This is just a general rant about teams and work. And teamwork.

Teams seem to be created by some sort of organizational event that put people into working units and categorize them. This is the basis of a team. Or so I thought. I have learned in the past few months of working in a new environment that teams are not "organized" but result in trust and respect.

You see, my working conditions before were quite good. I had a great team that supported my efforts and I supported them. Out of this relationship and dynamic grew trust and friendship. In the end it made us a better team. We were above petty categorization and quantification of our time and effort. While we certainly kept track of our efforts, most of our willingness to work on something came out of the fact that we knew it was the right thing to do at the time. Our team, while small was recognized for being "magic". We solved problems that no one else could and we did it quickly. That was our calling card. In the end, other teams would drop the ball and it was our job to figure it out and complete it. We became a mini-developement/test/release team that was able to put out new releases faster and with greater quality than any real dev/test teams has been able to.

In the beginning of this year, our team was broken up. Due to some organizational/budgetary bullshit, I, along with two others from my team have been moved over to another division. The rest of the folk on our team stayed put. They did this with the expectation that our old team would function with us while we had a new set of responsibilities to deal with on our new team. They thought the magic would continue. Well, unfortunately, our new "team" doesn't feel like much of a team at all...more like just people who occupy the same part of a building and work on the same projects individually. One of the old team members has quit already. She was one of the hardest working and intelligent people I know. Proof that the new team sucks is that they'd let this person get away without any attempt to retain her. My friend told me she went to a lunch with them a while ago and no one talked to each other...how sad. My part of the new team isn't as bad but there are still major issues. I can live with them for now, but don't get me wrong, I'm looking where ever I can for some new employment. At any rate I don't find much friendship or trust in the new team. People seem to just do their thing without regard for each other. I don't seem much helping each other either. People here are more concerned with getting recognition for their part of the project to fill in their weekly micromanagement...err I mean status reports.

Enough ranting....the point is...people, trust, relationships make teams. Putting people into logical groupings for budgets is necessary I know, but it does not make a team. I'm already starting to develop relationships and trust for some of my new team members. Some is enough for now...but I don't thnk my new team will ever be a "team" in the meaning that I've come to know.

Anyone know of good jobs?