that every unit has their own unique traditions. 3) Find a friend to talk to during drill. It wasnt really an active shooter simulation, but for some reason, the approach at the time was Its really important to stay silent, so try to imagine that its real as you cower in this corner. (Spoiler alert 20ish seven- and eight-year-olds are REALLY bad at playing silent sardines, even when the imaginary stakes are high.). Im sort of lucky, in a way, because the school I work at is a non-public school serving children with Autism and Intellectual Disability. No one wants to hear me out. And law enforcement is the last group Id trust with my safety. We no longer politely hold the door open to let a stranger into our secure building. Most of the others sat around, out in the open, chatting quietly. The whole realistic reenactment thing makes people in charge feel like theyre doing more than they are. What do you MEAN they didnt know what to do?? Well have to reschedule another time Im afraid! I would not be able to control my instinctual reaction to a fake shooter. For example, Jewish people have the Shabbat, the Jewish Day of Rest, which occurs each week from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. In addition to being traumatic for employees, it also seems like a poor use of time. Creative Market is the worlds marketplace for design. 9 Best Practices for Career Success in Your 20s, no.7 get you Promoted, 10 Effective Ways to Deal with Gossip at Work, 7 Common Types of Spam Emails and How to Identify, How to Write a Professional Email At Work (with Examples), how to tell your boss you are not working on weekends professionally, between 10 and 14 days of paid vacation per year, US Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, importance of fostering a work-life balance, How to Introduce Yourself at First Day of Work (with Examples), 5 Best Types of Goal Setting Techniques (Succeeding at Work), 10 Basic Types of Leadership Styles and How to Find Your Own, Bad Boss? That makes OP the expert here, and Im sorry OPs boss doesnt respect that. BS on that one! 4. Uggggghhhh. It was a no-brainer to help them with the very small procedural hurdle to opt out. And as others have pointed out, experts question whether they drills really help anyone anyway. 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. If something comes up that requires your immediate attention (such as a death in the family), this is considered a valid excuse for missing drill. update: how can I turn down training requests from my clients? Building layouts is easy and fast, making it ideal to create mockups and wireframes, prototyping a design, and creating the website itself. I HATED that we had to do these trainings it felt like being given a band-aid for a hemorrhage. But does it require the full drill, or can you do a security discussion instead? I am glad we did because we learned they fancy themselves a superhero who can run through and put out fires and can stop a bad guy with the power of love. -You are in school and cannot miss class (you must provide documentation from your school) I would go with calling in sick the day of the drill. 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. The active shooter training was a short part of the overall agenda. For example: Due to some past history that I dont want to go into at work, I am going to opt of out Tuesdays training. If he again says something ridiculous like asking if you wouldnt be able to take it, you could say, Yes, so I wont be attending. If he tells you its mandatory and you need to attend, you can say, Then I need to request a formal, legal accommodation to opt out. 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. Yup. One of the victims was paralyzed instead of dying and there was a lot of stuff about how tragic this was, implications that it was worse than death Not much fun when youre a physically disabled teenager being forced to attend this event. Many many pointed questions would be asked, if they are going to make me go through that kinda nonsense Im going to insist that they are asked as many uncomfortable preparedness questions as possible. She cant even bear to see guns on tv. 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. My workplace had an active shooter training session prior to COVID that included several drills. CW3 Walker, we must agree to disagree. As a parent, what do I even do with this information?! what about people who cannot lift a chair? With Katrina, it was a mix of local ordinances & state laws which essentially banned communications on specific frequencies. Bomb threats were a constant fact of life. 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. Even though technically I graduated from HS pre-Columbine, guess what? Even ignoring personal history, seven hours is enough to upset anyone! Agree. Jeez, people go to work to *work*, not to LARP or to do choreographed dance routines. If you are sick, you must report to your unit and be evaluated by a medical professional. What possible benefit is there to be gained from crouching and hiding for hours? Excuse 2 | You Punctured Your Tire. I dont want to do it either. We were there for hours, literally, while they searched for the possible gunman, then after they caught him, clearing the university to be sure he didnt have an accomplice. by or is there something unique about this type of training? My school responded with were going to ring the fire alarm at X time, dont go outside, its too cold and this is ridiculous anyway. Thankfully it was a cold winter and after a few temperature reports to whoever mandated it and a lot of angry parents (especially at other schools who did make kids stand outside on a day that was probably -10F), that stopped. training is going to be useful, sensible, or anything besides a nightmare.