It's a little strange how many of us arrive at our careers. I would venture to guess that most people don't end up doing what they planned in the early stages, you know when the world offered us everything and all we had to do was apply ourselves to it. I originally wanted to be a teacher. It was a strange goal considering I was in 5th grade when I was really thinking that I would like to help other kids, that might have some trouble learning the stuff we were learning.

I have jumped from what I dreamed of for what was realistic for my needs at the time. That doesn't mean that I couldn't go back and do it, I just decided that there are other areas that I could excel at which are of interest to me as well.

I will be the first to admit that what I do is not a beacon for a lot of people. Many of us found this type of job because originally they didn't have anyone else to fill it. Rules, regulations, health and safety just don't sound fun. Policy and procedure sound formal and uninviting. I understand that, but there is something to be said for it all. It ensures that people aren't worked to death, and I promise you it also means that a great deal less people are hurt and dying while at work. It also goes overboard in too many areas to cover here, but we take the good with the bad.

All of that so that I could get to the point of this. I was recently told I would be giving some training to a group of workers not employed directly by our company. I don't like to do this, because the possibility of liability is way to high. All it takes is somebody getting hurt and saying they didn't understand what I trained them and here comes a lawsuit. The boss wants it done and that is it. I have never had to do this as I'm new to this industry.

I have mentioned a certain person I am forced to work around that is less than helpful. He is in fact always looking for ways to make things difficult and has even tried a few times to sabotage what I'm doing. I understand it for what it is and avoid and ignore it when possible. He is the reason I'm doing this training, since he put the bug in the boss's ear. So I've begun getting all the training materials together and realized that this is going to be lengthy. Most of the other guys just gave out handouts and had these guys sign papers. I'm not inclined to work that way. I have studied some of this crap to death to make sure that I have answers for their questions. Even if I don't do this particular work I have to know how to do it because I'm starting to see that these guys are left on their own with a sort of sink or swim mentality.

I was preparing the lesson plan and my "friend" came in and seeing the paperwork, sort of laughed and asked what I was planning to do. I explained to him that they needed all this information and if they haven't been getting it in the past they will be getting it now. He told me that it's easier to just talk to them about it, and let them sign their papers. I see now who was giving the training before, even telling him that whoever did it prior was obviously not qualified to instruct. He got a little defensive and told me I suffer from OCD. I laughed at him (not in a friendly way).

I may have OCD, I'm not sure. I do believe in due diligence. I think that if somebody is expecting to learn something maybe they want to know all the ins and outs of it. I know I would. This is dangerous stuff and they have every right to know as much about it as I can find out. I guess in a way I became that teacher I wanted to be a long time ago. Just didn't figure it would be in this type of a class environment.