From Gala to COVID-19 Hospital – Stephen Says, April 15, 2020

 CAREERS: STEPHEN SAYS

 
 The 35th Annual Interior Design Hall of Fame Gala was Held in December 2019 at the River Pavilion, Javits Center NYC, and Now it is a COVID-19 Hospital. That is Surreal!
 
 You can send your workplace questions to Stephen at: StephenSays@bellow.press
 
 Questions selected to be answered, will appear in this column. Please use the Subject: Stephen Says for all emails. Stephen Viscusi is a bestselling author, television personality, and CEO of The Viscusi Group, global executive recruiters located in New York. Follow Stephen on Twitter @stephenviscusi. Like Stephen on Facebook and follow him on LinkedIn.
 
 These times are unprecedented and communication is our life line. I have received so many nice e-mails from our clients and candidates around the country who follow me on social media or see me on TV. Thank you! I decided to dedicate this week’s column to sharing my own self-quarantine experience in New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.
 
 TVG offices are in mid-town Manhattan in a skyscraper on Sixth Avenue. On a “normal” weekday morning I would walk through Rockefeller Center and see people from all over the country standing outside the TODAY show studios, cheering on Hoda and Savanah. By coincidence, Herman Miller’s NYC showroom and office was in the same building as us, until they moved all the divisions downtown to their own building. I’d run into Herman Miller people on the elevator and, as a headhunter, you can imagine the interesting conversations that we had. And I can see the Knoll showroom and executive offices diagonally from my own office window now. In other words, we’re in the center of the action.
 
 At TVG we have private offices because we are interviewing candidates in person which does not lend itself to “open office” or benching systems, as you can imagine. All TVG employees started working from home at the end of March. I have never worked from home before. Good recruiting does not lend itself to being home because you want to interview candidates in person whenever possible, but we will make it work. At TVG we have daily team meetings via Zoom instead of holding them in our conference room and we now interview candidates on the telephone and Skype or Zoom instead of in person. Like all of you, we wonder when this will be over.
 
 I live in Manhattan on the upper west side near Central Park. A block away is the landmark building called The Dakota. Built in 1885, it’s famously known as the building where John Lennon lived until he was
 murdered on the sidewalk in front of the building and it’s also the location of the movie Rosemary’s Baby. What is like to be in New York City during a pandemic? Scary for sure, but not as bad as you might think. I
 have a spacious 2 floor, 3 bedroom apartment and more space to roam around in than some friends have in a regular house. I am truly blessed.
 
 Think of this, it blows my mind: Jacob Javits Convention Center in NYC that was the location of the Interior Design Hall of Fame Dinner less then 4 months ago is now a 2,500 bed coronavirus hospital.
 Maybe the table I sat at is now where a ventilator sits. And the Javits Center is also the same location I would have been in May for ICFF. Unreal right? Then Central Park, which is at the end of my street and where I jog
 around the reservoir each morning, is now set up with hospital tents and there’s a frenzied group of heroic doctors, nurses and first-responders working to save virus victims. Many people have left the City during the
 crisis, to stay at their country homes or to move back into their parent’s home in the suburbs but I feel safe here, in the city never sleeps - and by the way, I am having a hard time sleeping myself!
 
 Here is how we do social distancing in NYC. The Trader Joe’s near me only allows 25 people in the store at one time and all employees must wear masks and now, installed just yesterday, they have plexiglass partitions built around each cashier and an “X” marked on the floor so we keep a certain distance apart. Costco the same (yes we have one Costco in NYC!). There are lines but with a game on my smart phone it goes fast,
 and I keep telling myself it’s temporary. I am a bit neurotic so I bought masks when you could still get them, and plenty of latex gloves. Here is a tip for you, when you do have to be out wear your glasses or sunglasses
 at all times, to protect your eyes!
 
 I spend my work day on the phone with clients, and they all seem busy. I work from my Womb chair. That is my home office, if I tire of that chair I move to another room and to my Eames chair. That’s all I need for my home office. Many are frustrated that they need to furlough or let people go. Mostly everyone has taken a pay cut, including me. Candidates who have lost jobs, call too. Most of the people released so far are not in sales or revenue
 generating positions. Yet everyone is scared. I explain to people who call who lost their jobs how to apply for unemployment insurance, and then how to find their next job, on their own. I tell them to be a little flexible on salary requirements as they look for a new job. Companies are still planning on hiring between June and September and none of the searches we have been retained for have been put on hold. How can that be? It is because companies still need good people and they always will. Smart HR departments want to be prepared for when the market returns. Sadly, some of the stories I hear make me think that some sales people that were let go under the
 guise of COVID 19 were really an opportunity for a company to down size or to get rid of sales people that have not been performing.
 
 How am I emotionally? A wreck, probably just like you. The cat and mouse of the virus is getting to me.
 
 Will I get it? If I cough I wonder: do I have it? Business outlook: seems OK now but will it continue? Can’t sleep and watching too much TV. Worried about my son who lives in California and hoping he is taking this pandemic as seriously as I am. TVG is located in NYC but our searches are all over the country, currently in Grand Rapids, San Francisco, Texas, North Carolina and Atlanta. Many areas are not yet hard hit like NYC. We sold a search this week in Salt Lake City and the client was a floorcovering company and they were asking me questions about NYC, like they barely knew there was a pandemic. So I hear different perspectives from everywhere across the U.S. I worry about my clients and the candidates we have placed over the years and wonder how I can help them. Finally, I do a lot of praying. My church has a Facebook page and I virtually “attend” a 5:30 Mass each day. I need it.
 Checking in with my God every day works for me.
 
 Finally I have a large social media following and presence on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and I reach out to my followers each day. I have been to the TV studio to tape workplace segments for the syndicated TV show “Inside Edition” and I am still a regular on the morning TV circuit so I hope you will watch for me on TV.
 
 Hey, thanks for listening. So tell me how you are doing, write me or even call the office. Yes, I am around and happy to share my advice and we can exchange stories. It really helps.
 Next week I am back to my regular format so keep those workplace and job questions coming!
 
 Stephen