Is it time to return to the office? I personally believe it’s time…that is at least in some sort of hybrid fashion. It’s been far too long working remote with little to no interaction besides phone, email, and virtual meetings. There is much to be said for seeing your co-workers, customers and vendors and looking them in the eye when having a conversation. The personal connection has been lost and it’s time to return to normal.
It struck me the other day – I was at a high school track meet, and someone pointed out that this was the first official high school track meet for the Juniors! Their first meet in the 2+ years they’ve been in high school. I was dumbfounded, not only by the fact itself, but also because it hadn’t intuitively occurred to me. COVID disrupted everything – that's an understatement – but it especially disrupted things that we all took for granted. You might have thought, “Of course they had track meets during COVID!”. They did, but not everywhere, and not without masks or in a collective fashion. In some well-known cases, the meets were virtual – we even saw this during Inspiration Games in July 2020 with athletes competing virtually across continents due to travel restrictions - necessary as it was, how crazy is that?. Remember Noah Lyles? He shattered the 200M World Record (or didn’t) …because he started his race 15 meters short – that wouldn’t have happened if they were all together. The breadth of this impact can’t be quantified, but for sure there are other examples of things that haven’t happened at all in over 2 years.
2020-2021…summary
No in-person employee events…
No Holiday Parties…
No in-person Customer Meetings…
Offices Closed Down…
We’re social creatures, we evolved in communities that share responsibilities, talent, knowledge, and support. The fact is, we need each other to be successful, as individuals and as a group. As a business owner, entrepreneur, and sales professional, I’m especially sensitive to being engaged with my community, neighbors, customers and my family of coworkers. In running a business during COVID, we were denied the opportunities we all need to connect effectively with the important people in our lives. We asked much of our partners to run virtual events – and they got creative. We asked our customers to adapt to new methods of meetings that relied on cameras and conference calls more than ever. We asked our employees to work from home – which had the effect of extending their work days in ways we didn’t anticipate.
To everyone who stuck with us, did what we had to do, made the adjustments, and got through this, we say Thank You - we kept each other safe and that’s what matters. Now? Now, it’s time…time to get back together. Maybe not 100% the way it was before, but in some small way, in the right ways, we can begin to congregate, to meet, to be together again.
So, we turn the page… In April 2022, SnowCap moved into our beautiful new office in the former Converse Mills at 50 High Street, in North Andover (birthplace of the legendary Chuck Taylor sneaker). Our team is getting together once again, contributing to the team in familiar ways and getting more accomplished with our new experiences coming out of the COVID experience. This has been a long time coming, but I truly couldn’t be happier how things have turned out.
To our customers and partners, we welcome the opportunity to have you join us in our office anytime!
