Communication Specialist

That's my new title. Apparently I am now supposed to be a specialist in the art of communications. Well, only time will tell on that one, I guess. It's mid-week and I've had three full days of work. The biggest adjustment so far? Not being able to surf the internet, read & update blogs, and check my non-work email during work hours. You see, we're not supposed to go off the Deere intranet really. That's considered getting away from work. Welcome to the corporate world. I mean, it is ok to do this sometimes and it's necessary in some cases to do work-related work by researching things online. But the company actually monitors how much time people spend on the internet and will talk to you about things if they get out of hand. I've been watching other people though and it seems like no one else is surfing the internet. Everyone I meet or see at their cubical is always very busy, so I guess I should be too.

So far my first three days have been good. I was exhausted the first two days, but am feeling pretty good tonight. This was the first day I got to try my hand at some of the tasks I'll be doing pretty regularly. This includes updating the Waterloo Works intranet site and editing/writing articles for various publications. Having real work to do made the day go a lot faster. We also had a division lunch meeting at a really fancy new restaurant in Cedar Falls. One of my sister Melissa's friends (Shelly) was there and sat with me, so that was a lot of fun. She's the one that passed my resume on to the Deere people in the first place.

The first two days basically involved me shadowing the other two women in my department and taking notes of some of the things we do (web updating in particular). Thank goodness for that web experience at ISU!!! At least now I have an idea of what they're talking about. I don't know where'd I'd be if I hadn't created a teaching website or worked on the ISWP website for the time I did. I do wish now that I'd taken the Hypertext course like I'd originally planned on doing at ISU. Oh well.

I also now officially have my work badge that I have to scan each day to get in, and I have to wear it all day. I haven't had to do that since working at the Postal Service headquarters in DC. I have to confess that much of the working experience so far reminds mea lot of The Office. When you walk into the building, there's a big sign that states how many days different departments have gone without having an accident (remember that episode when Michael took the office people down to the warehouse and they had to change the once-good accidents sign?). And today at our lunch meeting, people were talking about the people who plan the Christmas parties and fall parties, etc. All I could think of was the episode of The Office where there was the Party-Planning Committee and the Committee to Plan Parties. Fun huh?

Time for dinner. More on the working world later.