Odd Management Realization

I've been trying maybe too hard to figure out just where my position falls in the office hierarchy; I'm not really sure whether I was a "coworker" or a "supervisor" as far as the people around me are concerned. Now that this has happened, I feel sort of stupid for not recognizing it earlier.

tonight, someone resigned their position, and in doing so felt the need to make me aware of it; that is, at the end of their shift, they got my attention to explain that it would be their last, apologize for the short notice, and turn in their access card. People resign all the time (especially the bilingual people here) but nobody has ever reported to me to do it. And this one did, because she saw me as her supervisor. She's almost 40 years old, but I was still her supervisor; the person she needed to talk to in order to square away her separation from the company.

I'm a supervisor, despite my lack of expertise, because they think I have some sort of authority. What real authority I actually have is minute; it's barely there. I don't even think I have it most of the time. It's like being a meter maid. Sure, I'm not a cop, but I still wrote you a ticket that you have to pay. It's not the sort of authority I really like, and it has a very different, much less comfortable feel than the authority I had at TASC, where people listened because I was honestly good at what I was doing.And the only thing for that is to again get good at what I'm doing now.

So it's a good thing that the management thinks I'm doing a good enough job for me to report to my boss's boss directly; they're going to start rotating my loyalty between the four managers so I can pick up their areas of expertise and their styles. I'm training with supervisors now, not phone operators. Now, if nothing else, I know what camp I'm supposed to be in, which has not previously been clear.