Mandatory training

[Ava]

My manager assigned mandatory training for me and another employee in the group.

We have a library and he had a book sent to us (a copy each) on how to write in a business setting. The book covers different topics in each chapter; memos, emails, reports, etc.

It appears in our required curricula in the internal website as mandatory training. We received the book on March 26th and have to return it on April 26th.
Our manager sent us an email informing us that on May 1st the whole group will meet at the conference room. My coworker and I will have to do a presentation of one chapter of the book each, but we won't know which chapter until we are at the meeting.

The book has 10 chapters and they are big. There's a lot of material to cover, with problems, exercises, etc. Think of a textbook for a one semester class at university. We have one month for this.

On one hand I'm glad our manager is trying to develop some skills, but on the other hand I am upset.
We work full time. I have a one hour commute each way, my coworker has a toddler and is working opposite shifts to his spouse to avoid childcare. When he's home he's tending to his daughter. We are expected to do this on our personal time.
I had started writing my first mystery novel, a hobby I have wanted to develop for years, and now I've had to put it aside once more for this.

We are part of a subsidiary for the main entity. Although we make good money for the main entity, we are seen as "the poor cousin" or secondary, ancillary, etc. We don't have access to more formal training available to employees of the main entity.
My coworker talked to a friend who works at the main entity and found out when they receive training is either during working hours, or, if not, they get paid for it. No matter if they are hourly or salaried.

I'm pretty sure my manager is not aware of that policy. I'm also sure he means well by assigning training, but he's imposing a lot on us and he doesn't realize it.
My coworker came to me and hinted I should talk to the manager. All my coworkers do this when they have a problem because I have a great rapport with him. 99% of the time I tell them if they have a problem to go talk to him themselves.
This affects me, though. I am already reading the book, doing the exercises, taking notes, etc. My plan is to ride this through, do a great presentation, and use the skills I learn. But I am hoping is a one-off. If he gets in the habit of assigning extras I'll talk to him.

Am I wrong in being upset with him? Should I say something? He's great for the most part. Supportive, willing to listen, talk, help, etc.

[justme]

Mandatory training has to be on company time. It's a little more squirrelly for exempt employees though.

[Ava]

We are both salaried employees.
I'm not going to say anything, but it's a huge commitment to go through a whole book in a month. On our personal time.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I have always had mandatory training yearly, with testing.  I had about 6-8 classes that I needed to repeat every year for compliance.  If I didn’t go, it was my job.   All of it was done on company time, but that doesn’t really stop the work from flowing in, so have just had to juggle.  It has frequently caused me to need to stay late, and as I was exempt it meant I wasn’t paid for this time.   Luckily, I never had to do more than the minimum necessary to keep things alive and maintained.

I think the most onerous mandatory training session was a week class that lasted 8-5.  I still had to go in before the class, run over during lunch and try to finish up when the classes were over.  Fortunately, that class was only once.

[Ava]

Apr 6, 2019 15:12:18 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

I have always had mandatory training yearly, with testing.  I had about 6-8 classes that I needed to repeat every year for compliance.  If I didn’t go, it was my job.   All of it was done on company time, but that doesn’t really stop the work from flowing in, so have just had to juggle.  It has frequently caused me to need to stay late, and as I was exempt it meant I wasn’t paid for this time.   Luckily, I never had to do more than the minimum necessary to keep things alive and maintained.

I think the most onerous mandatory training session was a week class that lasted 8-5.  I still had to go in before the class, run over during lunch and try to finish up when the classes were over.  Fortunately, that class was only once.

We are really busy right now. We are not expected to work beyond our assigned hours, but the quality of work would suffer if we were doing this training on work time.

[Deleted]

What I find unreasonable is that you are supposed to a "presentation" on a TBA topic without any advance notice to prepare other than to read the book.

What does he expect in a presentation like this?  That you stand up and give a 2-minute synopsis?  A Prezi or PP, which means that you would have to prepare one for every chapter?

I wouldn't necessarily talk with the manager about this in terms of "you can't require it because you aren't paying me."  Rather, I would simply point out that you are unable to prepare a useful presentation on the spur of the moment.  I'd have a suggestion on which chapter I think the co-workers would find most valuable and why. 

