A Trip to DC Part II

Well, it is Day Four in this wonderful place, and the weather is pretty much the same. Well, I should not say that. I haven't seen so much as a peek of the sun at any point since the conference started. It was pouring this morning when I went in - fortunately, the trains were largely on time and running as they should. No flooding, no issues. The walk in was non-existent as the train took me right to the convention center. All of today's sessions were excellent for me - all four of them - but Vana went to the Wage & Hours Laws one and apparently that was a major yawner - although what else could it be? There really aren't too many ways to dress up that subject. But I got lucky.

The first class I went to was "Please Sue Me 2006". It was excellent and a riot. The speaker was quite animated, really funny and had a lot of excellent information. I loved it. I really enjoy speakers who are funny and informative at the same time.

Then I went to "Building a Better Perfromance Management System From the Inside Out" and I really got a lot out of that. I am now armed with some really great things to do to the review system! I'm very worked up about that (you see the kinds of things that work up HR people!).

Then after lunch and long wander through the Expo (again, with another 4,000 freebie marketing items making their way into my unwitting posession), we went to our respective classes - that's when Vana did the Wage & Hour thing. I went to "Beast Management: Managing Difficult People in the Workplace" - oh, that was delightful! There are five different types of really difficult people:

The Great White [Shark] - the aggressive but in control person
The Babboon - the aggressive but out of control person
The Mule - the passive aggressive person
The Viper - the stealthy individual who can be very manipulative
The Mug Wump - (I know what that is - it's a character/creature out of one of the C.S. Lewis books) power through weakness

I learned a lot of tips on how to deal with these individuals - and I have done all the benchmarks things one should not do when dealing with these types. Unfortunately for me. I'm a strong personality and usually firm and confident, but I still occasionally fall into those traps. The presenter was again delightful!

The last one was called "Dealing with Negativity in the Workplace", done by Steve Gilliland. He was delightful! He had us howling in our seats! But invaluable - I am feeling great and want to pass this along to all my managers! I'm all fired up!

It was 1720 when I got out, after having my picture taken with Steve. I went to the SHRMStore again (dangerous place!) and bought the two books by Steve Gilliland (excellent reading!) and then headed for the Metro. It was fairly empty at the Mt. Vernon station, but once we got to Farragut West and Foggy Bottom, that was it - the train was jam packed with people! I got to my exit and walked home in the wet, warm air and by the time I made it to the condo, I was soaking wet from perspiration and so overheated. But it was lovely to return.

Two more days to go - yay! I'm so hoping the weather will play more nice!

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