Hey Nerds,
I started my new job yesterday. Again, how blessed and/or lucky am I that I found a job so quickly during a pandemic? It blows my mind.
Speaking of starting a job during a pandemic, never have I ever experienced such a unique on-boarding to a new company. In a world that once thought we had to do everything in person, my how ingenious we have become. While a portion of my on-boarding was still face-to-face (six feet apart), starting at a company is a whole new ballgame:
- Drive up to the company to physically meet my new manager with whom I had only previously met through WebEx
- Don’t shake hands! Just smile with your eyes and head up to collect your laptop
- Receive an abbreviated tour of an otherwise empty building (because this company is taking COVID-19 VERY seriously and I respect the hell out of that)
- Conduct your on-boarding with HR via WebEx from an empty office because you don’t have time to drive home and do it from home
- Getting a copy of your supporting documents to complete your I9? Not a problem, hold the document up to the camera and they’ll take screenshots!
- Join a team meeting via WebEx from your manager’s office, sitting six feet apart obviously
- Get escorted out because they aren’t issuing badges during the pandemic because they want to discourage you from coming into the building unnecessarily (#respect)
- Drive home and shower off before logging back in and getting to work reading the billion emails forwarded to you for your review.
Fun Fact: I kind of LOVED this on-boarding. Is it weird not getting to meet people in person? Yeah, sure. At the same time, it’s less overwhelming. You’re not paraded around the office, meeting a million new people, and learning names you won’t remember tomorrow…but EVERYONE will know your name because they only had to learn one new name.
With technology where IT can take over your computer, IT issues are easily resolved remotely. With your teleconferencing system of choice, team meetings are still (virtually) face-to-face. I would say the only real down-side is having to print everything with your own printer and ink. Oh, and making a work space conducive to working and not killing your posture. That meant today I made a couple of purchases online to get a new headset, standing mat, and desk chair. Otherwise, I made due with what we have in the house.
I honestly wonder: is this the future? What processes that we have adopted during the pandemic out of necessity will carry over into the post-pandemic business world? Do we need big offices and all the associated overhead? Do we even need physical phones when we can route everything through our computers? We also could ship a laptop…just saying.
What will the wide wide world of business look like in 2021?!!
Day 2 down and hopefully many more to come!
Cheers,
Head Nerd