The Debt Devil: After 23 Years I'm Finally Free from Student Loans

This is my brutally honest account of battling college debt for decades.

The year is 1995.

Instead of me dropping out of high school due to listless discontent, my guidance counselor offered a plan. By running the numbers and plotting a heavy course load Mr. August showed me how I could defer my feelings of aimlessness and make it through the schooling gauntlet to graduation. With ten classes a day I could graduate a whole year early and lop twelve months off what I felt was a sentence in purgatory. This was ambitious, but it was hope! Plus I’ve always liked doing things differently. A few years earlier I convinced school officials to allow me to skip lunch, drop a class and shorten my school day in junior high. I left class at 12:45PM to work at a local deli.

At age 15 I committed to this packed schedule in addition to keeping up with my participation on the school rowing team, and at 16 I was done. I had skipped my prom and graduation, but earned my diploma from Newburgh High School. I was now an adult(ish), and free to do as I like.

But now what?

When my initial plan to go to college in NYC fell through, I went with option B. While rarely glorified in movie montages, this included… staying at my parent’s house, working part-time jobs at Sears photo studio, pushing carts at Home Depot, and ringing in guests at a local hotel (wha-wah). This was all done while attempting to take classes at Orange County Community College (OCCC).

Yeah, not exactly the phoenix I had hoped, right? My path forward turned out to have a lot more twists and turns.

The acronym OCCC could be mistaken for a county jail for a reason. To the young and undisciplined me, that’s just what it felt like. I attended classes for the first month and a half but ended up dropping out during my first semester before the deadline for earning an F. This incomplete didn’t scar my school transcript, but it also didn’t make progress on my college plans or give any direction to my future. In fact, the only thing I earned was my first student loan debt.

Hi Stafford, so nice to meet you.

While in future semesters I did end up finishing a few classes at OCCC over the next few years, I never found my flow. I was just sleepwalking towards what I should do without the lust of ambition or direction. The Federal Stafford loans kept piling up, but as long as I was a student I didn’t have to start repayment. While I still lived at home, I had to make money to pay my living expenses, car insurance and gas so I took night shifts and worked around my class schedule. It was tough emotionally because it seemed like all my peers were either still in high school or out at a “real” college living it up. Plus, like many kids my age I had no real answer for my path forward.

Struggle Bus

My mornings would sometimes start at 7am pushing carts and cleaning bathrooms at Home Depot, include a mid-day class and end working a customer service job closing shift at the Newburgh Mall. While the hours were brutal I surprisingly had the endurance as each commitment was only a few hours long. My days flew by. My jobs earned me enough to start paying rent to my parents (not my idea but my parents were inspired after watching an episode of Ophrah about 30-something lawyers who lived at home for free), cover my car insurance, and added a few bills in my wallet. Most important, it was insufferable enough to force me to start planning a more prosperous future. I knew real life sucked. I knew I needed a path.

On my days off from work I started researching schools and applied on my own to Purchase College, the same state school my brother went to about a hour south of my hometown. Despite a shoddy SAT score, Purchase somehow accepted me to start my college life (again) the following September. I had hope. I had a way out and even started to form a vision for the future that I was excited to realize.

I continued to work throughout the summer and save up for my new life. Just before starting my first year of college my parents gifted back much of the rent I had paid them to help me start my first year at a four-year school. This was a tremendous gift—both financially and emotionally—and helped me make the transition to this new stage in my life. They also bought me a used Kia Sephia to help me with transportation.

After three years out in the real world, college was finally my new life. And luckily, I was hungry because I knew the alternative back in my hometown of pushing carts and answering customer service calls. This was not a future I wanted.

Finally Settling In

Getting to college, I knew I had just enough money to pay for one semester of tuition and room and board. My hope was to apply to become a resident assistant, or RA, scoring free housing and a meal plan. While it was unheard of that a Freshman would be admitted to the RA program, my cajoling must have hit the mark. Starting in the spring of my Freshman year I began a job as an RA and served in that role for the remainder of my time at Purchase College—another three years. Between this job, balancing classes, and additional jobs as a tour guide, event usher, and student housing janitor, my schedule was jam packed and I couldn’t love it more.

