Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Speaker A: We met a few of the PG and e staff at the American Gas association event last year in the fall. And right after meeting Brandon Cole and Jeff Janvier, I remember commenting to Jim about their passion for training in people, and anybody who knows them knows what I'm talking about. They talked to us about the heat program and how their people were being mugged and stabbed and beat up and held up at gunpoint, all while attempting to keep the gas flowing. And PG and E was stepping up to do something about it. So, fast forward to early 2024, and we're on a teams meeting, talking about their recording right there at PG and E in Oakland. And we manifested this one, all of us. We were so synergized as a group when we got together to pull this off. PG and E is doing big things out on the west coast, and we're very proud to get to sit down with them. It all started at AGA. It's only fitting that we kick this special episode off at AGA in Seattle.
We are live at the American Gas association here in Seattle, Washington. Operation conference and committee meetings just wrapped up the last couple of days, and we have been setting this up for what, I feel like it's been a year, but it's probably just been three to six months. But we. We heard about the program you guys put together, and we'll get into that in just a little bit. But we've been working on it. Me and you have been talking a lot. A lot of late night LinkedIn messages. I think each one of us would see what the other was doing. It's like, man, we got to get together.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: We got to have really cool guys up to.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: Absolutely. Y'all are always doing cool stuff.
So setting this up was kind of a. I don't know. It was on my list this year, if you will. So, being able. And I know we've got a cool couple of days we're gonna come down and visit, which will be part of this interview, and talk with some of the folks at PG amp E. Before we get going, though, do me a favor. I want both of you to introduce yourself, who you're with, what you guys do.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, James, thanks. And again, you laid the foundation. You know, this is been something we're real proud of. And having you involved now, you know, we're excited. So to be here with you, you know, it's an honor.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: I appreciate it.
Don't say that too early.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Wherever that gym guys gonna come out.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: I'm happy all here.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Cause I kicked Jim out distance between the two. But anyways, I'm Brandon Cole with Pacific Gas and Electric. I'm a safety programs manager in our gas distribution.
Absolutely love the job. Absolutely love the industry. And to the left of me.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: How long have you been involved?
[00:02:51] Speaker B: So, I've been in. Involved in safety, which I guess all my life because I'm still alive, but officially in this capacity, I guess for maybe four or five years, I was servicemen responding to gasoline emergencies, that sort of stuff. So I'm out of the field now, full time in safety. Someone passionate about it.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: You're the safety guy now?
[00:03:13] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Love it.
[00:03:14] Speaker C: Rand's one of those guys who came out of the field and we just saw something in him. Right. It was just like, wow, this guy is special.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: I think I saw something in him today, too.
[00:03:23] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:03:23] Speaker C: Right?
[00:03:24] Speaker A: I never got to see you speak before, and so being able to see you guys talk, and we'll talk about that, too. He's a special guy, for sure.
[00:03:33] Speaker C: Definitely.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: You both are. Definitely.
[00:03:35] Speaker C: Yeah. No, I think James, like he said, appreciate the opportunity. Glad to be here.
I'm Jeff Janbier. I lead our gas operations team in the San Francisco Bay area, also with Pacific gas and Electric. I've been with Pacific Gas and Electric my entire professional career, ever since I was in college. So this is kind of what I know, right?
[00:03:57] Speaker A: So we're here. You guys presented earlier today on the heat program, right? Is that. And I'll let y'all get into the details of it. But I was in the session, several of us was from our team, and being able to kind of see the. Aha. Moments of people's faces. I love how y'all tied it all together. It was great for me, too, because I. I probably haven't seen that much info about it all in one spot. Right. I mean, we've talked on the phone. I've heard about it. Being able to see the pictures, the videos, shout out to Johnny and them for doing that stuff with grassroots, the stats. Right. All of that's important. Do you want to give a high level of kind of the why behind this program and what it is?
[00:04:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, you know, we saw the stats, right. It's no secret that not only in the San Francisco Bay Area, but just at various parts of the country, we're seeing workplace violence incidents happen more and more regularly, which is really sad. But it's true.
