First Week, by Guest Blogger William Stone

If you’ve ever started a new job, you know it’s something that you anticipate quite extensively. For me this anticipation was coupled with uprooting my life and transporting myself halfway around the world. Needless to say, both of these occurrences and everything that goes with them have been in the forefront of my mind for the last five months or so. It’s easy to think that your new company, and country in my case, would have the same sentiments. After all, they have been waiting for me to start for so long—eagerly anticipating the irreplaceable skills and unparalleled talent that they hired me for. I would expect nothing less than a parade to commemorate the historical significance of my arrival. Considering my circumstances, surely everyone should be gaping at my exotic, adventurous nature.

Alas, this was not the case. It turned out to be exactly like the first day at any job. There were no parades, no parties, not even the free lunch that one could possibly expect on a first day. In fact, the IT department was away setting up a new office, so I didn’t even have a place to sit or an email address for the first half of the day. But that’s the way it is with any new job. Every office has a balance, and new employees can upset that balance until they are fully integrated into the system and become a cog in the machine. For a time, new employees only create more work for everyone. Administrative red tape, printing, timesheets—all tedious procedures that someone else must do for or explain to the new guy.

Don’t get me wrong—everyone has been very friendly. And I quickly realized why no one was impressed with my expatriate status. The office is literally a melting pot (sorry, United States, my company has you beat). In my first week I met another American, a Canadian, an Irishman, and two South Africans. A wide variety of Asian countries are represented as well.

I wonder if these imports had as much trouble interpreting the local lingo as I did. On Thursday I received an email from one of my co-workers saying that tomorrow (Friday) the engineering division was having its semi-monthly “morning tea” and that it had fallen on our section of the office to provide the refreshments. Morning tea, I assumed, was a synonym for breakfast, but of course I had no idea what constituted normal fare for a morning tea. Luckily the email included a spreadsheet allowing you to sign up for something specific to bring. Great, I thought to myself, I’ll just look at the list and pick something. The list looked something like this:

Chips
Lammingtons
Choccy Bikkys
Lollies
Muffins
Cake
Biscuits

Well, this list wasn’t as helpful as I thought it would be. Chips, cake, and biscuits I knew could mean several different things in several different English speaking countries. Lammingtons, lollies, and choccy bikkys? Your guess is as good as mine. Muffins … I was pretty sure there were fewer interpretations for this than the other food items, at least. I quickly put my name on the corresponding line and saved the spreadsheet, fearing if I waited too long I’d be stuck bringing the “choccy bikkys.” All in all it turned out well, although to my puzzlement there was no tea at morning tea. There were choccy bikkys, however, and they lived up to their name… whatever that means.

All in all, the first week was a success. I had a moderate amount of work to do, which was fine with me considering I still had some moving-related red tape items to take care of (aka apartment nightmares). I also met most of the people in my division and I think they will be good to work with. I’m also fairly certain they will help keep me entertained while at work—an important factor, because, while there are many differences between America and Australia, I can assure you that CAD work is still quite boring whether in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere.

Time Here: Sunday, Feb. 15, 2:00 pm