Paul tackles training

They were busy times for the company. The drivers could barely keep up with the number of requests for their services. Most of their assignments passed off satisfactorily but sometimes they wished they had different vehicles for certain jobs. Even more than this they wished they could learn to drive their current ones in new and different ways in order to achieve more. But these extra expenses were hard to come by as there was a recession and there was little money for career advancement and the acquisition of new skills. The drivers found this sad but got on with their work, complaining but little.

Paul too had been thinking about training. He had been on a management study day and saw that many coloured bar charts could be produced analysing the number of course modules employees had attended. These in turn curried favour with the executives who liked to feel that they were providing a good learning environment as this in turn ticked many legal regulatory boxes.

Thus it was that he sat down and thought of the many areas that could be addressed by such a training programme. After several days of chewing his pen he came up with an extensive list. He composed a memo to all the drivers informing them of this splendid new opportunity to advance their knowledge and advised them that once they had attended all these modules they would only need to update their knowledge once a year. Topics included 'Keeping Fuel in Your Vehicle', 'Opening and Shutting Car Doors - the Risks and Benefits', 'Car Washing', 'The Importance of Servicing', 'Vehicle Identification', 'What to do in a Breakdown', ' Talking to your Passengers', 'Tyre Care', and many more.

"But Paul," cried the drivers as if with one voice when they saw this catalogue. "Apart from the 'What to do in a Breakdown' one, these are all useless. We know this stuff anyway and it is very patronising of you to think that we need to go on a course to learn how to shut a door. What we wanted was the chance to go on courses to learn how to drive in the snow, or change a fan-belt on the road, or how to load a removals van correctly. Not how to wash a car, which we do every week anyway."

Paul looked annoyed. All his efforts on their behalf were being spurned.

"And another thing, Paul," they said. "Doing all these learning exercises will take lots of time - time that we could otherwise be working. We are barely keeping up with customer demand as it is."

Paul looked annoyed. He needed those bar charts.

"It's not negotiable," he retorted. "It is a part of company policy that you do these and your annual increase in wages depends on their successful completion. We will lay on days when all work is cancelled and you can attend these lectures."

"But Paul, that will increase delays for our customers even more though," cried the drivers.

Paul looked annoyed. He hadn't thought of that.

"We will also pay you extra to do some weekend and evening work to clear any backlog," he replied, pleased at this idea. How generous he was!

The drivers shook their heads sadly. "But Paul. That's a huge extra cost to the company. If you let us go on the courses we wanted to go on, instead of these, we would probably even do it in our own time. Some of this extra money could be spent on the course fees instead. That way you wouldn't lose any work and we would all get better at our jobs."

But Paul simply looked annoyed. "It's compulsory," he said. And walked off.