Epsilon/Delta

I am finally more or less settled in. The past two weeks were filled with getting to know a lot of nice new people, taking care of 1001 administrative formalities, initiating the study of the new field I'll be working in, taking initiation courses and having panic attacks.

It is said that change can be like a breath of fresh air. Don't get me wrong, I like fresh air - but at the moment I am feeling like a lifelong inner-city dweller tied to the front of an ocean liner in the middle of the Atlantic/Pacific. I am not in want of fresh air, let me assure you. And the salty brine bites, man.

All hyperbole aside, are there real differences between academia and Alcatelia? Was I working in an ivory tower before? Is there a reason why I cannot get to the point and start giving answers instead of questions ? Taking my cue from basic physics, I will try and organize the changes by

• defining time
  
• defining space
  
• giving the axioms/postulates
  
• describing the state of the system
  
• describing the theoretical/experimental tools
  

Time

There were a number of reasons was one reason why I was not looking forward to my new job: the perceived loss of flexibility and freedom to plan my own time. You see, we work with a (gasp) clock system. You clock in and ... you clock out. And there is no way in or out of the building without going through the gates for which you need your RFID badge. Every minute less than 510 a day eats into your holiday time (10200 minutes). Every minute over 45 for your lunch break eats into your holiday time. Sounds terrible, no? 45 minutes for your lunch, including coffee!? This must be one of the lower circles of Hell.

But in practice, things are much less worse. Tele/Homeworking is actively promoted and supported through the availibity of a personal laptop (no, not Apple) with all necessary trimmings, a VPN connection and refunding of your cable/DSL access cost. And you can of course save up every minute you stay longer to leave early when needed, or to take an extra day off. You see, there is this silly clocking system, but you can start at any time before 10:00, and leave from 15:30 onward. And I have almost one hour overtime just after two weeks. Time will not be a problem.

Space

To return to the coffee after lunch remark, luckily there are semi-decent coffee-machines on every floor, serving everything from expresso to some soup-like concoction. So you can have your latte at your desk. Except that it is not your desk. The official term for this lack of private space is Open/Shared Office and it is supposed to promote team work and flexibility. You come in, in the morning, and sit down at either a free

• open desk (theory: promotes team interaction)
  
• grouped semi-shielded desk (theory: promotes one-on-one interaction)
  
• shielded desk (theory: for those focussed-leave-me-alone sessions)
  
• or you can always move to a number of meeting rooms if you need to shout at a colleague.
  

You plug in your portable, connect a free 19" screen to have some extra real-estate and log into the VoIP phone system (hey, if Alcatel cannot pull it off, who can?) so your callers can find you and there you go.

Oh, did I mention the clean desk policy? (I can see you smiling, cut it out) In the evening, the desk has to be empty and clean again - and I was worrying about the clock...

To be continued.