There used to be kind of an unspoken role with utility workers, right? Like, 510 years ago, utility workers didn't really get messed with. Maybe there was an occasional. Absolutely right and there was just an unwritten understanding that, hey, we're here to do a job, provide gas and electric service reliably, safely. We're not here. We don't care what's going on. We're just here to help out and take care of the customers. That's kind of flipped and changed here in the last couple of years, and now we are having a lot of incidents that are directly impacting our field. Coworkers. Right. And we had a number of incidents that really hit close to home for us where, you know, we had a co worker who was attacked completely randomly and stabbed in the neck. Thankfully, he's still alive, but, you know, he almost died from that incident.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:39] Speaker C: And then we had another co worker just a couple weeks later. You know, she was assaulted, attacked, tackled, she fought back again. She survived. But it could have been very different. Right. So it was situations like that that made Brandon and myself and really the entire organization realized we're not doing enough to keep our team safe, make sure they go home at night to their families.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: And so, you know, Jeff's point. Yeah. Things were happening more and more often. You know, I mean, it's. It's, you know, no, no secret. There's, you know, locations that we serve that, you know, have higher crime rates than others, but it just seems like things have just really taken off, and we became a focus of that attention. And with that comes a lot of different personalities, a lot of different situations that our folks are faced with and to not prepare them for the when, right. Because it's not about the if, it's for the win that some hostility is going to be launched out towards them and how do you respond to it appropriately. Right. Whether it's a, you know, just a, you know, an angry individual. Individual or somebody that's actually meaning harm. So we wanted to prepare them, and that's what we were talking about today, and sharing it with, really, the utility industry because we see direct result that we're preparing our people. They have better tools to go to now because in the moment of stress and, you know, things are in that hot second, you freeze if you don't know what to do. So it's like muscle memory. That's what we're doing, is we're given some muscle memory. And so that program, that's what it's about. Educating and then giving them the ability to do their task, their work, job task, and then have a hostile interaction inside a controlled environment to really prepare them.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Freedom to fail.
You kept saying that over and over when they were talking about it.
You went through that. What did you call it, where you stop and the red light, green light, make sure that people can move forward. And I, like, that was one of the things I took away was that constant check in.
Was that time to just take a minute? Because sometimes we go right into correction mode or, hey, here's what you could have done better. And truthfully, what, it was the last line, you said this was intended to get a reaction.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Yes. Intended to stress you out. That is. That is, that is the thing.
It's not intended to break up our people, and so we do it. So in such a caring environment with the team that I have, the amazing team that I work with, everybody out there just taking care of each other and really. So it's an environment that, yes, you can go practice, you can have an experience and then. And fail safe and then be supported because the team that's around them are so, you know, empowered.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: Absolutely. And y'all been rolling this out, what, over the series of how long for about two years. Really.
[00:08:34] Speaker C: All right, so 2022 was when this really, this hostility really came.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: This ramped up.
[00:08:38] Speaker C: Exactly. And so that's when we came together, October 2022. And we started coming up with these big ideas for what can we do differently? How can we think outside of the box to really get out ahead of us? We knew that we're not going to contain crime and get to the root of what causes crime in our society, but what we can do is put barriers in place and, like Brandon said, give our co workers. Right. The tools and the ability to have a better likelihood of navigating those situations without, you know, being injured or worse. Right. So, yeah, so it's been about two years in the making. October 2022. And then the early part of 23, we were really developing things like the heat training, as well as some of the other things we talked about, like armed security and law enforcement support for our crews working in certain areas with high crime rates, etcetera.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: You know, we're moving the needles in multiple direct.
[00:09:25] Speaker C: I mean, that's.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: Moving it with multiple.
[00:09:27] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: This really wasn't a one size fits all solution for what we're dealing with. Right. So you heard about a virtual reality program, right?
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Yeah. For those that don't know, they're also launch. Is it like a follow up or an in tandem?
[00:09:44] Speaker B: It's a training developed to navigate a hostile situation as well. But so it's a different. It's a different take on what we.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Get the hands on. Cause the tabletop, you get roughed up a little bit. I'm just kidding. And then. And then you can get the VR headset on and actually go a step further where it feels hands on. There's actually, you know, so we came.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: At it with, you know, just so many different ideas, and no idea was laughed out of there. You know, we're here, like, we're just like, what can we do more, right? Because our folks are having a rough time taking care of our customers, right. And that's what matters to us is our customer and coworker safety. So, you know, we even tried craw Madras. We brought him up. Yeah, we did. And so, you know, we were teaching them self defense. That was going to take too long to get him stood up. Right. So, you know, we've offered them, you know, an option to go out and, you know, work with another company or a vendor outside of our organization. But it wasn't a. It wasn't appropriate. I couldn't get enough people.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: Well, it kind of reminds me what you said. Maybe it was you, Jeff, that you said some of the initial feedback was like, it was great, but I was in a parking lot.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: You know, corporate, you know, I mean, I'm just making it up. But. But to relate the same way, you put them in a real situation, you put them in a real place where it can happen, you know, it becomes a lot more real, and, again, intended to get the reaction right.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: No doubt, no doubt. So when I, you know, when I say we have hostility, these are our coworkers right there. Managers, superintendents, grassroots, you know, union employees, all coming together on this one day to give this experience. Right. And really provide it. So we're just helping each other. You know, we're coming out as a community, you know, trying to really navigate the challenges that our communities are facing.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: I know it takes a lot to get programs like this across the board. We're training company. Totally get it. I wanted to ask it in the session, but I know these things come with a price tag. Time, money, effort. Right. And to get things like that across the board, you got to have an awesome leadership team to be able to do it. Right. I mean, they got to be bought in, they got to be able to support it, and they got to be the ones there, you know, endorsing it. How important is the leadership group over there?
