MUSINGS OF A CEO

Before March 10 I remained fairly convinced that the virus known as Covid-19 wouldn’t break horribly upon our shores. I don’t know what lead me to believe that, perhaps the lack of cases and the few deaths seen here so far, perhaps a false confidence that everything would work out somehow.  But while driving to work I listened to CNBC  as the market crashed. And I heard former Food and Drug Administrator Dr. Scott Gottlieb describe in harrowing terms the pandemic headed our way.  Without mitigation measures Covid-19 would sicken tens of millions and kill millions in a matter of weeks. Within 45 minutes my mind flipped completely.

I sped to the work and literally ran down the hall to the office of my chief operating officer Pallavi Joyappa and demanded the scheduling meeting due to start in 10 minutes which stuffs 25 people into a small conference room be conducted on a conference call instead.  We had to start social distancing, I said, we had to make major changes now to make sure people didn’t get sick and die.  Over the next three and a half days our company, lead by our Ops team, completely changed how we did business.  We required people to use iso-propyl alcohol to wipe down machines at the beginning and end of each shift.  We hired two people per shift to disinfect the rest of the factory and offices. Customers and suppliers no longer could come on-site nor were truckers allowed inside.  We positioned hand sanitizers around the facility, requiring people to wash hands and sanitize before clocking into work. We staggered breaks and lunches, and reconfigured cafeteria tables to ensure social distancing. New systems were implemented so people could work from home. Overnight we went from 22 people in the office to just eight.  Finally, we held shift meetings to explain the changes and emphasize the seriousness of the conflagration on the horizon.

On Friday evening March 13 I breathed as sigh of relief. We had done what we could. Now we had to get back to work. But over the next several weeks Covid defined the contours of business for me and the rest of the company.  It seemed every day I’d come to the office expecting to deal with one set of challenges only to end up back confronting  Covid issues.  We had to write new protocols for health and hygiene including an ironclad rule that people not come to work if they had Covid symptoms or go home if they developed while at work. Employees had to stay home for 14 days if someone in their household got Covid. We decided to pay for Covid absences in order to encourage people not to come in. We instituted a protocol for reporting Covid symptoms. And we worked with our insurance company to pay for any hospitalization costs not covered under our plan.

It seemed to never end. When Alameda County closed all but essential businesses we had to make sure we stayed open so we could supply packaging to our produce customers.  Local officials helped us understand the regulations and we wrote letters for our employees identifying them as working for an essential business in case a sheriff or police officer stopped them while coming to work. We posted notices on our doors and asked customers to give us letters saying we were a supplier to an essential industry. We had to do it all over again when the state of California closed non-essential businesses across the state.

Meanwhile the list of new protocols grew. We implemented temperature checks the moment the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission allowed companies to do so. I bought about 10 temperature guns out of China that read only in centigrade — they were the only ones I could find — and Operations Director Michael Rincon distributed them to shift leaders and trained them how to use.  But then we noticed people bunched together while waiting for the checks as they entered and left the factory so we had to space people six feet apart by marking where to stand as they waited to get checked.  To make sure we took everyone’s temperature we decreed that people had to come and go through a single door in both of our buildings. We asked employees to observe social distancing rules in the factory which wasn’t easy given the noise from our printing presses and bag-making machines. We solved this by distributing masks and mandated wearing them.

We found we had to over-communicate with employees to make sure they understood the reasons behind the new protocols and the need to follow them. We began weekly shift meetings outside the facility where people could socially distance while being close enough to hear me speak, in a voice that would become increasingly raspy.  At the beginning people were stunned by our decision to make changes because the virus hadn’t begun its rampage and the federal government hadn’t started moving. I patiently described the violence headed towards us and the economic implications, including high unemployment. Following the protocols would allow us to stay open, enabling them to keep their jobs.  Work had become a matter of life and death I hammered home thanks to Covid. Each week we announced new measures and asked for suggestions. An important one involved replenishing cleaning supplies and soap on weekends when managers weren’t around to supervise.

Just as I thought we had things in hand we had our first real crisis. Rumors swept the factory that an employee had Covid and that we had covered it up.  Yet the employee had not communicated his condition to any manager.  We were blindsided. We had to chase him down only to find out he didn’t have Covid though he had posted a warning the night before on his Instagram account that he might have it because he had a high temperature and body aches, though they subsequently went away. We disciplined the employee for not following our reporting protocol and causing panic in the facility.  We then created posters which graphically displayed our Covid reporting rules and posted them around the factory.

Two weeks later we had our first real scare. An employee, following our new work rule, reported to a manager at work that he did not feel well — chills and joint aches — and we sent him home. Our human resource manager Diana Gonzalez checked on him later in the day and he had a temperature, so they advised him to get tested which he did the next day.  His father and brother, who also worked for us, were asked to quarantine at home until we got word. We meet with his shift to dampen panic. And then shut down the department and to do a major cleaning, including spraying the floor with disinfectant.  The following day his verdict came in — no Covid. Relief abounded.

Our costs for doing these things have added up. Between the six cleaners, lost production time disinfecting machines and Covid sick days, and the purchase of a computer system that automates temperature taking, the bill hit $250,000 in five weeks. I thought about putting a temporary price increase through to help pay the tab but then decided against it. Many of our customers, it turns out, were getting battered by lower prices as growers that used to sell to hotels and airlines and restaurants had dumped their product onto the retail market.

We implemented our Covid changes while bookings rose over 100%, introducing challenges of another sort. We scrambled to meet deliveries which we did often by the skin of our teeth. Fortunately, most customers worked with us to prioritize their orders but we continually asked for more overtime, as employees had to fill in for those who got sick or worried they might have Covid. During this time we also finished installation of a new printing press and a new bag machine during these weeks. These are Herculean tasks at the best of times. We also threw ourselves into community service, donating n95 and surgical masks and other person protective equipment to local hospitals. We even made plastic surgical gowns for nurses and doctors.

Even matters like finance became Covid driven. I made sure we had enough cash available to survive for many months if sales tanked due to a deep recession or the closure of customers due to Covid cases. We applied for a Payroll Protection Program loan to cover our employee costs if things went sideways. Our controller Marty Ankenbauer did a brilliant job getting our application in and the bank moved quickly. The loan approval was one of the happier moments of my career.

I know for the eight of us who made it into the office each day, these have been the most stressful days of our working lives. We not only had to meet delivery dates, we had to keep our employees safe. I constantly emphasized that working now meant battling with death.  Personally I have battled the worst asthma since my childhood, thanks to an explosive pollen season and doctor refusals to prescribe common steroid treatments for fear they’d compromise my immune system. The overlap between asthma and Covid symptoms unnerved me, as did the knowledge that if I did get Covid the odds of a bad outcome increased thanks to my compromised lungs.  But I felt I had no choice but to go to work, where the odds of catching the virus certainly were higher than if I stayed home. If I asked others to work, I had to as well. I knew I had to lead by example, not allowing fear dictate my actions.

It’s now April 26 and six weeks have passed. We’re still rolling out new protocols. Last week we created a company-wide SMS broadcast system to more easily communicate with employees. At the same time I could feel a more measured pace settling in, with more room for the tasks I normally do. People have begun taking time-off to recover from the punishment meted by the previous weeks. We’re smiling more it seems. But I don’t kid myself. It hasn’t grown any less stressful looking over my shoulder at a virus that may yet morph in unexpected ways.  And the thought that someone may get Covid at work continues to haunt me. The new normal has arrived.

Dedicated to those in sales and operations who have made it possible.