I was hired to create and develop training locally for NA. I started out reporting to NA, because I am in NA, but then was transferred to an all German team with ZERO training, learning and development, or adult learning knowledge. I was the only one. My colleagues were a washed up engineer that thought they knew technical things, but relied on what he learned in Star Trek and a fresh out of college psychology graduate know-it-all who focused more on networking then actually learning anything about adult learning. I developed the NA paper divisions entire training program by introducing the Levels of Learning that helped establish target audiences and level of content in order to build talent gradually. Once I was moved to the German team, they adopted all of my concepts and prior work for NA. I created all training content and ran the customer facing training site as well. Anytime I tried to suggest working on the next level or voiced my opinions about actual Adult Learning methodology, I was told to basically shut up and do my job. At one point, I actually saved a customer from walking because they were extremely frustrated by the answers they were getting from my colleagues. I developed numerous entry level courses for the group and had actually started a partnership with a university to help develop the next level of knowledge as on-demand training courses with me only to be told that they would rather do webinars. Webinars that are only available in Germany or China. My German boss constantly told me he didn't know how to incorporate me into the group and thought that I only "assisted the real team members". In the end, they fired me, taking all of the credit for my courses, my website, and my entire training program as their own. My American colleagues fought for me, knowing I was the real brains behind the entire program, but alas, the Germans won and I was let go.
