What's new in Canice-land?
I reported to work at my new job with a little bit of the apprehension, not knowing what I might have gotten into. I was (as usual for me) a little late, arriving about 10 after 8AM. I managed to convince the security guards I am a new employee, and figured I could place part of my tardiness (rightly so) on them. Arriving on my floor, I told the receptionsit who i am, and she called my manager, who came to let me in. She escorted me to her office, and we spoke a bit, and then she said "let me show you where we are going to put you" I walked with her past rows of cubicles, and thought to myself, well these aren't so bad...better than where i was before. We turned down an aisle, and kept walking towards this office, where I guessed we would meet someone else, she walked in and said" well, this is where you will be" I think my open mouth and wide eyes must have caused her to smile a bit, and I asked, is this temporary, and she asked" Why? Is this unacceptable??" I assured her it was not. Its a cubicle, really more like a rectangle, I paced it off - its 17 feet by 10 feet about. I have a work area, a meeting area with four chairs and a couple of lamps, and off course the computer. And being a corner office, I have these wonderful WINDOWS...I look out at the front drive and across the river to the baseball stadium..
I put my stuff away, and she took me around introducing me to people. I met the two analysts sitting in my row, who apparently report to her but functionally work for me, at least part of the time. So much for Monday .
Tuesday was more introductions, and a discussion with my manager. Wednesday was a couple of meetings and a teleconference with the contract vendor. Appears some of the deliverables are still on a boat from Japan, so installation will be delayed by about 3 weeks. Here is where i slowly catch on to why I was hired. I write a list of issues during the call, and afterwards try to find more info, only its few and far between. Nobody has been reporting anything since the previous project manager left in October. Later in the day, I wander over to my managers office and talk to her, and one of her comments is " you know, one of the reasons we hired you is while many of the candidates had the Project Management skills, none had any real experience" (AH HA! Age does count I guess.)
Thursday I went over to the organization whose project this is, and learned that everyone there is skilled at something, but none has any experience in dealing with vendors or managing a project. I took a tour of the place, got an ID card from there so now i can come and go as I need, and here again I find I have a office... Friday was pretty much a reading day, and I spent all day trying to read documents and see where I can do something to move this project along.
One of the weirder things getting used to is the deference I am being shown here as opposed to where I was before. People knock before coming into my area, and refer to me as m'am a lot.
when i email people and ask about something, its treated like an urgent missive...and everyone on the project is practically in a "we're not worthy" mode after I meet with them...but then again, i have a reputation as being a "big thinker" . one thing i did do at the meeting with the project people was one of them said " ...and he thinks outside the box.." HOLD IT. We are not going to use that tired old saying around here OK?
to be continued
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