Like many young people, I was passionate about politics and spoke out about the war in Iraq while addressing my fellow students at our graduation commencement.

Like many young adults, my time in college was transformative. I went into it as a young person with limited academic skills, a lack of confidence and a limited understanding of myself. When I graduated four years later I was still flawed and had gaps in development, but I at least had some semblance of voice, direction and ability. I could code websites, and write essays, debate philosophy and edit films. My three internships exposed me to the corporate world and to life working for the Federal Government.

I had always been good at speaking up for myself and I had that too. The child who struggled to learn to read in elementary school a few decades before ended up pursuing studies in technology and communications. How cool is that?

I also graduated from Purchase College with $19,000 in student debt. Despite working jobs every summer, and throughout the academic year, tuition and fees had to be covered by Stafford Loans. I would have to immediately start paying them back after graduation (I had used the 6-month grace period years earlier while on a break from community college in the 90s).

…or I could pile on more debt.

I chose the latter partly because everyone said it was a good idea, but maybe equally because I was scared of the real world. Continuing my school meant I could delay adulthood. And to be fair, family member I mentioned my plan to thought grad school was a good idea and would eventually benefit me financially.

Digging in Deeper

That fall I moved with friends from Purchase College to Seattle, Washington and started pursuing a Masters in Communication in Digital Media at the University of Washington. This had the dual benefit of letting me gain more skills and an advanced degree and give me the breathing room to figure out how to convert studies to an occupation. However, this also meant that when I graduated a little over 18-months later, I had piled another $43,000 onto the debt that I carried from undergraduate school. At age 27, I now owed $63,000 (in 2005 dollars) to the Federal Government and had only just started my professional career. Looking at the monthly payment of $440+ was daunting, especially as I worked at a not-for-profit and earned $34,000 annually while living in a high-cost area.

Because of this I struggled financially, and not for just a few years. From 2005 through to 2013 I bit my nails trying to pay for my living expenses, and could never make another student loan payment beyond the minimal due. This meant that despite years of sending checks—and now in my early 30s—my total owned had barely crept below $60,000. Will it really take 30-years to pay this off?

Housing Crash

While I did buy a condo during this time, my original plan was to own it for four years and then sell at a profit to pay off the student debt. The only problem with this plan? I bought just after the first slump in the 2008 housing crash. Prices continued to slide over the next year as I watched my tiny bit of equity turn negative. In 2010 the economy was a wreck and I owned a condo that was now worth 30% less than what I had paid for it.

I bought all my clothes at Goodwill, shopped within a budget at Trader Joe’s, saved spare change to fund my music budget and drove my 1995 Honda Civic with a broken speedometer and 200K on the clock. However, no amount of saving was going to fix this pile of debt. In the eternal words of Dave Ramsey “I needed a bigger shovel”—a pay raise. I finally landed a job in the private sector with a marketing role at Brooks Running Company and earned a solid $52,000. This was a giant pay bump, but rising rents meant that my budget was still extremely tight. My partner at the time also struggling financially and often couldn’t contribute to rent or living costs. I ended up moving out of the condo I owned and rented it out. We downsizing to a one bedroom daylight basement apartment with utilities included for $1,050/month. Maybe this would take some pressure off?

I remember trying to get a hotel room for one night after a windstorm blew our tent over and forced us to retreat from camping and find shelter. When I checked my bank account while standing in the hotel lobby, I realized I literally had no money left to pay and no credit cards to access. Luckily my partner at that time still had $200 in her bank account so she rented the room with $100 to spare. This is just one of dozens of stories I could tell about penny pinching and financial struggles spanning my 20s and 30s. Obviously this example was not the most dramatic—I never missed a meal or had a medical condition I couldn’t afford, but the lessons I learned during this time have stuck with me even many years later. I clearly recall the sting of worry when even a tiny unexpected cost like a parking ticket fell my way.

