“You can take one item, decide what you want first and touch only what you’re gonna take.”
She referred to the King County Metro mousepads, coloring books, coasters, and foam bus figurines on her fair booth. There were pamphlets in many languages promoting working at King County Metro.
I asked her, “What’s it like working for King County Metro?”
“Depends, who’s asking?”
“Me”. I wanted to learn about the work culture in context of a corporate job in IT, but left my query open. I was curious what she’d share.
She started talking about her gig as a 15-year veteran bus driver. “Drivers are viewed as disposable, which builds strong camaraderie between them.” She lamented that their contract ended nearly a year ago in October, and is still up in the air with a proposed 0.5% salary increase over 3 years for the drivers. (“Hello!” I thought. Have they not seen the recent inflation?) “But great insurance, starting with just 20 hours a week. My dentist says I have excellent coverage.”
The picture she painted contrasts starkly with the impressions I get from Metro’s LinkedIn posts of smiling, fairly-compensated bus drivers. I asked her, “If you have any ideas to improve things, do you have a say? Is there anyone who listens to you?”
“Hell no! I’m just a bus driver.”
She mentioned an app that sends updates by text or email on route cancellations. She uses this for the 2 routes she takes to get to work. “Most bus drivers take public transportation to get to work – bus and trains.” Also, Sound Transit owns their vehicles (the bus and train cars), but King County Metro drivers drive them.
“How is bus repair and maintenance handled?” I ask.
“They used to keep spare parts. Then they started this “LEAN” program, and now it’s a mess. It causes lots of service cancellations because they don’t keep enough spare parts in stock and have to order them and wait. Yes, cancellations happen due to a shortage of drivers, but its also from a shortage of working buses as they wait for repair.”
“That’s scary. How much notice do they give you if your route is cancelled because the bus isn’t available?”
“You find out when you arrive for work.” (I thought, What?!)
“You can get paid if you sit and wait there [at the transit center, in lieu of driving].” (What?!?)
“To get paid, you have to sit there?”
She shows me her green circular knitting. “That’s why I always bring these with me”. “On my 50th birthday, [that year] I knit 112 hats.”
“I used to drive from North Station. One fall, by 145th, there was a man who asked me for money. I never give money. But I offered him a hat. He lit up and said it was his girlfriend’s favorite color. The next day, I saw her wearing that hat. Soon, the whole [homeless] camp by 145th was wearing my hats!”
I felt a special sense of pride, and savored this. She seemed different now. Composed of a mixture of necessary grit and voluntary compassion.
She showed me how she leaves a row of 8 purl bumps in contrast to the single rib-stitch near the edge to remember she used size 8 needles for that particular hat. She’ll reference those purl bumps to remember to use size 8 needles to make a matching sweater of the same gauge later. I know from experience it’s easy to forget these things and one often doesn’t have a pen and paper or phone handy when knitting in public places, so this seemed ingenious. Especially when you’re churning out 112 knitted hats in a year.
We chatted about Terry White, Metro’s recent outgoing general manager.
“He doesn’t care about the drivers.”
“But he worked his way up from the bottom!” I protested.
She said he worked his way up but from other King County departments, not Metro. The meager proposed wage increase of 0.5% over 3 years roused her indignation again (mine too) and that informs her view of Terry. She doesn’t have a view yet on the new general manager Michelle Allison.
This showed me how our views on senior leaders can be shaped heavily by the decisions that affect us directly. It’s not the whole picture, but what affects us directly has more weight.
Also, I realized that the impression a company or organization gives on LinkedIn is curated, and not the whole, honest picture.
If you like this topic, check out my post “The Lines that Make Us” with an excerpt written by Route 7 bus driver Nathan Vass.
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