I've always thought that the production control and procurement roles were just work interfaces, until I joined this company and realized that if both interfaces are newcomers, it's truly a large-scale survival game.
I mentioned before that the procurement person I'm interfacing with is also a newcomer, having joined the company just a week earlier than me. Because our work is interconnected, we spend a lot of time together every day—either they're coming to me or I'm going to them, meeting countless times throughout the day.
Although we both have relevant work experience, we're unfamiliar with this company's processes, part numbers, systems, and document management methods. Many things have no standard answers, so we have to slowly dig through previous work records, piece things together bit by bit, and gradually develop our own workflows.
The funny thing is, as soon as we receive a question from the other, we both tend to freeze up at the same time.
"How is this part number handled?"
"Hang on, let me check."
Then we both bury ourselves in Excel, ERP, emails, and handover documents. Answering just one question often takes a long time. Handling the things the other person throws our way already eats up a lot of time, not to mention our own piles of work waiting to be done—anything we want to pass to the other person just keeps getting pushed back.
Over time, we've developed a strange kind of rapport.
Now, whenever we see the other person walking toward us from afar, we stop what we're doing and stare at them, and one of us will smile and say, "What do you want now?"
It sounds like we're complaining, but the tone is light because we both know the other person has probably hit another roadblock.
Sometimes I think this feeling of being newcomers together is quite special. If I were the only newcomer, I might keep doubting my own abilities; if it were only them, they might feel the same. But since we're in the same position, we understand better that the other isn't being careless—they just need time to figure things out.
Neither of us has it easier, and neither can fully rely on the other. We can only slowly piece together those chaotic processes, stacks of incomprehensible data, and one unanswered question after another.
Occasionally, we encourage each other: "Hang in there a bit longer; one day we'll get the hang of it."
I think the rarest thing in the workplace isn't meeting someone who knows everything, but having someone right beside you who's stumbling along with you during your most chaotic, frantic moments.
I hope that one day, when we see each other approaching, we won't instinctively ask "What do you want now?" but instead smile and say, "I know this one—I've got it." That would mean we've both taken another step toward mastering our roles.