Esso Norge

I've completed my first week of work in Norway. ExxonMobil is known as Esso Norge here; and "Norge" means Norway.

Our office is actually south of Stavanger in a town called Forus. Our building is right next to a giant Ikea store. In fact we can see Ikea from the workroom/office they set us up in.

So far we've been traveling by taxi, but we will soon get our own car to drive. We can't have a car until we take a special Norway. After driving in Houston I doubt it will be an issue.

The building is of course very nice. They have a nice cafeteria on the top floor with an outside patio and free lunch, there is a decent gym in the building, there are fancy coffee dispensing machines everywhere, and everything looks as though it was purchased at Ikea. There is a giant obelisk in the lobby displaying the number of days with no loss time incidents. It's close to 8000. That seems impossible because our clock seems to reset weekly in Houston. I also learned that there's a ping pong table and a tournament. I wish I brought my paddle.

Norwegians seem to be very unassuming. Basically, they aren't judgemental. This makes for a very casual work environment. Jeans are a normal sight and it's unlikely that you would see a tie. Things can take a long time to accomplish, but the result is usually good. They tend to reach collective decisions instead of one dominant person forcing their ideas on everyone, which is more common back home.

The week flew by, even though it was only a partial week. There are two reasons for this. One, there is a ton of work to do. I suspect that 7 weeks will feel way too short to complete all of the work. The other reason is that the work day is approximately 7:30 - 4:00. That includes lunch. The Norwegian philosophy is definitely work-to-live and not live-to-work. When they say "work-life balance", they actually mean it.

Last Friday there was a UIT lunch. Since my team is UIT, we were invited. Lunch was 2-4 and is basically an excuse to take an afternoon and then enjoy adult refreshments on the company dollar. I'm told that Norwegians don't drink casually much, but when they do drink, it is in marathon form. Friday was no exception. Lunch was followed by multiple other stops and didn't actually end until around 11. I managed to behave myself except I might have promised to go swimming with them in the North Sea.