Just Ping Me!

My office joined the 21st century workplace today. We now have corporate instant messaging.

When you get used to using IM as your primary means of communication, doing without it is a shock to your system.

At IBM, everyone — no, I'm not exaggerating; everyone — uses SameTime. My officemate and I, sitting in opposite corners of the office with our backs to each other and our earbuds firmly implanted, would IM each other and laugh out loud (when appropriate), rather than stopping, removing earbuds, and turning around to speak.

It's so much more efficient to just ping a question or a comment to a colleague rather than stopping, locking your keyboard, getting up and walking to his cube, then interrupting or disturbing his cube neighbors. An e-mail is worse. You send it, but you don't know how soon it gets seen and read. Unless, of course, the recipient is one of those Blackberry guys who read every e-mail the instant it arrives.

But I digress.

I salute Larry, our new Director of Development, for implementing this new practice and hauling us into the 21st Century.

What's next? Telecommuting??