New Employee Culture Shock

Last week I talked about the four stages of culture shock that anyone can go through, especially new college students, employees changing fields or industries, and people relocating.  Years ago I accepted an HR position at a unionized pharmaceutical plant where I had my own bout of culture shock.  Little did I know at the time how well my experience fit the four-stage model:

Excitement – I was very pleased to be hired. My new boss was happy to have me and welcomed me in a big way on my first day.  My co-workers were quite nice and my office space was lovely.

Difficulty – Soon after I started, my boss was in meetings all day long. He left me with policy manuals to read – all day, for several days.  I discovered the employees were such creatures of habit that they essentially had assigned seats in the cafeteria!  I would sit down to eat lunch somewhere only to be told I’d better move before “so and so” got there.  I laugh now, but it was crazy!  I also discovered that I didn’t know the “language” spoken there.  Unions have terminology all their own, and there were a lot of unspoken rules that I would unintentionally break.  For instance, I remember being chastised for rearranging the chairs in a conference room where I was to hold a training session.  (Moving chairs was unionized work, and I could have been accused of trying to put a union employee out of work by doing his job.)  It was like working in a mine field!  I remember feeling discouraged and like an outsider.  The history they all shared was unknown to me.

Recovery – The HR staff and my boss were wonderful people, and once they remembered what it was like to be new (it had been such a long time since anyone there was hired), they stepped in to help me.  They loved to tell me the stories of plant and the people, and I was eager to get “in the know.”  I was given a union contract to review and people guided me along the way.  I also started to understand the mentality of it all.

Stability – After a few months, I felt very much at home.  I got more comfortable with not knowing what everyone who’d been there 18 years knew, and they realized my intentions were honorable.  I stayed there three years until the plant was closed and the work relocated to a plant out of state.

Adapted by Crossroads of Learning from:

UW Board of Regents International Engineering Studies & Programs (n.d.). International Engineering Studies & Programs – UW-Madison. Retrieved March 15, 2012, from http://international.engr.wisc.edu/preparing/cultureshock.php

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