So after one week at a new job I’m just starting to figure things out. Despite being with the company for nearly 10 years, it was a little difficult to get settled in. I was expecting change but in many ways it’s change in the wrong direction.

A real office environment

The good thing is, there’s work to be done. There won’t be any Dr. Mario tournaments or hallway bowling here, for better or for worse. But even though there’s a stack of work to be done, for the first time in a long, long time I have to rely on co-workers more than ever.

I’m slowly figuring out everyone’s strong points, and they seem pretty varied, but even then it’s not something I’m used to. For most of my professional career I’ve been a one-man department - a designer, developer, AND content manager. Now there’s actually some sort of “team” concept going about and now I’m pretty much only the designer. Although I haven’t done much yet, I sense I’ll be one of the few coders too. Thankfully, however, my duties as a content manager will become less and less. Content. Bleck.

I won’t be saying anything new when I say that adding people to the mix just slows things down. This isn’t to say things won’t get done or done well, things just end up being scattered and hard to organize and manage.

Project chaos

And that’s a BIG issue I still have…there is zero project organization. As a one-man team I always used to-do lists, project lists, tracking…all that stuff, for one man. You’d think a team of more nearly a dozen would be using some sort of method for organizing. The best they got is a shared drive and a massive spreadsheet with meaningless dribble on it. I’ve made it a mission to try to push for some better project organization around there, which could turn out to be my biggest challenge.

I also discovered that I’m not a bits-and-pieces guy. If I’m going to be working on a web project I want to know the big picture…why, how, goals, etc. I’m not a person that does well at “here make this” without knowing why I’m making it or how it’s going to fit into the overall project. Too often (especially around there) people just “make it” without thinking about if what they’re making is actually needed. Give me a problem and I’ll give you a solution. Don’t just give me a task. I’m guessing that won’t stop but it’s really annoying nonetheless.

People make the difference

One thing that is great about my new job is the people. Not only are they all pretty much fun/happy people, it’s nice to have people to work with as a team. Despite likely the efficiency of being a one-man shop, having other people to talk to about projects, concepts, ideas, and even geek speak is a nice change. It’s also nice just have more people around the office. I now have the opportunity to annoy and waste the time of a greater number of people.

I’m also still getting used to being stuck downtown. Timing it this week, it takes me 20 minutes to get home now, one way. This makes going home for lunch far more inefficient than before, so that means I have to once again pack my lunch or eat out. Buying lunch gets me out of the office but empties my wallet. Packing is cheaper but keeps me at my desk. The only silver lining there is that everyone else is stuck too so there will be a lot of banding together for lunch.

I just have to prepare myself for more reliance on other people, slower pacing, and a lack luster environment.
I finally made it to the middle. Joy.