Living at Work

Today is the one year mark since New York City shut down on March 16, 2020. Despite it being 2021, in some ways it feels like we're in 15th month of 2020. There are so many emotions and thoughts running through my mind reflecting on the last 365 days from my personal remote working perspective. For the record, I prefer to call it "Living at Work" because that's exactly how it's felt for me. Overall, I think it's been a net positive experience for me personally but the productivity benefits are waning. Last week I went to the office for the first time in a year and was blown away by the impeccable safety procedures and I found it hugely rewarding to see colleagues in person, to collaborate and be productive. Over the past week I've been reflecting very seriously about the last year and what it has all meant, and candidly what I've learned from the many mistakes I made. I felt compelled to capture my thoughts after I listened to the very powerful words from a podcast interview with Lisa Shalett about the important concept of time and the choices we make. Lisa had a profound influence on my career when I first landed in New York and her insightful observations are particularly poignant as I reflected on the year that's been.

As it happened, my last official working day in the office in 2020 actually coincided with the surreal experience of delivering a virtual keynote address via Zoom from my office instead of being at the conference itself. Strangely the venue was barely a stone’s throw away from my building and it all happened that way because restrictions on big gatherings in New York had just been declared that same day. It all felt weird then, but looking straight down the barrel of a camera and speaking to hundreds of people via video is completely normal now. Ironically, I was addressing the Future Workplace Summit and little did any of us know just how prophetic that theme would be with the rapid acceleration of almost all digital adoption and ways of working that would soon follow in almost every industry.

Remote working would soon become the norm, not the future.  

These are my personal reflections, gratitude observations and the important lessons from the many mistakes I made over the last year.

1. Living at Work - Everyone's circumstances are different and there's not a one size fits all solution. I learned early on that working from home actually meant Living at Work. And that made home not always a very enjoyable place to be living for my family and me. At first I thought being home was amazing being forcibly grounded especially after spending 17 nights out of the previous 21 days on the road traveling during a very scary period in history with the pandemic gathering speed around the world. But it certainly wasn’t easy on my family because their “office” (i.e. the apartment) that I never saw during the daylight hours had suddenly been taken over by me without any notice or preparation. The boisterous videos and crisis planning calls almost every waking hour massively disrupted their day-to-day lives. I'm very sorry for that because they all had to experience something they didn't sign up for. Thankfully everyone seemed to be quite enamored with my kids and we affectionately nicknamed them the Twinterns whenever they appeared directly or indirectly on a call. Sentimentality aside, it wasn’t pleasant for me to see them developing during their most formative years and seeing their Dad talking to screens all day instead of to actual people. Not exactly role model behavior when we're trying to encourage them to speak and interact as little humans. It gave me no satisfaction seeing them trying to imitate me by talking to screens too nor did I particularly like them viewing me in work mode (vs Dad mode) all day long. It also made acutely aware of the challenges so many colleagues were also facing especially those with school-age children at home too. Eventually I drew some hard boundaries about what time the day would start and end, and switch off as best as possible, to help my wife with the evening routine. Like clockwork that meant every work day ended temporarily at 5pm to perform my other job cleaning up after their dinner, helping with bathing, preparing the bottles, story time and then non-negotiable 7pm bedtime. Getting all that done with two year old twins is no easy feat let me tell you, but we made it work. At 7pm we'd sit down for dinner and try and find some time to FaceTime my folks back home in Australia, because at 8pm it's back into work mode and finish whatever else needs to be done for the day. For what it's worth, I actually found that once I came to terms with the reality of my situation and accepted that I was actually Living at Work - as opposed to Working From Home - that subtle contextual nuance changed everything for me in a more positive direction.  

TL;DR stop calling it Working From Home, it’s Living at Work.

2. Communication channel hierarchy - Zoom fatigue is a real thing. Being on video, constantly up close and literally having people “in your face” means there’s nowhere to hide. Concentration is extra hard to do especially if you need to add value and speak in a conversation, no less listen intently to multiple things happening. There’s much to be said about the benefits of video conferencing, but when you’re essentially on video all day and night it really drains you in unexpected ways and the benefits are soon outweighed. There’s no doubt it’s worth investing in a basic lighting setup, decent camera and some kind of stand for comfort, and get a set of headphones too. When all we are is a box on a screen there's a lot to be said for making a good first impression. But early on FaceTime seemed to become the norm for old school phone calls. Always on video isn’t always great. I never thought an actual OG phone call would feel so good. Then I realized I’d establish a communications channel hierarchy to balance what needed to be done on video, and what didn’t. And where, and with whom. By September, I decided I was done with being chained to a video camera. It was long overdue to break free and I decided it was officially ok to take calls outside and on a walk and dare I say enjoy the sun or snow or rain, while still being productive and staying mentally sharp. I’ve since even joined calls and Zoom from my exercise bike.

No longer would the camera own me, I’d own the camera. 

TL;DR prioritize what needs to be done on video or phone, and it’s okay to be mobile and stay productive and mentally healthy. 

3. Workspace variety - The first 6 months I sat planted at the dining room table like an ornament. In hindsight it was a total disaster because I was sitting right in the thick of all the action, disrupting my family and it was extra difficult for me to concentrate. Eventually I learned the value of choosing the type of work you need to do in the right space. Just like in the office, some meetings were formal in the boardroom or in a conference room, others informal at the water cooler, or a walk and talk in the park. Not all remote work needs to be in the exact same spot. So over summer I built a standing desk as an experiment to mix things up, and it was an experiment that worked really well and ultimately became my primary workspace. I still use the dining room table if I need to, and take calls outside for fresh air when it’s appropriate, but the variety significantly improved my productivity and saved me from major burnout. I subsequently bought something called Everblock which is essentially giant Lego and enclosed my standing desk into a semi home office enclosure. It’s sturdy and creates a physical barrier between “work” and “home" and that’s become psychologically very important for me. Nowadays when I leave “the igloo” as it’s affectionately called, I can actually enjoy being at home again and then be completely focused when I cross over back into work mode. 