[00:12:00] Speaker B: Ben, before you take that, I just want to say, because this is a question for him, but if you don't have the leadership support, I couldn't imagine any leader in the great stuff that we do not say that we'll put everything we can into making sure our folks are protected. And that's what our team did. They just said what it is. Take it, make it happen. If it's relevant to the field that's helping them, let's get it done. So back to you on probably the finish up.
[00:12:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Too often, right? We wait for something really bad to happen, worst case scenario, before we take action. We're all kind of guilty of that at some point in time to justify the cost or the effort or whatever, the focus on something to do. That's right. That's right. So, you know, like we talked about earlier, you know, we had several incidents where, you know, thankfully, nobody lost their lives. But, you know, this was a reaction to very serious incidents that were actually happening, affecting people who we know and we value, and they're part of our family.
And so you look at through our lens, we knew we had to react, but we also realized that our employees, right, our family at work and our family at home, it's our number one asset, period. So if our number one asset is threatened, we need to do something about that. And you're right, it does come with a cost, and certainly it comes with the personnel commitment, time, all the things we've got, Brandon and other people who have dedicated themselves to doing this. But at the end of the day, right, like, there is no price we can put on losing the life of one of our colleagues, right. And it's just, we don't even talk numbers about this because you can't put a life calling or a value on that.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: I guess I wasn't looking for a price tag as much as knowing there's a big price tag on it. It's a big commitment. Y'all put a lot of time, money, and effort into it. But the leadership buying on that, right. Knowing that there's a big number on it and your team's still there going, this is what we do. This is why we do it.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: I guarantee that every company has somebody that can count on, right. And if you got somebody you can count on, this thing can be duplicated. And I'm telling you, this is really.
It didn't take a rocket science to develop this, because I'm not one.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: So first I was hearing of this.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Yes, I know. Surprising as that may be with the sun shining here in my eyes.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: I know, right? I thought we were in Seattle. I thought I did.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: So anyways, you know, having somebody in the organization that can take this, you know, we were happy to share.
We're not asking like, you know, for folks to come in and get like Hollywood actors, this and the other, right. This is, this is easy to train up. So it's cost effective.
[00:14:35] Speaker C: It is. I mean, the reality is that we've got plenty of other low value things that we can offset costs to pay for something that's really important like this. Right. So there's plenty of other low hanging fruit that we can address. So that's kind of what we focus on is how do we do that?
[00:14:51] Speaker A: So I know we're gonna talk to some folks this week and I'm anxious to hear from them. But you guys being close to it and then, you know, the catalyst behind it, what's been some of the feedback from the crews and the people that are out there getting the training and then going back and applying?
[00:15:10] Speaker B: Well, I'll tell you one thing, it gives them an experience. We hear it. We ask for anonymous feedback every time somebody comes through our training, we ask them before they leave to fill us out a survey. So we're taking their feedback in, which is guiding how this thing is developing further. So this is their voice, right. Everything we're doing is there, but this isn't Brandon's, you know, great.
But this is, this is the kind combination of an amazing team that I work with, plus the men and women taking care of our customers, building this thing out. So to have like WBTs where before that was a little bit of the industry standard.
[00:15:54] Speaker C: So web based training, by the way.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: To hands on experience, they feel like, wow, they're putting into this. So, you know, it's a big one. They're receiving it well, you know, I know folks have, you know, I've got plenty of, you know, text messages. Hey, thank you. You know, I had someone yelling at me about their bill earlier and I got, you know, and I was able to kind of decipher that, you know, we get a lot of things come back to the team.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: That's good, but it's huge. Yeah, probably it just being quiet and not hearing the numbers continue to rise and thing, that's really that payoff whether someone sees it or not.
[00:16:29] Speaker E: Right.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: The absence of events doesn't mean there's an absence of safety. And see, that's the thing. And so, you know, it's. It's just they feel empowered. They feel part of the team. They feel like, you know, the company really cares and that's what matters to us, right. That they know they're cared for.
[00:16:46] Speaker C: You know, to Brandon's point, there's been numerous situations where co workers of ours have said, hey, I went through this training and then I had an encounter after the fact that I handle differently based on the training that I receive in a more positive nature, which, I mean, that is reward in and of itself.
What's hard about this whole thing, right. Not being able to get to the root of criminal activity and violence and things in society. Right.
You know, we're never going to be able to celebrate success or full success on this. Right. But what we are celebrating is the fact that we're seeing a reduction in income. Our people are better prepared. They feel more comfortable. Right. They're still not. Still got to keep their guard up in the situation, like where, but they're feeling a lot more comfortable working in the environment that they do and the way they feel when they work. If they feel comfortable, they're going to work more safely. And that's really important.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: What was the phrase you said? Defend the cone.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: So, you know, our folks, they're proud of what they do. They're there to get the work done. You know, the men and women out taking care of our customers, they are prideful. And to have somebody, you know, give them a direct threat and then them have to leave the tool, the job, whatever it is. But, you know, that's what we're really inspiring is that thought process that nothing's more important than them. Nothing.
Yeah. Defend the cone syndrome. Just get out of there, right?
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Get out of there.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: Get away.
