On a day long course on promoting dignity and respect in the workplace today. I think it used to be 'Bullying and Harrassment' but the course leader had a theory about focussing on the negative actually creating the negative thing.

Anyway, although I didn't go with much in the way of expectations, it was a good and interesting day.

The disappointment being that it was so informal and intimate that I couldn't sit at the back and also visit Second Life where colleagues from TheOldPlace were doing a demonstration and had suggested I might drop in. We did have a 20 minute tea break and with 12 minutes of it left after grabbing a drink I thought there was just time to say a virtual 'Hi' - but the break was curtailed and just as I got logged on it was time to go again. I nearly pretended to sit and take notes, but my screen could be overlooked and the presenter had already made some remark about emailing during meetings and respect and so on, so I didn't dare.

The encouragement (if that's the right word) was in a bit role play at the end of the day. The group I was in had a couple of goes with one pair doing a fair job of one being a manager and t'other being a member of staff who was being bullied. Then it was my turn to take on a role with someone else as manager. The role I was assigned turned out, as I skimmed through the briefing, to be someone who'd been inappropriately asked out on several occasions by a line manager. And between nerves at playing the part and realizing that this was what someone talking to their appraiser would feel like anyway plus an empty coffee cup to fiddle with, I was soon 'there' or 'in the zone' as they say. When I surfaced at the end of maybe 7 or 8 minutes of this, the rest of the group were visibly astonished. I didn't think it had gone particularly well as without a script I always feel somewhat at a loss - but they unanimously thought I should quit my job and become an actor tomorrow. If I wasn't so exhausted by the whole process I might think it was good idea - but it was fun in any case.

Not sure I've the energy to go home now.