It also would mean they already have their personal opinion and they also have read the opinion of other people that have been in contact with the dive shop over the years.
In case you did not read it yet, you can follow this link to read it if you want create your own opinion on the topic.
You probably wonder why it took so long to write the post over 2 months after the initial event. It was that for a lot of people closure was needed. And I have spent the time on writing and re-writing this blog and decided it maybe is better not to spill out an emotional opinion about it and as the Dutch say ‘hang out the dirty laundry’. But just narrow it down to explaining what PADI does and my activities after expelling.
Getting kicked out of PADI
“the PADI family expels members only as a last resort. The Quality Management Process follows an extensive process that includes fact checking, getting all perspectives (including the member’s) about the issue, and when necessary corrective re training and cooperative compliance. AFtExpulsion only results when the PADI Member refuses to implement corrective measures, or when the nature of the complaint is so severe that expulsion is necessary to protect the public and/or to preserve the reputation of the PADI family at large.”
All the issues started to arise via some incorrect activities between a potential intern and the shop owner & the dive accident happening in December 2012.
How does PADI Quality Management work?
PADI will receive a complaint or get a feedback from their Questionnaire, which they send out after almost every course to the student.
based on this they maybe do further investigation to continue to ask other students or other people around the person/dive organisation in question.
Then they will contact to person or shop that is concerning for him/her/its opinion and give them the chance to give their point on the topic.
Based on that PADI Quality Management will decide if any further steps are needed. They have several options:
- Warning: slap the person or shop on the wrist and urge them to change their way of working and they will be kept under monitoring
- Suspend: padi will suspend the organisation/member and maybe has them even follow additional (or redo) training
- Expel: PADI will expel the members/organisation and there is no chance of returning to PADI as a member.
for more information you can look at PADI’s website about Quality Management
In this case PADI researched for several months via former students & interns about the IDC content and started to follow up all former complaints/names related to the payments (and new ones) with help of their history reports and newly obtained information via a former employee, as he mentions on Scubaboard.
This research resulted in a full report about the topics that was judged by the global QM department in the US because of the status of the Diveshop and one of the owners being a PADI Course Director. And with it they came to this final decision - Expell Aquanauts from PADI as they do not.
Save yourself!
and also make sure your friends within the company are going to be ok.
For me personally it meant, I was talking a lot with PADI QM and the PADI Area Manager. Both of them were really helpful in the whole process. Their willingness/commitment towards PADI members, me and others, - on making sure new positions would be found - was great.
On asking if PADI would talk with the former members/shop to talk about the process, the answer was simple NO.
PADI does not help nor associate with the expelled people/organisations after the decision for expulsion has been made. Although former members maybe will have a different opinion.
Information on if the expelled member / company is doing what is needed will come via other people or shops.. So everyone is telling tail to PADI apparently.
After having the support of PADI a process was initiated by me to promote myself and start sending out CV’s to a lot of shops.
Social Media Madness
A good way of promoting yourself and showing what you have done and accomplished is to use the social media in your benefit. So after the expulsion I started to create a Facebook page, create a new website as an online cv & portfolio., update current profiles, etc. A lot of hard work with typing texts, going through pictures and uploading all on to all the different social media platforms and website. Another benefit of the Social Media is that a lot of Facebook-friends could be reached in the quest for a new job location |
With all this I am getting more publicity around my own person, my work and the company.
hopefully it will also attract more customers that want to dive with me! ;)
Closure and Lessons learned
it also meant that the staff was on their own on finding quick solutions or needed to wait on the finalisation by the owners.
After finding a job and getting out of their, also on advice of PADI. During the standard resignation period, which was honoured by me, a normal transfer of the work was done to one of the owner and for me the book was closed after I left. Unfortunately the actual closure of all was delayed every time. Which left me with open ends for a long time, but all's well ends well.
So what do you exactly learn from this whole exercise? you get to know the people better after such an event. 1. Get to know people: People who think are nice and supportive are not and turn out to be selfish, not fair and not looking at any big picture.. and people who you think are rude and selfish turn out to be the best supportive and nicest. 2. Don't Jump to fast into Things: Before getting into deep in a company more research or details should be gathered, or provided by a company. Flags should go up if the details provided during conversations are limited. This maybe is difficult as it is in my nature to jump into new things ;) |
But experiencing the event up close with the information gathered about it during and afterwards learned me a lot, which I can use in my life onward.
But I am sure it all will turn out ok for all
Everything happens for a reason and that reason will show itself later on in life to us all!
For me personal, I left city life behind and started living on an island in the south of Thailand, Phi Phi.
Here there are no cars, no motorbikes, no dogs, and no big crowds that make a lot of noise.
only places where it gets busy are the bars if you go there.
After being here one month I am enjoying every moment on this quite island!
who knows, maybe it will calm and settle me down also ;)
Author: Snippy