Yeah. And so another big part of this, you know, is a little bit of customer service. Right. And so, you know, people have their opinions about us. Good, better, indifferent. And, you know, a lot of times that comes out on our, you know, our coworker that happens to be in that moment, and, you know, a lot of people just want to be heard. So we're teaching good, just people skills as well.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Well, I know y'all put a lot of effort into it. I think it being showcased here at Aga says a lot. This is a community of our peers here and them saying, hey, we need to hear this message this big. We're excited to talk to some of the team. I know y'all probably are, too. We've been at this for a while. I appreciate you guys, really, man. You know, you know, I'll be messaging.
[00:19:04] Speaker C: James. Thanks so much.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: You're awesome. We'll bring some people on here pretty quick.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Well, I thank you for your good work that you're doing as well because you're sharing the best practices throughout the. Did we have one. Did we get a photobomb right here, Kevin?
No, but honestly, thank you for spreading the best practices message, keeping a focus on safety, because we got to share together to get better. And this is a great community here at the AGA, and I can't thank you enough place to do it.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: And the man, it's nice sitting next to a Chiefs fan. That's crazy.
[00:19:37] Speaker D: Oh, yeah.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: No, no, no.
[00:19:41] Speaker C: He went there. He went there.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: After getting to see Jeff and Brandon speak about the program, I think we all got a little more excited to get to talk with the pg and e group. We hopped a plane down the left coast and ended up in San Francisco. Friday was an early morning, and we were at the Oak Port Service center in Oakland at 06:00 a.m. sharp.
[00:20:08] Speaker D: Just seeing how everything's been transitioning were a lot more because after Covid, everything started changing, and I think that's where all this stuff started stemming from. And, yeah, it started ramping up pretty bad. So I know it's pretty hard for a lot of the guys that are out in the field, so it's like a culture shock.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: Not used to seeing stuff like that, but then over time, it's crazy because you.
[00:20:36] Speaker D: You get used to it.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: It's like a trauma thing, right? Okay.
[00:20:40] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: So the normal stuff doesn't affect you anymore. Like pulling up to a stoplight, looking to your left, seeing pistols and people's laps.
[00:20:51] Speaker D: That's a normal thing out here?
[00:20:53] Speaker A: Well, it's normal. People carrying guns in stores, it's normal.
[00:20:58] Speaker C: That's the mentality.
[00:20:59] Speaker D: We go out there every day, so it's just, you know, you wear it on your sleeve every day when you go out the door. Once you leave the gate, I mean, you gotta. You gotta just use your best judgment.
[00:21:11] Speaker C: You know, if you need to de escalate a situation, if you're in an.
[00:21:14] Speaker D: Instance with somebody, you kind of just.
[00:21:16] Speaker C: I will sit back and listen first, not respond, and kind of just figure.
[00:21:19] Speaker D: Out a way to get yourself out of that situation.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: You kind of see things going on here. You know, you see a sideshow here.
[00:21:25] Speaker D: And there, they'll stop the streets off on you.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: You'll see.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: You'll see people.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: I have got robbed.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: He took my whacker off the truck.
[00:21:32] Speaker D: By the time I got to the.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: Front of the truckers and saws. Yeah, right.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: By the time I got to the.
[00:21:36] Speaker A: Truck, though, the guy was in the trunk with the whacker in his lap.
[00:21:39] Speaker D: Driving down the street. So I was like, well, you know, I'm like, golly, man, it got me. I've been actually on. On two incidents where we got robbed at gunpoint.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: You, yourself.
[00:21:52] Speaker D: Yes, us, ourselves. He called out 130 in the morning, and a guy comes out, he's behind the security gate, and he called in for a gas leak, but he's also talking about his girlfriends and his mom, who has dementia. And he's talking. He's got pit bulls jumping around at the door. It's 130 in the morning, you know, since the fire department had just left, so they had shut off his heater. He was just like.
You know what I'm saying? He wasn't. He wasn't right. You know what I'm saying? But I didn't see him for a while, so I was just stepping away from the door. I was getting away from the door because I hear the dogs and all this stuff. So then he's just kind of challenging me on the questions, that general questions that we asked when we're at a Gasly, hey, how long you smell?
But he's not wanting me in the house. So when I started asking him a couple questions, he's like, man, I need you to just call my mom because she has dementia. And da da da da. And I'm like. I'm like, doc. I said, sir, I can't. I can't do that. It's 130 in the morning. I'm not calling nobody. He was like, oh, why are you scared? And da da da. He's just going at it. I still haven't seen him. He's still in the house.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:22:54] Speaker D: Through the security door, right? So I'm getting. Yeah, so I haven't even. Yeah, but he's just talking and talking. So I'm like, let me get away from this door. You know, since I go down the stairs, and then he comes out. It was on a bulletproof vest, bro. But this dude, like, my body literally was telling me, get the hell away from this guy. You know, I mean, so he's trying to get within what I would consider in your space. Yeah, he's trying. Yeah, he's trying to get into that space. And every time he did, you know, I'm just giving him more space. And I just, like, this is the first time in, some of the training just came up, and it was, I'm gonna go to this truck. I'm gonna get you something, and I'm gonna come back. And he was just like. He just kept on talking. I said, I'm gonna go to my truck. I'm gonna get this paperwork for you, and I'll be right back. Get in the car, run. Right. And this all happened within five minutes, you know, I mean, and I will tell you, if that was five minutes, I was there four minutes too long, you know, get a call. There's a leak, call inside.
