How to Stay Connected While Still Isolated
Dave Hodgdon and Steve Ripper from PCG IT, a managed IT services provider with offices in Portsmouth, Dover, Manchester, and Portland, discuss staying connected in isolation.
Mike: Our good friends, Dave Hodgson and Steve Ripper, are with us from Portsmouth Computer Group. Good to see you guys. Welcome in.
Let’s talk about how you guys are here for people because obviously, listen, businesses are going to be affected, we know that. With restaurants closing, that is a real big thing. It’s going to affect a lot of people. Until we find out about getting a vaccine, which will probably be about a year from now, the only way we can stop this is social distancing. That’s the new keyword of 2020.
Dave: Correct.
Mike: Social distancing. So they talk about this curve that we have to sort of…
Dave: Mm-hmm, flatten.
Remote IT
Steve: Sure. Oh sure. Yeah. And our industry we’re seeing a difference in how we do things too, Mike. Whereas we would always try to do a mix of both doing remote work, you do remote work for the customer, on their IT stuff.
Mike: Yeah.
Steve: But you also go on site, you go there and you see them so they see you, you can talk to people because sometimes, and right now companies are like, “Listen, it’s fine. Don’t come through the door. Stay where you are.” Right, Dave? And we’re staying where we are, they’re staying where they are. And so we’re busy, Mike. We’ve got a massive uptake in support for all the people who are working from home.
Dave: Right.
Mike: Yeah. Well, you guys have come through right in a time where we need you guys because now technology is working for us with video conferencing and working from home, people are able to stay connected. And we talked a little bit about to the Coronavirus, social media, how to stay connected while you are isolated because that is the big thing with people because not only did we not want to go crazy because we’re all kept inside and not doing things, but there are ways that we can use social media to stay connected and be a part of it and engage in this tough time really.
Dave: Absolutely. Some of the biggest things we’ve learned over the last week is being prepared. And similar, like they’re to get us prepared to stay away from each other.
Mike: Right.
Dave: At home, we got to make sure that remote workforce has the tools, the ability to work for your company. You just can’t go home and do nothing. My son’s at home from school, “I got nothing to do.” Well, we’re still going to do some homework. We’re still going to go out and play. But the work home, you’ve got to prepare them with what’s known as a softphone, the ability to work on your computer. A lot of companies have what are known as VoIP systems, Mike.
Mike: What is that?
Dave: The voice and voice over IP. It’s basically using your phone over the internet.
Mike: Okay.
Dave: That I can have my phone here at work that works just fine. I go home and plug in and it’s just like I’m here. So giving them that phone, they’re part of the business.
Steve: Yeah, so like when I’m working from home, if someone calls my extension at the office, it rings on the app that I have on my phone. So even though I’m not in my office, I’m not missing the calls that would land at my desk, whether it’s my coworkers or whether it’s customers that are calling me directly or our dispatcher taking the calls and putting them to me.
Mike: Right.
Steve: So that’s a really key part because you can feel very disconnected from what you’re doing when you work at home, right? How do you feel, what I call, in the mix? How do you feel like you know what’s happening? That’s where the fear sets in and we’ve got to try and fight the fear. The fear is, “well, I’m at home and I’m working, but am I keeping this job? Because I don’t see anybody, I’m not talking to my boss, I’m not working with my coworkers.” So fear starts, the paranoia starts to set into. “Am I going to get let go next? Do they need me?”
Mike: I’ve already been talking with a couple of people and they feel the same way. They feel that just being at home is causing a little bit more scare in them, a little more fright because they know that this whole thing is real and that we’re kind of like in a science fiction movie. We really are like in a science fiction movie, but it’s not the Twilight Zone, it’s the reality of 2020.
Businesses and Working Remotely During COVID-19
Dave: I think every business has to think about their employees. We have to be passionate. We know we’re all going through stuff and I know there’s going to be financial hits.
Mike: Well, yeah.
Dave: I was worried about accounts receivable, about making your payroll and the governments, I’m already speaking to many bankers, there’s loans available to us, but I just see over the next three months a major impact on people making purchases, doing projects, just trying to muddle their way through this, Mike, and I think employees are going to be worried here.
Mike: Yeah, well, I read something this morning which is kind of interesting. Amazon wants to hire 100,000 new people because so many people are buying online, staying at home.
Steve: Yeah, so there are businesses there-
Mike: They can’t handle the demand.
Steve: There are businesses that are going up, and it’s an interesting change in how we do things. Where when people aren’t leaving their house, they’re ordering more online, so those companies are very busy. Some of the things we wanted to talk about today, we talked about the softphones, how do you stay part of your company even though you’re locked in your house for a long time?
