How Are You Managing?

In a thoughtful and personal letter to his friends and colleagues in the travel industry, Direct Travel’s senior vice-president, corporate sales, Ian Race observes that:

“As I sit here at the beginning of my third week of self-imposed quasi-isolation – chosen to help our government flatten the curve of the COVID19 pandemic, I think of all my friends, colleagues, and industry partners and have to wonder how you are all managing?”

He asks:

“Are you and your families safe and healthy?  Are your employees, staff and team members managing as well as can be expected as we navigate through these uncertain times?”

Before continuing:

“With so many of us now working remotely for the first time, are you sitting at your wife’s, husband’s, or partner’s sewing table, work bench, or on a TV table in the family room as opposed to your regular office??  Somehow, I am making-due with the sewing room option, but it’s quite a change from what I’ve been used to for the past many years.”

And Race admits that:

“Writing this note today, I continue to struggle with a couple of things.  There’s a part of me that wants to continue from a sales perspective to be diligent, to work with my team to follow-up with our prospects and customers to keep business moving forward with them.  At the same time, I clearly understand that we all need to be much more sensitive right now to the impact that many, if not all businesses are feeling today, and just wait to be called upon to help when that time comes.”

He says that:

“I guess since this situation is currently so fluid, it will be a constant “learning as we go” environment for a while still as we continue searching for answers with how to adapt to the overnight changes and somehow keep our businesses moving forward?”

Race writes that:

“Since the bottom basically fell out of the business world this past month, I continue to learn that we all have to find ways to adjust… We will have to now look at trying to be less aggressive, show more empathy to any/all we speak to, soften our asks, and know that we are ALL in this together.”

He concludes:

“Hoping that you, your families and co-workers remain safe & healthy during these unprecedented times.”