On re-opening an office

What I’ve learned about the power of human connection

After even a short time in lockdown, I began to miss things I really took for granted. Going to Costco, drinks on the patio, watching sports, and my walk into the office every morning. Like everyone, I made the best of the situation and I distracted myself with long bike rides to the beach with my family (we had great weather in Vancouver in March and April) and pouring myself into working with my team at Operto, to support them and our customers.

However, it became really clear after the first few weeks of Google Hangouts meetings with the team that something was missing. As Satya Nadella the CEO of Microsoft said in those same early days “Maybe we are burning some of the social capital we built up in this phase where we are all working remotely.” 

There is a lot to be gained from doing Google Hangouts and Zoom all day. The biggest for me was a much deeper sense of empathy for those I worked with including our team, partners, and clients. 

I could deeply relate with the one client who had his earphones pulled out by his 3-year-old daughter that wanted his attention. I felt really badly for my team members who were struggling with poor WiFi or finding a quiet space to work. Talking with my team I also began to really understand the fear and uncertainty they were experiencing. It was really frustrating and difficult to try and make someone feel better when you physically can’t sit down with them. 

Over lockdown, we made a lot of changes to our workflow and online collaboration.  Changes that will serve us well moving forward. But it was clear that all being together, in physical proximity was what was missing. It wasn’t just out of my desire as an employer. I believe that working together, with a physical connection, makes for a much greater sense of purpose and accomplishment. Even being 2 meters apart to talk is so much better than talking through screens online. 

It was therefore with great excitement, on May 25th, 2020, that we took the first opportunity to bring everyone back together and re-open our office. We were able to do this early through a combination of both luck and careful planning. 

The luck part

Firstly, if you are still in some form of Phase 1, or 2, I really do empathize with you. 

We were very lucky in British Columbia, Canada. As this CBC article points out, it was lucky that our spring break was at the very beginning of March and most kids were already home when our lockdown was started, much earlier than most in North America. That early start, our unbelievable healthcare system, and a rockstar health officer are how we managed to flatten our curve so early. 

To be fair, we were also helped by a lower population density and a lot of outdoor spaces that were ideal for physical distancing. But most of our success can be attributed to Dr. Bonnie Henry. A person that the New York times jokingly said of her reaction to the pandemic as something she “had been preparing for her whole life”. Her calm, clear, and unwavering direction meant that British Columbia was able to flatten its curve and allow us to move into Phase 3 earlier than most.

Dr. Bonnie Henry photo courtesy of the Squamish Chief.  

The planning part

We wanted to make sure that if we went back to being together, that we took every precaution but also instituted practices that could be sustained over the long term.

In order to do that we spent a great deal of time working with our partner firm Airsset and Edge Consultants as they had been doing a great deal of research on viral spread and health and safety information. 

With Edge and Airsset, we created a very comprehensive guide (which is available here) in order to ensure best practice for opening the office was followed. 

Below is what I think is the most useful graphic from the document. It's assembled from other health and safety "hierarchy of controls" documents.

The fundamental best practices are that it is most important to have really clear instructions about the need to stay home when sick (don’t think you are being tough by doing so) and keeping distance whenever possible. 

We were also really inspired by how some countries were able to completely stay open and still keep numbers low. My favorite article on this topic was from The Economist about the success of Vietnam in tackling COVID 19.  

The office outcome

Step one was a very clear policy about working from home. Thinking this through and trying to balance this with the need for collaboration was key. 

Part two was creating some separation of desks/pods as cheaply and easily as possible for everyone coming back. With limited resources (there is a shortage of plexiglass almost everywhere) we decided to build everyone their own partitions. 

While it was hard to move from being able to just talk to your colleagues as easily as before. The plywood made for a really good place to get creative. 

Everyone was given their own collection of cleaning supplies and their own items for eating and drinking out of (we had a lot of communal cups before). We found that a label maker goes a long way!

As you can see, due to the lack of cleaning wipes out there we had to get creative with paper towels and sanitizing cleaner. Luckily we were able to find everyone their own sanitizer. We also have ‘signs up’ on the door into the office with more hand sanitizer there was well. 

The collaboration outcome

Once we were back together it was so much easier to collaborate. 

Standing up and talking to someone 2 meters away really is so much more effective and efficient than a video conference. 

We’ve moved products ahead that were previously in development. We found bugs and fixed them so much faster than we could have done through just online collaboration. 

Fundamentally, its also just so much easier to gauge someone’s feelings and reactions when you see them in person. Reading both someone’s eyes and body language is critical to understanding if you actually agree, or if someone is holding back an opinion. This is just not possible, with any real effectiveness, through Zoom. 

While we made COVID-related improvements to how we did things, there is nothing better than human interaction. It was telling how much we all realized that we missed that connection only after it was gone and then were able to get it back. 

I really look forward to the day when we can stand this close to each other again. Until then, in-person collaboration in the new normal is good enough.

About Michael Driedger 

Michael is the co-founder and CEO of Operto Guest Technologies, a property automation system that provides intelligent control of smart home/IoT devices at scale. Operto improves guest experience and operational efficiency for hotels, vacation rentals, and serviced apartments.