Howdy Everyone!

Hope you've got the turkeys and the cranberry sauce ready. I've been back in the office for about a week and a half now, I was at training for administrative professionals three days. I was so happy to have been selected to attend this training, plus it was nice being in the city (D.C.) for a few days. The instructor was cool and even encouraged us to keep in touch with her (which I just might do). The room was about normal classroom size with administrative professionals from all over the world (literally), one person cam all the way from Beirut! As with most conferences or workshops we spent time getting to know everyone. Through the modules in the training several people shared their experiences at work from issues of bosses not liking them or entering total isolation because of lack of respect. For a minute it seemed like a counseling session as people spent their whole lunch period telling the "counselor" (I mean instructor) their issues at work. It almost became depressing, learning that people (women) faced so many issues in their daily work lives. Sheesh, I thought I had it bad. One lady said her male boss thought she was better than everyone because she dressed professionally each day at work. One lady had a wall built around her desk with glass, to keep people from interrupting her workday. To make matters worse, I sit beside a loud-mouth older lady who was extremely outspoken and made herself look crazy. There's always one in every bunch, I learned that I was happy to have sat beside her because I learned about that type of boisterous, controlling and "challenger" type person (new word from class). I also learned a lot about myself too- that I do like some control, yet I do believe in including everyone. I so know what it is like being left out, I also like attention and collaborating. So, what have you learned about yourself recently?