My Promotion Training Survival Guide

When you accept a promotion and it requires 46 hours of training, there are some survival tips you may not know about. It's only been 24 hours, but I have compiled a list of helpful things to know.

• Stay within the same company. This is helpful in knowing the lingo required for your new job. You have either seen the words on company memos and bulletin boards, or you have heard them come out of someone's mouth at work. I haven't used the training glossary yet.
• Do not be an insomniac. I usually get my best sleep from 3AM to 10AM. This is not a good idea when your training sessions start at 9AM and you have to wrap your brain around comparison graphs and focus plans.
• Bring sunglasses. I'm training in another store in our district. I brought my reading glasses. I wasn't told that I would be spending many hours in a 8 foot x 8 foot room with enough lighting for an indoor sports stadium. How do you spell EYESTRAIN? The next day I wore my reading sunglasses and my eyes thanked me.
• Wear Comfortable Pants. I wasn't sure if I would be on the sales floor my first day, so I wore dress pants, a blouse and dressy shoes. I spent the day in a room the size of my bathroom, sitting on a metal folding chair, with a room temperature usually favored by Polar Bears. The second day, it was elastic-waist pants, a comfy long-sleeved t-shirt and my Mary Jane Sneakers.
• Bring A Snackwagon*. The first day, I brought an apple and a few $$ to get a Smoothie on my break. By 4PM I wanted to zzzzzzz and had to make an emergency Barnie's run.The second day, I brought an apple, almonds, raisins, water, Coke Zero. Today I brought Chik-fil-A, an apple, a Godiva Sugar-free dark chocolate bar and willingly inhaled the piece of strawberry cheesecake that was offered to me.

I have 3 days next week to finish my training. I think I'll survive.

* I should copyright the term "snackwagon". I coined it when I had a hypoglycemic co-worker. He always came to work with a backpack full of snacks, in case of an unexpected blood sugar crash.