Return of the Geek Freaks

About this episode

May 8, 2020

As the Michigan stay-at-home order continues to get extended due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) concerns, Omega is still encouraging employees to practice social distancing. However, as an essential business, we have decided to allow employees to return to the office in staggered shifts as of Monday, May 4 (May the fourth be with us all). In this episode of the GEEK FREAKS PODCAST Ron and Thomas discuss what it’s like returning to the office after about 6 weeks of working remotely.

MEET THE GEEK FREAKS

RON HARRIS

VICE PRESIDENT

15 years in the industry.
Enjoys spending time with his family, riding his Harley, and finding time to sleep.
Fun fact: Ron broke both of his arms.
He's a simple person, enjoys work, but also enjoys being alone reading a book or learning something new. Loves candy DOTs!

THOMAS DARRINGTON

SERVICE TECH LEAD

Has been working in I.T. professionally for 5 years.
Holds an Associates of Science in Information Technology from Ivy Tech.
Also has held certifications in A+, Network+, ItGlue, 3CX, and Windows System Administration.
When he's not working or learning about technology, he likes to spend time with his family and his English bulldog Bob.

VIEW TRANSCRIPT >

Ron: (00:00) Welcome to The Geek Freaks Podcast, your go to destination for answers to the most crucial business technology questions every business owner needs to hear.

Music: (00:09) [Intro Music]

Ron: (00:19) Welcome to The Geek Freaks Podcast. Today's special guest is Thomas Darrington. Hi Thomas.

Thomas: (00:24) Hello. How's it going?

Ron: (00:25) I feel like it's the only guest we have anymore.

Thomas: (00:27) Hey man.

Ron: (00:27) It's just you. It's the Ronnie and Tommy podcast.

Thomas: (00:31) I'm into it.

Ron: (00:31) Today we're going to talk about reentry into the workplace after COVID-19 and what that looks like. Yeah. Um, I guess we've been out of the office for what, four weeks?

Thomas: (00:43) Since March 23rd.

Ron: (00:45) That's a long time. You have the exact date.

Thomas: (00:47) I do.

Ron: (00:48) Creep.

Thomas: (00:51) Why don't you know the exact date?

Ron: (00:52) I don't know. I just know that you and I talked and we're like, yo, let's send everybody home. And then we just did that.

Thomas: (00:56) It was super important. We were making the calls before people were making the calls.

Ron: (01:00) That's right. We're advanced. So I guess getting everybody out of the office was a chore and we were able to do it pretty successfully because of the products we use. But what about coming back in? Right. So as the time approaches that we're going to start reentering the workplace under different, um, I guess different degrees of restrictions, right? Like now we're, we're not supposed to congregate in our break room or congregate anywhere right near each other. Um, you and I are sitting six feet apart right now.

Thomas: (01:34) Six feet is a lot bigger than I think it is all the time.

Ron: (01:38) Really?

Thomas: (01:38) Yeah.

Ron: (01:39) Like one person, one person length.

Thomas: (01:41) Yeah. I got in. I know I've apparently I've been standing like three feet away from people.

Ron: (01:47) Oh, that's your fault. So, yeah. So I also, so I guess let's talk about that. What is the new, the new work day look like? I guess we'll start with us and maybe what we're hearing it's going to look like. So I think now we're coming in in two different shifts.

Thomas: (02:01) Yup. We do, uh, alternating days for the service desk members and then the project members, obviously the people with the individual departments that are just them, they can come in whenever, but uh, I think the alternating is good. It keeps everybody separate. It's kind of difficult because I want to see everybody, but, uh, you know, I'm here all the time.

Ron: (02:24) And I think that's the hardest part, right. Is we're supposed to stay far away from that far away from each other, but away from each other. And we haven't seen each other in our race. So it's like, Hey man, what's going on? Do you want to talk? And we're like, no, you gotta go stand at the end of the hall.

Thomas: (02:36) Yeah. Then we're shutting down the hallways at each other or you forget and then you're less than six feet like I am. And then everybody's just staring at me weird.

Ron: (02:43) Yeah. Uh, it's, it's definitely different. I know that we had to do some training to get back in.

Thomas: (02:49) Yeah. We took some tests. We had to do certifications.

Ron: (02:53) Yeah. And then we had to have the, make sure the onsite guys that go onsite have the proper protection. So gloves, masks, I'm standing six feet away. Yeah. Not sneezing on anybody, not do anything like that. But I think most importantly, you know, as you start to talk about coming back in, I think it's just the awareness that if you are sick, stay home.

Thomas: (03:13) Yeah.

