Day One at Bank of America

Today was my first day at Bank of America, and I am now the proud borrower of a modern-looking cube with ample storage space and supplies, a Dell widescreen laptop, a photoless but functioning ID badge (I'll get my picture taken on Monday during my orientation session), and a variety of documents from multiple meetings during the day. On order are my business cards, cell phone and Blackberry (yes, it may finally be time to bid my Pocket PC farewell for a corporate approved device).

Although it would take too long to share all of my impressions of the day here, I thought it was very interesting that, since we're in a cube-based environment, the company has provided a couple of private phone areas with curtains, in case employees need to make any calls that can't be made from their desks (e.g., sensitive topics).

As for food, the cafeteria, Chik-Fil-A, and Quiznos are all within less than 2 blocks of my building. In addition, one branch of the YMCA fitness facilities is located in my building. Now I just need to develop the willpower to awake at 5am to exercise. I would definitely beat the morning rush hour with that plan. Speaking of the morning rush hour (that phraseology reminds me of something I've often heard Kevin say at work at Nationwide, and I will miss that and other things about the people I've left behind in Columbus), it took me 29 minutes this morning, leaving at 6:55am. This evening was not as good, as it took me 42 minutes, leaving at 5:41pm. Since we are looking at houses another 3-5 miles outside of the city, that would put the morning commute at closer to 40 minutes and the evening commute at 50+. That's certainly something I'll have to get used to, given that my prior commute was 15-20 minutes each way. On the positive side, I will be able to work from a satellite office a couple days per week, and that office is located about 10-15 minutes from the homes we're looking at.

Well, I need to get some rest. I've got many more documents to read tomorrow, and then I need to get ready for an offsite talent management meeting on Thursday and Friday. Oh, and then I'll be back in Columbus with Nadya and Mia late Friday night.