Pub. 8 2019-2020 Issue 3

SPRING 2020 23 be open; it’s another to have your customers and employees feel safe enough to walk through your doors. What are you doing to support your employees? Well, at the start of this, Ron and I met, and we made a very conscious decision not to overreact. That’s not to say we weren’t concerned or didn’t take this seriously. We were concerned, and this virus was unlike anything we’ve encountered before. But we both felt that we needed to meet the times — unprecedented as they certainly were and still are —with competent and confident decisions. Between us, we have 350 employees, each with three to four family members, so we had the lives of 1,400 people resting on our decisions. We knew we needed to do the right thing. We did end up making an initial cut of about 22 people, but we did it after the first of April, so everyone had health insurance, at least through April. Some of our staff were essential, and some of our sales staff, we paid to stay home. Our thought process was that if we believed that this would pass and we would rebound — which we did and do — we would need our people. So, we made the call to keep our employees, and at that time, our SBA loans weren’t approved. We made the decisions we made on faith that we could manage our way out much better with our workforce intact. There was lots and lots of communication. We worked hard to keep the mystery out of it. Our employees were part of the conversation. They all had health insurance, and we encouraged all our employees to use our EAP if they needed it. What are two things that you have learned from past experiences that are helping you navigate now? Well, both Ron and I are old enough to remember the days of gas rationing, insanely high interest rates and the Great Recession. You learn not to panic and to take a step back. Get advice from trusted advisers so that you can make the best possible decision. The best advice I ever got was that one day doesn’t make a week, and one week doesn’t make a month, and a month doesn’t make a year, and a year doesn’t make a lifetime. Be patient. Continued on page 24