Ron: (03:14) And I think it's as a business owner and you know, uh, I think it's, you know, bill and I talk about it. We didn't talk about it a lot, but we just kinda made the decision if anybody's just got like a sniffle let's stay home and see what that looks like.

Thomas: (03:26) Right.

Ron: (03:26) In case it's anything different, um, but I'm sure everybody's going to have the same policy. Right? You're right. If you're home or if you're sick, stay home type deal.

Thomas: (03:36) So you always have those nice, you always have those people who are adamant to come into work, whether they're, you know, perfect health or they've got a fever and they're sniffling and they're bleeding out of their arm, they're still trying to be at their desk like working.

Ron: (03:51) That's, that's going to be the hardest thing is when this starts to get back busy again in the fall and in the winter, you know, is it a sniffle or is it something more you have? Hopefully we have testing by then. Yeah. Um, I've heard some companies going as far as, you know, the three questions. Have you been knowingly been with somebody that exposed somebody that has COVID, what's your temperature, blah, blah, blah, that kind of stuff. Just to kind of get some waiver every day. Uh, I think we're going to have some things posted or we did have things posted or we do have things posted on our bamboo so everybody can see it and...

Thomas: (04:25) We have to sign an agreement to be able to make sure that we understand the rules coming in, which I think is, I think that's good. At least lets us know that everybody's reading and knowledging these things. Uh, which I think is important. Um, the biggest thing like I like that the, the way that we've taken to it where we got the hand sanitizer, we're having the people come in and clean extra or making sure we're staying distance, we're following all the procedures. So then I feel comfortable coming into work. I don't feel I have wife and daughter at home. I don't want to come into work and then be the reason that they get sick cause they're just staying home. They don't go anywhere go outside of the yard.

Ron: (05:04) Yeah, that's, I mean that's the hardest thing, right? It's the exposure starts with one person and it can affect so many. So I know that some offices, a lot of the offices, not a lot, but some of the offices and people I've talked to, they're looking at how to rearrange their office so everybody's not bundled up.

Thomas: (05:18) Yeah. Yeah.

Ron: (05:19) It's a weird word that bundled up bungled up like real close to each other as what I'm trying to get at and I think that's going to be a change going forward with businesses is how do you keep distance between each other? Well keeping comradery, right. Cause it's always been like we're always together. We're close. We're working shoulder to shoulder. Yeah.

Thomas: (05:37) Looking at somebody else's screens, what they're working on something. Yeah. And it's interesting to see because a lot of business environments went from, everybody's got their own little cubicle to everybody kind of just working in an area together and now they're pulling away from that because they need to keep that distance.

Ron: (05:54) Yeah. And I think a lot of this stuff too is like you have a lot of companies that have taken, a lot of companies have allowed the staff to take their stuff home and how does that come back into the workplace? Right. Does it have to be, you know, I think what we're leaning on is anything that was home that has to come back has to be sanitized, at least wiped down with a Clorox wipe. Make sure it's put back on the clean desk, make sure they're doing the appropriate things right. It's going to be weird cause we have a lot of devices floating around.

Thomas: (06:23) Well and a lot of those devices aren't even their normal working devices. We provided a lot of a loner, uh, laptops and desktops and help people get, you know, their personal devices out and working and stuff and then there's, you know, data concerns with that. So we have to also, once this is resolved, we have to figure out how to handle cleaning up that data to make sure it's not just existing on this device.

Ron: (06:51) Think about, I don't think workload wise, whether you're internal or another MSP or you're working with another MSP, I don't think workload wise it's going to be worse. Right. Coming in than it was going out.

Thomas: (07:05) I don't think so either.

Ron: (07:06) I think coming in is going to be pretty smooth as far as technology goes. It's just going to be exposure of things. Computers have been at home, leapt, monitors, docs, everything that's been at home. Yeah. Somebody is going to have to touch and that's what we have to figure out is how do we sanitize that so it gets in like we're not even letting people in our building that don't work here.

Thomas: (07:24) Right.

Ron: (07:25) The doors are all locked. So it's going to be interesting how that works. And then I wonder if the work from home policies for a lot of companies are going to change drastically.

Thomas: (07:35) I think so. I think that a lot of companies have realized that working from home is reasonable. It's difficult, but, uh, you know, it, it's not entirely doable all the time, but they have that option if they need it.

Ron: (07:50) Well, and I think it's kind of the worst case scenario right now is it's an extended period of time. It's a lot of first times, right? You know, there's a lot of first times for companies like, Hey, we're, we're working remotely and now we have to figure this out. Okay, we're kind of working, but the teams kind of falling apart because we don't have this comradery. And, you know, we've had a lot of, I've had a lot of conversations with people of how do you keep the team motivated and it's extremely hard when you have no choice.

