Parenting.

It’s like a really long orientation period for a pretty important job.  The parent is the seasoned employee, the one that knows how things work and has been around for a while.

The child is the newbie, the one that just came on the scene and presumably knows nothing.

Similar to a new job, the parent brings with them their impressions of the company (life) thus far.  We can’t help it.

We’ve been doing this a while, so of course we have ideas about the way things should go and the way processes work, how strong the coffee should be.  We taint the new employee (child) a little or a lot in some cases.

We have ideas about certain groups within the company and even though we try to be objective, they get their initial impressions from us.

The new employee, the one that knows nothing, inevitably ends up observing and seeing things we gave up on or never noticed.  The new employee sees the job differently and makes their own schedule, based on ours of course, but maybe it’s more efficient and maybe they cut out the crap that’s not needed.  The crap we learned when we were being oriented.

It has been said, children are on loan to us, but I don’t think that’s quite right.  We never really give them away, they don’t go back after the loan period.

They still work for the same company, they always will, but the company or the family is changed because of their newness and the things they bring to the mix.  They will someday orient their own.

The hope is that you teach them well, that they don’t jack up the copier too much or piss off the wrong people.  You hope they learn everything they need to do a great job, compliment others in the company and leave their own mark.

Now if only there were a manual for parenting.

My thoughts from the laundry room.  Break Time.

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