I was wondering today how long I can say I'm a NEW employee. When I've met with people one-on-one in the last week I tell them I'm new and ask a question and they say "You're new to the COMPANY? Oh, here let me explain." They would certainly answer the questions anyway but the "new" tag does cause them to be very careful and thorough in their explanations.

Two weeks ago I was talking with someone who said they were new so I asked when she started. She said six months ago. That's new? I guess it is in a company where people get in and stay forever. They move between groups and jobs a lot but they stay.

Does that mean my five year rule (When you've been at a job for five years, it's time to move on) doesn't apply here? Possibly. Maybe if I move to some other challenging job at the same company and that makes me want to stay for more than five years, I'll amend the rule. That's a long time from now so the rule stands for now.

The most interesting/fun part of the day was a monologue by my manager (in a meeting to talk about a meeting)about a five day creativity boot camp at a hotel he was sent to in 2000. The dozen people worked in small groups to plan software to achieve some great good (e.g., finding missing children). They had intense group discussions all day and night but could "check out" of any meeting and draw or color instead to release their creativity. Some of the people loved it and some hated it which led to loud arguments when people went back to work. The whole program was cancelled after a month but he came out of it with some great stories and some terrible drawings.