Did you know that it’s possible to code without banter?
I hate it when I make assumptions. I hate it more when the assumptions turn out — as is usually the case — to be complete pants.
I’ve worked in close-knit development teams for the most part when I’ve been in IT projects. The banter, the brain-storming, the shared learning — and the drinking — were a key part of what made IT work fun. And usually successful.
This past month I’ve been involved in a project where some of the people are remote. Email and Skype stands in for jolly office japery. It’s not the same.
This week, though, our senior developer came over from Russia. We had to work together. He hasn’t been to the UK before and his English is not good enough for banter, brainstorming, or much shared learning. He drinks, however. I found my inability to communicate with him at the speed I wanted to demoralising. The fact that he couldn’t appreciate all my great puns and clever wordplay as we worked demoralised me further.
I really thought the project was going to struggle.
And yet.
When it came to the crunch — a quick and dirty technical architecture, some test data, and a new development environment — he had it up and running and purring in less than a day.
Jaw meet belt buckle.
Somehow, not getting my jokes in no way prevented him from doing his work. In fact, there is a case to be made that he was able to work at speed and with focus precisely because the annoying man beside him was talking incomprehensible gibberish that he could ignore.
I may have to reevaluate the importance of banter in the workplace. Or sit on my own and talk to myself.
