how to work from home
“We’re meeting more about working from home than actually working from home!” one of my colleagues said this morning. We’re stacked with WebEx meetings all day.
But I’m stoked, because this is my preferred way of working. Since starting my new job in January I have begun feeling a little trapped in the 9-5 grind. And it frees me up to make and take calls with my racing friends as well – which might not be strictly work related but which are a passion project for me.
I’m full of ideas for virtual concerts and live online events for the company. We’re marketers, after all. I got a few of my colleagues on board for a crazy idea for a virtual show and started sharing it around, until top brass told me to hold off until Monday because there’s some new news coming. That’s frustrating, because everything is in a state of flux and if we wait for news to stabilize, we’ll be waiting forever. We just need to get big, crazy ideas on the table and start working them forward right now.
That’s what the racing family is doing: still shooting to achieve their originally scheduled content release deadlines. I think the Long Beach Grand Prix will still happen… IndyCar is in St. Pete right now preparing to race this weekend. If those guys race, we’ll race next month in California.
One of the pieces of news that’s emerging as these cancellations all start to take shape is the economic policies that are driving some of them. Promoters for big shows are waiting to be forced into closure when their host localities declare official states of emergency whereby they make orders that limit the spread of the virus due by reducing mass gatherings. Apparently, leaning on the government actions for these decisions activates force majeure insurance provisions so everybody gets paid out for the tremendous investments made in promotions and infrastructure, and ticket refunds can be processed without penalty. I don’t know the specifics, but based on the cadence of cancellations — which are following county or city declarations — that makes sense. Regardless, for the Grand Prix, the city and local promoter are going to fight to keep their event going. It’s been going for 60 years! Formula 1 is still on in Melbourne, although I think they might do it without any fans.
And just when you feel like you’ve got a handle on things, something new happens. The Long Beach GP, the longest running major street race held in North America, is now cancelled. The City of Long Beach just cancelled all public events through the end of April. Counties across California have been in a patchwork state of emergency situation. My friends in Florida still don’t know what’s happening for them. It seems like they, too, might race without fans.
The stock market crashed again today. On Monday, all three Wall Street indices fell more than 7% and most global markets reported severe contractions partly in response to the pandemic (that wasn’t yet a pandemic) and partly in response to the Saudis dumping oil on the market. It was the worst drop since the start of the Great Recession in 2008. They’re calling today “Black Thursday.” Stocks across Europe and North America fell more than 9% and triggered trade halt safety, which was invented back in ‘08 to keep panic sell-offs at a minimum. I assume my investment portfolio is decimated (if I do the literal math, it’s actually probably more than decimated) but it’s a long-term investment strategy, so I’m ignoring it for now. I have more money to put in the market when the bottom hits. Only, how to know when that is? I’m sure there’s more bad news to come.
