Each day is someone’s First Day. Perhaps today is your first day with the company, first day with a new title or first day parenting a teenager. We have all had ‘First Days’ and it is expected that over the next 25 years we will collectively experience more ‘First Days’ than any other time in history.
First Days are common in a time where You Inc. is the primary stakeholder, traditional sectors innovate or perish and the wisdom of people who experienced the last 20-30 years in the workforce are booming into their non-traditional retirement years. This means that many of us will be the unintended recipients of consequences associated with someone else’s First Day. We may need to explain something more than once, we may be at sail with leadership who have yet to set course, we may be forced to acknowledge new ideas that infringe on the way things have always been done. While all this is going on, the social pecking order to which you have become accustomed may require defending, adjustment or abolition. Luckily we can save our exasperation because the scorecard of life will all balance out when others around you us experience our next First Day.
The term Newbie may be endearingly whispered behind our backs. It is a term usually meant innocently as a communication short cut to let people know that we are still earning our context-specific experience. While ‘Newbie’ CEO is less often heard, ‘Interim’, ‘Acting’ or ‘Transitional’ are terms that can be perceived to mean that not only is the current title holder still ‘getting the lay of the land’, no one expects them to be around very long and while they are around, their focus is likely directed to one particular area versus the on-going scope of the role. Newbies, however, often intend to stay in the position at least long enough to reach Master or Status Quo status.