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My first week of a 9-5 regular job has been rough. I miss my old co-workers more than I thought I would. And even more surprising, I actually miss the work I did - or more accurately, I miss a level of expertise, a level of knowledge, a level of competence that I do not have in this new position. I know that will come with time, but while my new classification is a step up, the actual job is not. I know I was way, way under compensated for the old job, but I had a much more direct impact on the program than I will EVER have in this department. I have knowledge in the arts and how that fits into a recreation department. I don't have any special Information Tech knowledge; my contribution is purely in an administrative assistant way.
Everyone has been very nice, but the overall culture is so much more corporate like, I have a cubicle. I can not close my door. It's on the main hallway and I have one co-worker in a cube next to me. We can hear everything each other does. I feel very "Dilbert". The other big difference is the female/male ratio. Old job about 10% male, this job about 65% male. And, while not to stereotype too much, the guy's in the arts were guy's I could have long conversations with. I'm sure there are a few guys in IT that as I get to know, I will feel that way about too. But so far, I have very little in common with my new co-workers, including the woman. And there are so many of them, about 75 new faces and names to put together.
I will give it a few months and see how I feel. It just sort of took me by surprise how much I'm bothered by the “little fish in a big pond” thing. And working 5 days instead of 4 is not going to be an easy conversion either. And HAVING to be at work at 8:30 am and HAVING to stay until 5 pm, even if all my work is done – that is very hard. I know there are millions of folks, who do this every day, but I’ve managed the last 20 years of my work life on a task oriented schedule and this new schedule just seems weird.
Everyone has been very nice, but the overall culture is so much more corporate like, I have a cubicle. I can not close my door. It's on the main hallway and I have one co-worker in a cube next to me. We can hear everything each other does. I feel very "Dilbert". The other big difference is the female/male ratio. Old job about 10% male, this job about 65% male. And, while not to stereotype too much, the guy's in the arts were guy's I could have long conversations with. I'm sure there are a few guys in IT that as I get to know, I will feel that way about too. But so far, I have very little in common with my new co-workers, including the woman. And there are so many of them, about 75 new faces and names to put together.
I will give it a few months and see how I feel. It just sort of took me by surprise how much I'm bothered by the “little fish in a big pond” thing. And working 5 days instead of 4 is not going to be an easy conversion either. And HAVING to be at work at 8:30 am and HAVING to stay until 5 pm, even if all my work is done – that is very hard. I know there are millions of folks, who do this every day, but I’ve managed the last 20 years of my work life on a task oriented schedule and this new schedule just seems weird.
