First day at new job! There was no discussion about what time I should come in. I showed up about 8:30. I learned that my boss was out on vacation and his boss, a VP, was running late. So, the receptionist called the lone colleague in my department for me.
This is a German girl who seems maybe a tad shy of being fully proficient at speaking English. We introduced ourselves and then she just marched me straight to the VP's office and told me I could sit in there and wait if I wanted. I was like "Maybe I'll go find the bathroom and check out the gym. Or even leave and come back in an hour." She said okay and then turned around and walked off.
So, I went to the store and picked up some $6 reading glasses to leave at work and $10 worth of lottery tickets.
The VP was there when I got back. He said and did a bunch of totally normal stuff for the next several hours. BUT THEN, as I was getting ready to leave, he told me that he wanted to share something with me. I'd learned earlier that he was a wrestling coach and has a son who is a star wrestler. He then told me that he'd taken his son to Nationals as a 14 year old and felt terrible because his son lost immediately. His reaction was to write a letter to his son. The letter is what he wanted to share with me. So, I sat there as he read verbatim this 3/4 page, single spaced, deeply personal letter about winning and losing and trying and getting back up and learning life lessons. As he's reading it, I'm like, "Oh crap. How am I supposed to respond to this? Is my response going to sound phony? What's going on here!?" Luckily, he kept right on talking after reading and the conversation flowed naturally.
Tomorrow, my boss will be in! One of the things I remember about him from my interview is that he started out by saying, "Basically, our crap is all mumped up."