Thomas: (08:16) Yeah, absolutely. And I think that that's one of the things that other companies are dealing with as well. I hear, um, you know, from different customers, they're loving working from home and then they're hating it. They want to be back in the office.

Ron: (08:28) Um, it's hard to get anything done it.

Thomas: (08:30) Yeah. Yeah. I was, uh, I was mixed. I like being, you know, with my family being able to do some work, but at the same time I miss being in here and working with everybody. Uh, so it was nice to be able to come back and have that ability to come back. I think it was the fact that I was forced not to, that made things extra difficult.

Ron: (08:47) So would it, do you think we're ever going to return to that state of what, you know, quote unquote normalcy was prior to COVID?

Thomas: (08:59) I think, uh, there will be a sense of that, but I think that there's, there's definitely going to be new policies and procedures in place to avoid things like this in the future. I think that that we went from, everybody has their own office to everybody's kind of together. I think that's going to go back to give, give everybody a little more space. So they're not right on top of each other to prevent spreading things for at least for the next few months, maybe another year because there's potential for more waves. They're not going to have a vaccine until you know, next year is what they're predicting. So even if they lift the ban and people are able to come back in, then we still need to maintain that distancing and there like the office coordination and everything is going to have to be rearranged. The thing feng shui if you will.

Ron: (09:51) Yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be, I think when you start like people start rolling into like, it's funny to see how much people have changed in the four or five weeks that they've been away. Like none of us have gotten haircuts. I get haircuts every couple of weeks I've got, I don't have a haircut. I look like I'm wearing a helmet. I've been eating candy. I've eaten 20 pounds of gummy bears. Do you know how many gummy bears that is? I mean my kids and I, but just a lot of gummy bears. It's not a good situation telling you.

Thomas: (10:29) The other day I smashed two of those Costco sized M & M things like two weeks.

Ron: (10:35) Yeah. You're going to see people that you've never seen, like I shaved my beard off the second week of quarantine and I, my beard is almost back. Like it's, it's been a long time and it's going to be, there's going to be mullets, there's going to be all kinds of stuff walking back through those doors.

Thomas: (10:58) I've been trying to maintain the Musketeer mustache combo. But uh, lately I've just been letting everything grow out. So yeah, it's uh, you know, it gets a little wild.

Ron: (11:07) Well, and I think, I think it just comes down to is like we're an unprecedented times. Nobody's ever dealt with this. We haven't had to deal with this as an organization. And I think for the most part that work home, work from home, the ability to work from home has been fantastic. It's just extremely hard to manage a team or to work together when you're a team that way.

Thomas: (11:26) Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of, a lot of little concerns that just creep in your mind, you know? And I think that that's the part that I've been struggling with the most and that's why I want to get everybody back in here and just working is you always have the concerns of is this person being as productive as they could be? Are they getting too distracted? Is life hitting them with too much stuff right now? How is that handling what their stress?

Ron: (11:48) Um, I don't think we've had more people sleep in and miss morning meetings than ever in our lives.

Thomas: (11:55) Yeah. And then that's the part that that bothers me is because I know that these people are capable of not doing that. But when you're put into this really weird situation, you know, the mind is weird. It does weird things.

Ron: (12:07) Well, it flips everything on top of his head. Now instead of being, you know, getting home from work at five or six and going to bed at 10 or 11 you know, you're home all day so you're sleeping more, you're not sleeping as much because now you have more time. Perceive it lead to do perceivably to do what you want. It's just an interesting like flip. Yeah. And it's, it's impacted a lot of people. I think more, you know, more than we think. Yeah. And I, I'm excited. Like you said, I'm excited to have everything back. I guess the biggest takeaway is make sure you continue to follow good hygiene. You know, wash your hands, don't touch your face, stay as far as way, you know...

Thomas: (12:41) Don't try to high five everybody.

Ron: (12:43) No high fives and enjoy the mullets and the mustaches or the lack thereof. And, yeah, cause it's, I mean, we've, the ladies that worked for us, they all dyed their hair different colors. Yeah. Know it's, it's been an interesting quarantine.

Thomas: (12:56) They're getting mustaches.

Ron: (12:57) Oh God. That would be amazing. Right. They come in and we'll just, the better mustaches than the men.

Thomas: (13:02) Just full on.

Ron: (13:02) Yeah, that'd be cool. But uh, it's going to be interesting. I don't think it's going to be as hard to come back in as it was to go out.

Thomas: (13:08) Yeah, I agree.

Ron: (13:09) Um, simply because it's kind of attended to like a return to normalcy.

