User talk:Tonyc

General Introduction to The Geek

Impressions

I'll just dump out a brief summary of each day, then give my general take afterward.

Day 1, Tuesday, Oct. 21

Met up with Laurel for initial check-in and to go over the basics. Felt that she prepped me pretty well for what was ahead, especially the overwhelming nature of getting acclimated at FG. Discussion of all the comm systems (RT, db, lists, double-wiki) was most intimidating aspect, both in understanding what they were and how they worked together. Seemed like the use of all these technologies was both highly tech, and cultural...hard to grasp. She made it clear that the answer to a good chunk of my questions in the first two weeks would be "It's on the wiki." I saw the value of having a high degree of documentation as far as saving time training new hires. But I was dreading hearing that answer in the weeks ahead instead of getting an answer directly from a human.

Committees were easier to grasp. Luiz recommended I shop around and attend each committee at least once before choosing. Richard soon after said this had never been done before by a new hire. It's funny that all the contradictory advice I got over the day--the fact that it was so contradictory--was strangely reassuring. It was tiring to process and sort out, but once I realized everyone here had a different way of plugging in a and functioning, it felt a little more freeing to find my own way.

Luiz laid out his general plan that I spend a couple days in pre-build and receiving before he gave me his "brain dump" in the store.

Spending time in pre-build seemed like a good place to start in general. Working alongside newer volunteers allowed me to soak in the atmosphere without feeling completely out of the loop. It's basic training, by design. Card sorting taught me a lot, and also made me feel like I kind of new what I was doing. I was worried the computer side would be entirely new, but I recognized most stuff.

I am not a flowchart kinda guy. You should know this about me. I can't really use them, and I have never made one. It is not the way I am wired, but it seems to be a large part of the culture here. Luckily I had Blaine there to show me the ropes, so I didn't have to use the charts too much.

By the time I left, I was fully overloaded, and stayed that way all night, getting about one hour sleep (not an exaggeration). I think this is a physical response to learning so much at once; the energy required to form that many synapses in so little time is more than the system can handle. I laid there in bed and retraced the layout of the space, and saw people's faces, heard voices, saw the wiki. For the hour I actually slept, I dreamed about the frikkin' wiki! Disturbing. I think the full tour for closing procedure right at the end was what did me in.

Day 2, Wed.

Did not sleep the night before Went home in the afternoon. started off in prebuild, then working on cable sort

Day 3, Thurs.

Attended action comm meeting. Luiz pulled me off the walk after we'd taken the field trip. met with laurel for a brief check in

Day 4, Fri.

Attended PR meeting

Day 5, Sat.

Holy Shit

Challenges

Overstimulation By about 3 hrs into the first day, I felt like someone had slipped me something, or actually more like I had a concussion.

Feedback on the process

May have been easier to start midweek, having only three days of overstimulation station before a couple days to decompress.

It was good to have a bit of a roadmap to know what was coming over the first week. Would have been helpful to expand on this idea. For instance, "on Thursday so and so is going to spend a half hour showing you how we use RT). Knowing there is an opportunity to ask area-specific questions on the horizon would ease the anxiety of being introduced to so much at once. Again, most of this anxiety came from all the overlapping communication systems. But this could be different for each new hire. A kind of diagnostic check-in early on might be a good way to tailor the first week.

Let's say the first thing a new hire would do would be to come in and have the initial meeting with their buddy. Part of that is to give an overview of what's ahead, but also to find out specific things about that person's needs coming in: computer literacy, linux literacy, past experience with db/wiki/etc ("how comfortable are you with computers, on a scale from Ted Kaczynski to Steve Jobs?"). After this meeting, the person could have their initial accounts set up, get some introductions and then go home. The buddy could take the info from this meeting into account in figuring out what the next week is going to look like--a command line class? Time in pre-build? more info on consensus process? learning to work a mouse? Everyone is going to have different needs, depending on their background and in what capacity they are coming into FG, so flexibility will be needed, but so will presenting the individ with a clearly articulated plan. Probably on day 2.

"It's on the Wiki" is going to be the most common answer, and that's good. That's what it's there for, to answer questions. But coming into it from scratch it can be hard to find things. Articles have titles that are inside jokes or esoteric. It may be a good idea to set up a wiki page specifically built to function as a "home" for new hires, basically a page of links that are going to be of interest to anyone coming in. This dashboard kind of page would make it less daunting to seek out the answer for yourself, giving a simple map the the most necessary places around the FG infoweb. This page could live as a basic template, but be tweaked to create a page specific to each person. For ex: Luiz could have added links to all the important store info somewhere on it.

This page could also serve as a centralized version of whatever "checklist" exists. The hire and his/her buddy can chart progress and spot gaps/oversights.

I really wish there had been one place that had everyone's names, positions, contact info most embarrassing moments, and most importantly, a photo. Not as a way to learn people's names so much as a tool for burning them in. On my first day I probably was introduced to over thirty people by name. Needless to say, they didn't all stick immediately, but I was frequently nervous I was going to screw someone's name up.

Adding one's own file to this directory could be the first interaction the new hire has to the wiki. Gives them something to edit, makes them feel they are "on the team" and gives the whole staff a chance to put a face to a name so when they see the person in the halls, they can approach them without needing an introduction. This directory could live on the secure wiki, and if all staff watched the page, they would be sure to recognize the newbie.

Training in the store

Impressions

Day 1, Thursday

Day 2, Friday

Day 3, Saturday