It's that time of year again. The air is getting cold, and the days are dimming fast. Summer is over, and fall fades as quick as it comes. The year is winding down, technically, but somehow these last few months always seem to be the most taxing.
Physically, financially, and emotionally. And when you're responsible for the well-being of those who depend on you, the responsibility can feel that much more overwhelming.
Helpline, Press 2
Where Labor Day weekend saw extended holiday hours to ensure license holders had support, recent experiences with tech support have felt like treading mud. Long, laborious, and tiring on both sides. Imagine a statewide surge of service tickets, and none of them are speaking the same language.
What you call a barcode, I call a tag. What you call a split, I'm still saying sublot. Even myself, as a "data person," have submitted requests with bad info. So even when the reps get to me, I just wasted both our time because I forgot to clear a field in the state-approved request form.
And you know what? Shame on me.
Now, I'm no God. I never claimed to be your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But if I'm making these mistakes, I know damn well you are too.
So if you need help, grab a number and get in line. It's starting to wrap around the building.
Counting Cards
And while that line continues to wrap, your bills, costs, and responsibilities stack at the door, hands out. For some operators, the cost of waiting forces some difficult decisions.
Some cut labor, others sell their most valuable possessions. And for those who have had to sell a video game console to keep the lights on, you realize it doesn't matter if it's your parents or you making the decision. Giving up your toys just to have a dream never gets easier. It hurts every time.
Mickey Mouse Operations
So here we stand, two teams on the edge of the world, forced to cook a meal while working on a perpetually sinking ship. We have to look at our bosses and say everything is okay, then figure it out amongst ourselves.
When your back is against the wall, it's easy to forget the person on the other end of the line is a human being. Flesh and bone, just like you. Not all of us asked to be here, yet here we are. And after years of tumultuous emotions, some are starting to see it, although it may be too little, too late.
Job Is Job,
There is a meme featuring Wanderlei Silva, an MMA fighter, where he says, "He must do. Job is job," in reference to just focusing on your work. And that's how I would summarize the industry. Our job is to sell it, their job is to regulate it. And sometimes we don't always get to choose what that means. Sometimes we don't get to choose the name, or the color, or the place and time, nor with whom, but yet we are still expected to make it happen.
Between my own interactions with the CCD and members of the CANM with CCD's leadership, I believe the reality has become blissfully clear. Some of us have kids, some of us have businesses. Groups that rely on our decisions. And the painful part is, you can't make everyone happy all at once, but you can piss off a lot of people really fast.
Home Stretch
Look, the point I'm trying to make is, these next few months have a way of wearing you down. Stress and unresolved turmoil get amplified. Who do you talk to when you're alone? If you don't have a clear answer for that, find someone, and lead with honesty, which will always be your best policy.
Odds are they're going through something similar in their own way. And like most hardworking people, you may not necessarily need a hero, you dont need to be saved.
You just need your cup filled.
