Earlier in March, the thought of spending weeks, let alone months, working out of my home without the energy and camaraderie that comes from working in an office with my beloved co-workers seemed unimaginable. Several weeks into this world of self-isolation, we have now begun to find our groove in this new normal, spending all day on Zooms with them and finding creative ways to keep each other engaged and productive. While nothing can replace the casual giggles in the hall, the shared lunches, or the impromptu brainstorming sessions that come from spending time together, we’re all doing our best to make it work.
When the world began to shift several weeks ago, every business leader I know found themselves scrambling to try and make the “right” decisions for their companies. How to balance doing what is best for your customers, your company and your people became a critical game of corporate Jenga, underscored by a flailing economy and a global health crisis. Without question, these are difficult times for everyone across the globe. And yet, my response to this situation was, “Well, here is a way to up our game.”
Rather than panic, our leadership team has bonded together even tighter, and gathered together every morning to determine what would be required of us to lead our company - and our people - through these unprecedented times. I’m incredibly grateful that we have a history of transparency, audaciousness, and the mindset of considering what’s in the best interest of our customers and our people. I’m proud that we are holding that bar high for ourselves, especially now, and both our customers and employees are benefitting as a result.
As someone playing a people role in the company, my natural default has been to make sure that our 1,600 employees are staying engaged, productive, and sane. I shared with the company that I would connect with anyone, and have been working my way through the entire company, engaging through individual Slacks, zoom conversations, etc. Through each of these interactions, it’s highlighted the uniqueness of how each person handles stress and fear, and there is not a “one size fits all” approach to providing support. Our parents with young children and no child care are facing one set of challenges, while our young employees sharing small spaces with three roommates are facing different ones altogether. Some of our extroverted people are craving live interactions, and some of our more introverted folks are enjoying the peace and quiet that comes from a bit of time working away from bigger teams. It’s been nothing short of fascinating.
Corey Thomas, our CEO, and I have been lamenting about the lack of support our daughters are getting from their high schools. The lack of curriculum is staggering, and with our kids applying to colleges in the fall, the fear of losing all the progress and hard work they have been putting in all year is quickly falling by the wayside. He came up with an ingenious idea, which I quickly stole, and then adapted for myself...and then started sharing with our people. The notion is simple: Imagine that you have to write a college essay this summer. The topic is “What did you do with your time in self-isolation, and are you proud of how you spent it?” I turned that into a project with my daughter, where we identified a number of areas for her to focus on during this time. We categorized areas like physical, social and educational, and every day she tracks what she’s done in each category to provide herself a little more structure and progress during this time. When we finally escape our house, our hope is that she’s found herself having used the time productively, rather than just squandered it away on a months-long Tik Tok fueled escape. So far, it seems to be working well.
Now that I’ve connected with about five hundred of our people, I’ve found myself asking everyone a similar question, which I will pose to all of us. How are you choosing to use this time? Have you dusted off an old hobby and reengaged? Have you decided to finally learn to play that guitar that’s been sitting in the corner? Have you traded the commute you aren’t taking anymore for a three mile run? Each of us has an important decision to make. In this crazy time of uncertainty, there is one thing we remain in control of: how we each elect to make the most productive use of our time. We can choose to look at every challenge and downside of this current state (and I get it, there are many) OR we can look at this as a time to take a good hard look in the mirror and decide to lean in hard and take advantage of the gift of a little extra time we find ourselves with to do things a little differently in our lives that perhaps we have been putting off.
We would be inhuman not to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, or the fear of having our livelihoods affected by the economic downturn. And yet, we still remain in control of much of our lives. We can still make choices about how we spend this time we’ve been given at home, and decide to make it productive and game-changing, or we can decide not to.
The one biggest take away for me in speaking to so many people both inside and outside of Rapid7 over the last several weeks is quite simple: those who are electing to make the most of this time will never regret it. They are energized by their new skills and hobbies, and eager to share. They are bringing that energy to their work, and are finding creative ways to approach making impact. In short, they are thriving during the worst of times.
While none of us will ever need to write that fictitious college essay, I’d challenge each of us to act as if we have to. When this is over, I want to be proud of how I spent this time; and I’m betting you do too.
Christina Luconi is Chief People Officer for Rapid7. Follow her on Twitter: @peopleinnovator.