Today I had to attend a federation funded 'Negociating in the Workplace' seminar.
What a load of mindless space garbage.
The course blurb was something about treating your enemies like your colleagues to create a happier working envirnoment. The guy who was running it (Chad) was a jumped up, blue flame, quarterback punk.
He kept warbling on about 'self actualisation' and 'negociating with a can-do mentality'. Everyone else seemed to be buying into this tripe except me.
He asked me to participate in a roleplay with him.
He was to be a klingon leader and I was to be me.
"Okay lets begin" he said. "I'm not very happy about your violation of the neutral zone, and I would like you to apologise. I feel affronted by your disrespect for our mutual boundaries."
I responded by forward rolling towards him and landing a karate chop on his arm. Luckily, my shirt got torn in the attack, which added to the authenticity of the scenario. He fell to the ground, whining like a ferengi. I was pleased with my performance, so I got up and punched the air.
There was silence as Chad quietly sobbed on the floor.
I was mystified. I had quelled the attack, and no-one had been hurt except the enemy.
Later, Chad explained that my response was 'reactionary' instead of 'pro-active', whatever that means.
My frustration peaked during a group logic exercise.
We had to get a fox, a chicken and some grain across a river in a boat. Everyone else presented silly answers that revolved around ferrying them across. In my presentation, I highlighted that the boat may well be a klingon decoy filled with explosives. I drew complex diagrams to indicate how a tractor beam could be used to move the fox, the chicken and the grain over the river. This would free up crucial defensive time to retaliate against a klingon assault on the colony.
Chad was not impressed.
He said that whilst he appreciated my 'thinking outside the box', I was missing the point and I should be using 'only the resources to hand'. I told him that a small wooden boat and handfulls of grain were no defence against a klingon battlefleet.
He told me to sit down.
I threw a chair at him.