My friend Peter started working at EvilEmpireSoft on the same Monday that I started at Geekaplex. That Friday, over beers, he told me that he had spent most of his first week waiting for his laptop to show up. When it finally showed up, it had an outdated version of the development environment installed which couldn't compile the code he was supposed to be working on. On top of that, Outlook was misconfigured and wouldn't even think about connecting to the mail server. He spent an afternoon figuring out the configuration only to discover that his email account hadn't been activated yet! "It's as if they were surprised when I showed up for work on Monday. Maybe they forgot that they hired me? I spent the first morning waiting in HR until someone was available to give me paperwork to fill out. After that," he went on, "I spent the afternoon wandering around looking for an empty cube to claim."
I felt bad for Peter, and I was almost embarrassed at how different my first week had gone. My office was just down the hall from my boss's. There was no mistaking that it was mine, as my name was on the plaque next to the door. Inside, I found a shinny new ThinkPad with a docking station and a pair of flat-screen monitors. The drawers in the desk were filled with new pens, pencils, paper, a stapler, and even a box of freshly printed business cards. My boss sat down with me and walked me through my first week, pointing out the various meetings and training sessions that were already on my calendar. There was even a welcome email from the president of the company waiting in my in-box.
"Wow!" Said Peter, "You're like a VIP over there! I feel like most folks don't know I exist, and if they do, they are just hoping that I won't bother them. It really sucks. EvilEmpireSoft seemed so cool and together when I interviewed, but now I'm wondering how they get anything done. They aren't the elite, well-oiled organization that I imagined them to be. I feel like I made a big mistake accepting their offer."
What a big difference attention to detail and a little preparation made. By simply taking the time to provision my office, my boss sent me a strong positive message about the company, and how much they valued me. Additionally, by making sure that I had all the tools I needed to be productive, they let me know that they expected me to be productive. I felt like Geekaplex had it together, and that they would expect me to have it together as well. I felt welcomed and challenged.
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