The show must go on

There are many advantages to corporate training over academic training but one one the disadvantages is adverse weather policies.

With academics, there are many weeks (if not months) to "catch up" on a missed day or a delay. With academics, it is easy to find out if there is a delay or cancellation through local media. With academics, the students (or the majority) are local and don't have to worry about rescheduling plane flights.

With corporate education - The show must go on. Students travel in from out of town for a class that is jammed packed with information and fills the entire week. There is not time to miss a day and catch up later in the week and no way to alter the curriculum that significantly. A company will often help a student reschedule a class or allow them to audit the missed days in a future class, but they can't help with the costs of rescheduling the travel. And since the class goes on for those students who can attend - the instructor has to be there too - with the help of trains and automobiles when there are no planes and even when there are few if any other employees in the building.

I've have several stories I could tell about how the show must go on. This week I had the adventure of being north of Boston for a January Nor'easter. I had flown in early to visit with friends and family but Monday morning I had to get from the hotel to the office through snow falling at several inches per hour. We only ended up with 10inches total but in the morning it was coming down so fast that it was sticking to the window of the car faster than I could get it cleared off. There was no school for the kids and while businesses were open, many people (thankfully) stayed home that morning. It didn't take me that long to get to the office and I had left plenty of extra time. And most of my students made it to class as well.

In the afternoon it stopped and since it had been an all snow event, the roads were quickly cleared. Once I got the car cleared (again) I had no problems. It all turned out to be one of my more boring "snow meets work" events.