Was this Instructor right or wrong ?

[lamont]

I'm very impressed with the initial post, way to take the mask on the forehead thing and ratchet it up a notch...

 

[Divedoggie]

All I can say is, "Management 101."

I have had many employees work for me, and I have worked for many employers. Never should the boss undermine employees. Never.

Its not even a dive related issue.

 

[String]

All this has been done to death recently.

Can a PADI instructor with the relevent materials please state where and exactly what wording PADI puts in its standards banning the mask on forehead. To date ive not seen anything specifically forbidding this.

NAUI too would be interesting.

If its not in the standards specifically i think the instructor was 100% correct and divemaster 100% wrong.


That said poster has exactly 2 posts. I sense a troll.

 

[parrothead600]

In our confined water training, the insructor told us that he had 2 rules; #1, Don't leave a tank standing unattended. #2, Don't put your mask on your forehead(If you need to park it, put it around your neck so it won't get washed off by a wave in open water) A violation of either rule ment that you owed the instructor a case of his favorite soft drink. Old habits are hard to break, so it's best not to start them.
As far as the Divemaster/Instructor issue goes, I would have to say that the insructor was completely wrong

 

[wardric]

That instructor undermined the credibility of his DM and lost all his credibility by the same time. He was 100% WRONG. He might have said that masks on foreheads are discouraged by certain people or agencies but that he had another opinion on that, But never should he have humiliated his dm in front of the class. He should have discussed it in private afterwards. This applies in any team work situation.

This is not a "mask or no mask on forehead" thread but imo an "instructor behavior with his dm" thread.

 

[Orion DM]

All this has been done to death recently.

Can a PADI instructor with the relevent materials please state where and exactly what wording PADI puts in its standards banning the mask on forehead. To date ive not seen anything specifically forbidding this.

NAUI too would be interesting.

If its not in the standards specifically i think the instructor was 100% correct and divemaster 100% wrong.


That said poster has exactly 2 posts. I sense a troll.

I am a PADI instructor, and I am aware of no such standard and can find nothing of the sort in my instructor manual. I have however encountered this taught emphatically by instructors of several agencies including PADI, NAUI, LA County, YMCA...... I can't speak to the NAUI standards exactly as I haven't read their instructors manual in the last few years, but I recall no such standard their either.

Your Divemasters and Assistants can be worth their weight in gold, they take their time and passion for diving and come and help you for little or (more often) no pay, they should be treated nicely and given the professional courtesy of not contradicting their words (Unless it is necessary, ie. a safety issue) and certainly not putting them down in front of customers.

Just my 2 cents.
O.

 

[Tom Smedley]

There is no excuse for slam dunking someone in front of others. Especially in the scenario that you describe. The instructor was wrong and probably destroyed his credibility amongst his clientele.

The mask on the forehead issue is a dead horse that has been beaten so much that he/she is only a greasy pulp.

 

[archman]

Maybe the instructor was new. Or perhaps the former NAUI person harbored some form of superiority complex against PADI, and the DM's remark ignited the fuse.

I've seen this sort of thing before, both with brand new OWSI's or crotchety old ones.

Doesn't excuse it, of course.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

The instructor was wrong for the reasons already stated.

I would also suggest, fixating on this in front of the class, and dressing down the Dive Master leads me to speculate the instructor was exhibiting stress. I emphasize that is speculation, but one of the indications of stress if flying off the handle over some little seeming inconsequential thing.

Then there is the possibility that the instructor is some sort of control freak, which is its own type of insecurity...again, leading to serious potential problems. (Being a control freak is not the same as just being a thorough teacher, incidentally.)

Maybe the instructor was trying to denigrate the dive master in an attempt to aggrandize himself, again, cause for concern.

Of course, maybe the instructor is just an ********e.

Jeff

 

[djugul]

I think The Instructor have to learn how to give respect to his assistant and his class. That condition show a situation where an instructor don't have enough good attitude to teach and don't have enough knowledge also.