My First Day

I survived my first day of Mayo Clinic New Employee Orientation. It was a bit of information overload, but in a good way. And I still have another day of orientation before I get to the real job. 

The first surprise happened immediately when I got to the New Employee parking - where there was not just one bus, but two coach buses waiting to give the newbies a ride to the campus.

I had assumed that the orientation would be a group of about 20 to 30 people; after all Mayo Clinic has new employee orientation twice a month. Instead, there were about 115 new staff members participating in orientation. I was grateful that the orientation didn't feel impersonal and the facilitator was always asking for questions and participation. Problem was there were far too many introverts in the room. As always, I made up for their extraordinary quietness. 

  

Mayo Clinic has a wonderful resource called the Dan Abraham Wellness Center on campus and their very enthusiastic speaker gave us a nice afternoon stretching exercise that helped alleviate the tush fatigue from sitting too much. I'm sure I'll become a member, but since I have access to a very nice workout room here at the Knutson Bed & Breakfast (also known as my sister & brother-in-law's home), it might not be for a few months. 

Besides all the typical information that you need to learn as a new employee, we watched a video about the beginnings of Mayo Clinic and how it became One of the Best Places in America to Work. Their basic mission statement hasn't changed in over 100 years - "the needs of the patient comes first."  

The push to build the first hospital in Southeast Minnesota in late 1800s was driven, not by the doctors, but by a group of Catholic nuns, the Francisicans. I felt a certain amount of pride since the same order of nuns were my teachers in Catholic grade school. (not the same nuns as there was a time gap between the late 1800s and my grade school experience)

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Of course, the first real challenge comes tomorrow when I have to figure out the transportation services. There is a commuter lot in Kasson (about 5 miles away from the Bed & Breakfast) that I'll try out tomorrow.  There's a certain amount of appeal to hopping on a charter bus and having someone else drive you to and from work. 

Rumor has it there is wi-fi on the commuter buses. You gotta know my inner geek was thrilled with that tidbit.