daverea.com

Five days and no postings, yet there’s so much about which to post!

To wrap up my first week at the new job: “rollercoaster ride” might be the best description! Plot “emotions” on the X-axis, “professional confidence” on the Y axis, and “panic index” on the Z axis, and Darien Lake’s Viper coaster might trace a surprisingly accurate curve of how the week went. Ultimately, though, I think this is how most people respond to being planted squarely outside their comfort zone, in a new place with new people, assigned to do new things, taking the first upward steps along a steep learning curve. Having Kelly rooting for me is more helpful than she knows. And the timing of the company picnic – Friday afternoon – was a perfect reminder to me of the humanity of my new colleages. The sight of them with their families, feeding their toddlers, or throwing frisbees and kicking soccer balls was reassuring: We’re all still real people, who just happen to comprise the most technologically-advanced division of the world’s largest company.

The verdict? I’m still honored to be there, and I plan on staying that way – and giving it my very best.

Yesterday, I came up with a fantastic blog entry dismantling nearby Chautauqua County’s new weapons ban in county buildings. But I’m a little gunshy (no pun intended?) to post on politics after reading about how Joe Huffman was fired from his government laboratory job for writing about his pro-freedom views in his weblog. Fortunately, unlike the people that single-sidedly drummed Joe out of PNNL, my supervisors at GM are straight-talking, upfront guys. My manager and I are a lot alike in that we don’t sugar-coat or beat around the bush when something important needs to be communicated.

OK, enough gushing for now – I’ve got to work on my upcoming “How I won’t be spending the rest of the summer” entry! Stay tuned…