Your co-worker can go talk to the manager himself if he has a problem with this assignment.

[ners]

Apr 6, 2019 15:19:21 GMT -5 @bamafan1954 said:

What I find unreasonable is that you are supposed to a "presentation" on a TBA topic without any advance notice to prepare other than to read the book.

What does he expect in a presentation like this?  That you stand up and give a 2-minute synopsis?  A Prezi or PP, which means that you would have to prepare one for every chapter?

I wouldn't necessarily talk with the manager about this in terms of "you can't require it because you aren't paying me."  Rather, I would simply point out that you are unable to prepare a useful presentation on the spur of the moment.  I'd have a suggestion on which chapter I think the co-workers would find most valuable and why. 

Your co-worker can go talk to the manager himself if he has a problem with this assignment.

I think you need to find out how long you are expected to present.  I do think it sounds like a lot of reading to do on your own time.  

[tskeeter]

Ava, you’ve got continuing education requirements to maintain your CPA certificate.  I’m betting that you can collect some CPE’s for doing this training.  Including the time you spend preparing your presentation and doing your presentation.  Keep track of your time.

That said, this project sounds like a lot of work, during an already busy time of the year, with a short deadline.  Once you are done, you might look for an opportunity to let your boss know how much of a time commmitment this little project was, how much effort you devoted to it, and any sacrifices you had to make to meet his deadline.  You want the boss to be thinking about how much commitment you demonstrated as he prepares your next performance appraisal.

My guess is that this is a much more demanding project than your boss thinks.  Making sure that he understands just what he required of people might discourage him from doing similar things in the future.

[happyhoix]

Apr 6, 2019 17:36:40 GMT -5 ners said:

Apr 6, 2019 15:19:21 GMT -5 @bamafan1954 said:

What I find unreasonable is that you are supposed to a "presentation" on a TBA topic without any advance notice to prepare other than to read the book.

What does he expect in a presentation like this?  That you stand up and give a 2-minute synopsis?  A Prezi or PP, which means that you would have to prepare one for every chapter?

I wouldn't necessarily talk with the manager about this in terms of "you can't require it because you aren't paying me."  Rather, I would simply point out that you are unable to prepare a useful presentation on the spur of the moment.  I'd have a suggestion on which chapter I think the co-workers would find most valuable and why. 

Your co-worker can go talk to the manager himself if he has a problem with this assignment.

I think you need to find out how long you are expected to present.  I do think it sounds like a lot of reading to do on your own time.  

I agree as well. Tell your boss you want to make a quality presentation, with handouts/graphics, but you don't want to waste time doing every chapter of the book when you'll only be presenting on one. Suggest the two most relevant chapters for you and your co-worker to prepare for the meeting.  Then keep track of your time and make sure he knows how much extra time this took.

[hoops902]

Apr 6, 2019 15:08:03 GMT -5 Ava said:

We are both salaried employees.
I'm not going to say anything, but it's a huge commitment to go through a whole book in a month. On our personal time.

I assume when you say "salaried" you are talking "exempt" (there are people who are salaried who are still non-exempt).  There are 2 ways you can look at this.

1.  You are doing this on "your personal time".  Looking at it that way sucks.

2.  You have a work assignment that your boss is allowing you to do outside the office managed as you see fit over the course of the next month. Sounds a lot more positive.

Either way, this is a work assignment, so you aren't doing it on your personal time, you're just expected to schedule it in as a part of your work.  Part of being salaried/exempt means understanding sometimes you'll work more hours and sometimes you'll work less, but that it's up to you to make things happen.  

It also sounds like the "presentation" is a lot more about "I want to make sure you actually read this because I think you 2 specifically need this information" a lot more than "I really want you 2 to present to the group".

[Ava]

I talked to my manager yesterday about the assignment. He decided there are 5 chapters we need to study, instead of the whole book.

My coworker and I are doing it during our lunch break. 

I like to go out for a walk during my lunch break, but I need to finish this.

The presentation should be just an explanation of what the chapter is about. No need for powerpoints.

Sigh, it will be over soon.

[bobosensei]

Can you and coworker split the 5 chapters to reduce the work?