The Craziest Places We've Trained

When CEA says we come to you, we really do. We go just about anywhere, at any time of the day, to provide first-rate training for employers and their employees. As a long time trainer myself, let me tell you that it truly takes an experienced and skillful trainer to pull off an engaging presentation and keep an employee's attention, especially when you're outside of a traditional office setting!  

As we end this crazy COVID-19 year, I asked our HR Directors and our Training & Development team to share with me some of the craziest places they've conducted a CEA training or investigation. From garages to backyards and in front of bears and burros, the answers were funny and surprising:    

• "I conducted an EEOC investigation in the stock room of a retail store while sitting on a file cabinet, surrounded by thousands of shoeboxes."
• "I gave a training next door to a trash and recycling center. I had to compete for the attendees' attention with the large cranes that were dumping trash and the loud trash incinerators at work."
• "A casket company requested a leadership class. The employees were sitting on boxes in a warehouse surrounded by hundreds of empty caskets, and many were open. Creepy!"
• "I was at a nursery nestled on some beautiful hills where wild burros live. These burros are in their protected natural habitat and free to roam. The training was outdoors with the burros in the distance. The employees said, 'Don't mind them, they do come on the property, but we just shoo them away.' I've never taught a class with wild burros watching!"
• "A construction company asked me to present a training inside of an abandoned home — it worked, but was an unusual training room setting."
• "I conducted a harassment prevention training in the working bay of an automotive repair shop with cardboard taped over the roll-up door as the screen for the powerpoint."
• "I taught for an ice cream shop, in the warehouse. They used a sheet for a screen, it was cold and on a Saturday to boot!"
• "Freezing cold warehouse with 100+ people, and no microphone — I learned to check into that for future trainings."
• "I presented a training outside on a patio, in an owner's backyard, with no shade, in the summer!"
• "I was presenting to a contractors association in Grass Valley. During the presentation we had live bears visit us — really. I later joked that I should have asked for hazard pay!"
• "I recently gave an outdoor training, in a parking lot, surrounded by the company's work trucks. Some people sat on the trucks and others on the ground, while I kept them engaged with Harassment Prevention Training. It was 39 degrees outside at 8 am. Brrrr…"

Goodbye 2020 and Happy New Year to all of you!