Business, Uncategorized, work

Confusion

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I have mentioned before that I serve on a regulatory board that ensures that the members of a certain profession practice ethically and are appropriately licensed.   My job on the board is to approve continuing education requests. The licensees need a certain number of continuing education hours every two years to  keep their licenses to practice. Trainings have to meet certain requirements for  content and presenter qualification. I am the one who has to make recommendations to the entire board whether such requests are approved.

We have reached the month of license renewal , and I am amazed how slapdash some of the licensees are in submitting their continuing education requests for approval.  Some wait until the last minute before submitting the requests, blissfully unaware that they have missed the deadline for final Board approval.  Others send in approval requests with insufficient detail of their trainings,  and then don’t respond to my entreaties for more information.

It amazes me that the quite well-educated people who we license don’t pay attention to important details that, if ignored, could mean the loss of their licence to practice, or a else hefty fine for all the bother they have caused the Board.  Who acts like this?  Perhaps I am naive, but really, this make no sense!

When have you been flabbergasted?

 

 

46 thoughts on “Confusion”

  1. We all get frustrated when others behave in annoying ways. But it is part of my peculiar psychology that when I see others doing things I think are senseless, I challenge my own perceptions. Maybe I’m missing something.

    Shopping for groceries in this area is stressful for me. I had forty years of shopping in the remarkably civil and courteous environment of my local Lunds store. Compared to it, the Port Huron stores are chaotic, crowded and challenging for someone who (like myself) cannot walk and must use an electric cart. As I weave through human traffic I am blocked repeatedly by folks shopping in groups of two to three people, walking side by side and having lengthy conferences to debate each purchase. People seem oblivious to my handicap, and I struggle with anger as they repeatedly block my progress on my shopping list. Can’t people see I am struggling with mobility limits?

    Here is where my “peculiar psychology” kicks in. I’ve learned that Lunds shoppers are exceptionally considerate and aware of others. They operate from a culture of deference and politeness–Minnesota niceness, if you please. Moreover, shopping for folks in this part of Michigan is difficult because the local economy is distressed. People shop in family groups because grocery shopping is a family recreation here. These family groups haggle about small purchases because they have to be more careful with money than the more fortunate shoppers at my Highland Park Lunds store. I try to control my frustrations here, although it isn’t easy.

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    1. It seems to me that we need to revamp our Board website to be clearer and more user friendly. We have some other ideas for getting the word out to our licencees as well.

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  2. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I have been confused and flabbergasted since last year’s election. That has yet to clear up. I still feel like I live in an alternate universe. When I was in Ireland, people wanted to discuss American politics. I finally told them that while I was there, I wanted to forget the entire thing. So then they wanted to discuss Brexit, which reminded me that their political world is upside down, too. But then they hate the Brits and would just roll their eyes and say, “Well, they are English. It is what we expect from them.” Then they would have a drink, sing a song, and feel better. Maybe I will take up drinking and singing, neither of which I do well.

    Renee, I am not sure what is going on with the professional CEU preparation you talk about. It sounds so different than the MN process of CEU submissions. Do you do this for each psychologist? Or do you approve the CEUs for each training that is available?

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    1. Most trainings are preapproved by entities like APA or State Associations. The ones we have to approve are usually local or regional. The presenters or sponsoring agencies don’t have the time or finances to get APA approval, so we review and approve. Once a training has been approved for one requester, it is considered approved for all.

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      1. I wonder if people are ignoring the requirement then panicking at the last minute because they don’t really feel confidant about what to do. Been there myself. I see the comment after Steve’s that you are buffing up the website. Maybe the assumption that educated professionals can do this is inaccurate. Maybe they need structured instructions that lay it out step by step. When I got my DBT cert that board improved their process of instructions and it helped a lot.

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        1. IMO, it’s always good to make things, especially required things, as easy as possible to do. As someone who has rather a chaotic, random brain, things like step-by-step instructions are a godsend. Also, those online forms that let you know when you’ve left off some necessary information are great. Reminders are also good.

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      1. Somewhere along my life journey, I picked up a lovely wisdom: the three surest ways to human joy are singing, dancing, and laughing. When I thought about it, it made perfect sense because when engaged in one of these, you’re completely in the moment. I can’t sing, and laughing isn’t something that comes easily, but when I’m dancing, I can’t be fussing over paying for a new water heater or an upcoming PET scan!