Now 26, I was transformed from when I started college (after OCCC) six years earlier. However, I also was in serious debt—racked up $63,000 in student loans and didn’t have a high income job waiting to pay them down.

No Easy Way Out of Hell

Following a job change and then a bought of unemployment, I eventually landing a job at Expedia HQ in Bellevue, Wa. There I worked in employer branding and digital marketing and finally saw a pay bump and stabilization in living costs that allowed me to live a less spartal life. I was finally able to start putting extra funds against my debt, and shop at grocery stores adding anything I wanted to the cart. Despite the pay bump to a now whopping $105,000, it really wasn’t until I started a new role at BECU, a leading credit union, that I lopped off bigger and bigger chunks of my debt. Through extra payments and intention I whittled my student loan debt down to $30,000 in 2020, and then to $20,000 in 2021. I then used savings and an annual bonus to finally put this debt monster to bed last year. I attempted to calculate the total that I paid to the government (principal and interest), but when my calculations started to far exceed the original $62,000 loan, I felt nausea and setting on “I paid them a LOT.”

After years of owning the condo, I sold it. Eventually I moved to the South Puget Sound and bought two houses including our current home in Lakewood. For the first time I landed a home with multiple bathrooms! WOO-HOO.

After living in homes plagued by police and fire sirens for years, I finally made it to a place of peace and nature steps from my door. I am grateful.

Lessons Learned

College is Amazing. Do Everything

I love learning and have no regrets that I pursued at least my undergraduate degree. I’ve been able to leverage these studies and knowledge into doing and learning amazing things and building lifelong relationships. I have no regrets on that use of time. However, I don’t think enough time or attention is paid by parents, students or society on the hazards that debt can create. This leads me to my second point.

Debt Carries a Cost. Too

In total, I carried this debt from 1998 and didn’t pay it off until I was 39 in the spring of 2021. While I am immensely grateful for the life that I’ve been able to realize in the Pacific Northwest, and for the relationships I still sustain from college and grad school, I don’t know if I would recommend the path I took. Debt very likely has limited my career, life opportunities and maybe even delayed me from having a family. During my 20s in particular I couldn’t move to another city or extend a job search to find the right role because I just needed a job because that debt payment was due on the first of the month.

If I had been more creative, strategic or academically talented, I might have had my undergraduate and maybe even graduate school paid for. It was only after going through both when I met other students who had their tuition covered due to their military service, or from grants, scholarships or benefits from their employer. To any student thinking about college, I highly suggest you first exhaust no-cost options for schooling. Yes, getting a college degree will over your lifetime increase your earning potential, but it will be even better if you can figure out how you can get that degree without acquiring a debt monster.

Refinance & Pay Extra

I waited for twenty years to refinance my student loans to lower rates because I knew that the Federal debt could be paused (with interest) if I was unemployed. However, if I would have had more confidence I could have chopped my interest rates in half. Instead of 6% I could have seen 3% or less years earlier due to rates being at multi-decade lows compared to the late 1990s or early 2000s. I let fear be my driver. Don’t. Most private loans also allow for hardship pauses in payments as well. I should have done my homework and researched my options years earlier.

Also, I should have made a stronger effort to pay anything extra I had to the loans. Even $50/month plus an annual tax refund could have dramatically shortened my repayment time. It may not feel that way when you’re looking at a giant sum owed, but every little extra payment matters.

Live Well Below Your Means

I was thrifty in college. But there were also unnecessary splurges, too. I bought an iPhone on launch day, learned to ride and picked up a motorcycle in Seattle, opted to own a condo instead of renting a room in a house with friends, and didn’t have a plan to pay more than the minimum payment for a 30-year payment schedule. This fundamentally meant I’d be paying tens of thousands in interest instead of depositing that in savings or investing in my retirement.

