Worker forced to attend boring training, uses instructor's lesson against them: '[He said] I was being unreasonable'

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Mar 30, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

Knowing how to effectively communicate with your peers, subordinates—and especially your managers—is (unfortunately) one of the greatest determining factors not only in the success of projects but in how you're regarded within the company, too. Work too hard and say too little, and you'll still find yourself first on the chopping block when it comes time to lighten up the load of payroll, while saying too much and not doing much at all will usually keep you moving up the chain of command.

Yes, managing upwards is an important skill to learn and practice, and many who work in the corporate world will be delighted to find themselves treated with special courses and seminars teaching exactly that. These lucky course attendees will get to spend hours of their time listening to an instructor—with no real experience or qualifications in the matter that they're speaking to—droning on and on with lengthy examples about repeated points that were clear within the first sentence.

It's not often that you'll get to turn the tables and practice the lesson the instructor is trying to teach the instructor themselves. But that's what this worker did when he was told to "become" his manager, beating the instructor verbally into a pulp and backing him so far into a corner that he was forced to relent from his lesson.