Crazy Training Weeks

I have dreams about taxes.   About training taxes.  About missing a tax training and 15 angry people being lost and confused about taxes.   Tax season at my organization is nuts.  This week especially, we have trainings every day, sometimes two a day (taking all three people on the Central Ohio team to handle everything).  All the organizations are gearing up and they need many new people trained.

These trainings come in all shapes and sizes. Earlier this week I trained two gentlemen in Logan County at a library:

 The library reserved their "large study room" for me.  There is a possibility that I am biased just coming from Miami, where we had an amazing library with study rooms to accommodate the plethora of class groups, but I was still a little unprepared for what I found:

I didn't have enough room to capture the entire table, but there are 6 chairs in the "large study room."  Just enough room for me to squeeze around to help.

I also had a training in Pickaway County, in Circleville.  I always have trainees introduce themselves and explain what agency they are from.  In this case they were all involved with the same agency, and they all described in one way or the other how the head of the organization had strong-armed (her words!) them into coming to this training.  Hey, I don't care how they get there, as long as they are trained and can help people file their taxes for free.  I did think it was funny though.

The next training was at a facility that will stay un-named, where I found this sitting on the desk:

 

Finally, my training in Springfield on Monday provided these lovelies for everyone:

Christmas COOKIES!

If anyone is keeping count, I have conducted 10 trainings in the past 3 weeks, traveling a total of 490.8 miles to seven different counties in Central Ohio.

On my toes

If you thought the title might allude to me revealing news that I am a practicing en pointe ballerina, you will be (only slightly) disappointed.   I could have also titled this post something like “playing it by ear,” but that might make you think I am a budding musician (which, in reality I am.  Hello new guitar!) and it would also be a second cliché reference using a body part to describe the fact that in my job I “fly by the seat of my pants.”  Oops, there I go again.

I remember interviewing for this job and asking my (future) supervisor what a typical day looked like.  He couldn’t give me an answer, rather promising each day was very different.  Now that I’ve been in this position for over 5 months, I have discovered three types of a “typical day.”  They are as follows:  a) Sitting in front of my computer emailing and calling people, including various breaks to stare out the window at interesting activity down on the street.  b) Training all day.  Training is draining, so once I’ve spent 6 hours in front of a room of people yapping at them and guiding them through the software, I’m spent.  c) Traveling to meetings.   This could also be interspersed with option a (staring at computer).  Traveling to meetings could be similar to what I did this morning, which entailed me driving a mile down the road from my apartment and sharing a cup of coffee and great conversation with a fellow VISTA.  It could also be driving over an hour to an outlying county (remember, I serve 15 of them) for a 20 minute meeting.  Where perhaps the person I am meeting with tells me my program is essentially worthless.  And I thank them for their time and drive back. 

The last point is a great anecdote affirming my supervisor’s explanation way back in April when I applied.  Despite there being three basic types of days, each situation is different and challenging.   Even with each cookie cutter training, I have different counselors who have different learning styles, a different sense of humor (laugh at my corny jokes people!  Come on!), and different opinions about public benefits and government programs.    

My favorite days, surprisingly, are the days I have nothing officially planned and I can sit at my desk and work.   This days are always different, always challenging, and always keep me moving, which is very important for this job.  Communication is constantly and quickly moving, and if I don’t stay up to date with emails and phone calls the entire network  could fall behind.   My desk days also give me the ability to not only react but act, or take proactive action by strategizing and preparing for goals and projects. 

This post grew increasingly boring as it went on, but our internet is down so I can’t check my email.   See?  Crazy!  On my toes!