Ah the joys of a big company

I work for a very large company. We are global therefore a lot of coworkers are remote, off site, different country what have you. The language barrier is amusing at times, the multiple accents on a conference call is downright funny.

We have an acronym for everything, and often, entire sentences are spoken in acronyms. For example:
“I ZBBed the last project because the ROI was not there according to the PDT given in the BUM in WW34.” In English? I canceled the last project because it wasn’t feasible cost wise given the information provided at the last business update meeting. I can remember very clearly sitting in meetings when I first started with the company thinking “Whaaaaaaaaaaat?”. It took me a long time to figure out the acronyms and when to use them, with who and where. It was a challenge equivalent to learning the job it seemed. It was akin to learning a new language.

I was thinking today how cult-like corporate work can be. That may sound very strange or negative to some. Its not meant to be. A cult is simply a group of like minded individuals. In this case, the people talk alike, work alike and often think alike. Its even more amazing to realize that I am now talking in acronym sentences. And not only do the sentences make sense, I even know what I am saying!

I found out yesterday I am getting a new manager. This isn’t good or bad really I suppose. It just sort of is what it is. I like my old manager, I don’t really know this new manager. Change can be a good thing when done with the right agendas and I have been given nothing to think that there is a malicious agenda going on here. More so, this will be my 8th manager in 3.5 years. I have only changed jobs twice. Its not uncommon to get a new manager every month in some groups so I guess I should be grateful I have had this one for the last 5 months. My work will stay the same, my coworkers will stay the same… just the person I will report to will change. This makes it ok. I don’t do well with full on re-orgs.