The Surreal Life

Well, my first full week at Cerner is over, and it was mainly... well, strange. Let me say in advance that I realize it won't always be like this, but in the meantime, I'm a little wierded out. Allow me to present a few tidbits:

* The cubicles are arranged in rows, so I have a clear view of five from where I sit (the two adjoining and three across). And they are all empty. Oh, there are nameplates, papers, other artifacts of work. But I've only seen a human being in one of them, and that briefly. The others might be working elsewhere this week, they might have transferred to a different group, they might have left the company. There's no way for me to know.

* I've seen my manager precisely twice, last Friday and this, and only for an hour both times. He's a friendly enough fellow, funny even. But where does he go all day? He's never been at his desk ever. I'm afraid to ask, or perhaps afraid that I wouldn't understand the answer.

* Somewhat unbelievably, my team has no recurring meetings of any kind. My team lead, though friendly, prefers to communicate through email and instant message. Combined with the isolation of my cubicle, I could easily work the entire day without speaking to or even seeing another human being face to face. There have been a few days when I did just that.

* Friday was my first Beer Friday, a monthly event where Cerner provides free beer (Miller Light, ugh) at the end of the day to all its employees. It reminded me uncannily of a Kauffman party: a bunch of geeks, mostly men, sitting around and drinking. It makes them more talkative about the subjects they talk about anyway; and they only talk to those people they already know. A bit sad, but a good way to end the week all the same.

I did finally coax a little information out of my manager and team lead about what I'll actually be doing the next few months. It's pretty much what I expected for a new hire: some more training, some support work, a bit of development (particularly writing tests). The sort of stuff that's mildly tedious but needs to be done and provides a good introduction to the company's system architecture. Not bad, for what it could have been.