Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

Last Tuesday, a snow storm visited the East Coast. The storm deposited five or so inches of the white stuff at my house. The Washington, D.C. region saw anywhere from three to seven inches.  Give or take. 

This was a decent storm for us. Surely, that sentence will cause a giggle or two from those reading this in Minnesota or up-state New York. 

Here's what might amaze you. The storm caused Fairfax County (just west of D.C.) to close schools for three days. 

Those three days left many parents scrambling to cobble together daycare and work schedules. As you might expect, many were outraged.  

I spent some time thinking about this. I think much of the parental outcry over the storm is the result of our relentless quest to wring out the last drop of inefficiencies from our lives.

Today in houses with children, it isn't uncommon to find both parents working. Sure, this provides more money, but not without a cost. Daycare drop-offs. After care costs at school. 

So, was the disruption a bad thing? Maybe not. A colleague made a wonderful point about our recent weather event.  Let me paraphrase what she said.

When something breaks our routine, it’s a perfect time to put life into perspective. Parents had to first prioritize their families and the well-being of their children. Whether that meant choosing to work from home, taking the day off or finding a friend to swap playdates with during the closings – the entire are shared in a common problem – what to do with the kids? Then it was on to work. And with work days truncated or worse, completed deleted, employees had to triage and really focus on what was the most important thing to work on.

Too often we get caught up in the most recent, urgent, but not important email. We spend hours in traffic traveling to and from work. Or let the culture of endless meeting dominate our time. When routines are broken because of something out of our control, it’s a blessing. It helps give us perspective. It’s a time to refocus and reorganize what is the most important work to be done – both at home and in the office.

If you had time to work on only one thing today, what would it be?