Starting The Year Off With A Bang!
I showed up at the office on Tuesday after the new year only to find it shrouded in darkness. High winds had blown down several power lines and disrupted our power facilities such that all the power was knocked out for our entire field. So I spent the entire week in main office checking email (which was all we could access with the servers down) and going home before lunchtime. So after a slightly longer vacation a more well-rested me took back to work on Friday when the power had been brought back on line.
This is going to be a busier year for me, as I start to take control of more projects from the beginning of the year. By the end of the first quarter, I should have over one-third of my yearly tasks done, and with the power outage last week, I’ve already lost some time. The other thing that will be taking up my time this year is a pilot program Aera is trying out on new employees straight out of college. It’s a mentoring program that pairs us “newbies” with “experienced” mentors to help integrate us into the company, or as my dad puts it, to keep us with the company.
Yesterday was the first session of this program and it involves a lot of additional work (10-15 hours/month for 9-12 months, they say). The good news is that this work is done during the regular work day, so no “homework”; the bad news is that with everything else I have going on, reading about “understanding work relationships” isn’t high on my to-do list. They kept asking us questions about what are expectations were from this program, or how we’ve managed team conflicts, or blah blah blah. It got to the point yesterday when I was answering a question about effective team communication that I just grew tired of BS-ing. For those who know of Ms. Janota’s 12th grade English class know that I can effectively dole out the BS, but at this point in my life, I don’t want to be answering these types of questions.
What do I expect from this program? Hell if I know or care. It’s just more crap for me to deal with.
What am I excited about? Who says I’m excited? Why should I be excited?
What makes an effective team? I just spent 4 years in college learning about teamwork, I don’t need to spend another year talking about it.
Not to sound bitter about it, but this type of thing rubs me the wrong way, mainly because of the assumptions they’ve placed on us that we need their assistance in adapting us to their work environment, even after I’ve worked for them for 6 months. I’ll just have to wait and see how it works out. On a lighter note, my mentor’s last name is Cox and I can’t help but draw a parallel to “Scrubs”. Maybe I should keep referring to him as Dr. Cox. Somehow, though, I don’t think I’d get to experience any crazy rants or be called by a girl’s name. But you can’t rule out the possibility just yet.
This is going to be a busier year for me, as I start to take control of more projects from the beginning of the year. By the end of the first quarter, I should have over one-third of my yearly tasks done, and with the power outage last week, I’ve already lost some time. The other thing that will be taking up my time this year is a pilot program Aera is trying out on new employees straight out of college. It’s a mentoring program that pairs us “newbies” with “experienced” mentors to help integrate us into the company, or as my dad puts it, to keep us with the company.
Yesterday was the first session of this program and it involves a lot of additional work (10-15 hours/month for 9-12 months, they say). The good news is that this work is done during the regular work day, so no “homework”; the bad news is that with everything else I have going on, reading about “understanding work relationships” isn’t high on my to-do list. They kept asking us questions about what are expectations were from this program, or how we’ve managed team conflicts, or blah blah blah. It got to the point yesterday when I was answering a question about effective team communication that I just grew tired of BS-ing. For those who know of Ms. Janota’s 12th grade English class know that I can effectively dole out the BS, but at this point in my life, I don’t want to be answering these types of questions.
What do I expect from this program? Hell if I know or care. It’s just more crap for me to deal with.
What am I excited about? Who says I’m excited? Why should I be excited?
What makes an effective team? I just spent 4 years in college learning about teamwork, I don’t need to spend another year talking about it.
Not to sound bitter about it, but this type of thing rubs me the wrong way, mainly because of the assumptions they’ve placed on us that we need their assistance in adapting us to their work environment, even after I’ve worked for them for 6 months. I’ll just have to wait and see how it works out. On a lighter note, my mentor’s last name is Cox and I can’t help but draw a parallel to “Scrubs”. Maybe I should keep referring to him as Dr. Cox. Somehow, though, I don’t think I’d get to experience any crazy rants or be called by a girl’s name. But you can’t rule out the possibility just yet.
posted by Chris Burzlaff @ 1/11/2006
<< Home