Newbie Alert!

Hi! I'm Vince, and I'm from St. Louis. I understand there's at least one other St. Louisan on the boards, so it's nice to not be the only one here who understands the transcendent nature of the toasted ravioli. :D

I'm 38 years old, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, and a born-and-bred St. Louis native. I've been married for seven years to a wonderful lady, I have a six-year-old daughter, a three-year-old son, and a third child on the way. (There's two cats in the family mix as well.) I read obsessively, listen to really evil music, and try my hand at all sorts of creative endeavors. Some of them actually work.

I just came across manager-tools a couple of weeks ago and I've been listening obsessively. I wish I'd found these three years ago. I work as a bilingual manager in the Customer Service Telephones section of USDA's Rural Housing Service, managing a team of six (soon to be eight) phone reps. Manager training in my department has been long on the technical and short on the practical. When we do get training on communication or management, it's in the form of a guest speaker who gives a lot of theory and very little practical advice. We don't do much bridge-building with the reps or up the ladder with the supervisors; consequently, morale is pretty lousy. For the first time in four years of managing, I'm really excited about my job.

There's a lot that I still don't understand (High C? Isn't that a note on a piano keyboard?) so I'll be asking all sorts of questions on all sorts of topics. I look forward to working with everyone here. Mark and Mike, thank you for making this information available.