Random Observations from the New Gal

[livingdeb]

I began my work day with four hours at the new employee orientation. I did actually learn a couple of things: when you buy a ticket for a show, such as at the Performing Arts Theatre, you can also buy a discount parking ticket at the same time.

And now you can get $25 each year that you fill out a health survey and have some preventative appointment (like an annual physical, a mammogram, or a colonoscopy). The health survey people are a different group than the insurance people and promise to maintain your privacy.

I also got a free lunch: sandwich and chips. Odd, but nice.

Afterwards, I tried signing up for insurance, but I got an error message that people on COBRA can't make updates. (I've been using COBRA for dental insurance.) But the HR folks got back to me right away--it just means I have to turn in a paper form.

Which I will be able to see as soon as I get a PDF reader. Yes, I downloaded the recommended one and ran it, but then got the message that I needed a newer one. And that was today's theme--getting the computer guy to do a bunch of stuff. Starting with bringing me a computer. (I did already have a keyboard.) Eventually everything will work properly.

Good news: it seems not to be freezing cold in my new office. Woot! It's a little chilly, but that's fine in the winter. I don't feel like I have to keep my coat, hat, scarf, and gloves on like in some of my previous offices. Other good news: the bathrooms have manual flushing. Also: I have access to a fridge and a microwave. But there's no lunch room, so I'll probably spend a lot of time in the library and perhaps occasionally eating lunch with my old Business co-workers.

I've already got two meetings to attend this week. Plus I will get into some additional training. Fortunately, they don't want me to make any decisions by myself yet. I will make decisions, and then meet with the experts to learn any added details I need to know in order to fine-tune those decision until they are right.

I already got to look at some documentation written by my predecessor on how to do some of my job duties. It's wonderfully good and thorough. Yet both I and the gal who's been using it the past few weeks to do the duties (and who will be training me) already have suggestions for improvement. Teamwork! Improvement! I love that in a job.

My office is quite grey. I'm not yet sure about what to do about that. (Must not decorate with fake clouds and fake rain.)

I decided to try four-day work-weeks. We'll see how that goes.

One less day of commuting will be nice. Today I left at 4:45 and the bus did not come until 5:21. Meanwhile, I watched the same bus pass me in the other direction twice. Once there were enough people at my stop to fill an entire bus, it came, but of course there were already quite a few people on the bus. I suppose it would take me more than an hour to just walk home, especially since I get distracted and stop and look at things. But especially on cold and windy days, I am sorely tempted. (Walking keeps me warmer than standing--and you can't really pace once there are a lot of people at the stop.)

Overall, I'm still liking this job. Yea!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

w00t!

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

Yay, manual flush toilets! I'm a fan.