I survived my first week as the Post Sale Services Marketing Manager for the Xerox Office Group! Yay! So far, I love the job and I love my boss. It is proving to be the complete opposite of my experience with Chrysler. My boss, Chris, has been so nice and helpful. He told me as long as I get my work done, he doesn't really care what hours I am in the office and when I work from home. At 5pm, he starts yelling at me to go home! This is such a nice change from my 80 hour weeks and 12-14 hour days with Billy Bob and Tiny Tim...those fucking pricks!
One thing Chris has been doing is expanding the scope of my job, which has me a bit worried. Chris has said he will do everything he can to help and mentor me, but his blind faith in my ability to accomplish the ever-expanding lists of tasks is scary, yet gratifying. I have already been added on to do some of the marketing for the highest profile printer launch in years! I am so excited to be added to this project after only a few days on the job. So far, it seems like everyone wants me to do some marketing for them. This position is a much a bigger and more important position in Xerox than I initially realized. It intimidates the shit out of me! My email inbox was filled with emails making marketing and meeting requests of me the first time I logged on...yikes!
Everyone I work with is very nice, but the youngest person is about ten years older than me. And they are a bunch of computer geeks. The office environment is much different than I am used to, which I think is a reflection of the laid-back mentality of the Portland area. I am still an up-tight East Coaster at heart! Chris has mentioned to me everyday that the facility has an extremely business casual dress code. I did show up on my first day looking like I was ready to kick some corporate ass! I always start with the most important element of an outfit when deciding what to wear- the shoes! I wore my Prada black patent leather stiletto Mary Janes, black Benetton skirt suit, and BCBG multi-colored tank top. The ensemble was completed with my black L.A.M.B. purse. Yes, this might have been a bit much, but you have to dress for the job you want, not the one you have...and I want Anne Mulcahy's job. And on the first day, I had to make a good impression. I want to maintain the bet-dressed/fashionista reputation I had at Chrysler. But on Friday, my boss was in cargoes and a Hawaiian shirt and his admin was in a tie-dyed dress! Welcome to Granola Country!
(At the end of the day Friday, Chris thanked me for me hard work. He told me to go shopping this weekend and spend my economic stimulus check! Hahaha, little does he know...but how well he knows me after only a week on the job. Am I that transparent?)
So, I am all unpacked for the most part. I still have some shopping to do to complete my new apartment. And my Honda Civic finally arrived...a week late. The shipping company paid for a rental, which I picked up before my first day of work. I get to Enterprise and the ONLY vehicle they had was a Dodge Ram! And it was not just any Ram...it was a 2500 4x4 Big Horn Edition. This means it had the Cummins Turbo-Diesel with the Quad Cab and extended bed. I almost died- Chrysler is still haunting me! This thing was huge. I have notice the law-abiding hippie citizens of Oregon drive the speed limit. I have always taken speed limits to be the absolute minimum velocity one should drive at. When the little compacts on the road saw me in the Ram driving 80 mph when they were going 55, they got the fuck out of my way!!!
I had some interesting experiences in the Evil Truck. The parking structure is in the basement of my building. As I was going down the ramp, all of a sudden I hear the horrible screech of metal-on-metal and the roof of the truck scraped against the ceiling! I freaked the fuck out and tried to back up. But a goddamn Prius was behind me and wouldn't back up. So I roll down the window of the Evil Truck to talk to the driver. He says to me, "That's a lotta truck for a little girl!" I tell him I judge men by the size of their engines, and the little fucking 2007 Prius with 70 horsepower was not saying much about it. I then told him to back the fuck up or I would run him over...I've got chutzpah, bitches! So buddy backed up.
I put the Ram into reverse and stepped on the accelerator. Instead of moving backwards, the tank lurched forward! I freak out some more and put my foot on the brake and try to quickly transition to the accelerator. next thing I know, there is smoke and the smell of burning rubber! Guess I did not transition fast enough, but it got me out of the structure. I hard to park on the street. The next morning two fucking hybrids boxed me in and it took ten minutes for me to maneuver out of the stop...fucking asshole from the ramp the night before probably called two of his tree-hugger buddies to seek revenge on me for questioning his manhood.
Portland has a profound, yet disturbing lack of good-looking men. (There is one prospect- the super hot barista at Starbucks that I see everyday before work. We'll see what happens with this one...more to come, hopefully. I always seem to develop crushes on my baristas. Oh, and the leasing manager told me someone is moving into the building and she thinks we'd be perfect...hmmm.) As always, all the crazies have found me! Each time I go in to Wholefoods some hippie hits on me. I have given out more fake phone numbers than I can count. On the way back from yoga, I was hit on three times in 15 minutes on the MAX Rail (Portland has this great public transit system):
1. Some asshole sees me with a yoga mat and asks if we could try out a few positions together back at his place.
2. The gay guy sitting next to me told me he loved my L.A.M.B. purse and then said I was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He then said, "I am not into girls, I like boys. But If I did like girls, you'd be at the top of my list. What are you doing right now? Come back with me and try to get me to switch team."
