Survive, Revive, Thrive: Chapter 9: Apparent Horizon

Abstract

The definition of apparent horizon: the plane or line where the earth or water and sky seem to meet. If you do nothing, you get nothing.—Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese politician/diplomat/author, 1945 You get a lot of advice in this job. A former SPE President told me that these columns should never be about “where we (presidents) went and what we did last month; nobody’s interested in that.” While I have tried to abide by that rule, I can tell you that this past month was an extraordinarily full month, all from the computer screen, of course. I have dealt with the widest possible spectra of SPE membership from freshman students to geriatrics, like myself. It has been both exhausting and inspiring to see and feel the creativity and labor of our SPE members. As unsolicited advice, if you are looking for inspiration, then I encourage you to talk to those who have lost their jobs or even their businesses. I have dealt with several in both groups during the past month. Listen carefully to them. These colleagues look forward to when they can again contribute to our industry and they have that unique never-say-quit attitude that defines our industry. If you want to understand the word “resilience,” just listen. They are truly inspiring.Luck is where opportunity meets preparation. —Seneca, Roman writer, 54 BC–39 AD Frankly, I spend almost all of my time for SPE just as Seneca suggests. The modern interpretation of this is that “the harder I work, the luckier I get” (attributed to the golfer Arnold Palmer). Specifically, I am looking for that “apparent horizon” where SPE can best serve its members in a fashion that presents a multitude of significant opportunities. In short, we are getting prepared to be lucky. Life could be wonderful if people would leave you alone.—Charlie Chaplin, English actor, 1889–1977 The Year(s) of Living Virtually In a recent panel I was involved in, I confess I did not expect (nor hope) to be the one to get the question “Is work-from-home here to stay?”, but I did. I thought I should share my views so you can taunt me with how wrong I am or could be. The obvious answer is yes. The efficiency and effectiveness of work-from-home (or remote working) is well documented, and probably to no one’s surprise, people are working an average of 2 or more extra hours/day when working from home. The positives of work-from-home are obvious. Professionals can work very well with less supervision than anyone might have thought possible before the COVID pandemic. Occasional, or minimal commuting, provides a generally better home life and better time management, and there are exceptional (potential) cost savings from less commuting, travel, etc. There are also negatives for work-from-home. The really bad news is that we probably don’t need as many management personnel. There is significant meeting overload. A rule of thumb is that for 80% of the people, 80% of the meeting time is wasted time. Historically people must be seen in order to be seen as relevant. The presumption being that if one is not seen, then they are not working.