My First Week...Again

This was my first week...again. I have a much better feeling about this one, though, so that's a good deal. Beginnings are always a bit tough, but generally, I'm really excited about the job, the team...there is a lot of potential here.

A few interesting impressions:
The colors of Standard Chartered have always been really attractive to me. I love the exact blue and green they have together. It's nice to be attracted to the logo of your company/workplace.

This is the first place I have ever worked that plays Christmas music. It's very understated and quiet, but it's in the elevator areas, and it's definitely playing all day. I rather like it. It's not at all what I'm used to - given my four years experience in the Jewish community.

I love that I am getting a new laptop, monitor, keyboard, there are clean bathrooms - with fresh flowers - I have stationery, a comfortable desk, air conditioning, a fifteen minute commute...this is just a much more comfortable scenario for me - even though it's normal for most people!

I am shocked about the quantity of STUFF - I remember being surprised at Moody's as well. It's just crazy to be part of a company that employs 70,000 people worldwide - that's a lot of systems, processes, matrices and STUFF!

All in all, though, I'm working for something I really believe in - to have a diverse workplace and promote people feeling good about themselves in their job, included in the bank's culture, and making lives (or at least jobs...) better. I really like that.

In other news, I went to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra tonight. They played Beethoven's 9th. It was a great performance. There was a bass soloist singer who happened to be singing right in front of me (I was in the front row). He was so super hot. When I met someone after the show, he said, I saw you in the front row looking up at him, and I wondered if you were his girlfriend. It was the first time I was meeting this guy (the other audience member). Oops. I told Matt - full disclosure.

Finally, Matt and I are "watching" the Detroit Thanksgiving Parade on Slingbox. I was thinking that the parade should have a group of workers from a plant that was closed, a group of lawyers laid off, a group of teachers in fear of their jobs, small business owners who have closed their businesses in the last year. I have to say that I'm a bit shocked that companies are spending so much money on their balloons/floats when there are just no jobs there. Then again, even when things suck, you still need fun and niceties, so maybe it's not so bad.