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What has been the biggest challenge about this new work situation the past couple of weeks?
I’ve been working non-stop to keep up with the demand for new information regarding the economic impact of the coronavirus. This requires a lot of reading, dialing into conference calls and still writing about how it will impact the economy at the metro level. It can get overwhelming at times because the circumstances are so unprecedented and change by the day. One of my biggest challenges is working at home while helping my family get through everything. My husband is also checking in with his office periodically, while my three teenagers are learning/studying remotely at three different schools and each is using a different technology—but we are all using WiFi, which hasn’t failed us yet, thank god. We fortunately have a very good grocery store right around the corner which has been stocked with most things, but it’s a tight space so they have to queue people outside to keep the inside shoppers to a minimum. We have two drug stores close by as well.
What are you doing/watching/reading to entertain yourself and stay sane?
I try to get a run in every two-three days to burn off stress, and I check in with my friends and extended family. But I worry about some people who live alone or are more at risk with pre-existing health conditions. I try to check in with some of my neighbors as well. We limit watching the news to 6:30 and later, I read The Times, Wall Street Journal and whatever I can online. I have to filter a lot of it, though, since many articles are speculative. I remember how there were so many dire predictions about New York’s demise after 9/11 which proved to be wrong. New York bounced back better than most expected.
What has been the biggest challenge about this new work situation the past couple of weeks?
The biggest challenges have actually been relatively small. Obviously, with the kids all in the house at the same time, they’ve been good about leaving me alone when I work, but when they start yelling at each other it can get distracting. But then at work you’ll have colleagues periodically popping up by the office, so it’s not that much different. We have a 16-year-old, a 14-year-old and an eight-year-old. The teenagers are relatively self-sufficient, the eight-year-old obviously takes a little more attention because he’s doing distance learning for second grade right now. I am lucky that my wife does a lot of that work, so I can get my work done.
The other challenges are small things—I am used to having two big screen monitors at the office, and a printer [nearby] and now I work on a little tiny laptop with a small screen. It’s okay for a day, after three weeks, it gets tougher. Especially when you have to proof things—I used to print things out and sit down and look at them. Now, I have to do it on the small screen.
What are you doing/watching/reading to entertain yourself and stay sane?
I think the thing to do, you’ve got to look for the silver linings in the this. Obviously, the medical situation is a tragedy throughout the world and the economic situation is a tragedy for many people. But just in terms of working from home, there are some silver linings. Normally at work, at lunchtime, I sit in front of my computer eating leftovers. Now, I go out with my eight-year-old and play street hockey with him in front of the house during lunch.
The Spotify subscription is your best friend at a time like this—you don’t have people stopping by your office, you can play a lot of new music.
[After hours] your other best friend is Netflix of course. The new “Ozark” season is out, we are watching that. “I Am Not Okay with This” just came out. We’ve got Netflix and On Demand, so there’s no shortage of things to entertain yourself with, once the kids are in bed.
This is also throwing a kink into things like going to the gym. Normally, I would get up in the morning and go to the gym before work. Now I can’t do that, but I still get up in the morning and I am not a runner, but I’ve dusted off a spin bike we have in the basement. And if you google “bodyweight exercises,” you can do a lot of that at home with no equipment.
What has been the biggest challenge about this new work situation the past couple of weeks?
Having worked as a consultant for several years, my home office is actually more technologically sophisticated than my corporate office. Regardless of that, all of the sophistication in the world will not overcome the weakest link in the chain, which is that some of what I do is paper-based and that the paper is located in or directed to the corporate office. The second biggest challenge is communication. While I have access to all sorts of video chats and conference platforms, nothing is more productive than working face-to-face with a co-worker. Finally, I find that the inability to visit properties and view firsthand any issues that might exist prevents me from offering the guidance that my experience allows.
What are you doing/watching/reading to entertain yourself and stay sane?
I am fortunate that my home office (AKA my second bedroom) is very bright, with large picture windows and a great view. So, it is a very comfortable place to work. I also find that in working from home, I can produce more work in fewer hours because there is no travel time and very few interruptions. However, I find myself drained at the end of the day because of that intensity. As far as changing my routine to make the quarantine more bearable, to the greatest extent, I really haven’t, but I really do enjoy going to work in jeans and a t-shirt.
What has been the biggest challenge about this new work situation the past couple of weeks?
Most of the team is working from home, but I come to the office (as it is easier to work here) and for meetings. It is constant flow of analyzing what needs to be done to support our communities, our centers, and both those tenants that are open and those that are closed and need help. In addition, it is speaking to our lenders, our investors and others in the real estate community that need and provide insight into our new world. [The biggest challenge is] keeping our communication going in real time, making sure we stay connected and being proactive as opposed to dealing with things that seem to be popping up moment-to-moment. This crisis went from 0 to 60 in under a week, so it is building new structure and a solid foundation.
