At work, I often hear the phrase, “This is the way it has always been done.” I have to laugh (internally, of course) because I know how untrue that is, but it is usually said in defense to a new idea.
At my workplace, whenever there’s a new way to do something, people get really bent out of kilter because they have to get off autopilot and develop new ways to think and communicate and have to pay attention to what they’re doing to adjust to the new person, new method, new protocol or whatever.
When I first started at my workplace, I was the first outsider that they had hired in years and they were extremely impatient with my questions. My department secretary even said to me, “I hate new people. They’re so much work.” Since that time, about 15 outsiders have been hired and I tend to be the one who takes the lead in acclimatizing them—I don’t want them to go through the same sour-pusses that I encountered!