[00:23:54] Speaker C: Right.
[00:23:54] Speaker D: So go do my routine. Walk to the house, make contact with the customer.
[00:23:59] Speaker C: Right.
[00:24:00] Speaker D: Go in and see what the problem is.
My initial not getting a whole lot with the sensitivity inside the house. So let's.
[00:24:06] Speaker C: One thing you want to, you know.
[00:24:07] Speaker D: Basically check first things, right, go to the meter. What you do is like a spot check to make sure the meters, you know, pretty much just pile of flow and all that. And in doing that, kneeling. Kneeling facing the house, because the meters there on the right hand side of the house. Right. Gunfire erupted right across the street from where I was at. So initially, it's a bit paralyzing because you're trying to figure out what's going on. And then, yeah, you know, what's my move? Like, you think about your family, like, getting out of here, you know, basically unharmed. Right. And I just remember the customer. It was a woman. She was, get in the house. They're shooting out here again. So I'm like, I heard again, I'm like, oh, it must be common, like. So I ran in the house, left my bag and everything outside, got on the ground in the house, and we were basically all of us, there's three of us laying on the ground, and the lady's house closed the door and just sat and waited. So the, you know, the gunfire stopped.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: Now, as you can tell, there's a lot of pride in Oakland, a lot of pride for their city, but also pride for serving natural gas to the people of Oakland, and a lot of pride in PG and E.
And so watching this trend of dangerous activity had a lot of people shook, and they had to move, and they had to start figuring it all out. And so PG and e got to work.
[00:25:26] Speaker E: Yeah, actually, it actually originated. We had a couple damage prevention locators.
They were up doing a job, and honestly, they got kind of bamboozled, let's put it that way. And, you know, everyone turned out to be safe and okay. But, you know, we had enough at that time, right. We were like, man, we're just trying to provide a service, right? And I, you know, it escalated from there. But thankfully, our leadership and our union came together for joint cause and really put together a lot of different awesome things. And heat is, you know, program has come out of it, which is fantastic. Right. So Brandon Cole and the team really orchestrate something amazing, right. That live exercise, you know, it's not a WVT, it's not a web based training, right. It's not a thing. All that stuff. Right.
[00:26:22] Speaker C: I.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: It's.
[00:26:22] Speaker E: It's hands on by people that are hands on. Right. So that it resonates a lot better. Right. It's a long lasting effect of just how to act, how to react.
No one knows how they're gonna act until they get into a situation. Right.
[00:26:37] Speaker D: I could take you right to a point where one of my scenarios where I was an acting robber. So out here and out of Baltimore and everyone else experienced, they do a lot of smash and grabs. So the fact that I was a smash and grabber and putting our co worker in a situation where we did it to him and rob him made me feel that's as close as to prepare as we can get. This guy, they ran me through it, took my phone, took my wallet, all that stuff. I saw it coming, even though I didn't know what it was, but I.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: Knew it was set up to make me uncomfortable.
[00:27:14] Speaker D: But still, stay calm in the moment, and your adrenaline's gonna go, no matter what.
[00:27:19] Speaker E: It's real life. You know, it's like real action. So, you know, I think what I'm seeing, and I've been with safety for 17 years, and even just our normal training, we're turning that into a live.
[00:27:31] Speaker C: Action type of scenario.
[00:27:32] Speaker E: Just with our driving rodeos, with grassroots team, like, we're thinking along those lines now. We're getting a lot of. A lot of good value out of it.
[00:27:39] Speaker D: The tools that you get during the training definitely open your eyes, open your.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: Mind to what needs to be done. When it hits the fan, you.
[00:27:50] Speaker D: It's an instant. You just.
The training just steps in and you just.
[00:27:56] Speaker C: PG and E's motto is, everyone and.
[00:27:59] Speaker D: Everything is always safe. This is a part of that.
[00:28:03] Speaker C: Right. We are keeping you safe because your PGD, biggest asset. Without you, I don't care.
[00:28:11] Speaker D: You can have all the trucks, all the laptops, all the buildings.
Yeah, exactly. But without you, none of that works. Right. Right.
[00:28:19] Speaker C: We're not there yet. AI is not there yet. So we're the biggest asset. So we have to keep you safe.
[00:28:27] Speaker D: In order to move forward with anything that we do. We want them to understand the biggest thing for you coming to work is to go home.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:28:36] Speaker D: And this property can be replaced, but.
[00:28:37] Speaker A: Your life can't be replaced.
[00:28:38] Speaker D: So that's why this training is very.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: Very imperative to let you know, keep.
