I have stepped into a PR nightmare...

[rosebee]

I have discovered what will be the hardest part of my new job. It's not even anything accounting related. It's public relations, between me (aka the evil controlling accountant) and the lawyers & the other admin/support staff.
Evidently, my predecessor was a holier-than-thou, overcontrolling, non-socializing bitch. Lucky me.

She'd hoard the more expensive office supplies and grill anyone who dared come in to her office to ask for them. She would *never* sign a card or attend someone's going-away party. And she also evidently made it damn clear that everything would be done HER way.

I'm REALLY going to have my work cut out for me to convince my new coworkers that I'm a nice, warm, friendly, happy person who wants nothing more than to help them any way I can. I wish it was easier for me to strike up conversations, make small talk, and generally make friends.

Happily the office assistant who's been helping out with the bookkeeping and training me in a lot of things is really, really nice. She's been telling me some of the atmosphere that I walked into. For the last couple days I wondered if everyone at this office was just really unfriendly, or if I'd somehow done something to offend them. Now that I know the cause, I am very much relieved because it means that it will go away. It'll take quite a bit of time and a lot of effort on my part, but it will change and get better.

Comments

[fuskeez.livejournal.com]

Yeah the good thing is that you can just prove it to them by being yourself, you don't have to go out of your way too much to show them the kind of person you are. It's a tough position, though, nobody ever likes to be pre-judged.

Hey, start it off by handing out some post-it notes! ;)

[topaz119.livejournal.com]

lol...I just posted the same thing about the office supplies. She who controls the pens and markers and supercool file folders controls the world.

[rosebee.livejournal.com]

I'm actually gonna do just that! The bright neon colored ones were some of the office supplies that she had stashed away. I'm going to put them in the supply cupboard with an email that will hopefully simultaneously tell them where they are and that I plan on doing things a lot differently than my predecessor.

[topaz119.livejournal.com]

Well, at least you're not replacing someone they all adored. This way, all you have to do is be human and they'll be thrilled. Plus, you can always bribe them with the supercool office supplies!

[rosebee.livejournal.com]

That's true! I hadn't thought of it from that angle.

I plan to bribe them when I get back to work on Tuesday. Otherwise known as cleaning out the hoarded office supplies out of much needed storage space in my office. :)

[rainbow.livejournal.com]

Thank goodness you know what's up now. And given that you're not at all the same sort of person, I'm guessing they'll figure that out pretty darned quick :)

*happy new job hugs*

[rosebee.livejournal.com]

I'm so relieved to finally know what's going on. Hopefully it won't take them too long to figure out I'm nothing like my predecessor.