A Week at the Office
I didn't think I'd have enough to write about after just one week, but I changed my mind.
Unlike in The Office, my manager is not a paragon of destructive cluelessness, and I don't spend my days tormenting a skinny blonde guy.
Actually, my office is surprisingly familiar. I was expecting perhaps some fawning as an American, seeing as though we pretty much created the software industry, but no. And my teammates have an impressive knowledge of the latest tools and techniques, as good as mine, if not greater. I shouldn't be surprised, really ... a lot of great tools have originated in the UK. Spring comes to mind.
GDC has about 40 employees. The office is pretty much open-plan. There aren't cubicles; just rows of desks facing each other. There are no offices, either, even for the management team. Dress is "smart casual", which for men, means nearly everything short of a tie. I wear dress shirts most days, with either linen trousers, chinos, or dark jeans. I don't have much of a wardrobe at present but will steadily supplement it. Nobody wears a suit consistently, not even the owners.
Tea is taken informally. Typically someone will ask around to see who else wants tea, take orders, and bring the mugs around a few minutes later. This is probably because of the electric kettle: it makes more sense to make a few mugs at a time than just one. Someone usually asks every hour.
Margo and I have worked out a night each to stay late with coworkers. She gets Fridays and I get Thursdays (unless she's scheduled for casework, about every fourth week). Thursday I invited my team for a pint, and nearly everyone came. It sounds like I can expect to go several rounds when we do go to the pub.
(A digression: If I'd taken the 5 pm train home on Thursday, I'd have shared it with the Queen Mum, who went to Ipswich with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. She was in first class, of course, but would have strode the same station steps I do twice a day. I guess this was cheaper than taking the Royal Train.)
(And while I'm blabbing about celebrity visitations to Ipswich ... apparently a riverside pub just outside town was visited by Ewan Macgregor and Colin Farrell a month or so ago. They took a break from boating as they're filming some boating movie.)
I'm in that new-job, sink-or-swim mode, paddling furiously, but doing okay. My first project has me working with lots of unfamiliar things: I'm learning another web framework, an Ajax library, an XML library, and an internal framework, and I haven't even started on the domain knowledge yet. But I'm sure soon enough I'll be familiar enough to flirt with boredom.
I like my teammates a lot. I haven't detected any politics yet. Like most American software teams, it's very much a meritocracy, and egos aren't big. As long we get our work done, we've got lots of flexibility. Once I'm comfortable, I expect I may work from home one or two days a week via VPN.
I'm doing okay with my commute. I wish I got some daylight, though. The sun doesn't come up until around 7 am, just as I'm getting into London, and it's dark when I leave at 4:15 pm. The streets are pretty empty when I call for a cab at 5:30 am, so I usually have ten to fifteen minutes to spare before my 5:53 am train. The train is usually at least a little late coming home, though, and traffic is very heavy in Ipswich at that time of day, so I'm often worried at getting to Sarah's after-school club by 6 pm, but all week I've been on time, often as close to 6 as possible.
I'm also the first person in the office, so I have to turn off the alarm. I usually have two hours before I even see my teammates. Good thing I'm a morning person. I'll be doing my best work at that time.
I'm slowly getting to know the Liverpool Street neighbourhood in London, but it's very overwhelming - there's so much to get to know. There's a lot of neat architecture. I'll take pictures soon but first I need to know what to take. I've found a few places for lunch and a few pubs, and soon I hope to find a non-Starbucks coffee shop, an HSBC bank, a post office, and a barber. For lunch I usually go to the basement of Marks & Spencer and get a takeaway wrap or sandwich or salad plus a drink (usually a blackcurrant smoothie) for under five quid. Takeout is a lot easier than sit-down; restaurants fill rapidly at lunchtime, and you pay a lot more to dine in. There are several large banks located nearby, and I've been told this probably influences the high lunch prices as the primary clientele tends to be bankers entertaining customers.
I'm starting to use my lunchtime to explore London. Thursday I walked toward the Thames; it took me 30 minutes to walk from my office door to the far side of London Bridge. I'm also maybe 20 minutes away from anything in central London via the Tube. It's a massive city, and I'll relish getting to know it, though I wonder, even after a few years of working there, just how much of it I'll get to know.