[00:28:43] Speaker D: The main thing, the main thing. The main thing is you go home to your family safe.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: You know, you can really tell a lot about a culture on how the people greet each other in the mornings.
And being at the Oakport service center, you could tell these folks cared a great deal for each other. And it takes people like that, you know, it takes people like Jeff and Brandon to pull things like this off.
And also it takes 100% leadership buy in. And that was clear at PG and.
[00:29:12] Speaker C: E.
Everybody wants to feel safe and feel supported going into work every day. And so, you know, what I was most proud of from the effort was these are tough issues, right? Like you said, they're out in every community.
It was that, you know, the team threw a bunch of stuff against the wall and not all of it stuck, but. Right. But we worked through it together. You know, leadership was there with frontline co workers talking about what might work.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:38] Speaker C: Obviously, we have a strong grassroots safety.
[00:29:40] Speaker E: Culture here at PG and E. People.
[00:29:42] Speaker C: Like Brandon, you know, a local leader like Jeff leaning in big time.
But, you know, management didn't have all the ideas and we just sort of talked them through and some of them were crazy and got nowhere. But, you know, you put all that on there, right?
[00:30:00] Speaker E: Brass roots here is a peer to peer organization solely dedicated towards safety and peers of looking out for each other. Kind of similar what you guys do here at the podcast, just sharing best practices, lessons learned, what's going on around the industry. You know, hey, be your brothers and sisters, sister's keeper and all that stuff, guys. So, you know, we want to ensure here at PG and E that everything and everyone is always safe. That's our motto. It goes beyond tools and equipment. It goes into the people, right? It goes into the customers, it goes into the employees that feed the customers their energy. So it's just, that's kind of when I speak about an incident that happened to our damage prevention, very shortly thereafter, maybe a day or two, we had one of our coo come out and address the yard that was here in Oakland about the growing concern. He was a, he's a, you know, an ex person from our yard here in Oakland and stuff.
And so he came, he gave a message of, you know, this is what's happened. You know, we're not going to stop at no, we've got to find a resolved, right? So we've done a million different things to do things. We've done.
We've done weird training like Kamal garage. We've done. We've done all kinds of stuff, man. We're like, hey, we went to every asset. We're like, hey, we got to find something to really resonate and bring us home. Safety.
[00:31:30] Speaker D: Jeff Javier was the first person to put a check in opt's hand to get police support. It's been drastic. I think it's been key. I mean, like I said, these guys don't get this. They don't pilot this program or get off the ground without the backing of the higher ups. And they've been completely behind us with, you know, with this and bringing awareness, you know, and we're thankful for that.
[00:31:54] Speaker E: Jeff Jambier really just pioneered it. And, you know, a lot of the breakthrough thinking originated from him cultivating it, from everybody showing up here, being part of those after actions, being part of, part of the crew, just to be able to be able to take steps in a direction and then Brandon being able to, the safety minded and just his energy just, yeah, it just pushes forward and you need that combo to.
[00:32:24] Speaker B: Get that buy in. You do need leadership buy in.
[00:32:27] Speaker E: It's not easy.
[00:32:28] Speaker A: This is.
[00:32:29] Speaker B: We're moving a mountainous here.
[00:32:30] Speaker E: We're not just changing a small process, we're changing the whole way we do work, being able to fund it, being able to give us the time, because this is, we have our day jobs, too, so this is something we put.
[00:32:42] Speaker C: On top of it.
[00:32:43] Speaker E: But it's been super gratifying because we have had the support, like support that I've never seen before. And I've been with the company 17 years. And, you know, Brandon definitely does an excellent job being able to bridge the gap there. And then now I think the leadership is really seeing that there's a lot of value in this. So it's been. It's been phenomenal, actually. It's been really fun. It's really revitalized my career. I think, you know, just in the mindset of, you know, wanting to come to work every day. And I think the fact that we can give this to other folks and they're taking it and, yeah, it's just, I think it's uplifting everyone at this point. So the support is definitely.
[00:33:16] Speaker B: The leadership is great.
[00:33:18] Speaker D: Like, I feel like the leadership kind.
[00:33:21] Speaker B: Of likes, like I said, set you up for success. Like, I. I'm fortunate to have, like, some great leaders that kind of seen something in me early, and they took me under their wing and just was like great mentors, coaching and everything. Our leadership's been incredible. Right. And they've been very responsive. We have a lot of groups that kind of form like grassroots safety, even heap. Right? That's from our employees actually speaking up and saying, hey, we need this going on. I'm really proud that our leadership actually responds to it right here at PG and E. PG was the first company I ever came to where really they said, hey, speak up. And they really made it right. You actually say something, you can send an email straight to our CEO, Patti Poppy, and she will respond. I've seen it.
[00:34:05] Speaker E: Right?
[00:34:06] Speaker B: Joe Fourliner, senior vice president of gas. Incredibly responsive. When you reach out to them, the.
[00:34:11] Speaker C: Buy in is there, the support is there. Seeing the leaders actually out there going through, through the actual program, I mean, that's huge.
You don't see that a lot.