In retrospect, I should not have gone to grad school and probably would have been better off getting a job with a corporation or government first. I’d have a few years to build my resume and bank account. Maybe I’d even earn a tuition reimbursement? I should have also considered taking a part-time job and using 100% of the extra funds to pay off my debt. Plus, I probably should have skipped owning a car in college too. The insurance payments are extreme when you are a young male and bus lines are likely not far from school or the supermarket.

So in closing, student loan debt is a giant burden to put on a young person. While I prize education, I think education debt is exactly the worst way to start off an adult life. But maybe it’s the least worst option? Over 44MM Americans carry some type of student loan debt totalling $1.86T. Considering that even in-state annual tuition and fees top $12,000 (that’s before books, room and board and spending money), I don’t have a great solution for the young person yearning to get a degree but without the gusto for military service or academic chops. I just caution you to do much more homework before signing for a Stafford Loan.

You have options. The “easy” way out may not be that easy. The last two decades for me are proof of that.

2020: Goodbye and Goodnight

Like a bad dream or a bad date, when 2020 was over I felt less motivated to reflect as I was to move on. From COVID-19 and the economic downturn to the isolation, cancelled everything and political and social unrest, 2020 seemed to be outdoing itself weekly for worst (unending) year ever.

However, after I woke up on New Year’s Day, 2021 I was able to find the courage to think back and look back at the past 12 months we endured. In truth, things weren’t all bad. I had paid down a sizable amount of my student loan debt, read or listened to a dozen books, investing in my physical fitness, grew my partnership with my girlfriend, and even improved my personal habits by adopting a new budgeting process thanks to Dave Ramsey.

What I recalled were gems amongst the hardship including the top five bright points in a challenging year.

2020, here’s to the good days!


Orcas Island 50K

Neither my girlfriend or I had entries to Orcas 50K this February, but on the off chance a runner wanted to sell their bib we put a call out to a local running bulletin board. To our luck, two bibs turned up. (Remember, this is pre-COVID, lockdown when running races and socializing.) After payment, Emily and I had race entries to this loved, early-season run. However, we lacked reservations on the ferry for our car. How then could we get from the ferry terminal to the cabins on Moran State Park? Our answer: bike it.

We parked our car on the mainland side of the dock and walked our bikes loaded with gear onto the ferry. When we arrived at Orcas Island, we hopped on our bikes and peddled the 18-or-so hilly miles to Camp Moran on the far end of Orcas Island. The race itself was what we have known it to be: scenic and full of amazing friends. This year’s twist was flooded trails. You see while race day was dry, storms the night before flooded the course making the majority of the trails look like crystal-clear streams. Runners had to tramp through these new waterways as we proceeded made progress on the 50K course.

Eventually though we finished the race and enjoyed a beer. After a shower and a sleep in the cabins, the following morning Emily and I rode back to the ferry and crisined what will forever now be called the Orcas Island Triathlon.

Adopting Maple

I adopted my first dog Luna nine years ago. Ever since she has been my adventure partner and constant companion. When Emily entered the picture two and a half years ago, she loved Luna like her own. I thought I was a dog guy, but Emily really loves furry friends, and maybe unlike me, wanted them all around 24/7 by the dozen. We had talked about the concept of adopting another dog as a sibling to Luna, but I always viewed it as future planning just like how one talks about fly fishing and retirement, or organizing the garage. That is until a friend-of-a-friend experienced an unplanned litter between their male Pomeranian and female full-sized Aussie Shepherd. (It turns out he actually impregnated two Aussies within a little over a month. The pup has spirit.)

Within just a week of learning of this opportunity, Emily and I were looking at photos of the eight-week-old puppies while also organizing with friends to adopt the whole lot. While I wasn’t sure how Luna would manage having a puppy in the house, I trusted that she would take cues from Emily and myself, and be the sweetheart packleader she is.

“Ok, let’s do it.”

