As you note, most of these trainings have nothing to do with helping people navigate real life experiences. They're intended to allow institutions to say "We trained people on how not to be colossal dicks, so the institution has no liability in the case of Harmed Person vs. Colossal Dick That We Employ that was filed today". In order to ensure that this defense is credible, they have to be able to prove that everybody actually viewed the time-wasting video as well--it's not enough to provide it and say "we encourage you to watch this".
I worked at a place that was having worker injury problems, among the office workers. Incidents like tripping over your printer cable or falling down the stairs. So they developed a training course on how to avoid these. The training included video anecdotes to help, and they used employees as the "actors." My favorite episode (How to Use Stairs) emphasized keeping one hand on the hand rail. The video showed a young woman (who everyone knew) in a tight short skirt and heels, with a big pile of books cradled in her arms, descending the stairs, with a starbucks teetering on the books, and a cell phone jammed in the crook of her neck. The best part was her giggling like Carol Burnett doing a scene with Harvey Korman.
You have really good mandatory courses. Back when I had to take such things, the choices tended to be:
You observe a coworker doing something questionable. Should you:
A) Behave like a decent human being with reasonable social skills
B) Mind your own business/pretend you never saw it
C) Rat them out to human resources
D) Join them in doing something questionable
E) Double down and do something bad enough not to be reasonably considered "questionable". Encourage them to join you.
The correct answer was pretty much always C, never A or B. But in the real world, the sensible choice was almost always B.
On the good side, we were generally allowed to take the quiz before watching this year's videos, and only review sections of the course we didn't get right the first time.
On the bad side, there was a minimum time spent taking courses that were new, or that we'd failed questions from. So you left the course on screen, pondering your answers (not), while getting some real work done.
As you note, most of these trainings have nothing to do with helping people navigate real life experiences. They're intended to allow institutions to say "We trained people on how not to be colossal dicks, so the institution has no liability in the case of Harmed Person vs. Colossal Dick That We Employ that was filed today". In order to ensure that this defense is credible, they have to be able to prove that everybody actually viewed the time-wasting video as well--it's not enough to provide it and say "we encourage you to watch this".
I worked at a place that was having worker injury problems, among the office workers. Incidents like tripping over your printer cable or falling down the stairs. So they developed a training course on how to avoid these. The training included video anecdotes to help, and they used employees as the "actors." My favorite episode (How to Use Stairs) emphasized keeping one hand on the hand rail. The video showed a young woman (who everyone knew) in a tight short skirt and heels, with a big pile of books cradled in her arms, descending the stairs, with a starbucks teetering on the books, and a cell phone jammed in the crook of her neck. The best part was her giggling like Carol Burnett doing a scene with Harvey Korman.
Makes you a more successful sexual harasser. You should pay more attention to your primary screen.
You have really good mandatory courses. Back when I had to take such things, the choices tended to be:
You observe a coworker doing something questionable. Should you:
A) Behave like a decent human being with reasonable social skills
B) Mind your own business/pretend you never saw it
C) Rat them out to human resources
D) Join them in doing something questionable
E) Double down and do something bad enough not to be reasonably considered "questionable". Encourage them to join you.
The correct answer was pretty much always C, never A or B. But in the real world, the sensible choice was almost always B.
On the good side, we were generally allowed to take the quiz before watching this year's videos, and only review sections of the course we didn't get right the first time.
On the bad side, there was a minimum time spent taking courses that were new, or that we'd failed questions from. So you left the course on screen, pondering your answers (not), while getting some real work done.