Going With The Snow Flow

Today was set to be a busy day at work.  Yesterday was a holiday, so we had a short week and a lot of projects due.  When we have a Monday holiday, Tuesday assumes Monday's schedule, so we planned to start the week off at 9 am with a management team meeting, a division staff meeting, and a briefing for the Office Director.

So the snowstorm that was forecast to move through during the day and leave several inches of snow followed by very cold weather couldn't have been better timed to disrupt my plans.

When I got up about 6 am, I checked the news and heard that federal offices were closed and that telework policies were in place.  That meant that almost 20 people who normally come into the office would be working from home.  This happens from time to time, but it isn't always possible for people to work productively from home when they haven't had any advance notice to prepare.

I decided the best way to deal with this was to take on the challenge of trying to have a productive work day in spite of the circumstances.  I sent emails to the staff and the management team saying we'd have the planned meetings by phone and go from there.

I was pleasantly surprised when we called in for the staff meeting and everyone had called in.  That's the first time in a long time that we've had 100% attendance at a staff meeting.  Business the rest of the day was conducted by email and telephone.  It was one of the busiest days I've had in a long time, and I think as much work was done - perhaps more - as would have happened if we had been in the office.  

I want to talk about the experience with the staff and see what we can learn from it, but I think we've reached a new level in functioning under these circumstances.

Later, we learned that our Tuesday night yoga class had been cancelled.  So Pam and I held a relaxed session of our own - exploring some limitations in body movement and technique - consulting an anatomy book, and quickly running into the limits of our knowledge about some hip muscles that are too tight.  We'll ask our teacher about that next time we see her.  It was fun to explore and try some things out without the structure that comes with a group class.

In the end, the snow disrupted our plans, but the experience of the day was quite positive anyway, because we saw opportunities rather than problems.