By R. Christopher Haines, President and CEO
For the last few years, I’ve written a blog post every few weeks. When things seemed to go a little crazy at the beginning of March, I chose to shut it down for a while. For quite some time I didn’t really know what to say. I didn’t think it was the time to put out one of the cute posts I try to put out sometimes about things like cheating baseball teams and telling people not to go through life being as bad as a useless body part. And it wasn’t the right time to tell everyone how great our company is or why they should do business with us.
Fast forward to now, and I’m still not quite sure what to say. Talking about anything at all is like walking through a minefield. I understand why. This year has been rough. Everyone is run down, and everyone is struggling. We’re all fighting our own battles. But this leads to a lot of people being short-tempered. Don’t dare talk about your thoughts on the virus or politics unless you’re looking for a death match. I think some people I know would probably even argue about what’s the best pizza or beer at this point.
I absolutely hate it. But I’m trying to cut people a little more slack. I’m trying to put myself in their shoes. Are they missing a relative they can’t visit because of the virus? Are they forced into being a quasi-teacher at home, while continuing to work full-time jobs? Are they depressed about missing once in lifetime opportunities with family members they can never recreate? Or are they worried about the survival of their businesses and the future of their team members?
But as we find ourselves now six months later, I do want to tell each of you reading this I hope you’re doing okay, those of you I know personally and those of you I‘ve never met. For those of you in the business world that I cross paths regularly, I hope to see you soon. There were days before this all started that I thought I could never miss sitting in an airport or standing in a tradeshow booth as much as I do today.
So until we see each other again, hang in there and take care of yourself.