Einstand feiern

"Einstand feiern" - roughly translates into "celebrating one's new job". The Germans are very giving people; however, they just do it a little differently from what is customary in the U.S. For instance, on one's birthday, you are supposed to give a small celebration on your own behalf for your office colleagues. Well, this tradition of throwing your own party to celebrate yourself also pertains to when you accept a new position within the company. That said, a couple of my colleagues, who also serve as my trusty German cultural consultants, highly recommended that I throw myself an "Einstand feiern" within the first few weeks of my new assignment, as this is unspoken protocol and would pay dividends in building goodwill with my colleagues. So today was my big day!

As such, the official planning started last week. The determination of the invitee list provided much debate, discussion, and difficult decision-making. In essence, protocol is to invite your direct superiors, direct reports and any other colleagues with whom you either have worked closely in the past or will work closely in the future. Well, I have worked with, had dinner with, and have gotten to know a number of people from this office over the past few years. In the end, I decided to invite a little over 50 people.

Next I had to reserve a conference room and then determine the food and drinks to be served. Lots of planning and logistics involved. I had Ellen put in an order for 100 Brötchen (see photo above) and 4 cakes at the local bakery a couple of blocks from our apt. As well, I had procured a variety of vegetables and orange juice at the local grocery.

Here is how the morning unfolded. Ellen, who put in the Brötchen/cake order 2 days ago, was told very directly from the manager at the bakery that I should not come any earlier than 7:00am this morning, as the order would not be ready before then. As instructed, I arrived at 7:05 and luckily all of the food had been prepared. As the food was being brought out in crates from the kitchen, I kept hearing "Müssen Sie....."(you must...) in a stern voice from the manager and I quickly realized that she was commanding me to return the crates before I drove off. I responded with "Kein problem" and that seemed to alleviate her angst....until I returned from loading my car. Uh oh, the manager is at the cash register and yelling "Scheiße, Scheiße, Scheiße!" Evidently, my large Brötchen order was more than her point-of-sale cash register could handle. She commands me to sit and wait and starts yelling at her assistant to call somebody. After 10 minutes of waiting to pay, I start to panic as my party will soon be starting and possibly without the food, host and guest-of-honor. This would not be good protocol and would not build goodwill. I call Ellen and ask that she get the kids out the door ASAP and walk by the bakery on their way to school. I told her that if I was still sitting there when she arrived, that I would drive the kids to school and that she could sit there and wait (however long it would take) to pay our friendly neighborhood baker. Well, after 20 minutes, I was summoned to the counter to pay. I think the cash register was partially working, but could not tell since the manager just handed me a calculator displaying the final amount due. She then handed me over 3 separate paper receipts - each over a foot long. I then began to realize why things must have gone awry - she had manually entered 104 line item entries for each of the 100 Brötchen and the 4 cakes! I think this overloaded the system and cash register!

All ended well and I arrived at work just in time to throw myself a party. However, the next time I throw a party to welcome myself to my new position, I will cut down on the number of Brötchen, as my estimate of 2 per each who accepted the invitation was way off the mark.

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