First Week of Work

As I sit down to type this week’s blog entry, I must admit I feel absolutely crummy.  I decided to try and venture out and eat some of the local dishes with my team this week and I seem to have caught some stomach bug.  Blah.  Oh well, hopefully early exposure prevents future pain.  On verra.

I was blown away commuting to work…our hotel is only 3-5 miles from the office and it easily takes 35-60 minutes to get to/from work.  Traffic here is breath taking.  I shall never again complain about traffic in the states.  Bangkok traffic makes California traffic look peaceful and calm.

I have decided to continue my habit of getting up quite early and getting into the office at a bright hour.  I have come to see that Thais don’t share that tradition, for the most part.  I get in around 6:45am and there is NO ONE on my floor for a good 2-3 hours.  In their defense, they support mostly Western customers, so the later they stay, the easier it is on them.  I prefer to avoid the really heavy traffic (yes, it gets MUCH worse) by getting in early and leaving early.  I then have setup 2-3 nights a week where I’ll take calls with the rest of the world in the evening.  My first night of this was rough.  I was already exhausted from a full day at the office, only to put in another 3 hours at home (7-10pm).  Can’t say I enjoy it much, but it comes with the territory of my job.  If I can keep it to 2 nights a week, I can make it work.

That being said, it was a great week at work.  The people I work with are great.  Seriously – they have been incredibly kind, helpful, and patient.  Makes me wonder if I’m that kind of host back home to folks visiting.  I doubt I’m as gracious as the Thais.  They are amazing.

So what’s been the hardest part of my first week in the office?  Well, besides having to re-setup ALL of my computer accounts (ExxonMobil security is infamous and moves across the globe can be like starting over), it has to be the names of the staff.  I try really hard to be a people-focused manager.  Learning the names here is proving really hard.  I need to make a cheat sheet or something.

What’s been the best part of my first week at work?  Easily the people.  I already feel a part of the ExxonMobil family here.

So that’s the work week. Good, tiring, challenging, and transitional – in every sense of the word.