Last week I wrote about talking to your neighbor. About how the first step in any collective action isn’t a petition or a meeting or a demand. It’s a conversation with the person who already understands what you’re dealing with because they are sitting in the same meetings and working under the same expectations that you are.

Talking is the first step. Acting together, even in small ways, is the second.

Wherever I work, but especially when I worked back at Clark College, I was often the person who brought issues to management. And I noticed that when it was just me, the issue was likely to be dismissed. Not always rudely. But the response would often be “we’ll look into it” or “that’s just how things are right now.” The issue rarely moved.

Then I started noticing what happened when anyone else raised the same topic. The tone shifted. And when two or more people supported it, it shifted even more. The problem hadn’t changed. The wording hadn’t changed. What changed was that it wasn’t coming from the same person every time, and it wasn’t just one person anymore.

This is what it usually looked like. I would be talking with a coworker, and they would mention something they wished management would change. Instead of just agreeing, I would ask if they’d be willing to bring it up at the next staff meeting. I’d tell them that if they did, I would raise my hand and say I agreed. Then I would quietly ask one other person if they’d be willing to do the same.

When the meeting came, if they brought their issue up, I would raise my hand and agree. Sometimes another person joined in. Sometimes the topic never came up at all. Either way, I checked in with them later.

We used the same approach outside meetings too. When management walked through the office, sometimes someone would mention a small concern and another person would step into the conversation and agree before moving on to ask someone else if they felt the same way. It wasn’t confrontational. It was just coworkers acknowledging each other in front of leadership.

That’s collective presence. It doesn’t require everyone. It’s two or three people moving at the same time in a small, visible way. A raised hand. A short sentence of agreement. A nod others can see. If you work remotely, it can look different but mean the same thing. A visible reaction in a meeting. Or a brief message of agreement in chat. The format changes. The purpose doesn’t.

You already know who you would ask.

Walk down the hall, send them a message, call them.

Agree to show up together.

Joey Hicklin – WPEA Organizer & IT Admin