Personality Conflict With Instructor, Any Good Advice Would Be Appreciated

Today sucked, some of this will be in my cdl diary too but I am seeking advice & I need to vent as well.

Today was the day for me to be tested on parallel parking again.

I was given an opportunity to practice & nailed it but that didn't count because it was practice... Well time came to actually test on it, I get in a bad position & start work on correcting it...next thing I know, the concourse instructor is on the side of my truck shouting commands to me..I followed them & ran over the cones (this was the result of me trying to follow his commands, not from what I would have done on my own)....next thing i know, I was told to park the semi & get out so I did...a few moments later, I was handed my paper showing a failing grade.

At this point, I am trying to keep to myself because I am frustrated & at the time I felt that the instructor had steered me toward failure (not necessarily with intent to do so).

Another student had come up & started talking to me about it & I opened my mouth & was honest about how I felt about the situation....not a good idea..as this was later relayed to the instructor...

Somewhere through the course of translation..me saying "It felt like I was set up for failure" was turned into "He is trying to set me up for failure"... I would find out about this until later in the day.....

After someone else tested, I politely asked for another opportunity to test without any feedback or corrections until I was done. The instructor granted it & I parked it perfectly in a matter of a couple minutes with no pullouts or corrections even. (I am guessing that when I was doing this was also when the other student decided to tell the instructor what I said (with his extra spin to make it sound worse)...anyhow, I walked up to the the instructor after parking the vehicle & asked if we could count that one...his answer was"If you can do it again right now"...

so I go & make another attempt, was a bit excited & gave myself a bad setup, but was in the process of correcting it & hadn't hit any cones...Instructor approaches to let me know time is up & to park the vehicle.....

I was frustrated but didn't think much of it at the time...

fast forward a few minutes, we are all in the shop doing end of the day paperwork.

The instructor waits until other students are far enough away from me & confronts me on what I had apparently said.. During his confrontation, I was called a liar & that I was trying to sabotage his reputation...Truth is, I had nothing against the guy, but I was frustrated & vented to the wrong person...

Next thing I know, I am being informed that a remediation form is being filled out on me & that if I don't straighten out instantly on the 1st day back after several days off, he is going to write a recommendation for me to be removed from the course....

I tried to apologize to him & at the same time explain to him what was actually said but he had no interest in in what I had to say & was so stuck on what someone told him I said that it was irreconcilable...wouldn't let me speak, just wanted to yell at me let me know I f'ed up & crossed the wrong person & left it at that.

This instructor is in charge of doing all of the concourse grading with backing maneuvers...& I still don't believe he had it in for me initially, he certainly does now though.

I am trying to decide between going to the transportation school president to explain the situation & ask for arrangements to be made for another instructor to grade my backing maneuvers (this could backfire if I get assigned one of his buddies) or if I should try to set up a conference with this instructor & the head of the driving school to sort it out... I

I certainly don't feel comfortable trying to pretend nothing happened & cross my fingers in hopes I don't intentionally get thrown under the bus by somebody with an axe to grind.... I also don't want to look like a conspiracy theorist or finger pointer either though, what to do?!??!

Also does his threat seem a bit harsh for someone who has done well with everything else so far but still has needs some help perfecting parallel backing after a half a dozen attempts at it over 3 days & no experience before that?

I certainly don't feel comfortable trying to pretend nothing happened & cross my fingers in hopes I don't intentionally get thrown under the bus by somebody with an axe to grind

Ironically, I think this is precisely what you should do.

You accidentally stepped into some things we talk about often in here. One of them is that this profession is chock full of type A personalities. You just met your first one, and you accidentally crossed them. I think they will be over it just as easily as they got stirred up in the first place. Enjoy your few days off and come back ready to parallel park that rig like you know what you're doing. Forget about trying to smooth things over - you'll only make things worse. You already apologized, don't keep stirring the pot.

The other thing you've learned is how this business is all performance based. When you come back just take care of your business, and show them that you can "git er done" even when you are under pressure.

Don't keep trying to work something out, just do what needs to be done and this will all be a distant memory soon enough. If you can park that truck for the test, then there is nothing they can do but say "good enough, you did it."

The first thing you should do is sleep on it. Second stop saying things behind the instructor's back, it's disrespectful and you cannot trust anyone you barely know. Keep that in mind for future reference.

So tomorrow, when you wake up come back and tell us what you think the best thing to do is. I'll give you a hint, you know the situation far better than we do, so after sleeping on it, you should have a fairly good idea of what to do. Besides didn't listening to someone's advice already cause an issue for you? As in the crux of your post?

Not trying to be a smart a**, but sometimes you need to trust your own judgement, consider others advice but don't necessarily take it at face value, ultimately it's your decision how to back you truck into a parallel spot and how best to handle the pickle you're now in.

Sorry OS, you type faster than I do (if "thumbing" can actually be called typing").

Old School & G-town,

Thank you so much for taking time to read my long-winded situation...& I appreciate your advice.I think I'm going to follow it.

It will be 10 days( I wish it wasn't) before we see each other again...Hopefully it is water under the bridge by then..I just hate someone thinking I was trying to sabotage their reputation when I wasn't...that really bothers me. Though part of me will still feel the need to smooth things over, I will try to let it go unless there is obvious tension, then I will do my best to smooth things over with him again & try to be the best student I can. I won't take it to the next level after that unless it becomes obvious that he is trying to fail me without merit.