A year or more ago, I opined to one of our local Microsoft representatives that his company’s line of “Team”-oriented development products was pitched to a non-existent audience: an IT team.
In 10+ years of working in this profession, I have yet to see a real development team.
Maybe that’s because the whole notion of a team in a white collar office environment is a contradiction in terms, no matter where you look: accounting, call centers, school systems, government units, wherever.
I doubt that “teams” really exist even in the environment that gave them their name, i.e., sports.
In some environments, “do it for the team” really means “subject yourself to the manager’s will”, even if the manager is incompetent, uninformed or even morally corrupt.
No matter where you are, a “team” can quickly devolve into a gang, and a gang always includes a bully and a fall guy. It takes an energy-draining amount of savvy and will to avoid either role.
In over 40 years of work experience, I’ve yet to meet a manager who is skilled at keeping bullies at bay or preventing fall guys from being pummelled.
This may be a consequence of living in the closest thing to a real free market economy in the world, or it could be due to major flaws in the American character. After all, weren’t many of those who immigrated to this country rogues and criminals?
In excusing, or at least trying to rationalize, some examples of bad behavior yesterday, someone said to me, “People are people, no matter where you go.”
I sincerely hope she’s wrong.