the Brady Bunch
I’ve been working in the new office for about three weeks now (what with trips to Israel and a two-week vacation). This is definitely a merger. It’s a lot like the Brady Bunch, in my opinion. Two groups of kids/people who think that the way they do things is the only way to do things. And then we are expected to play together, eat dinner at the same table, and endure ribbings from their friends at school.
People on their side are starting to get used to working with people in a different time zone. It’s a part of my daily life now that I get up and immediately check my email in case someone in Israel needs my repsonse on something. I always get into work early to maximize my interaction with the office in Jerusalem. I make sure I send important problems by Wednesday night if possible, otherwise they won’t get to it until Saturday night my time. (The workweek in Israel is Sunday-Thursday). People complain to me about this, as if it is some new and odd thing, and I smile but am not sure how to respond - get used to it, I think, I got used to it six years ago.
The fact that we have headquarters in this other place is a bit different for most of my new coworkers. In their world, they were headquarters. And, in fact, they were part of a really large super-corporation for the last five years or so. Living in the residual super-corporation leftovers has been the hardest thing for me. No coatracks in the common area. No posting of anything to your office windows. No forgetting your security badge that gets you in and out of the office or we’ll charge you a nominal fee to replace it — even for a day. No real dishes in the kitchen, just paper plates and plastic cutlery. Not sure the reasoning behind that rule - is it more sanitary than washing dishes? Is it cheaper? It’s annoying, in my opinion. These are the types of daily restrictive corporate policies that this side of the Brady Bunch is struggling with.
But we’ve all been accepting of the newness with little or no complaints. We’re playing well together at company celebratory dinners, meetings, and get-to-know-you lunches. We’re eating together in the same lunchroom (albeit we have real dishes, they still use paper). I haven’t put any interesting articles taped to my office window. Yet. And we’re even facing the world together at joint conferences. Soon I’m sure we’ll be going to bat for each other the way the Brady kids eventually did in their cute sitcom-ish way.
Posted by Marie on March 23rd, 2007 under Uncategorized
- updated photos on flickr
- ceiling fan, and baby exercises
- baby competition
- z’s first concert
- yay obama
- my lame halloween costume
- Our little social … human
- I guess time really is money
- starting and stopping work
- talking about breasts
- fresh out of the oven
- my life as a stay-at-home mom
- updated pictures on flickr
- but I do believe in miracles
- our little o negative baby
- blamers and the nuclear family
- his feet look like mine
- pictures on flickr
- new baby in the house
- We just joined the “buy more sh&t” club
Archives:
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Feb | Apr » | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
Leave a Comment