I am almost a month into my detail, and it has been an eye-opening experience. Starting out, I felt a bit out of my depth and ran into some obstacles stemming from limited access to systems that comes with not being an official employee. Nevertheless, I have an amazing team that has consistently given me the support and resources to do my job to the best of my abilities. They’re not only some of the most diligent and hardest working people I’ve met, but also some of the most lighthearted and humorous people I’ve had the pleasure of working with. From them I’ve been able to learn about the different systems used by BPW to ensure that all employees can do their jobs (and get paid), whether it’s their timesheets with QuickTime, expenses with Concur, or financial reports with the Financial and Business Management Systems (FBMS). I’ve also had the opportunity to participate in BPW meetings on topics and situations that had service-wide impacts, while witnessing effective and important collaboration happening amongst my team and leadership.

It’s interesting to see the work that goes into keeping the Service functioning at its capacity, and I am grateful for the opportunity to learn from the people supporting it. This has been, and still is, a great learning experience and I’m excited to hone the skills I am developing to become a better public servant.