IM On Steroids

I remember when instant messaging in the workplace was looked upon with disdain.

This recollection has to be from around 2001, when I was working in the Fresno, CA. office of a network integration company called NetsWork.

Their tagline was “We make nets work”. No kidding.

Headquartered in Pleasanton, CA., the company’s strategy for growth was to acquire the small to medium-sized “Mom and Pop” network integration shops throughout California, Oregon and Washington. These small organizations had a gainful and loyal customer base, and NetsWork had the financing and resources of a large corporation to support the small shops’ development and growth.

We had just moved into some fancy new digs in North Fresno – well, fancy for Fresno anyways – and we all worked in half-height cubicles in a large bullpen area: salespeople, network engineers, management, support staff, and me. I was one of four developers at this location, and I was tasked with maintaining our mission-critical work order system called SRS. I forgot what the acronym stands for.

I distinctly remember talking with my manager Terry Reuter one afternoon about some software-related subject. Bespectacled, sandy-haired and rail-thin from constant bike racing, he’s one of those rare triple-threat IT guys. You know the kind: he could go into a business and singlehandedly set up an entire network – Microsoft or Novell, because we did both. Then, he could build you a server from spare parts and write a custom CRM application overnight and install it on the new server. He was just that good, a one man network integration company.

I also admired the fact that Terry’s wife Lynn is also in IT. In fact, at the time of my conversation with Terry, Lynn was working at NetsWork as a programmer as well, doing development in Microsoft Access. A wife who’s a programmer AND working for the same company? How cool is that!

As we chatted, Terry happened to glance over at one of the network engineers, back from one of his customer visits. The engineer was chuckling to himself as he typed away to some unseen correspondent via Instant Messenger.

Terry’s brow knitted and the corners of his mouth sagged in a frown of disapproval. “I hate Instant Messenger”, he muttered under his breath. “I wish we’d outlaw it.”

Now, I respect Terry a lot. So when he expressed his contempt for Instant Messenger, I dutifully avoided ever using it at work even for legitimate reasons, despite the absence of a corporate policy.

Oh, how times have changed.

When I started with UnitedHealth Group three years ago, I noticed that the pre-configured company laptop came with a desktop shortcut pointing to something called “Communicator”. On a conference call, I asked my manager about it.

“Yeah, that’s the corporate version of Instant Messenger”, he explained.

Our team of .NET programmers is composed entirely of workshifting employees, distributed geographically primarily on the East Coast and Midwest. Since our programming team was scattered across the country, with me being furthest West in California, the fastest way to contact a team member was via Communicator. In fact, my manager proceeded to encourage me to reach out to my team via Communicator if I had questions or needed another programmer’s opinion on an issue.

Corporate version of Instant Messenger?

Since when had instant messaging received the Blessing of Corporate America? I was stunned.

Microsoft Office Communicator, of course, is the Enterprise incarnation of Instant Messenger, a sort of IM on steroids with additional features such as VOIP, video conferencing, and integration with the Office Suite. Included in the base installation of a laptop provided to employees by a Fortune 20 company, and advocated as a legitimate business tool.

And it started out life simply as Microsoft’s entry into the internet chat space.

Heavens, what next? I suppose I’ll have to get used to tweeting my team members...