People, Passion and Patience

I often talk about how integrated our work and personal lives have become. Certainly the pandemic has accelerated this with most working from home on a consistent basis. Trying to find the right balance can be a challenge for even the most experienced. One has to draw lines of demarcation and those lines are different for everyone. All that aside, I wanted to share some recent events which have impacted me and my family in a profound way.

As August came to a close, my family and I did what most working parents do which is to prepare our kids to go back to school. The last week of August was no different from any other week in our home. Both my wife and I are working parents and we share all that goes in to taking care of our kids. I proudly tell my team how it's not out of the realm for you to catch me in car line while on a conference call. That is just one illustration of how our work and personal lives intersect on a frequent basis.

As we prepared for the last week of August, we were thrown a curve ball when our youngest son spiked a fever late in the afternoon on Sunday. Our trigger he was not right was him leaving his pizza behind. I think it's fair to say anyone with small children knows pizza as a food group and so this prompted us to check his temperature and as we suspected, he was sick. At this point, my wife and I put him to bed and hoped for the best on Monday. Monday came and we were happy to see his temperature had normalized. That said, we elected to keep him from school out of an abundance of caution. Our school which has handled the pandemic remarkably well asked us to get him COVID tested and we did knowing how challenging the test would be for a 1st grader yet we fully expected a negative test. That's the moment our world changed.

Our youngest tested positive for COVID. Fortunately, he was largely asymptotic but nonetheless we had to quarantine him for a 10 day period. Now that put some additional pressure on my wife and I who had to navigate how to keep him occupied while at the same time satisfying our professional commitments. The last week of a month is always busy for us both. My wife is a consultant and has no shortage of client meetings, etc. I'm the leader of a business unit at Jack Henry and that week had me delivering an "All Hands" address, updating presentations for our upcoming user group meetings and all that goes in to managing our part of the business.

By Wednesday, my wife was starting to show symptoms of COVID. I think I speak for many when I say, when mom goes down, the whole house is at risk. Sure I'm a capable guy, but my kids know I am not mom and I have some limitations. Mom fought through the typical COVID symptoms (fever, aches, cough, etc.) all the while, making sure the house was in order, bills were paid, food on the table and kids taken care of. My turn would come a day or so later only my symptoms were different. We both pushed through the end of the week, and took it easy over the Labor Day weekend. While many were out enjoying the last blast of summer, we all stayed in and rested.

Fast forward to Tuesday after Labor Day. My wife at this point had largely recovered. Our youngest was able to return to school in a couple of days, yet my condition was still not improving. I had no fever, just fatigue and so I told myself, it's a short week, just push through it and rest up this weekend and this will all be behind you. For extra measure, I contacted my general practitioner and she agreed this was the best approach. That is exactly what I did. Another weekend comes and goes, now my fever starts. My Monday started as most any would start only my first indication something was wrong came in my first meeting. At our weekly leadership stand up, I went to speak and the words were there but they would not come out. I shared with my wife, I think something is wrong. We called the doctor again, and she suggested I go in to the hospital for treatment.

Off to the hospital we went. I admit, I was expecting a typical hospital experience where you simply walk in, they check you in, treat you and send you home to recuperate. How naive was I? Instead, I walked in to something I've not seen in the US in my life. I saw a frenzied and chaotic ER waiting room. It was being used to triage, treat and host people who needed help. Essentially there were two types of patients there. Those with COVID, and those without. In my case, the placed me in an isolated section with other COVID likely people. I sat there for hours waiting. Through the course of my time there, I witnessed the most unbelievable things. People pleading for help only to have nobody respond. People who clearly were in distress from breathing issues. It doesn't get much more basic than breathing air and when your ability to consume air is compromised, it usually gets your attention. It was the reason I came in to the hospital in the first place. As the time passed, I noted dozens of people coming in, many with the same circumstances I was facing. Also noteworthy was the stress on the faces of all those medical professionals who were clearly overwhelmed by all they were coping with. All the while, I'd hear over and over again on the hospital PA "Code Blue". Having worked in a hospital many years ago, I knew what that meant and each time it happened, it would cause me to stop and think, what is in store for me?

