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

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    T 4 2 A . D F 9 H Z x C V B N J K
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    Posted by u/Dranask 21 hours ago Special course 'How to manage your Manager' - fail S OC This happened years ago but as I was reminded of it yesterday: I had AH of a Sales Manager (IT system Sales), who would micromanage everything. He was a caffeine & nicotine addict to boot always living on the edge, in some ways I understood his drive for ultimate perfection but...., sadly he died from stress in his 50s. Whilst this is not his story he was the cause, I went above him to the Sales Director for
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    'How to Manage and manage your Manager.'I was pleased I'd been listened to and happily set of to go on the external course. Like many course there's a lot of waffle and then we got to the role play which I complained about as it wasn't very realistic and certainly didn't reflect what I had to deal with. Smug presenter said OK, you be your manager, told 'X' to be the victim saying to him I'll show you and the others how to easily deal with this situation.
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    Cue Malicious Compliance. So I became my Manager, and I had learnt a lot on how to be a total AH, I played him to the hilt, never abusive or loud, that was never my bosses style, every argument he suggested to 'X' I quashed, I was completely in the frame, being argumentative, petty and obtuse and more importantly rewinding back to correct earlier parts of the discussion.
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    After 10-15 minutes he suggested I take a more conciliatory stance as I was being unreasonable, I pointed out that this was my Manager's behaviour and I can't ask him to be conciliatory, but as I'd achieved my objective and shown how pointless his course was I obliged. At the end he turned around to say that's how to do it. I laughed and said you were completely unable to deal with 'My Manager', I can't ask him to be reasonable like you did me. This course has been of no value to me at all.
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    EDIT - After my report back to the Sales Director they stopped using them and in fact started their own in house training courses.
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    • satiscop 21 hr. ago So you can teach a course on "How to manage the instructor of 'How to Manage and manage your Manager' "I This is Manage-ception Vote Reply Share Dranask OP 20 hr. ago • ROFL Vote Reply Share • • • Ashardis 19 hr. ago Managers all the way down! Vote Reply Share . . .
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    Profreadsalot · 20 hr. ago Managers who move the goalposts and bring up previous disagreements constantly are the worst. Vote Reply Share Dranask OP 20 hr. ago • They are, I was never one such. The role-play was great fun however I could see how addicted to it you could become. In the end my skill is/was as a communicating translator, sitting between the customer and the software engineers, creating the doozy the salesman had sold. Vote Reply Share
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    Springfield80210 - 20 hr. ago · edited 20 hr. ago Sounds like typical corporate training disconnects I have experienced. Listening Skills from an instructor with a 'my way or the highway' attitude. Handling Difficult Conversations full of 'have a tissue handy' type guidance, when all team interaction was 100% over Zoom.
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    And MBTI? I once pushed back to a Myers-Briggs trainer that I felt that their labeling was discriminatory and marginalizing, to which she responded 'yes, an F would certainly have that opinion'. LOL. I wanted to snarkily respond 'yes, that is the opinion I would expect from a tall 28 year old woman from the Northeast who wears her hair in a pony tail, just to show how much disdain I have for discriminatory labels. But no, I didn't have the cojones. And I needed the job. Vote Reply Share
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    FoolishStone 19 hr. ago . Some of the best management advice I've seen comes from the Horatio Hornblower books by C. S. Forrester. They're set in the British Navy around 1800-1825. In Lieutenant Hornblower, Horatio is the fifth lieutenant on a man of war, but masterfully manages his superiors by making "suggestions" or acting as if the vacillating first lieutenant had already made the correct decision, indeed that it was his idea :-).
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    The chapter on outfitting the Atropos in the fourth book in the series is an excellent example of efficient task and schedule management, resource allocation, and handling both superiors and subordinates. Vote Reply Share
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    Contrantier 18 hr. ago So wait • You told the guy in front of everyone how pointless his course had been, right after SHOWING him and everyone else that, And to put the final nail in his own coffin, he turned around and said to everyone "and that's how you do it"?
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    That's how? By embarrassing yourself getting schooled by one of the people you're trying to teach, in front of a bunch of other employees? That was even WORSE than useless. What is he, a Vote ? Reply Share Dranask OP 17 hr. ago • Yup I was surprised, after my report back to the Sales Director they stopped using them and in fact started their own in house. Ah ha that's a pointless story though. Vote Reply Share • • •

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