1. I learned just how much I don't know, and how much I need to know.

I'm with it.

2. I realized that a lot of these cats don't know what the fuck they're doing.

We had a meeting with the two department heads yesterday.

It was mostly people venting their personal beefs and telling personal anecdotes, not the broader day-to-day problems we deal with.

our business agent was losing her mind trying to keep everyone on track. At the end, she looks at me and says "Yeah I've already got a list of people who can't come to the next one".

And a few of these people tried to make it a contentious meeting, and got smooth shut the fuck down. It's clear why/how these two got their posts. We've all worked with them, and I've dealt with the top dog a few times.

I'll pat myself on the back here, because I nailed two clear and concise issues:

-the fact that a *lot* of personnel problems need to go nuclear just to get to a solution, and I listed the reasons why this is the case.

I think he thought he nailed me by asking if I had a solution (it was the tone IMO), and I- wisely, as he wound up saying- said that the solution should be sourced through feedback from workers, and I'd work on a plan to sort that part out, and then narrow down 2-3 proposals to bring to his attention.

He brought up some obstacles to that, one being that most people don't want to stand on their own name. I reminded him of an old HR problem I took to him, where I used my issue to give everyone else a voice at the table. I brought a thick ass manilla envelope full of all manner of complaints.

All that shit was handled the next day, and I commended him for that.

So I was able to provide some proof of concept for what I want to do long term, but I also meant it when I said that we should crowdsource a potential solution.

-a solution to real, longstanding problem with our call center and the way "escalations" are handled. I told him straight up, I've brought this forth before and didn't so much as get a response.

My proposed solution was to create processing units within the call centers to handle escalations. I laid out the way they can go about establishing how many people should be staffed to handle those escalations.

Again, it was either the tone, or just my perception, but I think he thought he nailed me here too: I'm sure you have an email to support that claim, right?

Yep, sure do.

His face changed.

I sent it to him before close of business yesterday.

*******

Anyhow, this is definitely right up my alley. I feel at home in a way I never have at a job. I still do my regular old job, but I feel like this additional role is eventually going to lead to a pivot to getting a full time gig as a business agent.