At ten-weeks-old we picked up Maple from her mother’s family in Maple Valley. The five-pound puppy was chocolate brown, quiet and sleepy. Unlike when I adopted Luna at four-months who already had an expressive personality, this puppy was younger and let out fewer cues as to what her personality would blossom into over the next few months. I remember driving home and thinking, “…here we go.”

When we introduced Maple to Luna her older sister immediately showed interest and was gentle with her inquiring nose. My concerns that Luna wouldn’t take to having another female dog in the house were immediately put at ease. It all worked out. And it has.

Maple has grown into a hyperactive 30-pound nervous, brave, silly and spirited family member. Luna has remained her loving sister, even when Maple incessantly barks inches from her face each morning, or attempts to goat her into a game of tug-of-war. While raising a puppy has been work, it has also been remarkably rewarding. I couldn’t be happier that we welcomed Maple into our family. This was doubly rewarding because, due to a work remote format thanks to COVID, I spent nearly all of Maple’s first year of life at home with the little lady. I was privileged to see her grow. I even had the fortune of making a movie about the benefits of having a puppy during COVID. The Bright Side was featured in the June edition of the Trail Running Film Festival.

Tacoma boarded up businesses

COVID Shutdown & Social Unrest

After a fairly uneventful January and February, March roared in like a storm. The previously isolated outbreak of COVID-19 started sweeping through the nation, and that reign took hold first in the Pacific Northwest. Governors put in place emergency orders closing businesses, cancelling events and ordering the public to stay home. My job switched to an entirely work-remote format. This reduced my 1,000+ mile monthly commute to just walking to the front bedroom, but it also created a sense of isolution. With the exception of running around the neighborhood or shopping for food, I never left the house.

Then things got even more intense.

The killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police drove protests and vandalism to erupt in many cities. Fearing riots and theft, landlords threw up plywood over doors and windows transforming my home of Tacoma overnight. Every part of my life last spring was in flux and flush with anxiety. However, through it all I tried to remind myself that I was lucky to have a job and home, and family and friends. I took it a day at a time, and eventually I had enough space to realize the positive things coming from this change: a call for police accountability, and respect for all people.

Now working from home, I got to skip my 2-2.5 hour daily commute. If I do the math I estimate that in 2020 I saved over 300 hours of sitting in traffic inching along on I-5 North. This time savings is the equivalent of watching the cinematic treasurer Titanic… 100 times. This also meant I got to spend more time with my family. I could enjoy morning walks together and evening runs on my own at night. While COVID and the economic downturn were frightening, this also inspired a certain spirit of togetherness between friends with in-person hangouts replaced by group messaging.

“Crazy world”

“Hang in there”

“Let me know if you need anything”

These were the kind words that we shared as we saw the world around us change by the hour. Things were bad and worrisome, but last spring we also had simpler lives. We didn’t worry about shopping for fashionable clothes or having perfect hair (note: hair salons were closed for months). We just worried about getting a few extra rolls of toilet paper, and binging Tiger King. Life was tough and scary, but we were getting through it together, or at least that was how it felt.

Housework

With vacations cancelled and most businesses closed, we did what would be expected and worked on our house. Our first project was adding an above the oven microwave hood. That went fairly easy except for the part where I had to drill through wall tile. Brutal. Next up was replacing three large front windows from the original construction in 1948, and two side windows in the rear of the house.

  • Installed microwave hood and fan (special thanks to my Dad and brother Mike for coaching from NY by phone)

  • Replaced five windows including the conversion of a traditional double-hung in the kitchen to a garden box

When compared to the months-long work we did last year on the house, this project was pretty easy. Help from a few friends and one handyman and the old windows were removed and the new windows (plus a new garden box) were installed within a few weeks. The entire project was educational in that we learned how easy it was to punch giant holes in our house and how jury-rigged the construction looked when you peek inside the 1948-built wall. The end result was fantastic and the total cost was surprisingly reasonable due to our sweat labor, thrift and help from friends.

