Culture Shock

I am experiencing culture shock at work. My former company was a stodgy, corporate environment. My current company is wacky. It prizes innovation and creativity over everything. Here are some quick brush strokes.

During my interview:

• In my future boss's office, there is a disco ball, and garish pink furry pillows. It turns out his office was punk'd while he was on vacation.
• I am proudly walked to the "Post-It Wall", the project of an art intern. See picture above for a glimpse. (This would have been considered very unprofessional in my former corporate environment, and it would have been taken down immediately.)

On my first day of work:

• I am told to go on a scavenger hunt that is designed to introduce me to people.
• A stuffed bird head looks at me from the other side of my cube, except that this bird is not stuffed. It is a real African Gray Parrot.

Normal Everyday:

• I spend hours in the machine shop, making mockups with hot-glue, and plumbing parts. The mockups resemble bongs. In our meeting with a client, the director inflates one of the mockups in his mouth. The mockup is a modified party favor. The client doesn't blink an eye.
• We have margaritas, wine or beers every Friday afternoon.
• Whiteboards were previously banned in my previous place of work. There are whiteboards everywhere at my new place. Including a 4'X8' whiteboard that takes up the entire wall of my cube.
• I walk home in 15 minutes flat.

Today:

• I have a long conversation with the "artist-in-residence" at my company. A real artist rents out a cubicle in order to gain inspiration from us engineers, and we from him. We have a conversation about a business venture he has just devoted his life's savings into.
• We have a tasting of the grappa our CEO brought back from Tuscany.
• We have a water taste test from various types of filtered water. This is for an entrepreneurial side project that my company is gaining a share of profits for.

Not everything is rosy. I meditate to help me adapt as quickly as possible to these cultural changes. Also, there will be harder technical challenges than I have ever faced before where I was the technical lead. We will see how that turns out. It looks like I'm in over my head.