Mike: Right.
Steve: Calendar invites, many people will have calendars and they’re aware of calendaring in an Outlook, but they don’t really send invites. By sending a calendar invite to maybe your coworker, you’re locking in their calendar to work with you. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a very big deal where you can say, “Listen, how about two o’clock on Tuesday, you and I are going to get together?” So calendar invites will work. We’ve talked many times about collaboration tools, teams. You can do video conferencing so you can see your coworker, you can use the microphone.
Mike: Those tools have to be super huge and super…
Steve: They’re really important.
Mike: Super big right now.
Steve: Yeah.
Dave: Like Zoom. Zoom’s going through the roof.
Mike: Oh yeah, yeah.
Dave: But I think every organization, Mike, has to be using those, engaged. Like yesterday, I typically do a phone conference call, but I invite my customers now and do teams who are actually engaging and seeing each other, and you get a better pulse than just talking over the phones. I think it’s imperative to see each other.
Mike: Yeah, absolutely.
Steve: And then company owners or managers should be looking at making sure that they’re getting cameras to all these people who are at home and then maybe having that daily huddle over the Teams or the Zoom, however you do it, where so a lot of companies, they get this sense of togetherness by just walking the room, right? They’re just in the same room. They don’t need to… But suddenly that’s gone. Where’s the culture gone? So by forcibly saying, “We’re all meeting at 8:30. We’re all going to be on the video chat,” and everyone can see each other and they’re talking and maybe the company president or the general manager or the service man, or whoever it is, can lead the discussion and talk about what today’s going to look like. And it really makes employees feel like when the company doesn’t lose its culture, even though they’re now spread out across the countryside.
Mike: Yeah.
Dave: In our work, Mike, we actually find working remotely sometimes can be advantageous. So as Steve said, you’re socializing. But a lot of times it’s what I call interruptions. You’re going up and down, you’re in the middle of something, then you get interrupted. At home, a lot of our IT staff actually is more successful and able to support their clients via tickets. They are able to do their work, get to the next one without being interrupted. So working remotely actually is very advantageous in our industry.
Remote Working Challenges
Mike: I always thought that if you work at home, there’s always that tendency to do something else.
Steve: So there are distractions.
Mike: A lot of distractions. Or listening to the radio, watching the television.
Dave: Yeah, there’s definitely distractions.
Mike: What is the latest on the news? I get caught up at CNN for two hours. That’s supposed to be working, what’s going on?
Steve: So, Mike, it’s funny that you say that. That’s absolutely true and that’s the opposite side of it.
Mike: Yeah, I would imagine, right.
Steve: Just a few minutes ago, I mentioned that employees sit at home and they worry about, is this the next step towards losing their job?
Mike: Sure.
Steve: Company owners sit at their house and go, “Is that guy working? Is he actually working?” Right?
Mike: It’s true, it’s true.
Steve: So it works both ways. And then, so the answer to that is that that’s why we keep pushing when we come here to talk to you about the collaboration tools because as an owner, right, get the people together, engage your employees as often as you can. In other words, so Dave did that. The very first thing when I ever worked from home last week, and I’ll probably do another day this week, but the very first thing at 8:30, I teamed with Dave on video. And we had a little morning quick, “Hey, I’m in the mix. I’m thinking about these things and I’m working on that.” I know that made him feel better. It made me feel better. Right? We kind of set an agenda even though we weren’t anywhere near each other and we got to work. So engage early, engage often.
Mike: Yeah, absolutely. Final words, Dave?
Dave: If your company needs some help from working remotely from home, just make sure your staff has the tools, the licensing, the ability to get to the applications. Make sure you can track their time. Make sure they’re working for you and doing their thing and so both sides feel good. Have that call if there’s something you don’t feel good about, just pick up the phone and speak to your employees. But we’re here to help. Call the experts here at PCG, Mike, and anything we do to help to get that staff working remotely. It is different out there but we’re going to be just fine together.
Steve: Yeah, stick together.
Mike: Sounds good. Sticking together. I’ve seen that all over Twitter.
Steve: Stay away from each other but stick together.
Mike: Hashtag stick together. We’ll get over it. No bound about it. Thank you guys. Steve Ripper and Dave Hodgson from Portsmouth Computer Group. All part of Tech Tuesday here at Portsmouth Computer Group powering our morning information center today. They’ve got convenient locations in Portsmouth and Dover. Now, of course, in Manchester, Portland, Maine. PCG IT for world-class IT service and customer support. Check out their website, pcgit.com. That’s pcgit.com.