It's the people
"What is the most important thing for a company? Is it the cash flow? Is it the inventory? Nah uh. It's the people. The People." -- Michael Scott, Regional Manager, Dunder-Mifflin Inc.
Today we had a little going-away thingy for a woman at work. Having been there such a brief period, I obviously don't know her well, but I do like her. Two people gave toasts (if you can call it a toast when it involves cookies and milk, and I think you can), and both mentioned her grace. "Grace" seems an apt adjective for this woman -- she is indeed calm, poised and professional, but she's still very warm. I wish I'd had the chance to know her.
When this woman addressed the group, she said more than once that the people at our workplace make coming to the office each day much, much easier. Her job is far more stressful than mine (she has to deal with contributors, whereas I merely have to try to write headlines that make sense), but already I see what she means. This really is a great group of people (great and patient, I might add). And it's a group that holds quite a few surprises. Would you, for example, expect to find several trained musicians working at a financial Web site? I certainly wouldn't, but we do indeed have editors and writers (well, at least one writer) who play regularly. I look forward to knowing them all better.
And now a word on instant messaging: I have lamented the death of the spoken interaction in the office more than once, but I must say in today's workplace, if you don't develop a facility for IM-ing, you're really missing out. I've learned things about my colleagues that would surely take months to surface otherwise -- and God knows they've learned a fair amount about me.
For writer/editor types (and especially copy editors, those endearingly silent beings of the newsroom), this form of communication is ideal. Instant messaging allows people to say more readily what they might be more reluctant to say aloud. I wonder how the painfully shy among us ever got to know anyone at work before the advent of this communication platform?