TL;DR if you can manage it, try and mix up your workspace for the right work at the right time. It’s also worth creating a physical or mental barrier or use an object that delineates where you work and where you live. 

4. Freshen up Friday - Before lockdown it’s fair to say I probably met an average of 200 people per week or approximately 10,000 people per year. I actually did the calculation exercise in 2019 and kept track of roughly how many people I interacted with on an aggregate weekly basis. All things being equal, it worked out that on average, each week I’d meet about 100 people that I already knew and about 100 people that I didn’t. When you consider the sheer volume of people via various channels given the amount of travel, conference attendance, client meetings, staff meetings, team meetings, general commuting and random interactions on any given week, that’s a lot of people! So going from meeting about 200 people a week to only seeing the 3 people in your household, and being on the Zoom with the same colleagues day-in-day-out, quickly meant I was missing a core energy source and my circle wasn't as diverse and broad as it's always been. I really missed staying mentally fresh and the joys that the human interaction and serendipitous nature of random conversation provided me with fresh thinking and ideas. So over summer I tried an experiment that from Labor Day, every Friday I would try to carve out up to 30 minutes to meet someone completely new via Zoom or FaceTime or just an old school phone call. The results were incredible and I've made some amazing friendships and professional networking as a result of it too. It’s totally freshened me up mentally and it keeps me sharp with hearing new ideas and perspectives and I’ve kept it going every week since. I’ve reflected on this simple nudge many times and I hope I’ll be able to continue it in some form or another when things return to normal. Who wants to be my next new Friday meeting?

TL:DR every Friday make some time to meet someone new and keep your mind and network fresh.

5. Digital detox - Rapid digital adoption means you’re almost always switched on. There’s almost no escaping it. Ironically the amount of apps I’ve seen specifically designed to make you switch off has continuously humored me. It's as if you almost need to switch on, to switch off, and that's not my cup of tea. I’d always say to my team that even your phone needs to recharge and switch off, and so do people. Digital detoxing and taking digital days off became absolutely essential. One thing I loved about the pain of plane rides was the time it often gave me to have clear and uninterrupted “thinking time”. I also used to schedule actual Thinking Time in my work day and that also was blown away by working home all day and every day. Living at Work means that essential delineation between work and life doesn’t exist and it’s even harder to make time to be creative and simply think. My kids generally sleep 12-2pm so that time I try to keep clear either for Thinking Time or important Zoom meetings or the VIP work where I need optimal concentration and creativity. 

TL:DR When you’re always on, you’re never off. Recharge your mind like you recharge your phone. Try and carve out some Thinking Time.  

6. Gratitude goes a very long way - In January 2019, my twins were born. It was probably the best day of my life. But things quickly went from ecstasy to agony. My superhero wife had just delivered twins and then our lives were in freefall and some major problems occurred. Without going into all the traumatic details, the day the twins came home was also the day my wife was in the emergency room having life saving emergency surgery. The first three weeks of our twins life were for them at home, and their brave Mother in the ICU. If I wasn't at the hospital with her, I was at home with them, and I had very little idea what was going on or was going to happen. This rookie Dad had barely slept and I was everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. Lost would be understatement. That all being said, I had invaluable support from my immediate family and colleagues at the time, which somehow meant we could get through the dark days and nights. Unfortunately the rest of the year was spent with additional emergency room visits, more surgeries and more precious time rehabilitating for my wife. We prayed that we would never have to visit the hospital again after the year we had in 2019. In fact, we’d literally been counting down the days for 2020 to arrive. Be careful what you wish for! The year 2020 ticked over and soon came COVID-19 and strict New York lockdowns and seeing so many friends and our community in peril. Somehow we found a way to navigate our way through all the uncertainty. And the rest is history.

The point is being grateful for what you have, not sad or envious or angry about what you don’t have.

Ever since my extreme sports injury and major surgery in 2008, I’ve worn a bracelet with a Hebrew proverb that reads “He who is happy, appreciates what he has” and I found myself constantly thinking about that over the last two years. Living at Work also meant I could do something I’d never done before in my entire life and spent 365 consecutive nights in my own bed. It also meant 365 days of waking up my kids in the morning and putting them to bed at night. It meant I also witnessed their first steps and first words and first falls and so many other priceless first experiences and magical moments. It meant I got to learn the most valuable lessons of all about how to be a Dad and good husband much earlier on than I ever thought I would. Their resilience inspired us on many tough days and nights and without their smile and innocence and endless positivity who knows how we’d have made it through. If there’s one recurring theme of the last year it is that regardless of one’s walk of life or circumstance, it's to try and find the silver lining in every moment. Being grateful goes a very long way.

Find whatever it is you’re grateful for, and then actually be grateful for it. Be aware. And then hit repeat.        

TL:DR Gratitude is an attitude. Count your blessings, then count them again. Say thanks to people even if they're not sure why.

What are some of your personal observations and learnings from the last year? I'm very interested to capture the best ideas and share them widely so we as a community can share best practice. I'm optimistic about the future and excited to get back working in the office with my wonderful new colleagues and our winning team. The safety and sanitary protocols I've observed in the office are first class and gives me the sense of security to return to work safely and productively. Nothing has been left to chance because we're all in this together. Last week I also got my first shot of the vaccine and I feel/felt fine. I’m sincerely excited for what lays ahead for all of us and optimistic about the possibilities ahead of us. I hope we’ll all be able to see each other sooner than later. Dare I say, be human again.

Thanks for all your support over the last 365 days.

Jeremy