Thomas: (13:15) I feel like just being able to come into work this week has helped me immensely with normalcy because, so I would wake up in the morning, I get to work like 10-15 minutes early sitting at my desk, but I'm at home and then I would work until like 6:00 or 7:00 PM because I wouldn't like be able to set that distinction. So then I'm just spending like a large amount of time in my computer chair. I wouldn't leave and take breaks. I just sat there for like hours just working.

Ron: (13:44) Hell yeah.

Thomas: (13:45) Yeah. So that sounds great. But mentally I was just like, this is a lot. So now it's able to like I'm able to leave and I have that drive home and then, you know, that moment my dog's excited to see me instead of just tired that I'm there all the time.

Ron: (14:00) Well and I think like I, I've never had a choice. I've been coming to the office since shut down. Right. Cause my wife has been working from home for, I think she went out a couple of weeks before we did, but she's not returning back to the office they said until July or August.

Thomas: (14:13) Really, wow.

Ron: (14:13) So, uh, my office is spoken for so I didn't really have a place to work with two kids. So I've been coming into the office and it's, you've been lonely. Yeah, I mean I've been here getting mail and packages and Bill is coming and going, uh, depending on what he's got going on in his day. But it's like, it's, it's just, it's just been a different, um, situation. Right. And it's been, I'm happy to see everybody. I'm also scared that it does give us that sense of normalcy. So now like it's getting nice out. People are gonna get cabin, the cabin fever is going to get a little bit harder to deal with. It's, it's scary, but it's exciting and it's exciting because we get to be with our friends, but gotta stay away from those friends.

Thomas: (14:52) I've seen so many people out lately just because the weather's changed. Like previously, I would like go out of her drive and I'd see like one or two cars and now I'm just seeing like a lines of people just like running in the parks and stuff. So I think a lot of people are just tired of being inside and that's going to cause another like wave of this. But at the same time it's kind of needed. I dunno. It's a weird, it's a weird situation.

Ron: (15:15) And I think for, from a business aspect and a technology aspect, you're going to see a lot of people that now have this in their back pocket. Yeah. Like, Hey, can I work from home? My kid's sick. And for the most part, 99% of the time, I bet people are gonna be like, yeah, sure, no worries. Right. But there's a lot of companies that are like, no, we don't work from home. We work, you know, just take time off. Be home with your kid. But I think now it's kind of gray. It's making this gray area for a lot of these larger businesses that we work with.

Thomas: (15:39) Yeah.

Ron: (15:39) It will be interesting to see what it's gonna, what it morphs into.

Thomas: (15:44) Yeah, absolutely.

Ron: (15:46) Um, but it's been a hell of a ride. I'm excited for everybody to get back up. I'm excited back into work. I'm excited for the economy to stand back up. It's going to be, um, something.

Thomas: (15:57) Yeah. Yeah.

Ron: (15:58) Good or bad. It's going to be something.

Thomas: (15:59) Just have to keep riding it out.

Ron: (16:01) Yeah. And doing the best to stay clean. And I think, you know, I guess to go back to it before we sent off the technology standpoint, it's gonna be pretty easy. You're right. Office 365 works anywhere. So in, in the building, out of the building, still the same experience. Yup. To bring your computer back in, set it up. You don't have to connect to the VPN. So hopefully that experience is a lot better. We've also had a lot of, uh, issues with, um, people like using apps over the VPN, like QuickBooks or Sage or anything like that. That's, I know they're excited to come back in.

Thomas: (16:32) Yeah. No more needing to team viewer into your work PC from your PC. Yeah, I think a lot of people are gonna love it from a technology standpoint and I think for the most part we're going to be able to help them transition pretty smoothly.

Ron: (16:45) I can tell you what's not going to be getting sold anymore. It's going to be desktops.

Thomas: (16:49) Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh, dragging those home and setting them up.

Ron: (16:54) Well I just think a lot of people, a lot of those companies that were like, no we don't want a lot of paths cause mobility is not a big issue. I think mobility now is going to be a higher issue than it's going to be right up there with security and how do you pair security with mobility and keep everything safe and sound. And that's a whole nother topic. But I think that's always going to be um, the, the top of mind when we have these conversations.

Thomas: (17:18) Yeah, absolutely.

Ron: (17:20) All right, well Thomas, I'll let you get back to work and um, I appreciate the input. I'm glad we got a chance to talk.

Thomas: (17:27) Sure. Always enjoy being here. Thanks for having me.

Ron: (17:30) Yeah buddy. All right, well have a good day. Thanks for everybody for The Geek Freaks Podcast. Talk to you soon. Stay safe. Keep washing your hands. We'll do a lot. No, everybody. Thomas, not just you. I don't know. The world's washes their hands. You can. You can wash your hands too.

Music: (17:44) [Outro music]