5 days down...Infinite to go...

I just finished up my first week at Westinghouse, and let me tell you, it has been a roller coaster! Monday I had to sit through an 8-hr. orientation w/ a classroom of other new hires, to learn all about the history and future of Westinghouse. It was a long day, but was very well organized and executed. Maybe they've done this more than once, huh?!

Tuesday was a different story. It was my first official day in my job. I was shown my workspace, met a few of my coworkers, and then thrown to the wolves. Literally. The conversation went a little like this:

me: "So who exactly will be training me?"
manager: "oh, funny you should ask. We actually don't have anyone to train you."
me: *speechless* *dumbfounded* *shocked* "ummmm....ok"

So .....the rest of the day was basically a blur of trying to get settled in, yet having no clue what I should be doing, what I might be doing in the future, etc. Wednesday was basically the same story, but with work actually given to me. I think I had 3 panic attacks, and 2 hours of being on the verge of tears. Sadly, I'm not exaggerating.

Thursday, I guess they finally decided they needed someone to help me out (since I only mentioned it a few hundred times!). One of the admin.'s from another floor came up to help me get started...I mean, the security at this place is so ridiculous, I couldn't even DO work if I had wanted. I had no clue how to get any of my usernames, passwords, etc., etc., etc. And every time I tried asking for help, they'd tell me to call the helpdesk, who would reply "oh, just contact your admin...she should know." I AM THE ADMIN.!!! ugh. this was going no where. Once I met with the admin. on Thursday morning, things were going a lot smoother. For one thing, I could finally log into the xerox machine to make a copy! Wahoo...progress. Friday was also a surprisingly good day. I got some work, had a lot of questions (but at least I knew who to go to for help) and got a few things accomplished. I even had a 'group' lunch with a few people in my department.

Overall, I'm ecstatic for the first week to be over with. It's always the worst, even if you try to prepare for it, you can't. So my motto for now, which is proving to be true so far, "every day will be better than the last." Maybe that's why I liked my old job so much, b/c I was there for so long, I knew what I was doing. I liked knowing the answer when someone would ask me a question. So I know that if I give Westinghouse a chance, I'll probably like it just as much.