Are Work-Learning Professionals Vilified?

Bob Herbert has a nice article today in the NYTimes on how we ought to celebrate many of our fellow citizens for going out of their way in doing their jobs. In it he mentions how teachers and auto workers have been vilified. Got me thinking about whether work-learning professionals are vilified. Probably too strong a word, but still, I think perhaps as a field we are under-appreciated, or at least labeled in such a way that is not flattering in the central-to-the-organizational-mission kind of appreciation that we might aspire to.

Comments

[Jeff]

I think at many organizations we are under appreciated, but certainly not to the extent U.S. teachers are under appreciated, and under paid too.

In regards to training professionals, some of it is our own fault for not doing thorough evaluations and providing ROI. Plus, we must educate people on the difference between training needs and performance improvement needs. So often we hear "training was not effective" when it is actually a performance issue. That really gets under my skin.

Thanks for the post and link to the NY Times article.

[Ole Kristensen]

Maybe it sometimes has something to with the learning pro's being a bit self-righteous with Mr./Mrs. Know-it-all attitude.
I try to be more supportive and appreciativee and deliver good backup i.e. pointing to good articles, blogs and books or write an article myself in our corporate wiki, showing a good example by producing a small chunk of on demand eLearning for inspiration and finally trying to find the right tools to help peopåle in their jobs - IMHO my department and I had grown to be quite weel-known and well-reputed inside the organisation.