The More Things Change

I’ve worked three full-time jobs in three very different fields. I began in the public sector during the height of the pandemic. My office was nominally doing “emergency telework,” but my assignment to a project with sensitive data meant I crisscrossed the state of California, working out of offices from San Bernardino to San José. I then transitioned to a remote-only firm doing expressly partisan political communications work. And finally, when that firm went out of business, I found a role at a hybrid nonprofit media outlet, complete with a two-days-a-week commute across the water to San Francisco.

Despite holding three roles in three different industries with three different approaches to how and where my colleagues and I were expected to perform our work, I noticed a certain rhythm inherent to the start of any new job.

The first few weeks are chaotic and confusing regardless of the quality of the onboarding program and mentorship as you struggle to ascertain what the real work hours…