First Week At Work

The first week at work was very traumatic for me and I handled it disappointingly poorly. The actual work sounds very interesting and challenging when I finally get to do it but the admin left a lot to be desired. Perhaps it was because there were so many of us starting at the same time. Perhaps not.
I feel, as I head into my second week, that I should be more appreciative of the admin at Cat, especially the induction week. I distinctly recall Don giving us all mobile phones and packs of forms to fill out for credit cards, frequent flyers, rental car etc etc. Once we returned the forms, the cards came quite quickly. Here, no forms, no mobile, no credit card (they are in transition between cards but the new one will be Amex, which is not recognised everywhere). Pay using your own credit card and we reimburse you. Use your own mobile phone, print out your bill and charge back the relevant bits. This is all well and good if you have a credit card and a contracted mobile phone, which I don't. As I said during the week, I don't like the idea of having to pay for the pleasure of working.
The other area of disappointment was the lack of organisation of projects. We were all to go on project visits on Thursday but most did not find out where to go until late Tuesday afternoon. Then there was a mad rush to book tickets & hotels. There were no breaks in the program and people were told off for not being present at the forums because they were busy organising their trips. We were told during the week that we would know where we were going in our second week by Thursday or Friday. On Friday morning, we were told that we didn't have projects assigned yet so we were to wait for a call on Monday to tell us what training we were to attend for the rest of the week. On Friday afternoon, we were told, no, we were going to be assigned projects but we would be told where on Monday so show up at the office with our bags packed for the rest of the week. Could be anywhere in Western Europe. What the...?!
Anyway, I ended up going to Dublin with my colleague, Rolf (like the 17 going on 18 kid in Sound of Music), who is Norwegian, going to be based in Sweden and speaks English, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Spanish and a bit of Italian. Used to speak French but has forgotten most of it. :) The content of the trip was great. We visited a project at a pharmaceutical company. Things started to fall into place and make sense. It was a long day, though, waking up at 4am and getting to bed at 11.30 that night.
I am not a 'fly by the seat of your pants' type of person (unlike Michael). I am naturally organised and like things controlled so that I don't get stressed. Perhaps this has made me less able to cope with others being completely disorganised. I can see that there will be lots of deep breaths at least in the next week or two.
Met up with Taffy on Saturday for a house-hunting expedition. We wandered through neighbourhoods that ranged from lovely all the way to downright dodgy. We ended up at the burnt out shell of the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. The house-hunting will continue...
Bought a phone on contract today online. Will have to switch my number over to it when it comes.
Going to a PLC Old Collegians afternoon tea next Saturday down in Surrey. The house of the lady who is hosting it has no number, just a name and has 'ample parking space' out front. Looking forward to seeing whether it is a mansion. :)
Grandma had brain surgery on Thursday to remove the tumour. It went well but she got a lung infection yesterday. My aunt and cousin from the US were visiting last week and my aunt is still there.