Face time, or lack thereof....

[poltr1]

A couple of weeks ago, Jin (our data curator) got a new job somewhere else. So now our team is down to 4 people right now. 3 of them are on the 2nd floor of my building; I'm in the 1st floor. There are days that go by that I don't have any contact with my teammates. I try to keep them informed of my daily status via email and IMs, but it's not the same as face-to-face contact.

I'm really wondering if the corporate culture I'm currently in is "every man for himself". I have lunch alone, in the cafeteria, and see most everyone else in groups.

In a typical week, I drive to work alone. I work alone. I go home alone. About the only social contact I have is my mens' group on Thursday nights.

This is why I got involved in so many clubs and organizations -- to escape the boredom, the doldrums, and the loneliess I experience in my life. I've decided to take a break from most of them, to focus on the decluttering work I need to do at home.

Comments

[billroper]

Admittedly, I tend to be the "eat lunch by myself and read the newspaper" type, but it might be worth dropping the other guys in your group an e-mail and suggest that you get together for lunch one day next week and talk about anything except work -- because I can understand not wanting to chat about the job, but getting together and shooting the bull on some other variety of subjects could be fun.

One of the guys on the QE team at work, for example, is a member of a drum marching band and has his own home recording studio. The music geeking that goes on between us from time to time is pretty entertaining...

[poltr1]

I've been having lunch with Edward this post week. At that's been helping me cope.

I asked Johny a few weeks ago, and his response was "I eat at my cubicle."

[zorya-thinks.livejournal.com]

Have you thought about walking upstairs occasionally and engaging your team members face to face? Tom's office is on a different floor than the VNOC so he is up and down the stairs all day. He's started wearing a pedometer to keep track of how far he walks each day - he says it's not an exercise program but it does help get the body moving. :-)

[poltr1]

This question is kicking up a lot of stuff for me. I'll respond to this in my next post.