Nice To Meet You

7:15 AM and I am waiting for the shuttle. Okay, why am I doing this? I have to take the shuttle? What kind of mistake did I make?

The shuttle pulls up immediately. The gentleman driving it is so nice. He's been up since 5 AM getting the bus ready, running trips to and from the lot to work.... I have a great chat with him. They actually use the shuttle buses to go and pick up patients and bring them to their appointments. That's kind of cool.

"Let me drop you right off at the door to your building. It's cold out."

Okay, that's really cool. Not because he saved me ten steps. Because he thought it would be nice to save me ten steps. The guy who gets up at half past dark to warm a frozen van to drive people who (as he shared) complain about having to take a two minute shuttle to work wanted to make my day a little easier. Yeah, that's pretty darn cool.

"Oh, here you go Paul."

He hands me two "free coffee/soda" cards to be used at the cafe.

Day 2 just took a decent turn.

So my day was spent with my staff and a consultant to go over upgrades to a software system. I am trying to stay half a step ahead of these folks -- which is pretty impossible at this point as they are all absolute experts in their areas. As odd as it feels to me now, I'm pretty excited about where things will be once I start to get my legs under me. It's going to be good.

"We're going to lunch Paul. Want to come?"

My immediate thought was "I don't do lunches with people." But my immediate response was "sure... I'd love to. Thanks." So we walked to lunch at this great little spot down the street and had a great time.

Off to an afternoon meeting and some more meeting folks in a different location. I visited with Payroll -- and started asking questions. I stopped asking after I realized I was trying to compare what I was seeing to what I used to be part of. And I have to say... there was no comparison.

"You don't send check numbers to the bank? What??"

I'm glad that's not my concern anymore.

So back to the main campus. Seems that everyone clears out of my office area by 5 pm; it's a ghost town -- except for my boss. She comes in and sits with me to catch up on things and see how the day has been.

Seems that the really good bosses stay late and spend some quality time with their workers. At least that's what I have come to find out over the last few years.

Time to go catch the shuttle. I'm looking forward to a nice conversation on the bus ride back to my car.