My first day at the new company was a major non-event. Essentially, all I managed to get done was pick up my employee pass, fix up the building access and get my locker. I did get my laptop but couldn’t get it to work because the password was sent to my boss who is based in the States and presumably, boss did not send this to me or may have sent it to my work inbox (which would be really funny). For a global company, they have a pretty weird (and ancient) policy that assumes your boss or his/her admin will meet you face to face on your first day of work and pass you the passwords and other on-boarding information…

So I was left with nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs and wait for my boss to wake up and respond to my personal e-mail asking him/her to send my password to my personal e-mail address. Could not even read any company newsletters or magazines to get more familiar withe the company because this is now all on the (you guessed it…) Intranet.

You might think that this is great…getting paid to do absolutely nothing. Well, by after lunch I was alternating between an aching back and sore thighs from sitting around doing nothing or dozing off right in front of my colleagues. And by 4 pm, I was flat out tired! From doing nothing! Guess boredom can be strenuous as well.

Did I not bring something to entertain myself with? Like a book or an iPad? Well I did, but it really felt weird to be entertaining myself so blatantly in the office while everyone was looking so busy in meetings, typing on their laptops etc. So even while I did try to keep myself “personally” busy, it was hard not to be self-conscious about it.

Well,  hope tomorrow would be better though I can imagine that once I get the passwords and the system running, there will be a few more new mountains to climb…