the P.Pole

Open Text!

I am now working for this company, and so far, so good! I didn’t post an info post last week (I believe this would be the first time that I am completely foregoing and not making up for afterward in a long time), mostly because I was so engrossed in work + Team Fortress 2. Actually, I should make up for skipping last week’s post! Double list, ahoy!

5 things I do everyday now:

• wake up at 7 am to Owl City (either “The Saltwater Room” or “Fireflies”)
• wear a long-sleeved dress shirt with  dress or corduroy pants
• keep my work shoes in my filing cabinet
• munch on the complimentary granola bars and “crispy rice marshmallow treats”, while sipping tea or hot chocolate
• find time to trick out my work-desktop while on my lunch break

5 things that surprised me about Open Text (which will be “they” for now, at least until I feel like it should be a “we”):

• they encourage workers (especially the coops) to participate in social networking on and about the job
• they have special phone booths for workers to make private/personal calls
• they have separate communal coat closets for smokers and non-smokers
• they are much more liberal with trusting their employees to make good decisions in terms of ethics (how to use time, equipment, etc…)
• they have hired about 20+ coop students just within the IT department, so clearly they are a huge supporter of the coop program

So far I am liking the work for the most part. I’ve been assigned some pretty rad but challenging projects/assignments, and the day-to-day tasks are no walk in the park, but I am not disliking it. I think this is probably because the environment is so free and positive that I don’t feel a slave or anything. Some things are fun, some things just need to get done.

I think the most enjoyable times are when I get to discuss things with my supervisor (a very senior/veteran Project Manager at Open Text) about the ways we would change things if it were up to us. I think we see eye to eye on a lot of important issues (I don’t know whether it’s because he trained me so I only have his ideas, or if it’s just that we share the same kind of intuition/common sense/expectations of systems). In any case, I am hoping to get more chances to pick his brain and learn lots.

See you all next week! I’m off to bed.