Obviously it depends on the role and the seniority of the new hire to some degree. I think, as a senior embedded software engineer, the first couple weeks (mon

Obviously it depends on the role and the seniority of the new hire to some degree. I think, as a senior embedded software engineer, the first couple weeks (months?) should be spent with the last new hire figuring out tools, processes, and keeping internal documentation up to date as you go. Questions should be escalated as necessary, but generally this should not involve much interaction with more senior engineers so their work is not interrupted. New hires should start out with big fixing tasks and not be expected to participate in architecture or feature creation yet. If they display the ability, fine, but set the bar low. Some companies I've worked at have such complicated development workflows that it regularly takes 3 months for an engineer to become independently productive.