My thoughts on Teams or Not Teams inside and now outside of Autodesk

My thoughts on Teams or Not Teams

Three Weeks Without Teams

I left Autodesk three weeks ago. The thing I notice most is that the Microsoft Teams messages stopped.
At a company, Teams runs all day. Messages come in, people post ideas, you react. I liked things, commented, added my own ideas, and did a lot of it. When you work from home or travel as much as I do, it is hard to know what is going on inside a company. Teams answered that. It gave me a sense of community and kept me involved without my having to be in a building. That part was good.
Three weeks out, I see the other side.

Without the constant reminder that I work somewhere, I focus more. I can go for long stretches thinking about nothing but the thing in front of me, usually while vibe coding. That sounds like all upside. It isn't. When you stop thinking about other people, you do your own thing and lose the thread of what everyone else is doing. The same messages that gave me community also kept me tied to that thread. Take them away and I keep the focus but lose the continuity.

The bigger surprise is about rhythm. Out here it is my wife and me. My sons are not around for a few months, and they both work every day. When I used to see them working in the house, it made me want to work, and that pull is gone now. So is the company rhythm. I am putting in fewer hours because nothing outside me sets the clock. My wife runs on her own clock too, mostly Korean and Chinese dramas and tennis, so most of the structure in my day is taking care of her and the ordinary work of getting through it.

So Teams is a plus and a minus. The plus is real: it gives you community and the feeling that you belong to something while you sit alone at a keyboard. The minus shows up if you are wired like me. I like to communicate, so I overdo it. The likes and the comments add up, and the tool that keeps you connected also pulls at your attention all day.

Three weeks in, I miss the community, and I do not miss the interruptions. I did not expect to feel both, but I do.