Outdoor Adventures

Once the lockdown took place nearly all of my planned races were cancelled, however that didn’t mean all hope was lost for normalcy. I got to crew my girlfriend as she ran the Wonderland Trail over three days in blisteringly hot July. Later in the month I got to celebrate turning 39 while finishing the Never Summer 100K in Gould, Colorado. In August I also climbed Glacier Peak as a one-day adventure, biked to Carbon Glacier, and sprinkled in the circumnavigations of St. Helens on the Loowit Trail and Mt. Hood on the Timberline Trail. Below are a few films that recap the prized outings.

Creative Life

While I wasn’t able to visit my family in NY or take trips abroad during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, the extra time at home meant I could refine my filmmaking. In a year lacking much socialization, I am thankful I was able to make some of my most rewarding film projects. This included my first feature using my Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 4K camera, the previously mentioned Bright Side, but I also was able to deepen my use of animations, sound effects and had my first use of a map visual artist from the production site Fivver. Below are my tip four projects from the year.

  1. Dick’s Long Ride: Tour de Volcanoes
    Edited from 30+ days of of GoPro footage, at 30-minutes this is my longest video project ever. I was proud of the narrative I was able to find within the content. This film was featured in the Trail Film Fest August Edition.

  2. Mt. Missteps: Episode 1: Broken Ankle Atop Mt. Stuart
    As my first contacted project, I was gifted stunning rescue footage and was able to weave that together with Zoom recordings to create an educational and entertaining film. This film was featured in the Trail Film Fest December Edition.

  3. Climbing Glacier Peak
    This is an ass-kicker of a run. I loved capturing each stage of the outing and pulling it into a memorable video.

  4. The Bright Side
    Created during the heat of the Pandemic lockdown, I crowdsourced footage from friends from across Western Washington. This film was featured in the Trail Film Festival June Edition.

Washington State Ballot

Election Hope

As a backdrop to the COVID-19 pandemic, economic downturn, wildfires, and social strife, we of course had the 2020 elections. After over two years of campaigning, voters cast their ballots in November. After nearly four years of Trump politics, lies and spin, I was pessimistic that the results would turn my favor. I knew that few presidents have been limited to a single term and that the pulpit of the position made it hard for challenges to break through the noise, even established leaders like Joe Biden.

(Side note: Joe was always my Grandmother Joan’s favorite. Love you, Grandma!)

While election day had it’s surprises, we didn’t have a definitive result by night’s end. However, it did look like Biden would win out. It would take several weeks before we realized that Biden would be our next president. After such a disruptive year this was a true gift. My girlfriend and I were having a fire outside on our patio when the news came in.

“The news channels have called it. Even Fox News. They called the election for Biden!”

This announcement occurred simultaneously to the now infamous Trump campaign Four Seasons Landscaping press conference inspiring countless Internet memes. Trump resisted conceding for weeks (and as of this second, still hasn’t), but the world knew the truth. I’m hopeful that a new direction for the country will start on January 20th.

2020 is over, a largely but not entirely terrible year where good things won out. Let’s roll into 2021 with hope that the pandemic will end, that cooler politics heads will win out, and that we don’t repeat the mistakes of last year, while amplifying the positive that came from 2020.

From Viral Bug to Viral Lesson: How Companies Can Become More Resilient By Addressing the COVID-19 Outbreak →

Stock Market Crash

In just a few weeks time, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak that first emerged from Wuhan, China has become an emerging global threat with some health officials calling the virus a global pandemic. While the virus has yet to reach the scale of the catastrophic Spanish Flu of 1918 that killed 195,000 Americans alone, or even the Avian Influenza of 2013, governments, businesses and officials are taking dramatic action: cancelling events, classes and travel in all arenas of life. The annual technology, music and film festival SXSW Festival was cancelled, as was the Women of the World Festival, Mobile World Congress, and countless other business, technology, media and cultural events. Others events were moved online, or postponed indefinitely.