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    3. As a clinical social worker, I was intimidated by the process and hated having to spend a couple thousand dollars worth of boring workshops every renewal period in addition to the renewal fee. When, after 30 years in the field, my private practice numbers fell to a low level, I could no longer justify the cost of CEUs/renewal fees, and simply allowed my license to lapse. Along with that, I cancelled being on a national listing and malpractice insurance. I will say though, that for the last few years, my board streamlined the process by putting renewals online. A simple, one-page form in which we didn’t have to list where we’d gotten CEUs, just type in the number of credits. The only “teeth” in this system was the threat of being audited.

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  4. I am currently flabbergasted. We are at the Dearborn County Indiana Courthouse trying to fix what another installed messed up. It’s a very tough job to pull up glued down carpet and re-install it by stretching it to eliminate the mismatched pattern. Everyone is pleased that we are by saving the job except… my boss! “You’re not getting the job done fast enough!”
    What the heck?! We save $30,000 worth of carpet but we’re not fast enough?! Who caused the problem in the first place? Me or the boss who hired incompetent people?! I’m flabbergasted, and going home for the weekend. Oh yeah. I failed to mention that we are supposed to work 10-12 hour days until we’re done. Flabbergasted.

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    1. what would be the result if you went rouge wessew and became a hired gun , by the job. instead of being told to hurry he would implore you to please take care of my problem please.

      schmucks who dont get it flabbergast me.

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  5. i think the submission of a bad idea in a shoddy fashion at the deadline is a lesson waiting to happen. psycholigist heal thyself could be placed on the tagline

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  6. I’ll leave aside the actions of people close to me which often flabbergasts me and go with one thing that puzzles me having to do with my photography. Take Instagram. I put some of my photos on Instagram and I choose what goes there fairly carefully. My most popular photos may get 20 or so “likes.” Sometimes I see in my feed somene’s photo that is similar to my kind of subjects – but technically not nearly as good (IMO) and not only does that photo get dozens or hundreds of “likes’ but tons of comments praising the photo and photographer like they’re the next Jim Brandenburg or something. It puzzles me. I’ve even showed some of these examples to daughter and she’s at a loss to explain it, too. (Or else she’s just being nice and doesn’t want to tell me that my photos aren’t as good).

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    1. Lest I sound too puffed up, let me add that I also see some photos on these sites (Instagram and Capture MN) that make me realize that I have a long way to go before I can say my photos are absolutely top-notch.

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    2. instagram isnt about quality its about followers.
      if you are interested in learning the analytics to the instagram world you can discover the way to do this and to get peole to follow you on the instagram threads that rule many peoples lives.

      if you were to look at the instagram accounts of the people making comments on the lessor quality photo i would guess that they live in a little network (kind of like the trail) where they all have a bunch of supporters that blow smoke up each others pant legs.
      it is a good way to grow your business but as far as recognizing quality… artists, how can you not know the quality stuff is lost on the masses. only us truly cooth sons of bitches know jack about quality good taste

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      1. Yeah, I thought it might be something like that, tim. Although, it’s not so much the numbers (although that’s part of it) but the comments that are so over the top. Amazing! Awesome! Absolutely beautiful! Incredible! etc. etc. Maybe because I save my comments for when I am really, really impressed, it puzzles me when people go nuts for an average photo. What do they say when they see a picture that really IS amazing and incredible?

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    3. Aw – the good ol “like” hits! I wonder how many of us, especially on FB, are encouraged or discouraged by this snap feedback? On FB, I’ll post something funny or poignant or serious, then get sucked into watching the like numbers, too. Invariably, uninteresting posts get dozens of likes to every one of my own. It doesn’t make any sense! I sometimes even wonder if I’m not using FB correctly.

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    1. I would be happy to draft a formal response that says that and send it to you. That would make a splash.

      Dear Dr. Smith/Ms Smith MA, LP, MSW, LPCC

      Your mother clearly failed in her attempts to raise a competent, responsible human professional. Therefore, your application to offer 6 CEU’s for your “Supporting Parenting in the 21st Century” training is denied.

      Sincerely,

      The Committee.

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  8. OT – i have a friend who kindly offered to sell my cards at her table at a holiday boutique (especially kind, since the coffeeshop that was going to have my photo cards to sell and framed prints on the wall went out of business).

    Now I’m trying to figure out how to display the cards (preferably without spending much $$$). She has a 6-foot table and has other things she’ll need to put on the table so I should take as little space as possible. So, something vertical that would show the cards face out. I only have 16 different cards at this point so it doesn’t have to be huge but I would prefer to be able to show all of them at once, not have any hiding behind the others. Perhaps it would be best just to spend the money and get something quality but I don’t know if I will ever use it again…

    Thoughts?

