Somebody's Got to be First

Well, tomorrow our new boss comes to the office for the first time. I have only met him one time and it was when the board was interviewing him. I was a party of four who were introduced to him. It really wasn't enough time to gain much understanding about the character or disposition of the man.

Our floor has pretty much been running itself for well over a year now. There are only women left on it and we all go about our business and do what we know to do. There hasn't been any dysfunction during this time. In fact we all kind of felt like we needed to be self-motivated. We realized progress depended on us and there was a type of empowering that came to us all. The proverbial buck stopped with us so the realization of that type responsibility seemed to pull the best out in all. We all bonded together to make the heavy workload happen. And it did happen.

Now a new element will be introduced into the mix. For one, it will be someone who has a title that overshadows us all...Vice President. For another, it will be a man. We haven't had any testosterone on our floor in over a year, so that alone will take some getting used to. I really can't say that I know this man to judge him for good or ill. That will take some time. One thing I have learned as I have gotten older, is that I reserve the right to make a judgment over a period of time. Time is the real test of true character and trustworthiness. So we shall see.

What I do know is that somehow I drew the short straw. I am the first in the line up to get one on one time with the new boss. Tomorrow at 9:00am, I get to spend an hour with him. Being first is a bit unnerving. I like being at least second, if not third or fourth. The reason is that I value the impressions others have gotten from their meetings. I can take several people's impressions, and distill certain common themes that come up from other opinions. For some reason, knowing a little bit of something about an unknown is better than knowing nothing at all. So tomorrow I get to be the one that the others will come to to ask, "so what was he like?" Or something along those lines.

I asked what the agenda was, but didn't get much direction. So I get to go in "cold turkey." I know I can often come off confident and secure. As ashamed as I am to admit it, this meeting has a way of making me feel like a child on the first day of school. All the unknowns looming large. Questions are surfacing in my mind like, "What will I wear? What are the topics he might talk about? How should I answer? Is there anything I need to bring up? Is my desk clean enough? Should I get a cup of coffee and relax? Should I wait until the hour is up to get my coffee?" There are several for starters.

Being "first on the block" stirs up these emotions in many of us. I guess the consolation is, my turn will be over and I will be able to breath the rest of the day. All the others will just have to wade through the anxiety until their turn is up. I guess that is the one positive I can come up with in all of this. So somebody's got to be first. I guess that's me this time.