Distributed Teams

IBM is a global company and the team that works on Lotus Workplace is global as well. While I'm based in Massachusetts, I work regularly with folks in Ireland, New Hampshire, North Carolina and a little less frequently with folks in Israel, Germany, China and one lucky guy who works from home in Honolulu Hawaii.



Very frequently I've never seen or even spoken with the people I work with. Our communications take the form of email or instant messages. For example, over the past couple of months I've been working with an engineer in North Carolina. We trade daily IM messages and emails but I wouldn't know her if she walked into my office.



This sort of distributed workforce seems to work just fine, but it can be kind of weird too. The building I work in is pretty big and houses a few hundred people. The odd thing is I only know a hand full of them. In most cases our work paths never cross. I am much more likely to need to work with someone half way around the world than I am with someone a few offices down the hall.

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