As noted in an earlier post, the team I am on was recently moved out of the library group and into the central IT group at my company. I thought it might be good to take stock of the positives and negatives of this move after about six weeks.

First, the positives:

• We are in a much newer building with better accommodations and amenities, including a cafeteria with better service and food.
• There is easier access to my cubicle with parking that is close to the building. It helps that at this location, I no longer have to park far away and then walk past BMWs, Porsches, Jaguars, Lexuses and other fancy cars belonging to senior managers who get reserved parking near the buildings where they work.
• I have a desk and cubicle arrangement that are much more to my liking. I no longer have to have my back to the cubicle opening and this means I no longer jump nervously whenever someone enters my cubicle.
• Meeting rooms have reservation information posted on the door, thereby alleviating any confrontations with others over who really has a particular room reserved, and for what time.
• This building is close to shops and restaurants, making it easier for me to pop out during lunch to do some quick shopping if I want to.
• Support from our department’s administrative assistant is great.
• Sometimes when I am working on a particular piece of enterprise software and need assistance with it, I can walk over and talk with the person who supports it and get an answer right away.
• I no longer have to cope with the weird, hyper-frenetic, hyper-sensitive aura that permeates the building where senior executives are located.
• There are so-called “informal collaboration areas” with comfy chairs that allow for impromptu or informal meetings with co-workers in a neutral space.
• My schedule has magically become much less jam-packed with meetings.

Now for the negatives:

• I really miss particular colleagues from the library. Lack of proximity and just being able to “shout over the cubicle walls” to them has been a huge downside.
• The inevitable “limbo” associated with a major organizational move can be quite demoralizing.
• It’s quieter in the new digs than in the library, believe it or not. And it kind of gets on my nerves.
• There is a palpable sense of isolation, of siloed teams in the new space, and a sense of being far removed from the user or customer. You really have to go out of your way to interact with others, and almost everyone around us is a stranger.
• It is often hard to exit the property by car onto the main north/south road because there isn’t a traffic light at the main exit point.
• Being part of the new organization means that we have had to complete a ton (30-40) of additional, required computer-based training modules.
• Meeting rooms are incredibly difficult to book because there is so much demand. And oddly enough, most of the meeting rooms in the new building are less well-equipped compared to our previous building.

Most of the negatives are short-term, at least I hope so.