Introductions (Back to Ranting)

So I hate talking about myself in normal situations, but even more in surprise situations. I was recently surprised at a group staff meeting and asked to talk about myself, and give background on who I was. I had just been hired by this group! Why was it necessary for me to tell them who I was? Didn't they know? Weren't they there during the interviews? Or is it assumed that they weren't paying attention, and if so - do I really want to be working for this group?

They also never tell you beforehand, or give you a guideline. They just say, "so here's the new guy" and let you sit there and stutter for a few minutes until they realize nobody was prepared (or cares) and move on to the topic of the meeting.

Even though I don't like this, I have decided to start my time with this group off right, and have not reacted to being put in this uncomfortable situation. HA! Sorry, couldn't keep it together for that one. No, I went out to the most expensive steakhouse I could for lunch and put it on the corporate card, citing technical group discussions and onboarding. Now I know that doesn't come out of my boss' pocket, but he does have to justify it to his boss :)

Plain-old aggressive office weapon of the week: Personal Soundtrack Shirt (ever wanted to play 'Stayin' Alive' while walking in on the first day? Or the Imperial March when a co-worker says something about the boss when the boss is right behind him? I personally have it under my button-up so I can pull it out Superman-style and put my co-workers on the spot.

Not A Rant

I'm going to break form today - I have decided I like corporate cards. I have been on a company paid trip for the last 5 days, and I'm enjoying my daily meal allowance, putting parking and gas on the card, and having a GPS on my company.

In addition, I forgot how convenient it is for a company to provide equipment. I realized I'm one of those rare people that actually would not own several things if they were not given to me, and that helps me appreciate them all the more.

Non-aggressive office toy of the week: noise cancelling headphones (key for ignoring the office around you)

Importance

Email - that ubiquitous form of communication in my life - continues to provide endless annoyances to me. I was emailed by a friend talking about an after-work activity, and the email was sent as a 'high-importance' email. Immediately after, I received another high-priority email from another person giving general information to another person. I was only cc'd at a very general level.

Because of this, I have taken to breaking up my emails into multiple emails along various levels of importance. I'll send the greeting at a low priority, half the body as a moderate, the other half as a low, and the signature as a high. This combined with the cc'ing or bcc'ing of various people to other emails has significantly cut down on the amount of corporate spam I receive, but also has increased the senior manager level interactions I have.

Hey, at least they know my name, right?

Plain old aggressive office toy of the week: remote control car/boat

Two Weeks

There's no greater feeling than turning in two weeks notice. I hoped this was coming, and was putting off ... well, doing work for the last few days so that I had an excuse not to do it. You know, at all. I'm leaving a soul-sucking position - one that gives me no enjoyment or pleasure, and requires poor hours - for a position that involves no personal conflict, and should allow me better hours, with better pay, and in a better environment.

So I turned in my two weeks, did the "it's not you, it's me" dance with my manager while avoiding telling him where I was going to avoid retribution, and am now watching live streaming soccer at my desk. I purchased myself a celebratory bottle of scotch, and will probably need to stop leaving it on my desk when senior managers are walking by.

I'm not sure if it's the impending deadline, or every single person I meet asking why I'm still here doing work that is rapidly draining my motivation, but I have found myself deviating from my usual delay tactics to really just deliberately not looking in the queues I'm supposed to be watching, or even responding to users when they email/IM me.

The bulk of my efforts have gone into preparing for my departure day where I will bring in a large selection of beer and set up a tasting - hopefully at a nearby BYOB restaurant.