By the TeleMessage Server Programming Team
I was thinking the other day about how an outsider would imagine working at a small high-tech company such as TeleMessage. Surely some might imagine a bunch of nerds with glasses as thick as the bottom of a beer bottle, telling nerd-jokes and doing nerd-stuff. And while this may be true in some similar environments, it’s quite different in TeleMessage (and especially in the server team).
Being a relatively small company (around 40 employees worldwide), I would say that working at TeleMessage feels the least like “work” compared to other places that I have worked at. Of course, like every other place we have our arguments at times, but it doesn’t really affect the feeling of mutual companionship and team spirit.
Other than that, the most felt aspect in the server team atmosphere is probably the silly and funny stuff that comes up every so often in our room…
A Typical Day at the Office
A typical day would start with our daily stand-up meeting (part of the Scrum methodology that has been practiced for over a year now in TeleMessage), at which we would each take turns in updating the rest of the team as to the status of our tasks – that’s probably the most serious moment of the day. 🙂
After that each would usually continue working on his task, during which, a stream of jokes and silly comments would start and end only when we go home. I don’t mean that’s all we do all day, or we would have no time to complete our tasks, but one would probably have to struggle to find 15 minutes without an out-break of laughter in the room.
And that could be anything between a practical joke on some poor victim, to having your name inserted in a song in the absolutely most absurd and illogical manner (though it must rhyme!). You can never be really sure that the next business phone call you receive isn’t a prank being played on you, or if the next time you raise your head would cost you a (tiny) blue pillow in the face (half a second after being warned by the traditional “think fast” call to further embarrass you). But of course, everything is done with good spirits and humor.
Keeping it Social
Once a month we have our team’s poker night which is really fun (though I usually lose due to being thoroughly drunk), and occasionally a company after-work soccer game – for those who think chasing a ball for 30 minutes can be considered “fun” :-p
All that being sad, for the sake of full disclosure, I must state that we still work, help each other, and as they say “get the job done” and probably better than in other places (where our kind of sense of humor is frowned upon). If a real problem arises (e.g. in production), we’ll get into our “serious mode” and work together to fix what needs to be fixed as fast as possible, and if a teammate needs some help everyone would lend a hand to support him.
So to conclude – a word to the wary TeleMessage employee – never forget the possibility (remote as you think it may be) that someone is pulling a fast one on you.
