Working Again

I finished my second day at my new job. It is chaotic right now – I started the same week that the company is releasing a new build, so I'm spending a lot of time reading documentation and harassing my new coworkers about obtaining access to the various things I need to access.

I see a couple of rough weeks ahead as I adjust to this new schedule and a new work environment and philosophy.

Although the length of the workday is about the same, the day overall is longer. I'm up earlier, before 6:00 AM, in order to get to the gym to work out and still leave myself enough time to catch a second bus to Squirrel Hill without worrying about being late due to traffic. I leave later then when I worked downtown, between 5:15 and 5:30 PM and change buses downtown. Changing buses in the afternoon is a risk, as anything later than 6:30 PM from downtown means throwing myself upon the mercy of the South Busway gods and waiting an hour or longer for transportation if I leave too late or the gods become angry.

I'm trying not to obsess over the inevitable delays and near misses that come with riding and transferring buses. Yesterday I watched one speed by as I walking down to the stop and had to wait for a later one. Later, as in 10 minutes. Today I managed to catch the earlier bus only to have the driver stop for a bathroom break near the T station. As I dashed out of the office and towards my stop this afternoon, I saw a bus pulling away from the curb and had to wait for the next one while quietly fretting.

I'm also not used to a new level of communication, with multiple, built-in redundancies for contacting each employee.

As tired as I am, I no longer feel as if I am being pressed into the floor every morning. I walk into a modern, bright open space with workstations at the appropriate height, chairs with an appropriate level of comfort and lots of natural, ambient light. My space is at the window, so I can peer down into the street and watch the people passing by and admire the shoes in the store across the street.

It was a good move.