Shortly after my Chiefs embarrassing loss to the Ravens in the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs on Sunday, I tried to take my mind off the debacle. The weather reports provided a convenient respite: they called for 4-5 inches of snow here in Atlanta. And this, for those not familiar with the southeastern U.S., was a big deal.
For perspective, take a look at what I said a few months ago while touting Atlanta as a place to live post-business school (remember – I moved from Charlottesville, VA. Not exactly Chicago, but privy to a few noteworthy 18-inch accumulation storms last winter):
“The fall weather has been very pleasant, and I’m fairly certain I won’t be shoveling snow come January. We are really enjoying Atlanta and couldn’t be happier.”
Well, we are still really enjoying Atlanta. And I didn’t shovel snow this week. BUT, I probably should have. There is a blanket – albeit a thin one – of the white stuff covering most of the lawns and parks down here, and until yesterday afternoon, most of the roads as well. This prompted the closing of our office for the first three days this week, out of an abundance of caution for our commuting staff.
This was particularly interesting because, in addition to trying to cope with the Chiefs loss, I knew my team was due for a leadership committee update on Wednesday of this week. We had done most of the leg work the previous week, but there were still some minor edits and fine-tuning to be done. And we would have to do it all without the benefit of face to face sessions.
We were able to work remotely fairly effectively, which I think is a testament to the leadership of the team, and the ability of the team members to collaborate from their respective homes. I did several conference calls, and bounced a few ideas around on instant messenger with my teammates that I otherwise would have done in-person. By Tuesday evening, all the fine-tuning and polishing was complete and the deck was finalized.
The leadership meeting on Wednesday went really well (despite the fact that it too had to be hosted as a video-teleconference!), and we are back in the office today, catching up on some of our work, as well as swapping battle stories about surviving Snowmaggedon. It’s nice to know that we have the IT tools and infrastructure to support remote working when required, even if it’s not the ideal way to collaborate. It certainly beats having to put everything on hold for three days until the team can safely travel to the office and reassemble.
And I must say, doing a few excel pivot tables from my breakfast table in my pajamas with my dogs at my feet at 11AM is a nice contrast to doing them wearing business casual attire at my desk in the office. I wouldn’t necessarily say one is better than the other – just different. A nice change of pace courtesy of a “crazy snow storm” here in Atlanta that anyone from the Midwest or Northeast would probably label a “light dusting.”
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