What would you do?

[DMJulie]

Ok, so I had this happen to me a couple of days ago and wanted to see what other dive professionals would have done.

(names and dive site not mentioned in order to not point fingers....)

I am a DM and was just getting to my dive site and there was one other dive company there just getting out of the water.
I am starting to unload my gear to get set up for my certs that I am about to take diving, when I hear the other DI loudly say to his/her divers that "its a good thing we are getting out, viz is going to crap". This DI then proceeded to tell his/her divers that the water conditions were pretty much horrible, getting to be unsafe and then went on and on about what a good instructor does in crappy viz and about how bad the conditions were getting, and why they were not diving anymore this day at this site..

Now my divers were not there yet, so thankfully I was the only one hearing this.

I went about getting my gear together and ignored this person. I have dove this numerous times and I knew that dive was going to be good. Surf conditions looked fine to me, we have dove worse and viz was actually pretty good. My certs had a wonderful time and went back to our shop and raved about the dive and the things they saw.
(There was another DI taking out students just after I was in with my certs.)

So pretty much I feel like this DI was trying to mess with me. Thankfully my divers were not there yet, but what if they had been? What if they had heard the things this DI was saying?

I know for a fact that this DI does not like the dive company that I work for. I know for a fact that this is not the first time this DI has said things like this and has before done this is front of customers. This DI continues to bad mouth our company in front of people that even rent gear from us. (I know because I have customers tell me)

In my opinion, I don't think we should try to misrepresent conditions to each other. We should not try to make each other nervous by reporting false conditions regarding the dive we are about to do. I feel that it is one thing to communicate the conditions to keep each other safe, but its unprofessional to act like this DI was.

What I want to know is what would you have done? Would you have said something to this DI? What would you have said? Would you say something the next time you see this DI? What would you say? What would you do next time if this DI does it again?

I am not looking to start a fight with this DI, but I do think that it is wrong that this DI does this.

I just want to be a great DM. I want to get along with my fellow DI's/DM's. But I don't want to continue to be jerked around.

Let me know your thoughts Scubaboard.

Thanks for reading my post.

 

[rstofer]

I would have smoked their a$$ in front of their class. I would have told the students how unprofessional that conduct was and what an idiot they were taking classes from. I would have told them if they really wanted to learn diving they should have picked a better instructor. Maybe somebody with a little class or somebody with more than 25 dives. "You should have seen what happened to the last class this instructor taught!"

Then again, I lack interpersonal skills. I have often been called blunt. When I am called <less flattering things>, I remind people it is Sergeant <less flattering things>. Or, it was...

Richard

 

[Hemlon]

If your students would have been present, I would have told them (in a loud enough voice to be heard but not to seem obvious) this:

"Yes, the visibility ISN'T optimal. But if you can dive HERE, diving in pristine water will be a piece of cake!"

Take the high road. You are classy...the instructor wasn't.

 

[NudeDiver]

You could have said something like : "Really? That's too bad about the viz. We teach our students the buoyancy skills needed to stay off the bottom and to avoid stirring up the silt that makes viz poor. It's always a bummer to get in the water after instructors that don't."

 

[Diver Kat]

Find one of those seminar brochures that they always have on 'Interpersonal Skills' or 'How to Behave Like a Professional' and mail it to his dive shop with his name on it. Even better, have someone make a dummy one up using his bad behavior as the examples of how 'not to' and then mail it ....

Sad to say, but there are always a few a**es out there that just have to be jerks. Kidding aside, I would say stick to being professional on your side, and if he says things when your students are there I would be honest with your students and just say he has a dislike for where work and likes to make comments to disrupt your classes. In the long run it will come back to bit him, and his shop. Your students will likely realize he's being rude, and avoid him and his shop in the future. And even spread the word about the rude jerk. They'll appreciate your calm professional behavior.

 

[don Francisco]

Whenever I run into people like that, I remind myself of the biological oddity, that there are far more horse's ashes out there than there horses.