[00:34:21] Speaker B: A lot of folks talk about it.
[00:34:23] Speaker C: But I know that this PG and e company, they're standing up to what they believe in. We all wear the same championship jersey and they're here to support us.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: So we sat down together in Seattle, Washington, at the American Gas association just a couple days ago.
[00:34:36] Speaker B: From the Aga to the east bay, baby. Here we go.
[00:34:39] Speaker A: Here we are, here we are. We spoke this in to existence, manifested that we were talking about it this morning. To come out here and get to talk directly with your folks and hear about this program, it's one thing to.
[00:34:53] Speaker B: Hear from you all.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: We're all partial, we're all biased to some degree with our own work. But at the same time, being able to come and talk to your people about this program has been amazing.
And I don't mean just the highlights, I mean the honesty, the transparency, the people talking about real situations that they were in. You guys have told me by proxy, I just got called you by proxy. But hearing it right from them, nothing like it. So thanks for having us out here. Really.
[00:35:25] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:35:25] Speaker A: Incredible.
[00:35:26] Speaker C: No, thank you for being here. Thank you for joining us in Oakland. Like we talked about the conference, this is. This is the hub of where all of these ideas and everything that we've been doing to try and help our team in the field really started. Right? And it was from the input of a lot of the people that you talked to this morning. It was their good ideas. Brandon and I are just in a position where we're just trying to help support their good ideas and try and help bring them to life. But they weren't our ideas.
[00:35:50] Speaker D: Right.
[00:35:51] Speaker C: It was their ideas.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: You said it was your. No, I'm just kidding.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: I said I'm not a genius.
[00:35:55] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:56] Speaker B: I help smarter people that are around me. Right. So that's what I meant. You met them today, so.
[00:36:01] Speaker C: Yeah, because it's. Look, it's easy for Brandon and I, you know, you know, the men and women that you talked to this morning, they're out there every single day in the field working in this environment, right? I am not. Right. So it's hard for me to represent to the level of effectiveness that they can, what they're actually going through on a daily basis, because I don't live it. I just hear what they're going through and try and support them.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: And these are the same folks that take care of our systems, right? Our delivery of our gas and our electricity. These are the same folks that take care of our problems, that can fix their own problems. When we inspire and listen and sit down with them and empower them. I mean, you seen, you seen today the pride that's in this area, right. As many challenges they're faced with here, just trying to deliver safely, you know, for our customers.
You know, you've seen the pride that they take, and that's the best part, right, is the pride. And so when we take care of the men and women that take care of our customers, they're going to take care of this company because they love it. It's just. It's just amazing seeing this full circle, really.
You know, I was impressed. You know, everybody came in here and talked to you. You guys are kind of difficult.
[00:37:09] Speaker A: I think we recorded more here than we did at Aga. You guys kept us busy all morning, but I think it's a testament to the passion. I like that you mentioned the pride thing, because you said, you guys said that in your presentation at Aga, we have a pride for delivering natural gas to people. You know, a lot of people we talked to, we really leaned into that, and we, when we dug into it, they were born and raised here, right. And so it means something even more to provide that, and they've got a job to do, and it's hard when pride gets in a way. You know, you said, don't defend the cone, but during the presentation, we heard that over and over today, that having to lay down that pride sometimes is the hardest part for these folks. They're geared to learning it, and they're training now. They're qualified.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: They run to the emergency, they run to our customers problems, right. They run into danger, and they put themselves in front of their own safety a lot of times. And we have to rethink that, right. We have to make sure they're first or they can't take care of anybody else. And so we're showing them it's safe to stop the job. It's safe to not start it until it is safe. Right. And really empowering them to make good decisions that it's not about the work, it's about their safety. And we put that on the front end.
[00:38:27] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:28] Speaker B: We don't have to load that up last. That's, that's right in the front end. And it's starting to. I'm sure you've seen it today. It's starting to take culture here. The culture is shifting. Right. And that pride is coming back. And I couldn't be prouder to be part of such an amazing kind of movement. I would call it.
[00:38:43] Speaker A: You got pride proud, yes.
Another thing that was very clear today, I'm thankful we got to come here and talk about is really the commitment of leadership in this whole process. Right. Sometimes we have to go through really tough things to get to the promised land. Right. And it's unfortunate that we have to have a program to teach us these things. Right.
We'd love to work in a world where we didn't have that type of AOC, but without leadership by and without having the right people to come in, we heard it in the Telboard, come in and drive home those messages and help people understand we're continuing to work, continuing to work on it, sitting with y'all. Your names were mentioned, others were mentioned. How important for y'all as leaderships buy into this open bin.
[00:39:33] Speaker C: It's obviously very important. Right. It's equally important as the ideas that are coming from the field and them being comfortable sharing with us. You know, they've made it very clear what's going on out there. And when we kicked this off two years ago, they made it very clear, very directly to myself and Brandon and other leaders, like, they needed help big time. They still need help. But, you know, the leadership buying it would have been very easy. You know, a lot of issues get raised. Right. It would have been very easy to say, well, this is just another one of those things where it'll work itself out. Let's see.
