Much like everyone else over the last few weeks, the majority of our team has been adjusting to working from home full-time. Drives to the office have become walks to our home desks. Face-to-face meetings have become Google hangouts and Zoom meetings.
Working from home every day changes a lot more than how many days in a given week you put on jeans (if your number is zero… we’re right there with you). It also changes the way we share ideas, meet and collaborate. This means using a little more creativity during the day to work around these changes to our daily work routines.
Lucky for us, Screenfeed is made up of some pretty creative people.
Prior to full-time remote life, there was already some flexibility in the way our team could work during the day. “We have already implemented a fluid corporate culture that blends personal and professional before the coronavirus ever happened” Jenny Harrington, our Finance Director describes. That flexibility allows our teams to “focus on being self-motivated and driven while planning your work around your life, rather than the other way around.”
So, as we’ve all been at home, what has changed the most? How are our people doing, and how has “office culture” translated to “home culture”?
The biggest change has definitely been the lack of being around each other and the physical location of where we work. The office allows us to pop over to a teammate’s desk to ponder an idea or walk the trails around the building to get juices flowing. We also connect as a larger group by playing KanJam when Minnesota isn’t frozen or having lunch together on Mondays.
This is something Alyssa Voegele, our Associate Creative Director, especially misses. “We've been using Slack and Google Hangouts, so strictly working-from-home was an easy transition. That said, I do miss seeing our team for random chats at Monday lunch or around treats in the kitchen.”
Despite being away from each other, we’ve been able to find success adjusting to working from home. Jeremy Misener, our VP of Operations, says it’s been very encouraging “to see the thought and hard work we put into communication pay off, allowing us to uniformly transition quickly and smoothly as a company to meet these unprecedented business and communication challenges.”
Mindy Hoese, our Customer Service Manager, also gave a nod to the team effort around keeping in touch. “Everyone is doing a good job by checking in and reaching out. We're all in this together.” For Pete Erickson, our VP of Creative, he’s noticed that “the work-from-home transition has made personal interactions a little more special.” He adds that “check-ins during weekly meetings have become my favorite part of the week.”
As for me, I echo Mindy and Pete. Joining Screenfeed three weeks ago during a global pandemic has been quite the transition. While “nice to meet you” has really meant “nice to see your face on my computer,” my teammates have been checking in and definitely making a remote onboarding feel warmer.
Our CEO Jeremy Gavin knows this period will influence how we work after we’re back to our typical schedules. He says “it will be very interesting to see how this changes our culture forever. For now we are blessed to have a team that has been with each other for many years so we have relationships we can rely on.”
Being away from each other hasn’t been comfortable. But we’ve found a way as a team to take our strengths in communication and organization and translate them into the way to be successful working from home.
Until we’re all back to normal (we WILL get there, I promise), hang in there! Don’t forget to find things to appreciate about the people you get to work with and what makes your company special—I know I have.
