Wastebook - Senator Tom Coburn - U.S. Senate

Wastebook 201315. Lifestyle Coaching for Senate Staff -- (Senate Office of Education andTraining) $1.9 millionSometimes working in the Senate is stressful and means staying up all night to get your projects done.Fortunately, overworked and under-sleptstaffers can take one of dozens of lifestylecoaching classes offered by the Senate toensure they’re okay.The Senate Office of Education andTraining offers Senate employees a widevariety of free courses on everything fromthe “Benefits of a Good Night’s Sleep” 215 to“Pressure Point Therapy Workshop,” inwhich students are taught “how to locateand relieve active pressure. 216 For itsefforts, the office was provided $1.9 millionin 2013 according to information providedby the office of the Senate Sergeant atArms.Oops! The Senate Office of Education and Training could use a crashcourse in editing and proofreading.While the office is little known, even within the Senate, itmade national headlines briefly in 2012 over a typo on the coverits course catalog.After misspelling the word “training” by leaving out the first“N,” one staffer remarked, “Ooh! They’ve got an editing andproofreading class!” 217According to its website, the Office “provides a variety of waysfor you [a Senate staffer] to enhance your professionaldevelopment and increase your performance and technicalskills.” These include such offerings as, “Assert Yourself: SpeakUp with Tact Rather than Suffer in Silence,” which will teachSenate employees the recognize the difference betweenassertive, aggressive, and passive behavior “without being asteamroller or a pushover.” 218With little getting done in Washington thisyear, many taxpayers may think Congress isspending too much time sleeping on the job.Still, the Office of Education and Trainingprovided a seminar regarding the “Benefits ofa Good Night’s Sleep” for the Senatecommunity.Other classes for the more reserved include, “Small Talk:Breaking the Ice in Social Situations” 219 and “That’s NotWhat I Meant!,” a one hour class that “explore[s] thedifference between your intention and the impact of yourwords and behavior on the other person.” It teaches theimportant lesson that “[c]ommunication is difficult andcomplex.” 22028