Late last week, as I was trying to figure out my angle for using Procter & Gamble as my company, I couldn't get over the arrogance that this task seems to require. Here I am, sitting in my home office in Austin, listening to movie soundtracks on Jango, with one cat asleep on the sofa and another sleeping in the sun on the floor. How the H-E - double hockey sticks am I supposed to know what the experts at P & G have considered when it comes to their corporate social responsibility strategy? Maybe they've considered things, but not put them in their annual report. Maybe they've decided that they'd like to do XYZ, but it's too costly now and they will implement it next year? I've never worked at P & G. I've never even been to Cincinnati, where their global headquarters is located. Sure, the hubs did when he did his internship there a decade ago but still...It just doesn't feel right to me.
I'd purposely picked P & G because in my infinite research (sarcasm!), I'd discovered that at least according to some, they kinda suck at being socially responsible. I figured that was my angle, but still I was struggling since I don't actually, and never have, worked there.
My student mentor, Kelly has spoken very highly of the course mentor for this class. Thus, I decided that instead of continuously hitting my head against the wall, I'd reach out her and see if she could lead me to the "aha!" that I was craving.
I emailed Em and asked her if she had office hours the following day. By 10AM, I hadn't received an email, but I saw WGU show up on my phone's caller ID. What the...? I figured that it must be the CM, so I answered. Sure enough it was. I explained to her my rationale for picking P & G (they suck); but that I needed some help overcoming my mental hurdles. Wanna know what she said? Hah! I knew you did!
First off, I'm not sure if she's hard of hearing, which is totally cool, by the way. I had friends who are deaf, so I'm totally comfortable using a relay service, or if my phone didn't work, or something else, but for some reason, the CM felt the need to SHOUT at me throughout the conversation. Her great advice that she just wanted to make sure I heard? Use a company that doesn’t have a good corporate social responsibility because it might make it easier to come up with suggestions.
Yep. She's got a law degree, which one could assume, means that she's trained in looking at situations from many different perspectives, yet the best she could come up with, was to parrot back to me exactly what I'd just said. Then, she sent me a follow up email. I think she was just fishing. "I hope I was able to help". GRRRRR I thought better to not respond than to piss her off by telling her the truth. "Gosh Em! It was so great shouting with you the other day. You have such original ideas! I only hope to be as creative at problem solving as you one day." Also, I haven't passed this class yet, so I might still need her for something.
Further frustrating me with Em is that I'm in business school. I'm also an adult. As such, I feel that my time should be respected just as if we were colleagues working for the same company. I specifically asked her when she was available to speak. I never gave her an indication of when I was free, yet she felt entitled to call me at her convenience with no regard to mine. Where do they find these people to do these course mentoring jobs? I'm thinking that they must not pay much because they don't seem to attract a very high-caliber of employee. Jeesh!
Maybe it's just me. After all, this is my 5th class and 3 of the 5 have found some way to royally piss me off, either from lack of communication skills, lack of common sense, lack of knowledge of the subject matter or all three. Come on, WGU! Let's get it together! How are you going to gain respect from academia and the business world by employing a faculty such as this? We, the students, deserve better.
Forward!