What are you doing/watching/reading to entertain yourself and stay sane?
I finished “Hunters.” I am reading a great book about American leaders called “Crisis in Leadership” and I have been trying to beat my youngest son in pool.
What has been the biggest challenge about this new work situation the past couple of weeks?
I can’t lie, many aspects of working from home have been really refreshing. Working remotely saves me several hours a day of commute time. Instead of rushing through, or skipping breakfast entirely, my morning routine seems calmer. I’m not elbowing my way through tourists or rushing to catch the subway. I’m saving money by making my own coffee and lunches, and having extra time back in the evenings allows me to cook, work out, and spend time with my family. I feel more productive and less drained by working from home, with natural light instead of the overhead florescent lights at the office, and I don’t feel guilty taking a break to walk my dog and enjoy some fresh air. Our industry is already very mobile. My colleagues are scattered across the country, and I manage a team of research professionals in Oklahoma and Texas, so I’m very used to communicating via phone and video chat. Despite the benefits of working from home, I do find that I miss the human interaction and ease of collaboration that comes from working in the office. There’s no small talk in the breakroom, and I don’t benefit from passing someone in the hallway and getting a quick answer to a question. I have to consciously remind myself to reach out to people. “Out of sight, out of mind” is a real problem, and you really need to work at keeping in contact with people and building new relationships.
What are you doing/watching/reading to entertain yourself and stay sane?
It’s been a busy, busy few weeks! Throughout the day, I’m trying to read as much industry news as I can that comes in via email, but daily work hasn’t slowed down and there’s no time for entertainment. Outside of work hours, I really haven’t changed my routine that much. I regularly listen to music and podcasts, and probably have been watching the news a little bit more than normal.
What has been the biggest challenge about this new work situation the past couple of weeks?
We are committed to keeping our projects moving forward for our clients, so we are getting out proposals and reviewing plans online. There are very few calls, if any. Once we got everyone set up with AutoCad and the technology they need at home, it’s only the angst of not knowing how this will turn out. Will our projects go forward? Will our clients be ok?
What are you watching/reading/doing to entertain yourself and stay sane?
I am taking long three- to five-mile walks each morning. At night, it’s Netflix (“Homeland,” season 8), cooking with the kids and enjoying dinners together. There have been some great social media clips making fun of the craziness in households, but mostly hanging out with the kids, playing games, doing puzzles, and taking walks outside.
What has been the biggest challenge about this new work situation the past couple of weeks?
DB&R has been set up on a cloud platform now for several years. This allows me and my employees to share information easily, especially now that we are “sheltering in place” in our respective homes. The transition was pretty smooth. While we can video chat, talk on the phone, etc., there is no substitute for personal interaction, however. Although DB&R has always been a small firm, for the majority of the 30 years we have been in business, I have always made the conscious decision to have an office outside the home, even when I was a sole practitioner. In one instance, I was subletting space during the Great Recession, and the firm I was renting space from went out of business. Without an immediate solution, I decided to work temporarily from home until I could find new permanent space. This experience has helped to make the current situation more bearable. The biggest challenges then, as they are now, is avoiding the numerous distractions: TV, neighbors, REFRIGERATOR, etc. From that experience, I learned that it was important for me to prepare myself each morning “to go to work.” I would shower, shave, make the bed and dress appropriately, avoiding the habit of going downstairs in my pajamas. I also joined a gym so I could escape the 24-hour day at my home. Obviously, I cannot do that now, so I go for a three-mile walk to break up the day, get fresh air and exercise. One of the biggest challenges, which I’m sure will be for most married couples, is that my wife is also working from home. It does help in having someone around, but it does put pressure on the both of us being around each other 24 hours a day.
What are you doing/watching/reading to entertain yourself and stay sane?
I love puzzles and I’m now working on one every day. Television can be a difficult watch because of all the doom and gloom that is being reported. However, in my business, I need to stay on top of things, so it’s something I need to do. But we try to avoid the news after 6:00 p.m. We subscribe to Amazon Prime, so we are now catching up on the movies we missed in the theater. Loved “Knives Out!” My wife and I participate in digital happy hours with friends using Zoom, Houseparty or Facetime. In fact, just yesterday we had a video surprise birthday party on Zoom for my daughter who just turned 32. Would rather have been there with her, but it was nice that we could celebrate with her. My wife and I are also game lovers, so we are playing more Yahtzee and Scrabble.
