The other side of the world

People try to warn you about the culture shock when moving to another country, but why does no one tell you about the culture shock of starting a new job? Sunday was my first day on the other side of the employment world- the corporate world- and I must admit that it was a little shocking.

Why? To start matters off, I miscalculated how long it would take the bus to get to the office in Sunday (or in the US's case Monday) morning traffic. I show up 15 minutes late (which you all know if very uncharacteristic of me) and ready to start apologizing for my tardiness. At 9:15 half the people were not even in the office yet, including my boss, and when I did mention my late arrival to one of my colleagues she just looked at me as if she didn't understand.

Then there was my desk that was all ready for me, including an email account that was already set up and over 50 emails waiting in my inbox. Basically my boss started sending me emails the day he hired me....which was 2 weeks before I started.

Next was the coffee machine. The typical coffee making materials in a standard Israeli office consist of an electric water boiler (known as a kum-kum), instant coffee, sugar and milk in the fridge. We have a cappuccino machine. (Just when I thought I was putting my days of waitressing behind me, they are coming back)

Last but not least there is the fact that my boss asked that I sign onto AOL Instant Messaging so that he could communicate with me. The IT guy asked if I had an account. I told him that I used something back in college but haven't touched it since. As it turns out I am still an AOL IM member and now can communicate with people I haven't spoken to in quite a few years.

Despite the few bits of culture shock entering the high tech corporate world, I have had a pretty easy adjustment period into my new job. Of course it helps that I only worked 3 days this week. God bless the Jewish holidays.