Use Your Unfair Advantage To Create an Unforgettable First Day For New Hires

This article fails to show what benefits this has for either the company or the employee. I did, however, end up slightly creeped out.

My first corporate gig-- I had a horrible first week, they dumped me in an office, no assignment, no computer… nothing. They said another guy would be starting in a week and we'd get started then. I just sat there for a week.

I decided when the new guy started I'd try and make his first day better than mine-- I introduced myself and took him to lunch and ended up making a life long friend, some years later he was a groomsman at my wedding. Making a good friend at work has happened twice in my life, and let me tell you there's nothing that eases the burden of labor like working with a good friend every day.

There are [extroverts] and there are [introverts]. You can choose your own two words for those placeholders.

As an [introvert], I would find such an approach both overwhelming and uncomfortable.

In work socializing, as in most of the rest of life, I believe in "opt-in". I'd rather have the choice to engage when and where I see fit.

I'll take one more pass at this: The new person is joining an established social structure (through the convention and primary focus of getting work done and earning a living).

From my perspective, the type of attitude described in the OP forces a lot of social interaction, and perhaps an immediate, corresponding sense of social obligation / reciprocity upon the new person who is, grand gesture aside, still an outsider.

I would rather get to know people and have the chance to decide who and how I genuinely like, at my own pace.

I know how to get along professionally with most anyone. Whom I like and with whom I want to really socialize, is my decision and is a more nuanced decision that takes some time.

And I don't do "fake". Turning the "social" to 11 on the first day, feels like forcing me towards either awkward, if and as I'm not ready to genuinely reciprocate at similar volume and enthusiasm, or towards fake.

Help me to focus on the work, so that I feel like I'm up to speed and contributing. On my own, I'll feel more comfortable, socially, then. That, to me, feels more like putting things in the right order. Be friendly, sure -- but with a bit of reserve, so that I can feel comfortable exercising the same.