This is a post which is a compilation of me and my friend’s experiences when you join an organisation. You need not go through each one of this, but some of them should make some sense to you. For all those who are already working, this might bring back memories of your initial days, for others this is something you may expect!
Day 1: Form-ality
Forms, Forms & More Forms. You realise, you have been using the PC much more than the mighty pen. Your fingers struggle to control the way the pen moves and you write in a handwriting you don’t recognize as yours. The Bank Guy opens a salary account for you on the spot which might have taken ages and repeated visits had you visited a bank yourself. You sign at atleast 100 places, each one differently. You check out your Debit Card and the Cheque Book in a way a Kid checks out his new toy. You try to break ice with other colleagues joined with you. The HR usually are often amused to see such bunch of confused souls joining together and pray that they don’t have to find replacement for them soon.
Day 2: Where’s my place?
This is one thing everyone is very excited about - Your cubicle! The Place where you would be chatting, whining, cursing, swearing, gossiping, bitching, sleeping, playing games, secretly logging to Gmail & FB and sometimes even do a bit of work! Once you get to know where your cubicle is, you do the recee of the area and try to find the ‘safest’ angle and position of your seat. Office privacy is ofcourse a topic of high importance. Allright what have we got here – A PC! Lets switch it on. Window --> IE -->”Windows cannot display your page”. Damn! Now what? OK lets try something else, Windows -->Games -->Solitaire, Yaay! Solitaire is something you will definitely find in any pc even if it doesn’t have a thing to keep you busy. So ensure you know how to play Solitaire.
Day 3: Know thy neighbours
You introduce yourself to your cubicle-ites. You are taken around and introduced to each and every person on the floor. After sometime, you start noticing the grin on your introducer’s and others face or is it just a figment of your imagination? You hear voices, ‘why on earth has he/she joined here”. Your jaws start aching after putting up a fake smile to each and every one. Smiling despite apprehension, confusion and nervousness does take efforts. People say the feeling is similar when you get married.
Day 4: Hello? IT helpdesk? Ohhh….Ok I will call again later
You have now become a champ of solitaire and there is nothing more to achieve. You realise you cannot live without the most and probably the only useful, important and interesting part of your PC viz the Internet. You call up probably one of the most busiest dept in any office – The IT helpdesk. Their hectic schedule is a shadow of goof-ups they have given birth to. So after umpteen calling back again and followups, the online ticket is raised whose status keeps yo-yo-ing between pending and resolved. They have a six-sigma for not solving the issue correctly the first time. Finally the matter is solved and your PC suddenly becomes much more interesting than ever before.
Day 5: Love thy neighbours
“Hey why don’t you join us for lunch?” – you hear this and are relieved that you would not be eating alone from now onwards. After many lunch and coffee/smoke/drink sessions, your colleagues turn into friends. They tell you the ‘who-is-what’s, how to deal with different kind of creatures in the office, the affairs, working proxies etc. This is the real induction.
Day 6...10..30...: Monday
You have been pretty much doing nothing for many days since you joined except for going through the same presentations repeatedly, surf the net, chat and keep checking the PC clock till 1.30 pm lunch and 6 pm to leave for the day. .Monday is synonymous to the day when your actual work begins. This can be day 6 for some, day 10 for some, even day 35, 50, 60 for the unlucky. Some noble soul realises someday that you have been sitting idle and being wasted for long enough. And you for once and for the first and last time become actually happy to get some work! You start taking baby steps, trying to stand, holding finger and walking and finally walking alone and after some time running, jumping too. You have done it all. You do this day in and day out. This gets xeroxed day after day. This is when your job starts becoming routine. You start waiting for Friday like a prisoner awaits end of his term and wish the next Monday never comes. Now you have truly arrived. Welcome to the corporate world!
Day 1: Form-ality
Forms, Forms & More Forms. You realise, you have been using the PC much more than the mighty pen. Your fingers struggle to control the way the pen moves and you write in a handwriting you don’t recognize as yours. The Bank Guy opens a salary account for you on the spot which might have taken ages and repeated visits had you visited a bank yourself. You sign at atleast 100 places, each one differently. You check out your Debit Card and the Cheque Book in a way a Kid checks out his new toy. You try to break ice with other colleagues joined with you. The HR usually are often amused to see such bunch of confused souls joining together and pray that they don’t have to find replacement for them soon.
Day 2: Where’s my place?
This is one thing everyone is very excited about - Your cubicle! The Place where you would be chatting, whining, cursing, swearing, gossiping, bitching, sleeping, playing games, secretly logging to Gmail & FB and sometimes even do a bit of work! Once you get to know where your cubicle is, you do the recee of the area and try to find the ‘safest’ angle and position of your seat. Office privacy is ofcourse a topic of high importance. Allright what have we got here – A PC! Lets switch it on. Window --> IE -->”Windows cannot display your page”. Damn! Now what? OK lets try something else, Windows -->Games -->Solitaire, Yaay! Solitaire is something you will definitely find in any pc even if it doesn’t have a thing to keep you busy. So ensure you know how to play Solitaire.
Day 3: Know thy neighbours
You introduce yourself to your cubicle-ites. You are taken around and introduced to each and every person on the floor. After sometime, you start noticing the grin on your introducer’s and others face or is it just a figment of your imagination? You hear voices, ‘why on earth has he/she joined here”. Your jaws start aching after putting up a fake smile to each and every one. Smiling despite apprehension, confusion and nervousness does take efforts. People say the feeling is similar when you get married.
Day 4: Hello? IT helpdesk? Ohhh….Ok I will call again later
You have now become a champ of solitaire and there is nothing more to achieve. You realise you cannot live without the most and probably the only useful, important and interesting part of your PC viz the Internet. You call up probably one of the most busiest dept in any office – The IT helpdesk. Their hectic schedule is a shadow of goof-ups they have given birth to. So after umpteen calling back again and followups, the online ticket is raised whose status keeps yo-yo-ing between pending and resolved. They have a six-sigma for not solving the issue correctly the first time. Finally the matter is solved and your PC suddenly becomes much more interesting than ever before.
Day 5: Love thy neighbours
“Hey why don’t you join us for lunch?” – you hear this and are relieved that you would not be eating alone from now onwards. After many lunch and coffee/smoke/drink sessions, your colleagues turn into friends. They tell you the ‘who-is-what’s, how to deal with different kind of creatures in the office, the affairs, working proxies etc. This is the real induction.
Day 6...10..30...: Monday
You have been pretty much doing nothing for many days since you joined except for going through the same presentations repeatedly, surf the net, chat and keep checking the PC clock till 1.30 pm lunch and 6 pm to leave for the day. .Monday is synonymous to the day when your actual work begins. This can be day 6 for some, day 10 for some, even day 35, 50, 60 for the unlucky. Some noble soul realises someday that you have been sitting idle and being wasted for long enough. And you for once and for the first and last time become actually happy to get some work! You start taking baby steps, trying to stand, holding finger and walking and finally walking alone and after some time running, jumping too. You have done it all. You do this day in and day out. This gets xeroxed day after day. This is when your job starts becoming routine. You start waiting for Friday like a prisoner awaits end of his term and wish the next Monday never comes. Now you have truly arrived. Welcome to the corporate world!