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    2. build an acrylic h frame ladder 6 inches wide and 2 feet tall with 2 pins to rest the pictures on at the bottom, up 8 inches another and then another
      make an a frame out of the ladder and you will not be able to show 16 8x10s without overlapping but 5×7 maybe if you do the horizontal presentation… might take 2 or… put it on the floor in front of the table and then you build the ladder 4 feet tall instead of 2 feet tall. 2 or 3 of those across the front of the table would do all 16

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      1. the cards are mostly 4×5.5 inches; three are 5×7. I don’t think there will be room on the table for framed prints and, besides, I don’t have them ready to sell, framed or unframed (should at least be in poly bags; don’t have the right size of those).

        I’ve never built anything out of acrylic; is it hard to do?

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        1. no you buy a sheet, get a saw and a tube of glue

          cut the acrylic out to the shapes you wand and pull out a glue applicator or squeeze it out of the tube of gorillia glue or whatever and the second the acrylic touches the glue and the other piece of acrylic it is aheared (wrong wrong wrong) you may have to wait for part one to dry before you do part two or just be careful and build the whole ladder at once and squeeze out the glue in however many spots and you are done fanch would be to do that and then drill holes and input the acrylic rods (precut) into the holes , glue that and you are set.
          draw a picture and tell yourself you need 22 1 inch x 6 inch pieces
          4 36x 2 inch pieces or whatever you come up with.
          maybe the twins could help with the glue part of the project. glue their fingers together and watch the fun. do you have an old chair and an old pair of jeans you could glue one of them to a chair with… what a fun project for you… how can you distract them long enough to get the glue to dry and allow you to see the surprised look on their faces when they try to get up… oh what fun

          if you want help with the design i can assist but ill bet you can have fun with that too

          if you need a drilll or a saw or a brush for glue i can help out there

          maybe design a rack you can offer to different coffee shops to sell you stuff for you

          by the way not having plastic bags to sell framed art in is the lamest excuse i ever heard.
          i have plastic bags too they sell them at the store with the name glad on the box

          i told you about goodwill frames…still a good idea

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        2. Okay….

          BTW, I meant to say the prints I have are unframed and if I would sell them unframed, I should at least have a poly bag for them so they stay clean as all the customers put their dirty hands on them. I don’t need poly bags for framed prints. The idea was to frame them for the coffeeshop but then that closed and now I will wait to buy frames, mats, and glass for when I have a few more dollars in my pocket.

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    3. If space is really tight, one way to handle the display would be to prepare a poster card that shows the sixteen images. Then you can merchandise the actual cards all together in a long tray or box.

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      1. When you start selling prints regularly, check out clearbags.com. They have ready-cut mats and larger bags/sleeves to accommodate just about any standard size print. I have found them to be reliable and reasonable.

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        1. That’s where I got the poly bags for the cards, Bill. I didn’t realize they have ready-cut mats,too, although I usually need custom sizes, not standard one, since I’m picky about how I crop my photos and thus they don’t always print to an exact standard size (most of the prints don’t fill up the entire paper). When I frame something, I order from American Frame, which also cuts the mats to custom sizes (at no extra charge). I’ve never had them make a mistake. If I ever sell a print matted but not framed, I will have to find a place that does custom size matting (cheap). I’m not terribly interested in doing it myself.

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      2. 16 images is great way to minimize space but i think the customer would like to be able to look at the chosen piece alone and seperate. when you put them all on one sheet it makes the one next to it as important as the one you are looking at.
        i like the tray idea for selling wares but for display offer individual pictures

        in the tray offer the individual pictures on 2 or 3 choices of mats
        offer framed ones to be mailed or 25 packs to be sent out by thanksgiving for christmas cards 25 packs on blank cards
        cards $4 each or 25 for $75 dollars with cards and envelopes in a package. signed by ljb/ec

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        1. I’m thinking to make a display stand out of sturdy cardboard for this one time. Spray paint it or something so it doesn’t look cardboardy. It can act as a model for something better in the future (or show me that I should just buy something ready-made). Tiered so it doesn’t take up too much table space. Enough space that each card will be face out and not overlap with the other cards.

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        2. I can picture that. 4 tiers, four cards wide. Total size about 24” wide by 24” high by maybe 16 to 20 inches deep. You can get big sheets of corrugated at office depot, I think. The whole thing could be cut out of a single sheet in one piece and folded.

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  9. I am flabbergasted at the pace of change in our world. The way people lived a hundred years ago was so profoundly different from the way we live today. It amazes me that human beings are so adaptable.

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