Clever Solutions

I'm so sick of talking about buses. I know I drive a school bus and I have to think about buses a lot, but for the last couple of weeks I feel like all I do is talk about buses all the livelong day, and it's just a bit much.

The problem is Type A people. Well, one Type A person in particular: Johnny, my fellow preschool bus driver. He's charming and intelligent, fun to talk to, and has a lot of really good things to say, but pretty much all I have ever talked about with him revolves around buses. 

Johnny's bus is immaculate. He takes care of that metal tube like I've never seen anyone else do. It shines both inside and out, and it smells really good every time I step into it to have a chat. He sweeps and washes it down every single day because he's a self-admitted clean freak. He told me once that he often re-cleans things that his wife has cleaned just so he knows it's been done properly. If I were his wife, I'd either feel the frequent urge to murder him or I would just let him clean whatever the heck he wanted to while I binge-watched something on Netflix. 

I mean, I sweep out my bus just about every day, clean the seats and windows, and I take it to the car wash when it gets dirty, but I have never brought a leaf blower to work to use as a duster. 

Johnny is an alpha male leader type with an impressive grasp of human psychology. His high school students are like putty in his hands. He has lots of really good suggestions that would increase safety and efficiency, and he is able to articulate them very well. He's friendly and likable, and he's very good at not coming across as bossy and condescending. He often goes to the bosses with excellent observations and suggestions. Because he's not a dummy, he doesn't understand why his suggestions are not taken more seriously. Because he is Type A, he doesn't understand why people wouldn't immediately leap on better and more efficient ways of doing things. This beef makes up the bulk of our conversations. Over and over and over we discuss his ideas and his frustration that his suggestions are ignored. 

I am a Type B person. This fact drove my mom crazy when I was growing up because she is a Type A person, but having lived with a Type A person for many years, I learned how to deal with them. So I listen to Johnny, and I do think his ideas are very good ones; but where he is frustrated that his suggestions aren't immediately implemented, I understand what he's up against: inertia, habit, and red tape. You can't just walk in, make a suggestion where it wasn't asked for, and expect a whole organization to turn on a dime. Doesn't work. The bureaucratic cogs move slowly even if the people moving the cogs are anxious to make changes. This is the way. 

Now, though, Johnny's efficiency has actually cost me two working hours per week. Though I'm fine with that, it would probably not have happened were he not stirring up the dust of inertia (because bodies at rest tend to get dusty, or something like that). 

Here's the story: both Johnny and I had high school routes added to our work weeks a few months ago because our preschool routes don't start in the morning until after high school routes finish. We are actually taking over a previous high school route that got discontinued due to lack of drivers, but neither of us have buses large enough to fit all the high school students from both stops of that former route. Therefore, the boss asked us to pick up one stop each, with each stop including between fifteen and twenty-five kids, depending on who is riding that day. 

On Fridays, there is no preschool, so Johnny and I were only showing up to do the morning and afternoon high school runs, which means two buses running for one stop each. They have to pay us two hours per run, minimum, even though each run is only about an actual hour of time, so the Transportation Dept. had to pay both of us four hours per day on Fridays for only two hours of work.  

This is starting to sound like a word problem. 

Type A Johnny makes a salient observation: why are two smaller buses running on Fridays when one full-size bus would do? A full-size bus has room for all the students at both stops, and then only one person has to make those runs. It saves the garage four total hours of pay, though it reduces our paychecks by two hours each. In addition, the students have been asking for one large bus because their closest friends appear to be on the other bus, and it pains them to be separated for the ten minute ride to and from school.

Also in addition, Johnny has had to get a second part-time job to make up for his household budget shortfall of a few hundred dollars per month (bus driving may be more fun than truck driving, but it certainly doesn't pay as well). He'll start his new part-time weekend shift on Fridays at 9am, which works because we get back to the garage after the high school run at about 7:40. 

Surprisingly (or not), this is the suggestion that the bosses immediately grab onto. Well, Johnny did do a lot of talking to them about it after making sure he wasn't stepping on my toes, but they actually moved on this one. I was fine with it, too, as it meant I don't have to set my alarm for Friday morning, since Johnny would have to do the morning run. At least this way, we each get one run and one of us isn't losing an entire day's pay.

Today I informed my high school kids that they'd be riding on a big bus tomorrow. I also told them they would be expected to follow all the rules so it won't be such a surprise when they encounter Type A Johnny, Super Rule Enforcer. He's strict, but he has managed to turn his potential problem students into eager helpers by training them on emergency evacuation procedures and posting them permanently at the emergency exits. It's a sign of his regard, and they love it. He also rewards all the students with candy during his special bus safety trivia games, and Freefall Fridays, where the students don't have to adhere to the seating chart and can sit wherever they want (excluding the trained helpers) when they have been good during the week. Like I said, he's very good with human psychology. He expects a lot and gives them rewards. (I, on the other hand, enforce the safety procedures but am not so strict about a seating chart because they all tend to sit in the same seats every day anyway. Nor do I give them candy. But my kids are still really respectful, and they smile and thank me every day, so I think we're doing okay, too.)

I realize this is a very large amount of words about buses when I said I was tired of talking about buses. I am a woman of frequently conflicting statements. Get used to it.

Below, I have included a very recent picture of my daughter, Elannah, who also came up with a clever solution, this time to the problem of getting Taki dust on her fingers. She's pretending to be put out with me for taking her picture (notice her signature fake one-finger salute). 

Edit: I re-read this and I realize my praise of Johnny might come across as infatuation. Not so. We are pretty good friends, yes, and he and I and my bus aide, Rueben, spend a lot of time hanging out at work, but while I admire Johnny, there is no danger here.

Update 2/15/2020: More than an hour before I had to be at the bus garage yesterday, I got a call from Johnny.

"Aren't you at your new job?" I asked.

"It was just orientation today, so I'm done. I thought I'd tell you what I told the kids this morning so we can get it all straight," he said.

He proceeded to give me a long list of things he told the students. I was amused by how long the list was. Then I started rolling my eyes. Finally, when he had told me everything, he paused.

"Are you at the garage right now?" he asked.

I laughed. "I don't have to be there for another hour," I said.

"Oh," he said. "I thought you might be there now."

I knew he was hinting that perhaps I should go and spend the next hour thoroughly deep-cleaning the bus, which I had absolutely no intention of doing--especially as we would not be driving that bus again until next Friday, and who knows what hell other students might put it through during that time? He probably would have gone, though. In fact, he was probably hoping I would tell him he could just go get the students that afternoon, as he was done with his work; but there was no way I was going to give up the two hours of pay. It's only two hours, but it's two paid hours.

"I'm an achiever, Johnny," I laughed. "I'm not an over achiever."

He had the grace to laugh, as well. I think he realized he was being a little unreasonable--either that or he realized I was being stubborn. We said good-bye and hung up.

Later, after I'd picked up the students and was leaving the school, I got on the intercom, introduced myself to the students who didn't know me, and said, "You know the rules, so follow them, please. And keep your feet off the seats. Thank you!"

And that was that.

I did take the bus to the car wash and clean it, as it was dirty, and I checked the interior to make sure all was tidy and nice, and then I dropped it off and went home. Johnny will be fine.