Out of the Fire?

After a two week hiatus, post old job, in which I basically vegged in front our TV watching all six seasons of Sex and the City, two complete viewings of Pride and Predjudice with lots of still/pause on the famous Colin Firth pond swimming scene (note to self: must clean DVD remote of drool), re-runs of Tyler Florence's "Food 911", with a smattering of Cary Grant movies just to keep things interesting, I have been rudely brought back into the world of the working. My second week at Company E just ended. I brought boxes to work today so I guess I'm going to stay.

I am managing a great group of people. They have been very welcoming and it has made what can be a difficult transition much easier, especially since they have been essentially managing themselves for the past six months. I did, however, inherit the proverbial mess. It seems that the last manager never did any of the required Manager Paperwork. Two of my team haven't had reviews in two years, meaning they haven't had a pay raise in two years. I even found out I have a direct report I didn't know about. It seems that a special projects administrator also reports to me. She has an office on the other side of the building and lives in what everyone calls Siberia. Not because there isn't anyone over around her office but rather the AC in her office is permanently stuck on "morgue setting". Even with last week's 90+ temps, she was bundled up like it was Feburary. I was a bit apprehensive about suggesting she give up her office and move to one of the empty rat-cubes in my area. But, since I noticed her stuff starting to migrate to the aforementioned cube this week, I guess my gentle request wasn't that much of a hardship.

To say that I'm suffering bit of corporate culture shock would be an understatement. My new company's entire phone book fits on two 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of paper in the landscape view vs a 145 page directory that was required for Company B. I can walk down the hall and right into the product development wing from the engineering wing not have to flash an ID badge. They don't even have a rent-a-cop at the front door. It is, to put it mildly, a breath of fresh air. The closest thing to a corporate structure is the same institutional grade toilet paper in the bathroom that every company uses. But, I can fix that...