7 Hours in, the doctor finally treats me. She tells me, I have COVID and double pneumonia in my lungs. My oxygen levels are low but she has to send my home as she doesn't have any space to treat me further. She sends me home with instructions to monitor my oxygen levels and if they dip below 90 to come back. Less than 12 hours later, my oxygen levels in fact had dipped below 90's. They were in the 70's. At this point, my wife and I are pivoting again, trying to get me back to the hospital and at the same time figuring out how to care for our youngest son who would have to be picked up from school in a few hours. Again, this is yet another illustration of how our work and personal lives intersect. A tenant in my approach to leading my team is to make deep connections with as many of our people as I can. If you can understand each other on a personal level, I find it's easier on a professional level. To that end, when we came to Houston many years ago, it was with no support system in place. We have no family here so our friends and colleagues became our support system. I often talk about what makes Jack Henry so different from other places I have worked. That moment was just one illustration as one of my team members picked up our young son from school and took him to his home where they planned to have McDonalds and watch Star Wars. All designed to help us but create some normalcy for our son.

At this point, I've now been admitted to the hospital. Everything I was seeing and hearing the day before was present again. Healthcare workers trying hard but burnt out from their 12 hour shifts. One lady who cared for me came in from another part of the US to help. There she was away from her family to help people like me. I was in the hospital for 2 days, and the most thought provoking moment came when one of many doctors came in to my room. She held up a stack of papers, probably 3 inches thick. She said, these are COVID patients who are not likely to leave the hospital. She had my attention. I honestly did not know what was to happen next. As she continued, she said, "Sir, your name is not in here. You are going home to recover. Your recovery won't be easy, but you will likely recover." Then she closed with, "By the way, that vaccine you chose to get, it likely saved your life." I can't begin to describe what I was feeling at that moment. Anxiousness, relief, fear? All of the above. All I knew was I was going home which honestly 12 hours prior, I had no sense for where this journey would take me. At this point, knowing I am going to likely be okay, I just need to take it slow and be (Patient).

Now to share some really heart warming and humbling things. I think it's fair to say, recruiting and retaining people is a tough business these days. There's a lot of movement in the labor market and companies are offering some really aggressive perks, compensation packages, etc. I call it a talent war and so when I push to recruit and retain our most precious asset (People), I try to share what differentiates Jack Henry in the world. It always comes back to how the company is built. How we focus on taking care of our people so they in turn can do their very best to take care of our customers. We really focus here and while we are not perfect, we are exceptional and getting better with each day. Describing this to people can be challenging though. You really have to experience it first hand to understand it. In fact, I've had people say to me, "Wow, I get it now, we are doing some incredible things to support each other personally but also professionally too". How neat is it for these two pathways to intersect?

In yet more examples of how thoughtful my team was through this whole journey was the outpouring of calls, emails, IM's and texts from people across the company. I can't begin to tell you how impactful it was to get a call from so many colleagues who said simply, "Rob, I love you". I always try to make a positive difference in people's lives, and sometimes you never really know if you do, but when people reach out like that it tells you I was successful. My (Passion) for people has never failed me. That said, it has disappointed me a time or two but never failed me. The countless number of Uber Eats gift cards so my wife didn't have to cook, the cookies and fruit baskets to keep our spirits up, even the Legos that showed up for our son so life could just be normal for him. This has been such a humbling and heartwarming experience for us. It illustrates why I came to Jack Henry 4 years ago. I was looking for the perfect company, not the perfect job. I found what I was looking for. I am grateful, honored and humbled to be a part of the Jack Henry story. I know my recover journey will have setbacks, but I also know I have a team of people behind me who will help to guide me.