Unlike in The Office, my manager is not a paragon of destructive cluelessness, and I don't spend my days tormenting a skinny blonde guy.
Actually, my office is surprisingly familiar. I was expecting perhaps some fawning as an American, seeing as though we pretty much created the software industry, but no. And my teammates have an impressive knowledge of the latest tools and techniques, as good as mine, if not greater. I shouldn't be surprised, really ... a lot of great tools have originated in the UK. Spring comes to mind.
GDC has about 40 employees. The office is pretty much open-plan. There aren't cubicles; just rows of desks facing each other. There are no offices, either, even for the management team. Dress is "smart casual", which for men, means nearly everything short of a tie. I wear dress shirts most days, with either linen trousers, chinos, or dark jeans. I don't have much of a wardrobe at present but will steadily supplement it. Nobody wears a suit consistently, not even the owners.
Tea is taken informally. Typically someone will ask around to see who else wants tea, take orders, and bring the mugs around a few minutes later. This is probably because of the electric kettle: it makes more sense to make a few mugs at a time than just one. Someone usually asks every hour.
Margo and I have worked out a night each to stay late with coworkers. She gets Fridays and I get Thursdays (unless she's scheduled for casework, about every fourth week). Thursday I invited my team for a pint, and nearly everyone came. It sounds like I can expect to go several rounds when we do go to the pub.
(A digression: If I'd taken the 5 pm train home on Thursday, I'd have shared it with the Queen Mum, who went to Ipswich with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. She was in first class, of course, but would have strode the same station steps I do twice a day. I guess this was cheaper than taking the Royal Train.)
(And while I'm blabbing about celebrity visitations to Ipswich ... apparently a riverside pub just outside town was visited by Ewan Macgregor and Colin Farrell a month or so ago. They took a break from boating as they're filming some boating movie.)
I'm in that new-job, sink-or-swim mode, paddling furiously, but doing okay. My first project has me working with lots of unfamiliar things: I'm learning another web framework, an Ajax library, an XML library, and an internal framework, and I haven't even started on the domain knowledge yet. But I'm sure soon enough I'll be familiar enough to flirt with boredom.
I like my teammates a lot. I haven't detected any politics yet. Like most American software teams, it's very much a meritocracy, and egos aren't big. As long we get our work done, we've got lots of flexibility. Once I'm comfortable, I expect I may work from home one or two days a week via VPN.
I'm doing okay with my commute. I wish I got some daylight, though. The sun doesn't come up until around 7 am, just as I'm getting into London, and it's dark when I leave at 4:15 pm. The streets are pretty empty when I call for a cab at 5:30 am, so I usually have ten to fifteen minutes to spare before my 5:53 am train. The train is usually at least a little late coming home, though, and traffic is very heavy in Ipswich at that time of day, so I'm often worried at getting to Sarah's after-school club by 6 pm, but all week I've been on time, often as close to 6 as possible.
I'm also the first person in the office, so I have to turn off the alarm. I usually have two hours before I even see my teammates. Good thing I'm a morning person. I'll be doing my best work at that time.
I'm slowly getting to know the Liverpool Street neighbourhood in London, but it's very overwhelming - there's so much to get to know. There's a lot of neat architecture. I'll take pictures soon but first I need to know what to take. I've found a few places for lunch and a few pubs, and soon I hope to find a non-Starbucks coffee shop, an HSBC bank, a post office, and a barber. For lunch I usually go to the basement of Marks & Spencer and get a takeaway wrap or sandwich or salad plus a drink (usually a blackcurrant smoothie) for under five quid. Takeout is a lot easier than sit-down; restaurants fill rapidly at lunchtime, and you pay a lot more to dine in. There are several large banks located nearby, and I've been told this probably influences the high lunch prices as the primary clientele tends to be bankers entertaining customers.
I'm starting to use my lunchtime to explore London. Thursday I walked toward the Thames; it took me 30 minutes to walk from my office door to the far side of London Bridge. I'm also maybe 20 minutes away from anything in central London via the Tube. It's a massive city, and I'll relish getting to know it, though I wonder, even after a few years of working there, just how much of it I'll get to know.
posted by Michael Nelson at 11:26 am
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