From the Office of the CEO - Return to Office Plans
Date: June 23rd 2020
To: Mike Smith – CFO, Gayle Johnson – Chief People Officer
From: Elliott DeBeer, CEO
Re: Return to Office Plans
Mike & Gayle,
I just got off the phone with Martin Mallory of our parent company, OmniMedia. It seems that they have surrendered our office lease to the landlord, and we will be expected to share space, along with some other agencies in OmniMedia’s corporate office in midtown when we return to work.
Yes, I am flabbergasted!
Mike let’s see if we have any legal recourse.
Gayle, I’m sorry that all your detailed thoughts around floors plans, distancing and sanitation measures may have gone to waste, so let’s adapt what we can.
I loved the idea of the “COVID Safe Space” to enable our employees to interact wearing those NASA spacesuits we used for the American Aerospace pitch, so let’s see if we can keep that playroom area intact in a new environment. I do get that using the cappuccino machines and the foosball tables may make people uncomfortable and I guess spraying the handles and espresso nozzles with Lysol after every shot may affect the taste, so let’s rethink that piece of it.
I think a slogan to make folks feel comfortable about returning to the office may help, so I’m thinking we should announce this alongside the date as the Return to the Four C’s: Confidence, Collaboration, Creativity and Coffee. If we have to lose coffee for the reasons discussed, we can substitute Connectivity, Cognitive ability or another C word. Alliteration is Always Awesome!
Also, looking at the size of the OmniMedia building, the number of agencies and the number of elevators, our plan for one employee per elevator on the return to work will have to be re-thought. My back of the envelope calculation showed that if we invite back 25% of our staff, it will take 3 hours to get them all up to the 48th floor.
Leaving the Meatpacking District for mid-town will be a blow to many of us after all of this time. And I will be personally very upset to lose our seven meeting rooms named after the seven dwarf kingdoms of Middle Earth, but so be it for now.
Let’s talk through our subway policy as well as temperature taking protocols on our weekly Exec Team Zoom call shortly.
Yours,
Elliott
Elliott DeBeer, CEO, Lifeforce Agency (part of OmniMedia Inc)