A lot has happened since our last Kladder Update on March 16th - which felt like a year ago in Corona time. On Monday Gov. Whitmer put a three week shelter in place for the state of Michigan and a because of that a few things have changed for us personally. First, with my job at Steelcase, the entire company has gone into what our CEO is calling Apollo 13 mode.
You may recall this hit movie starring Tom Hanks (fitting seeing as he and his wife are reported as having the virus) where the crew is on a mission to the moon and dramatically reduces its energy consumption so that when the time came they had enough electricity and fuel to restart their engines. With plant closings and orders expected to come to a slow trickle, it is necessary for us to take action to reduce our costs significantly so that our entire organization can come out on the other side of this intact.
Today Steelcase announced its best earnings results in decades followed by an employee wide message about ‘sharing the burden’ much like the story from Apollo 13. Beginning today our plants in Michigan are closed and all hourly manufacturing employees have been laid off with the option of unemployment which has recently been enhanced, luckily, due to our current situation. For salaried employees like myself, there is still work that needs to be done but not as much as usual, so our jobs are now being limited to 21 hours a week and our paychecks reduced by 50%. Yes, this super sucks but this hurdle is one that our family is prepared to manage.
I have never been more proud to work for Steelcase than I am right now. The news from earlier today took our entire company by surprise but our leadership has sent their message loud and clear: we are all in this together. And that makes me feel pretty dang good.
Jeff is extremely busy right now working with clients on their own strategic game plans. He’s working from home as well and together we’ve been making use of the larger coffee maker. Jeff is an incredible problem solver and a silver lining?… it’s very possible that for the first time in his life he’s being used to his full potential - my words not his.
Our daycare remains open and our kids will continue their normal routine minus Natalie attending preschool two days a week. The government has mandated new precautions including measuring the kids temperatures upon check-in and pickup which we did for the first time today.
Meanwhile, at home, our social lives have obviously pivoted hard and fast to a very exclusive Kladders only club. Knowing myself, I’ve gotten pretty proactive about planning stuff for us to do including family activities and date nights just the two of us after the kids go to bed. We’ve done some virtual happy hours, streamed church service the last two Sundays and taken more time to watch the sunrise in the morning. And you better believe that if the roses were out right now, we’d be smelling them.
I’m sharing some of our highlights along with a few other things that have kept us occupied AND efficient because you can’t spell ‘Nichole’ without the word ‘efficient!’
FAMILY ACTIVITIES…
Hobo Pies & S’mores in the Backyard Fire Pit
Family Bike Ride around Reeds Lake
Make Your Own Pizza Night
Fort Building (neighbors great idea) Basement Takeover!
DATE NIGHT Ideas…
Hot Tub & Cocktails - I heard Costco is still open… they sell hot tubs. Just saying.
Happy Hour & Conversation in the 4-Chair Space
Movie Night & Wine
And basically anything else that includes alcohol.
We’re WATCHING…
Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime
The Durrells of Corfu also on Amazon Prime (this one I’m watching solo)
Next up, we’ll dive back into West World on HBO so we can have debriefs with the neighbors.
LISTENING To…
WeCrashed - the Rise & Fall of WeWork
The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast (currently in the middle of Michael Osterholm interview)
We’re READING…
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and I’m pretty excited to watch the newly released movie on Hulu starring Reese Witherspoon.
Jeff is still reading the Expanse Series… which is like a billion books long and super nerdy.
We’re SUPPORTING LOCAL with some of our favs…
The Dailey Method is still offering classes online and as much as I hate home workouts I’m continuing my membership to balance out my increased snacking.
Harmony for all your pizza (and beer) delivery needs.
Terra GR for take home dinners done right. I recommend the Kale Caesar.
Leon & Son offers 15% off cases (mix and match) and we stocked up.
The amazing Jill DeVries Photography is currently running a special for mini family portrait sessions for $150 (a steal!). We bought ours and cannot wait to cash in later this summer.
Last thought, while listening to an episode of the Joe Rogan Podcast featuring Michael Osterholm, he said, “We’re currently looking at this virus as a blizzard and we need to start looking at it like a winter.” In other words, this isn’t going away tomorrow. It’s here for an entire season. Get your sweaters and boots back out, my friends.
My hope is that we can all remember to be kind to one another as well as understand that everyone’s breaking point is different. One persons worst day is potentially someone else’s typical weekday. People have different levels of afraid and nervousness. It’s all relative. So just please keep smiling at everyone you see, wave at them and remember that this too shall pass.