3. As I was getting off, two guys whistled and asked me why I was leaving and said to get back on the train.
It is going to be interesting living here.
One thing Chris has been doing is expanding the scope of my job, which has me a bit worried. Chris has said he will do everything he can to help and mentor me, but his blind faith in my ability to accomplish the ever-expanding lists of tasks is scary, yet gratifying. I have already been added on to do some of the marketing for the highest profile printer launch in years! I am so excited to be added to this project after only a few days on the job. So far, it seems like everyone wants me to do some marketing for them. This position is a much a bigger and more important position in Xerox than I initially realized. It intimidates the shit out of me! My email inbox was filled with emails making marketing and meeting requests of me the first time I logged on...yikes!
Everyone I work with is very nice, but the youngest person is about ten years older than me. And they are a bunch of computer geeks. The office environment is much different than I am used to, which I think is a reflection of the laid-back mentality of the Portland area. I am still an up-tight East Coaster at heart! Chris has mentioned to me everyday that the facility has an extremely business casual dress code. I did show up on my first day looking like I was ready to kick some corporate ass! I always start with the most important element of an outfit when deciding what to wear- the shoes! I wore my Prada black patent leather stiletto Mary Janes, black Benetton skirt suit, and BCBG multi-colored tank top. The ensemble was completed with my black L.A.M.B. purse. Yes, this might have been a bit much, but you have to dress for the job you want, not the one you have...and I want Anne Mulcahy's job. And on the first day, I had to make a good impression. I want to maintain the bet-dressed/fashionista reputation I had at Chrysler. But on Friday, my boss was in cargoes and a Hawaiian shirt and his admin was in a tie-dyed dress! Welcome to Granola Country!
(At the end of the day Friday, Chris thanked me for me hard work. He told me to go shopping this weekend and spend my economic stimulus check! Hahaha, little does he know...but how well he knows me after only a week on the job. Am I that transparent?)
So, I am all unpacked for the most part. I still have some shopping to do to complete my new apartment. And my Honda Civic finally arrived...a week late. The shipping company paid for a rental, which I picked up before my first day of work. I get to Enterprise and the ONLY vehicle they had was a Dodge Ram! And it was not just any Ram...it was a 2500 4x4 Big Horn Edition. This means it had the Cummins Turbo-Diesel with the Quad Cab and extended bed. I almost died- Chrysler is still haunting me! This thing was huge. I have notice the law-abiding hippie citizens of Oregon drive the speed limit. I have always taken speed limits to be the absolute minimum velocity one should drive at. When the little compacts on the road saw me in the Ram driving 80 mph when they were going 55, they got the fuck out of my way!!!
I had some interesting experiences in the Evil Truck. The parking structure is in the basement of my building. As I was going down the ramp, all of a sudden I hear the horrible screech of metal-on-metal and the roof of the truck scraped against the ceiling! I freaked the fuck out and tried to back up. But a goddamn Prius was behind me and wouldn't back up. So I roll down the window of the Evil Truck to talk to the driver. He says to me, "That's a lotta truck for a little girl!" I tell him I judge men by the size of their engines, and the little fucking 2007 Prius with 70 horsepower was not saying much about it. I then told him to back the fuck up or I would run him over...I've got chutzpah, bitches! So buddy backed up.
I put the Ram into reverse and stepped on the accelerator. Instead of moving backwards, the tank lurched forward! I freak out some more and put my foot on the brake and try to quickly transition to the accelerator. next thing I know, there is smoke and the smell of burning rubber! Guess I did not transition fast enough, but it got me out of the structure. I hard to park on the street. The next morning two fucking hybrids boxed me in and it took ten minutes for me to maneuver out of the stop...fucking asshole from the ramp the night before probably called two of his tree-hugger buddies to seek revenge on me for questioning his manhood.
Portland has a profound, yet disturbing lack of good-looking men. (There is one prospect- the super hot barista at Starbucks that I see everyday before work. We'll see what happens with this one...more to come, hopefully. I always seem to develop crushes on my baristas. Oh, and the leasing manager told me someone is moving into the building and she thinks we'd be perfect...hmmm.) As always, all the crazies have found me! Each time I go in to Wholefoods some hippie hits on me. I have given out more fake phone numbers than I can count. On the way back from yoga, I was hit on three times in 15 minutes on the MAX Rail (Portland has this great public transit system):
1. Some asshole sees me with a yoga mat and asks if we could try out a few positions together back at his place.
2. The gay guy sitting next to me told me he loved my L.A.M.B. purse and then said I was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He then said, "I am not into girls, I like boys. But If I did like girls, you'd be at the top of my list. What are you doing right now? Come back with me and try to get me to switch team."
3. As I was getting off, two guys whistled and asked me why I was leaving and said to get back on the train.
It is going to be interesting living here.
