Work in the Time of COVID: How SMBH Stays Connected

As the pandemic wears on into the holidays, a difficult year has been made even more so by having to change our professional and family traditions to keep one another safe. It’s hard to feel connected to teammates that you no longer get to see every day and to keep living your company culture, but virtually. Well, we’ve tried a variety of ways to stay in touch with one another and thought that we would share our successes.

It’s no secret that parents are overwhelmed right now, so we have regular zoom meetings where our team members can talk to other parents. It’s been a great resource for parents to swap tips, as well as an opportunity for the leadership team to learn what challenges parents are facing and how best to help them.

We’ve been having monthly virtual happy hours, a great way to see the people we miss seeing around the office. It’s also been a good way for our new employees to meet the rest of the team and get a feel for SMBH culture – even if it’s only virtual.

We tried our hand at a new Coloring Contest and took our annual Halloween Costume Contest virtual this year. These were both great ways for our team members to do something fun, relax for a minute, and have a laugh.

The only in-person event since March, our annual Golf Outing, was an absolute treat. We made sure that everyone was properly socially distanced and masked (safety first, always) and then we hit the links for a lovely October afternoon!

What’s become very clear to us is how thankful we are about so many things – the activities we’ve been able to do instead of our usual traditions (which makes us even more thankful for the traditions we’re missing), our ability to do most of our work remotely and safely, one another as teammates and friends, our families and loved ones, and you, our client.