Ethics CEU's......

[BBR]

So, our wonderful professional organization (who only seems interested in making us look more "professional" instead of making our profession and work more secure) petitioned our board to require us to have additional hours of CEU's. Lovely. After some debate they ended up tacking on 4 additional hours that have to be in the area of ethics.

I just finished taking an ethics course (at home study course) worth 8 hours of CEU's.

Am I the only one that finds this a colossal waste of time? I am of the opinion that if you are of the unethical sort, no amount of training or reading ridiculous case studies is really going to change who you are at the core.

I just get ticked at our professional organization that will not aggressively pursue issues that we face daily and instead dream up new ways to effectively drain our bank accounts.

Boo.

[milner351]

I hear ya!

We are required to take some courses (thankfully they're all online and are expected to be done during work hours) on a yearly basis.

The ethics ones are particularly laughable, sorry you have to put up with that level of BS! especially if you're expected to work on it on your own time.

[TheSilverBuick]

I agree! Recently we've been hit with the "Clean your desk and office because it'll make you take more pride in your work" pressure from "new" management. I take enough pride in my work, I really don't need to take any more, really. One of our corporate geologist guys said, "That's what happens when non-technical people make it into management. They don't understand what the real work looks like so they want everything to 'look' neat." Yay, :rollseyes:

My answer was to go to the local hardware store and install a new lock on my office door and give no one the key

[DanStokes]

For the most part I agree with you 100%. However, there is some evidence that there are more sociopaths (those without that little voice in their heads that says "this is right and that is wrong") than originally thought. Most manage to function in this world by learning that society will tolerate certain behaviors and will not tolerate others so if you want to stay out of jail and keep your job here's what you have to do. Ethics training gives this small group of people the checklist for staying out of trouble.

But mostly I think employers think that they HAVE to offer such training so that no one can say "I didn't know that was expected of me". The bigger the organization the greater number of sociopaths are likely to be lurking in their midst and hopefully some of them will act of this training.

Dan

[BBR]

Randal, a messy desk (or garage) is the sign of an active mind and we all know what an idle mind is!

Well I am a partner in the biz so it was really an 'at office study', not 'at home'. I wonder which client I can bill that time to? Hmmmmm .. lol ;)

All the registered people in our office have severed ties with our professional organization. While they claim to have our best interests in mind, that has not been their track record. They seem more interested in raising the social status level of surveyors instead of protecting the nuts and bolts of the profession. They think we should be suit and tie, when reality is jeans and work boots.

I suppose sensitivity ceu's will be next.

[Beagle]

what I love best about mandatory training is the "my time, your time" philosophy the company usually takes. From my bosses:

"you'll work as usual on my time, but you will take this mandatory training on YOUR time"

I kind of resent it. One time, when I was younger and dumber, I actually was stupid enough to bring this up. Response?

"This is not a 40 hour a week job"

My dumbass replies with "Really? So when I have my "Your time" stuff done in 32 hours I can leave?"

uh huh. You know the response to that. "You can do anything you want on your last day here."

I only lost .5 on my 1-5 scale review over that. Whoops. I guess it could have been worse.

[Bob Holmes]

Its all about liability.

[hoofhearted]

I don't get paid overtime. So when the office tells me to do my truck stock inventory at home on the weekend or at night, or to get my oil changed over the weekend. The answer is NO. If its company work it will happen on company time. Oh and I turn my work cell phone off at night and on weekends.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Its all about liability.

sort of - ever used this line on your kids "you knew the rules"? ethics rules are written because someone, somewhere decided it'd be a profitable venture to be unethical then when confronted with their sins, they successfully argued that it wasn't prohibited therefore it's permitted (see, e.g. the 14th amendment to the constitution). forcing people to read the rules allows the governing board to punish its members when they step out of line (no double secret probation). That said, how can you have an ethics requirement for a non-mandatory, professional organization?

[BBR]

It's not for the prop organization. They are just the ones that lobbied the board of registration to add the extra hours and ethics requirement. They initially wanted 8 hours of ethics ceu's per calendar year.

My opinion is that the increase really just serves to make the organization (and it's supporters) more $$$ because they are the one's putting on the spendy seminars at hotels that we get flyers in the mail advertising all the time. They lobby to increase the requirements and then reap the benefits. Fortunately, there are a few 'at home' study programs that we can read the material at our leisure, take an exam and be finished.

[catchmeblue70]

Apparently ethics seminars/trainings are necessary because a lot of people don't have any ethics anymore. Like one of my coworkers. But I've bitched about them enough this week, so I'll leave it at that.

[LORENSWIFE]

I am sick up to here with Ethics crap at work! The constant need to take yet another course on how not to offend anybody or what constitutes "ripping off the company". At least we do it on the computer during working hours but still!
Frankly I miss the sexual harassment of the '80s, the guilt free lifting of a couple of pencils etc. The off-color jokes...

Here's to dirty jokes, free office supplies and a pinch on the butt now and then! Ah the good ole days.

~gail

[TheSilverBuick]

I am sick up to here with Ethics crap at work! The constant need to take yet another course on how not to offend anybody or what constitutes "ripping off the company". At least we do it on the computer during working hours but still!
Frankly I miss the sexual harassment of the '80s, the guilt free lifting of a couple of pencils etc. The off-color jokes...

Here's to dirty jokes, free office supplies and a pinch on the butt now and then! Ah the good ole days.

~gail

^^ That's Awesome You left out the beer at lunch

[milner351]

beer? I always heard about the "three martini lunch", golf outings, secretaries that picked up dry cleaning....

ah well - we have jobs - I suppose we should be thankful for them, but the BS level we have to put up with does seem to be ever ratcheting in the wrong direction.

Gail - remind me if we ever meet to pinch you on the butt - just to remind you of the good ole days!

[LORENSWIFE]

^^ That's Awesome You left out the beer at lunch

OMG! How could I have left that out! Back in the '90s and joining the sales dept but as a tech support person we would get invited to their lunches, if you did not drink you were looked at pretty strangely! If you got your drink down to half they would auto-order you another one, sometimes we went back to work so wasted we could barely finish the day. Our group would go out sometimes at night too and I am not proud of it but I got lost on the way home once from downtown...I don't do that stuff anymore though. On that same night we got banned from the really famous SD attraction venue that we had the party at and have never been back that was probably 12 years ago...