First week at work

So the first week at work is now over, it was only a 4 day week since Christmas was a holiday. Not many people in the office this week so it was a slow week, perfect for a starting week.

My first day at work did not start with a very positive note and gave me the look of unprofessional attitude that people often mention about Indian work culture. But my disappointment did not stay long and was soon lost once I was in the office.

In short, I reached my company's office on time hoping to receive a warm welcome but interestingly no one had a clue that a new hire was supposed to start today. It was a little frustrating for the first hour I was there.

The office is located in a prominent building by a popular builder, great construction, ample space for parking and well maintained. The work atmosphere is just like it is in the US and people attitude towards the work seemed same too. Though the full fledged work hasn't started yet so I will probably comment about the work culture once I have worked here for few months.

Indian work hours are typically 9 - 5 and for most of the tech people they don't start until 10 but end after 6.30 - 7. After coming to the office people usually go for a tea/coffee, lunch is around 12.30pm and then another tea break around 4pm.

For lunch we get coupons here (worth 1000/- per month in my organization), which are valid at most of the locations for ready to eat food and beverages. There is a cafeteria in the apartment complex which has all kinds of food options, pure veg, non-veg, Chinese, pizza hut, subway and McDonald's. The type of the food would determine the price range, you can get a combo veg meal for around 20/- and pizza for 100/-.

The corporations in India are doing their best to keep their employees happy and one of the thing that we have (and I guess many others would too) is a pantry where you get tea, coffee, bread, butter, jam, Indian snacks of few varieties, cookies, biscuits and all this at no cost (as you must have guessed by now this is my favourite place).

Overall a great starting week.

Still hunting for the apartment.