Weeks 3&4

There is still cake day! (Now with singing!)
One of my favorite parts about Labs was monthly birthday cake. We do that at my non-profit too... except they also get fruit, for those that don't want cake. Oh, and there's singing. We sing EVERYONE's names for the whole month. Its hilarious.

That warm fuzzy feeling that comes with being invited to Happy hour
That's pretty much it. It's cool to be wanted, especially when you're new

Phones

I actually hate phones. I don't know how I survived as a consultant for as long as I did. Cold calling people, terrible. Phones ringing, terrible. I'm so ready for IMs to hit this place.


Culture

Switching from a "self service" culture to an "admin culture" is weird. I've been told that I can't get some training because I'm not an admin (I'm too high a level). This is backwards  - what if my admin is out of the office and we need to purchase/receive goods? We are an IT organization after all, we order a LOT of stuff at random times. Especially coming in to a situation where our "Lead Admin" is only 30% "ours" and is brand new to the org... it's a little bit worrying. Seriously, our admins are some of the most capable people in the org, but it's a very weird structure.


Being the Client
Being the client is funny. Especially when as the client, 2/3 of you have been consultants before, and you're working for a non-profit. It makes it really weird when your consultants miss deadlines or miss prioritize things.

Building Credibility
I'm pretty pumped about the way this job is starting out, in terms of the work. Starting in as a "generalist" with a project that's basically exactly what I'd been doing for the last year lets me build credibility without having to try too hard... I can learn my way through the organizational politics without having to work through a new tech that's too over my head.


On Townhalls and Tech Previews

"Did they just clap for Gchat?" "It's like we have an IT department". It's cool to be the new face of IT. I may not be a diversity hire in this organization (it's a non profit full of women, rather than being a tech company full of dudes), but I'm still a fresh face on the IT part of the organization that is doing new stuff. 


On Agendas

That consultant "I need an agenda slide" habit is hard to break ( but maybe that's not a bad thing, it's a decent meeting practice, its just a bit weird in a presentation). Sam and I had one for our GHC talk (no one else really did) and the boss has skipped over the one he put in his slides the 4 times he's given this presentation.