More New Guises

There was a flurry of activity today, with two new people starting in our group. One was assigned to shadow me, but I consider myself to have failed as a trainer in that she didn't go on break with us. Maybe tomorrow, though. She does seem like a pretty cool person. "What's the panicmonger really like?" she asked me in hushed tones as I was walking her through a set of costruction plans, only of course she didn't actually refer to the boss as "the panicmonger," or else she wouldn't have had to ask, would she?

"She gets a bit anxious about things sometimes," I said, carefully, "but she's a nice person."

Perhaps the extensive collection of Dilberts pinned to my cube wall gave her a hint. Or the "This is a No Kitten Zone" sign. (But where would kittens be coming from? Who would be producing litter upon litter of - oh.)

The other new guy also seems interesting and funny, though he was too tied up with paperwork all day to come to break. Guess what? He's an experienced sysadmin.

We're having a happy hour Friday, and I really hope he shows up, because then it can double as his going-away. Assuming he's still here Friday, of course.

And of course with new people coming in, our IT contact is bustling about, getting computers and phones and software access set up, a process that generally takes about a month, because for some mysterious reason I've never completely understood, there appears to be no standard procedure for this. It's like a big surprise every time. "Wait - new employees?! Whaaaaa?!?" Not as big a surprise, perhaps, as some of the things the IT contact finds on the computers of employees who have left. "You wouldn't believe the kinds of pictures people keep on their work computers!" he told me, laughing.

I blushed. "I was young," I said. "I needed the money."

Maybe tomorrow we can incorporate the two new people into break and see if they fit in, only I forgot to mention, it's not technically break anymore. We are now the Three-Martini Union, and what we're doing for 30-45 minutes plus, twice a day, is going on strike. We can't get in trouble for that, and as a side benefit, I'm pretty sure we're permitted by applicable state law to employ hired goons to rough up the smokers and other non-union members who try to muscle in on our territory. Maybe even required. I should probably check into that a little further before proceeding, though, just to be on the safe side.

Maybe I can assign one of the new people to do some online research on the topic for me tomorrow.