October 11th this year was my four year anniversary at Greenwood Leflore Recycling. I started working the day before my 25th birthday and now I am less than a year away from the big 30. The late 20s are very grounding years in one's life. I feel like the early twenties are fun and you are still exploring. Thankfully I did do that, but that is a blog post for another time.

Today I would like to reflect how I have grown professionally and personally over the past four years at Greenwood Leflore Recycling. And lists are my game:

Management! 
Wow, this one has caused me a lot of worry. I have had a total of 5 employees. All were men and four of them were older than me. The first one I lost because I had him arrested at his house at 6:45am before work because I found out he had been stealing the whole time! The second left me for a better-paying job (and he knew it wouldn't be long until I caught him stealing too). The third one was so so sweet but had financial issues that torn him to pieces. He quit, without giving his two weeks, so he could cash out his retirement to help with his debt. The four and fifth are my current employees so I shouldn't say much. But in short, I think they are awesome and I am blessed to have them. Because they are trustworthy, have good communication and follow through, I have been able to grow the business in more ways, be in my office and in schools more, field less phone calls between them and customers and felt more comfortable when I was out of town.


I currently want to be the best boss I can be for them. I try to always be positive, catch them in good acts, be available for backup when needed, and not micromanage them. I have taken them on relevant field trips when we have a slow month and I let them leave work a little early when they hustled (and they will willingly stay a little later to complete the work on busy weeks).

Even though I think I have done a good job, I can't say that I will always want to manage people. I don't love being bossy. "Could you please go to this instead of what you are doing..." However, that will probably be hard to never manage people again in my life so I might as well learn to do better and enjoy the process. Earlier this year I read "The One Minute Manager" to help become a better manager. I will have to do a book review on that in another post.

Organization
After I won the $400,000 grant for Greenwood Leflore Recycling, I had to implement a residential curbside recycling program. I was nervous about doing it and doing it right. But let me toot my own horn (another thing I have learned isn't the worst thing to do in the business world) and say that I couldn't have done it any better! I did one neighborhood at a time and we took one month to distribute the bins and one month to start the collection. That was key because it meant that we had the time to be careful and not make many mistakes. And therefore keep our customers happy and not upset and confused. Also, I was very tedious with the truck route and spent the first month riding in the truck to make sure it was perfect and we could make all the corners and never miss an alley and do it the most efficient way possible. And now it has been a year and a half and we have had very little missed pickups. After I could fully turn over the curbside route to my two efficient employees, I realized I missed it and that it was really fun to start the new program. I learned that I was also very organized and realistic and could do all the different parts of implementing a new program.


In 2014 I joined the Chamber of Commerce Leadership Class. I was honored that the mayor asked nominated me. Oddly enough, I was voted to be class president! I thought it was hilarious at the time and even tried to kindly offer it to anyone else in the room that "wanted it on their resume" but no, it stuck with me. They voted for me. Ha! It's really funny how when you move towns, people don't know your past, and suddenly you have taken on another persona. Here apparently, I am a go getter and a gregarious leader...?!

Anyway being the president was actually pretty harmless and fun. No one stepped up to the plate for the secretarial tasks (yes we did vote for a secretary) so I just took them on. Excel became my best friend. I learned that to get things down, someone has to get the ball rolling (i.e. be a champion). And people usually don't respond to group emails. I am now more appreciative of those who send out group emails and I will usually respond, "Got it, see you there" or "Thanks for taking this on".

A desk job
The first year or so of my new "recycling coordinator" job I was in the warehouse a lot. I excelled at driving the skid steer, backing up trailers in tight spots, trouble-shooting expensive machines, hiring and overseeing electrical, construction and demolition work, supervising inmates, sorting recycling by hand, riding on the back of a rear loader etc. Those are all jobs that one would typically assign to males, but I fully enjoyed them. I think they have helped keep me sane and in shape! I will often venture out in the warehouse for a little while and come back with a few thousand steps accrued for. Thomas has a typical desk job and he will come home from work at 5:00 with only about 2,000 steps where I will have 7,000. Unless I am on the curbside route then I have 10,000 steps by noon.

I am thankful for my half desk job and half out in the field job! I would not like my job if it was fully one or the other. Lesson learned! Even on the days that I am in my office all day, I doubt I am ever sitting in my seat for more than 45 minutes. I am thankful that I get to schools and businesses during my work day in a city vehicle.

Public Speaking
This might have been my least favorite thing ever when I first got this job! In college, I opted out of the Speech 101 course that every single person has to take for Intrapersonal Communication. I did really enjoy Mrs. Furgeson's class (probably the only professor's name I remember) but I didn't practice my speech skills.

In the first month of my job, I was invited to speak at a local civic group with the Public Works Director and the City Clerk. I drove there with the PW director who used to be a school teacher and she was saying she was really nervous. I remember being perplexed that she was nervous among peers and not high schoolers. I was the opposite. Well, I remember doing really well at my first public speaking event and surprisingly enjoying it, especially the questions at the end.

Since then I have spoken at countless events, civic clubs, classrooms (kindergarten through high school), city councils, board of alderman/supervisors etc. I even did an hour workshop at the state recycling conference in 2014. And although I did mediocre, I conquered my biggest fear and did a 6th-12th-grade assembly at the local private academy.

I have learned that public speaking is kind of like going on a roller coaster due to the nerves that you fight. I have always been thrilled that it's over and glad I accepted the challenge. It's best to be prepared with a concise outline, not be nervous, and always leave room for questions because that's what draws the audience in.











Well, that is all I can think of now but I know the list will go on including how much I have learned about government. Here's to growing more professionally and personally at my current and future jobs.

I would love to hear what you have learned at your current or past jobs! Comment below!