There'll always be jerks out there, and life's too short to waste any time dealing with them. If you run into him and he tries his mindgames with you in front of your clients, treat him like your best buddy who's kidding around, or just ignore him, and do the eye roll, shoulder shrug act with your charges. With any luck he'll eventually get boored and move on.

 

[aascubagirl]

Hey DM Julie. Sorry to hear about your problem. I have found that with ignorant people like that, ignoring them is the best policy. Some people just have to spout off all the time to feel important and they just have no clue that in reality, they are only making themselves look bad. They'll never get it and they'll definitely keep on if they think that they are making an impact on you. Most people in this world - including most divers - are quick to see what is what and his childish, uncouth and most of all, unprofessional behavior will give him away without you even having to utter one word or lift a finger.

To sum it up, a co-worker of mine told me recently that "It is better to not argue with a fool, lest onlookers confuse which is which."

So hopefully, ignoring this doofus will work, he'll continue to look stupid, and you'll continue to come across as the friendly, polite professional that you are.

 

[samaka]

I think the most important thing to remember here is to keep cool and not lower yourself to this DI's level. It's pretty cleart in the DM manual that you don't take up discussions like this infront of students. I would let it slide if I was there with my students and let them know that this probably was a strange way of this DI trying to be funny.

I would later seek him up and ask him why he did this. If he has a fairly "beleavable" explanation I would ask him not to do it again. If he behaves like a jerk (not impossible in this case I would say) I would take it up with my boss and let this go to management-level. They can discuss this behaviour and come to a solution. It's not the job of a you as a DM or DI to sort this out. Even if the first idea that springs to my ind is to castrate him with a blunt skate...

I've been running Dive Centres in different parts of the world and this is how I would like my staff to handle a simillar situation.

I always say to my DMs and DIs that they have to have 5 good things to say about the dive the moment they break the surface. It's easy to do if you prepare for it. This way you'll have happy divers after every dive. Turn something like poor viz into something possitive. Example: "You are so lucky to be here now when we have all this plankton in the water because that means wicked action on the reef. Small fish come out to feed in the plankton and larger fish come in to hunt the smaller, and so on". Or maybe: "This place is good for macro life, go close to the reef and look for small things".

It's absolutely forbidden to say anything negative about the dive, the site, or even the country. The guests pay lots of money to come diving and it's not our job as DM or DI to make them feel that they made a misstake to come diving with us, at this site or even in this country.

I hope you don't have to experience that kind of behaviour form any DM or DI again.

.......anders.......

 

[tstormdiver]

I fully agree with the statement above. Do not under any circumstances lower yourself to the level of the other instructor. To do so would be just showing that you are as unprofessional as he/ she is. The only way you should call this other instructor down for his/ her conduct would be away from his students, in private (which of course could bring about a major confrontation, since this person was trying to bait you to begin with). I like a couple of the explanations given above (especially about if they can handle the vis there, they can handle it any where), if this person should do it in front of your students. Fortunately the dive site that is available to the area instructors here, is the only one for 100mi. & even though some of the other operations do not like each other they are still amiable, polite & professional (much to their credit) around each other, especially in front of the students. Set the example for the students that are there, "thank" the other instructor for the update & then continue to do do what you have to do. Don't let it eat at you. You could call the management of the other instructor's shop, but likely nothing will come of it. This person obviously feels they must compensate for something that's either too small or missing. Show (subtly) that you are the superior dive professional to this other instructor's students. People are smarter & pick up on more things than you can guess, most of them will see the other instructor for fake that they are.

 

[porsc]

if the divers would have been around, i would have told them that there is no such thing as a bad dive. if you are a true diver, you are always happy to just get wet. every dive teaches you something, and adds to your skill set. those skills could save your life one day. if there is low vis, then that gives you a chance to work on your navigation and buoyancy skills. finally, i have discussed with many students and certs in the past, that if you always look for perfectly calm water and great vis, you will never develop any diving skills. different conditions teach you how to use different skills to deal with these conditions. a professional should be able to always remain professional, and turn any situation into a positive experience for everyone concerned.
well, that is my take on it. i hope that it helps.