Big Big Corporation

From last few days I had several topics lingering in my mind. I was thinking about writing on each of them but due lack of energy after work I was unable to do it. Now doing this before lunch shows how intense the feeling of writing is inside me. I am trying to understand this big GE system. This company I am working for is a sub company of GE energy. GE has divided itself in some areas but again integrated itself in some other areas. So you have to find out where you stand. They are asking to feel up the information on these long list of benefits. Some of them are really useful but the text is so long that it took me 2 weeks of will to complete this. After reading I have my choices decided. Then comes the part of completing the basic courses. GE has this virtual online university. They have thousands of courses residing there. You can find course on virtually any important topic needed for a corporation guy. It includes programming, management etc. It starts with courses such as safety information, signs etc... I guess these things are included to save GE from big lawsuits. Every normal person has this knowledge. But no, you have to take it. I have around 20 courses to be completed. Though there is 2 months time frame for me but I want to get rid of this before real hast work starts to kick in. Being a new employee you have to fight or sometime learn for every minor thing. Like I want to a good laptop, or how to download code from Starteam, how to use it or build it. There are thousand stupid ways to do this. I am quite sure that it will be different even at other GE Optimization work place. Then comes the SAP. Big bullshit from a employee point of view. I have given access to this system for nothing. It does not even allow me a single transaction. Being a SAP BW Consultant for a while I know some inside transactions but forget about that. I can not fill basic time sheet in it. Just a mess. Meeting different guys and understanding the way to deal with them is big issue. Always has been but never occurred to me on this large scale. I meet guys so arrogant that you can forget Vivek Deshpande ( a respectable person from Aurangabad). But in American way. They don't talk of breaking system but they know the system inside out. I am trying to understand the basic information of company such as product line, main competitors etc. There is no summarized information anywhere might be because these guys hired nobody in last 3 yrs. will continue later on as this is basketball time at lunch..