[00:40:07] Speaker A: See what the numbers do.
[00:40:08] Speaker C: Yeah. We've been working in Oakland for over 100 years. Right? We're headquartered here. Yeah. We've been serving this community for well over 100 years now. Right. So why now? Why is this such a big deal now? Right. But I think the big difference was all of us as leaders paid attention to what our team was saying. Right. And we listened. And that's something just leadership wise at PG and e that a lot of us have embraced is, hey, we're leaders right. But what's most important is that we need to listen to the people. Our job, and my job is to support them, not to tell them what to do. Right. But to support their needs as a leader. Right. That's what I'm good at and what I can contribute to them. So. And it's not just me. It's all of us. Right. It took all of the leaders supporting this, and then from there, when we realize, hey, we really have a problem, right. We're all in on it. So.
[00:40:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I would say, you know, I'm sitting here next to somebody that believed I me in leadership, you know, a man, a man who was the water, I was the seed, right. And just really gave me a platform to be my very best. And that's what we're trying to do for each other, right. Each one of our co workers, when we bring out their very best, they will keep rising to those occasions. And so leadership support, if you don't have it, you go nowhere. It's stymied. And if you do get it and you got people that believe in you, that's how this thing gets better. That's how we serve our customers better. Right. Because you got pride you care about. You don't want to let somebody that believes in you down. Right. So you're going to do your very best every single day. That's the way it happens.
[00:41:34] Speaker A: How do you work with this guy? Like y'all get anything done?
[00:41:37] Speaker C: I ask myself the same question every day.
[00:41:40] Speaker A: In a good way.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, that's not what you're saying. Well, I already heard all about the.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: Jury, the laugh from the crowd.
[00:41:48] Speaker C: Right.
[00:41:49] Speaker A: No, I mean, really, though, the passion that comes out of both of you. And it was nice I mentioned I it to y'all when we were in Seattle. It was nice to see y'all present together. I think you both bring a special element to it. But then to follow it up with this trip, so thankful that you made this happen, but to hear the stories directly from so many people saying, here's what happened, you know, and. And you can't beat that part because the magic is really in what happened. Right. We're all trained to in different ways, and things still happen. Right. But in those moments when we come back, when you take a temp check, you calm down a minute and you can really talk about those things. That's what we saw over and over today. We brought it back. We went to work on it. We did it again. We did it again. And then to hear it kind of come into play today. Excellent work.
[00:42:41] Speaker D: Awesome.
[00:42:42] Speaker A: They'll have to be proud. Got to be proud of the staff.
[00:42:45] Speaker B: I couldn't be prouder of the men and women. Women that, you know, are out taking care of our customers. You know, this is. This is a true team that we have here. And, I mean, I'm honored. Every day I pinch myself. Right? Like, you know, this industry coming here, my life, the way it is today, is a direct result of coming to work with these folks every single day.
[00:43:06] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:43:06] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:43:06] Speaker C: I would trade this team in Oakland for anybody. Right? I mean, we're a company filled with professionals, but particularly here in Oakland, what they go through and how they perform every day. In light of all these challenges that we've talked about, literally, I would not trade this team for anybody. And I mean that.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: Well, haven't been around them all day, the way you all treated our team.
[00:43:26] Speaker D: Right?
[00:43:26] Speaker A: I mean, I did push ups right in the middle of the floor.
[00:43:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
Okay. They looked okay. Yeah.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: I mean, that works.
[00:43:35] Speaker B: We're all works in progress, right?
[00:43:40] Speaker A: Thanks for letting us wear the vest. Thanks for inviting us out. We know not everybody gets to do this. Although maybe one day, right. I feel like this program is going to continue to grow. I hope we get to come out and experience ourselves. So, that's a challenge. You can see if y'all make that happen.
But. But really keep doing the good work. This is a problem, an issue that's nationwide. You guys probably heard about it soon, as soon as the y'all walked off the stage. So many people are impacted, and we appreciate the work you guys are doing.
[00:44:13] Speaker C: Thank you, James. Appreciate the opportunity.
[00:44:15] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you, James. I was gonna say, Jim. You did. You did.
What about this amazing support staff you have back here? Because I'll tell you what, really?
There she is once again. But here. Here she is. Carly, thank you for all the hard work.
[00:44:36] Speaker A: No different than here. It takes a village to pull all this off.
[00:44:40] Speaker C: No doubt.
[00:44:40] Speaker A: Team, even in the small. I mean, in a podcast situation. Thankfully, we didn't have to de escalate anything today, but it takes all of us to do it, and that's it.
[00:44:51] Speaker B: That's it. And we're all one team, so, you know, that's. We take care of each other. I mean, it's just an amazing thing that could happen when, you know, people are looking out for the people. Thank you.
[00:45:01] Speaker A: Hey, we appreciate those time today.
Keep an eye on what PG and E are doing out here. It's pretty special.
[00:45:07] Speaker B: Really appreciate.
