My another first day at work

I don’t know if it happens with others too. But that weird feeling of reluctantly shaking hands while introducing and being introduced to the who’s who of the company and everybody, I was also apprehensive if I would be tagged a snob if I didn’t wear a smile additionally. My manager promised me a tour of the facility and I had to mentally prepare myself to shake a lot of hands – clean hands, dirty hands, sweaty hands, greasy hands and frozen hands while putting on a grin all the while. As we went walking up to their bays and started the routine, I realized I was the less mortified one. A lot of them narrated their work of the day. I am quite unsure if that is an appropriate thing to do. Overwhelming a new comer with things they have been handling for ages. I had both my eyes and ears opened and my mind like a sponge, trying to absorb whatever I could. But poor me! I didn’t get the head and tail of most of their stories. On sharing my plight with my manager, he consoles I can take my time to understand the business and how it works out here. But I doubt if he really meant it. Sigh.

At lunch of course I was alone. Not that I cared anymore. But it sure was a new experience eating alone in a crowd. I told myself I am getting used to it. The sooner the better as it saves me a lot of time sans the chit-chats. After a light meal, I was at my workstation, staring into nothingness. I looked up on their websites and tried acquainting myself with their branding style. Unlike my previous organization, I had the advantage of having the design team in-house and the best part; they were already well-versed with the basic guidelines on the usage of the logo and approved fonts, making my life much easier. Or it seemed so at the first glance.

After a while, my manager wanted to walk me through various slides of three heavy presentations of our business. It was extensive. I wondered how he expected any human mind to capture everything that he shared in those 4 hours of downloading. Mine wasn’t capable of it. And I wondered again if I should be embarrassed for that. So I kept wondering one after another. I had few questions. A little more than few and I kept interrupting him. And I couldn’t ever make out neither from his expressions nor from his composure if I’d come to a point of irritating him. When the slides ended, both of us were equally relieved I think - me because I couldn’t take any more of it and him because he wouldn’t have to keep answering to my silly questions.

On my way home I realized I was too tired to even make a call. My eyes hurt and strangely so did my legs. But I was glad that I would have a peaceful sleep after long 10 months of unemployment.