What can community and business leaders learn from this viral outbreak? A lot. And hopefully, we can adapt and work through this crisis—coming out the other side with a more resilient community or organization. These are my take-aways on how we might adapt to meet this current crisis, and future hazards, biological, economic or other.

Embrace Remote Meetings

With the COVID-19 outbreak many in-person meetings and events are shifting online to avoid person-to-person transmission. That's great for the environment (less carbon used to move people together) and based on advice of health experts it is one of the most effective ways to cut down on the spread of this deadly virus. But even after this outbreak, organizations should lean into remote meetings and remote work technologies, so the companies can become more resilient against all types of community and business threats.

While we've had remote VPN systems and Web and virtual meeting technologies like NetMeeting and GoToMeeting for almost 30 years, these tools have not been fully embraced by businesses and governments, and are still seen as a sub-par experience compared to in-person meetings. The truth is with modern high-bandwidth connections, efficient video CODECs and low-latency meeting technology, the Skype or Google Hangout of today is nothing like it was even just five years ago. The picture and audio is sharp, the interactive features are accessible, and the virtual meeting feels so much more like the in-person experience it is replicating.

It's time every business leader audits their current practices and embraces the technology when appropriate for board meetings all the way down to all-staff addresses. Yes, IRL face time matters, but this concept matters less in a global workforce, whether during a crisis or not.

Embrace Remote Work

Mobile Workplace

Beyond just implementing additional virtual meetings and conferences, each leader should also look at the online dashboards and systems he or she has in place to empower staff members to work remotely. This can include buying enough licenses so everyone in the organization can be on the same SaaS tool at the same time to developing practices to allow your staff to log in and get work done from anywhere, anytime. Cloud file storage tools like Dropbox, streamlined communication tools like Slack and workflow processes solutions like Monday.com all exist, so onboarding solutions has never been quicker. Leaders just need to integrate the right ones to make remote work more seamless.

While this audit and evolution of your practices will take capital, organizational buy-in, and plenty of time, in the long run you'll be able to confront the next challenge as a more robust organization, whether the hazard is health, weather or economic in nature.

How would people work remote all the time anyway?

I once had a senior HR leader at a global travel technology company say to me "how would people work remote all the time anyway?" As her words met my ear all I could think was crazy talk! Tens of millions of professionals in many different industries already do this, and have for more than a decade and a half.

We need our senior leaders to let go of their past assumptions, objectively review where these practices make sense for their company, and then commit to this new operational paradigm. The question to ask should be "How can 'working remote' work for us and what do we need to do to make this the new norm?"

Evolve Your Culture

Work Remote

A big part of combating a major global threat like COVID-19 is evolving your organization's culture to be more agile and responsive. This will look different for every company, but could include ensuring staff are equipped with laptops instead of desktops (yes, the latter actually still happens) and that your employees bring them home each night along with any other tools in the event an emergency arises. This evolution in culture can include how employee manage their "away", "busy" and "available" messages in your chat client so IM discussions are as synchronous as dropping by a coworkers desk in person.

This evolution in culture and business practices could even be as simple as being hyper clear on the new roles and responsibilities when performing a reorg, or adding a new team. The better your team knows who does what the quicker they will be able to respond. The bus analogy from Jim Collin's From Good to Great is a great model to consider when communicating reorgs and responsibilites.

The questions a leader might ask can include:

  • What parts of the culture are slowing down a response to a crisis like COVID-19?

  • What parts of our operations can evolve so that we don't have to "build new" when a threat does arise (think meetings, email templates, action plans)?

  • How can your culture and business processes anticipate and respond to future crises?

My hope is that at the individual, community and organizational level we're able to overcome the COVID-19 outbreak as quickly as possible. Whatever the lessons we learn along the way, let's be sure to apply them and evolve our organizations to meet the next threat head on, even when today's hazard no longer dominates news headlines.