Today was my first day at my new job. I have a headache and a half (still… even at 10:30pm!).
It was really an awesome day, with one exception that I’ll get to. I got there promptly at 8:30am and walked in with my boss and two other employees. Our office space is crammed. I have my own office (for now) and I spent a better part of the day cleaning it up and setting it up.
I have a glass topped desk and really cool Dell laptop, a HUGE(!) whiteboard and a nice bookshelf to myself. Anything that is “free” is snagable and can be claimed as mine. The only thing I’m still “shopping around for” is a chair. I don’t have a good one, so I expect my back to be hurting if I don’t get a better one.
I got everything setup, all the HR paperwork filled out (which reminds me that I need to fax over the BCBS and Dental forms tonight). Everyone is super nice and SUPER(!) busy.
They have a huge deliverable in a month and so the company has been buying lunch for anyone willing to stay and work through to push the project on. I got invited too and ended up staying… which was a given given what happened during lunch.
When the pizza came, my headache had already started, so I wanted to get a soda (caffeine). I went and got one and ran to my car to get another box. I couldn’t get the darn thing out, so I set my purse… with keys… on the backseat and went to open the front door. Unfortunately, I’d locked the car with my button, not anticipating needing to get my keys again. When, at the same time, the back door closed and my keys, purse, coke and box were all inside. D’oh!
I called Ron and a few hours later, he drove by to unlock the car. No one was the wiser (thank goodness as that would have been absolutely humiliating!!), but I didn’t get any caffeine and wasn’t about to ask to bum change. Because then I’d have had to explain!
So the day went on to about 5:15pm and I never left. Talk about busy! I met most everyone — 27 in total with 2 contractors and one remote person. I’m the 2nd full-time employee that is female. I have 1 month left of pumping, so my office is exclusively my own. Otherwise, they’d have me sharing. Some offices are already shared by 3-4 people. They are all people that need to work very closely though… developers that is.
It’s a bit chaotic, but oh so much fun. And, here’s the biggest kicker. As a start-up, they are attempting to save money and maintain usability standard by using open sourced software (something Ron has been trying to get me to do forever!). My machine at home is Windows98 because I can’t upgrade or I’d lose all my functioning software.
Ron uses software like OpenOffice (like Microsoft Office), Putty, Firefox (web browser), Thunderbird (email program), etc. And, wouldn’t you know it? That’s exactly what they use at my office! Ron was laughing so hard when I called him about it. He’s on a mission to convert me and just might get his wish! 😉
So, day 1 is done and I can’t wait for day 2!