The Leadership Chronicles: Someone else hated it too

No, I did not have the best attitude going into this, but – and here is why I do not feel guilty – I went in with an open mind. And I take no pleasure in the fact that it was as Kumbaya as I expected it to be. What did surprise me however is that there was one participant who, whilst his attitude was not as bad as mine, actually had the balls to articulate his displeasure at being on the course. Yes, I made my irritation known early on, but in very passive-aggressive ways; this guy was full-on - we hadn’t even gotten on the bus before he told us how much he did not want to be here. And twice he told Mr. Clean how much he disliked him. This guy was my hero. But he turned. Or did he? Was he faking it as much as I was? I guess I could ask him on Facebook but I think part of me does not want to know the answer. Part of me holds out hope that I was not the only one who thought it all bullshit and could not be turned.

But this guy, wow, he said out loud pretty much everything I was thinking. And sometimes did what I would have liked to have done. Like, at the end, we had to submit the names of those of whom we thought would benefit from taking a class - I made up a fake name, this guy didn’t fill in anything!!! Ironically, he and I were assigned seats next to each other for much of the course, and we partnered up several times. I confessed to him on more than one occasion how uncomfortable I was. But when an incident happened towards the very end, I did wonder if that had not been such a good idea: during one particularly loud session, he gets up and walks out. Now, this was not a bathroom break walk-out, this was full-on, taking the backpack, I am out of here deal. It was so dramatic and resulted in putting into practical use some of what we had been taught when we persuaded him to come back. But then I got all paranoid and I started to wonder if he was a plant and had been instructed to do this to test us. See why I was freaking out because of what I had told him?