So today was the first day of DSL training. It started out all wrong. Let's start at the beginning, back in the FiOS campaign we had some up-training. Up-training is refresher training and instruction on new systems and changed systems. 


  So we go and watch some video about stuff we already know. It beats being on the phone. Tom Winfindale the trainer is handing out, and reading from, a paper. I made the mistake of turning my back as I was reading from it while he was explaining it. I was listening to be sure, and the computer screen was off or at the login screen. Well he told me to pay attention so I turn around. I'm looking right at him and he asks me again if I'm paying attention.Then he does it again and again.  It certainly felt like he was picking on me.  That is petty stuff, and I don't do petty. I'm not a child anymore and don't like it one bit. I ask him calmly if he's finished. Then I saw something like, "then let's move on"  I think the air got sucked out of the room. I don't know if he did anything else, but as I was walking at the door about five minutes later I said "dick" or "fucking dick" 

  So yeah he got to me, but my anger is fleeting, it takes a pattern of abuse to get on my, um, list. 

  That was a month or two ago. So before DSL training, I go to the office and he's the only one in there, so I tell him something like, "I will try not to be a dick." He wants to know my name, so I give it to him. It's  hard for men to apologize to men. I think he has no idea what I'm talking about. I was going to say "jerk" or "douche", but working at TRG has expanded by vulgar vocabulary. It just comes out. I certainly don't do it on the call floor, but a lot of agents around me hit the mute button and  say things like, "your computer won't start and you call us you dumb bitch."


  Our class makes it to the training room eventually. Tom starts off and mentions he's from Hershey, PA and yes, it does smell like chocolate. He came here to West Virginia to help his aunt and uncle. His aunt is in declining heath. It seems they have a lot of animals to take care of, snakes and alligators in the back yard. (Joke?) He mentioned he was a counselor. So anyway, we go to class and we're introducing ourselves and a "new hire" mentions that he dances. I think it was something like the krunk walk. It wasn't cripp walk or krunking, but something like that. So we get in to a discussion and Tom says that he dances Salsa and was taught by an older couple in Florida. He mentioned he was reluctant to start, but a female friend convinced him. He said this in passing, so I asked him to make sure I heard it right. "So it was a female friend ?" I was amused by the fact that he was convinced to try something he now likes by a woman.  They have a way of doing that. We men aim to please. Like if a girl you are attracted to eats cabbage and you hate it you'll give it another chance and spoon a few bites down, and if you like cabbage it will become one of your favorite dishes. 

  So I go to lunch and then Tom, Walter, and some guy I'm not too familiar with tell me to step in to the office. I don't like the looks of this at all. They look to me to be witnesses and maybe muscle. They then call Janice (she fires people) and ask me what I did. What I did ? What DID I do ? I don't know...  Then Tom says something like "it's a woman?" So I think I have some idea where he's going. I try to explain it in the two seconds. I don't know her. I wasn't question her femininity. I tried to explain that it was funny that men will go to extreme links to impress, even if they're mildly interested. Then he said that I said "dick" so I should still be fired. I hear dick on tv all the time. What is the sound of one hand fapping ? People at work say "eat a a bowl of dicks" every day or so. Janice was mad at me saying I interrupted him and that the FiOS people were asking tough questions that would make TRG look bad in front of the new-hires. I didn't say this, but we weren't having a teacher/student type of talk, we were having a round table, shoot-the-breeze type of talk. Janice says we'll discuss this tomorrow. I leave and eventually make it back to class. Adam says later that it would appear that I made a gay joke. Oh crap, it wasn't her femininity he was concerned about, he thinks I called him gay. If I was going to make a gay joke, it'd involve a town in PA and the boxing of a certain chocolate-like substance. 

Here I was worried that he held a grudge. I need to learn to shut up. Oh well, I can go work for Suddenlink.