post 4

Between three AP tests and two track meets I have not been keeping up with my blogging, so I am just going to post several blog entries in a row to get caught up. I have learned a lot from the people that I have been working with at the Aerospace Institute. One day, Pat was on the phone with some working in the CSC office in Rockville Maryland. The phone was on speaker, so I could hear the whole conversation. The Person from the other office mentioned that he had changed one of the programs for the simulations, that he had made something simpler and easier to use. However, the whole point of the simulation is to train air traffic controllers, and this short cut that was added did not exist in the real world. Pat told the man that he appreciated his work, but he should change the program back to the way it was so that it would still be realistic. Afterward, Pat explained to me that there were several ways that he could have handled the situation. He could have gotten angry and said something along the lines of: “you idiot! What were you thinking? Change it back!” He could have just said nothing and then had someone else fix the problem behind the guy’s back. Or, he could have said done what he did and calmly explained to the person what he did wrong and why it was wrong so that he could learn from his mistake without having his feelings hurt from being yelled at. Pat explained that this was usually the best way to handle situations like this.