Week 6: Day 1

During my sixth week working at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, I gained a new teammate named Eric. I was caught off-guard when I walked into work and the Human Resources supervisor was waiting for my teammates and I at our office. She looked somewhat disheveled, which I found surprising because she was normally well put together. She talked to us at a speed rivaling a mile per minute, leading me to believe that she was in the middle of an unexpected crisis. It took me a while to understand what the source of her panic was. Apparently, my third teammate was due to arrive later that day and 60% of the senior staff had taken the Monday off. Both Meridel and Brian forgot that it was Eric’s first day and took the day off as well. I have to admit that I completely forgot as well. In retrospect, Meridel told us during our orientation that we would be getting another teammate during the summer. Due to everyone’s memory lapse, the Human Resources supervisor delegated the task of showing Eric around the building and teaching him about the organization to my teammates and I.

Two hours after being assigned our new task, the Human Resources supervisor called my teammates and I upstairs to the conference room in order to meet Eric. When we first met Eric, I noticed the typical deer caught in headlights facial expression that every new employee has on their first day. I had the feeling that he was going to turn out to be a funny guy. Before I had enough time to organize my thoughts into a disarming introduction, the Human Resources supervisor started inching towards the door. Her last words to us before she left were, “Alright, he’s all yours”.

The silence in the room was deafening. My teammates and I struggled to find the right words to say to the tall stranger that was left in front of us. Ironically, it was he who broke the ice by asking the easiest question for a college student to answer, “So, where do you guys go to school?” The rapport between the four of us grew as we all had the opportunity to talk about ourselves. Eric is an undergraduate student from the Ohio State University. At OSU, he double majors in finance and accounting. After his program is over, he hopes to work for a year before enrolling in an MBA program.

Eric and I got along almost immediately. One of our strongest connections comes from the fact that our schools are big college sports rivals: Ohio State vs. Florida. After our introductions, my teammates and I took him on a tour through the building. He was generally impressed with the facility, especially the intern office that he would be sharing with us for the remainder of the summer. As our tour ended, he asked, “So, I understand that you guys are working on process maps. How much more work do you have left to do?” It was at that point that I reflected on the work that I had completed thus far. In reality, there was no more than a handful of processes left for mapping. I was a little disappointed when I had to tell Eric “Not too much more”.