MAKING IT THROUGH
Woodruff Scientific persists in coronavirus era
By Simon Woodruff For The NewMexican Apr 13, 2020
Photo Credit: Luis SánchezSaturno/The New Mexican
Editor’s Note: As COVID-19 gripsbusiness and employees throughout New Mexico,The New Mexican is asking some to chronicle their experience through thisunprecedented crisis.
The day things changed for us atWoodruff Scientific was the morning of March 23, when a customer called todelay shipment of his order “until the coronavirus had passed.”
The reason?
Due to lockdown orders, the customerdidn’t know if his company could receive it. But this was a big job we had beenworking on through the weekend to get out the door, so I had to explain that wewould not make payroll unless the order left the lab.
He called his management, and in theinterim, I called the shipping company to ensure they could deliver.
Finally, he got clearance and weshipped.
But that’s when I knew things wouldbe different.
Customers are working from home, andsome are managing to get orders to us, but everything is slower or delayed. Wehave seen new contracts evaporate — one of our biggest clients has laid offthousands of workers and is itself requesting a bailout.
We were in the process of hiring buthave had to put that on hold. A government contract is in limbo. Sales andmarketing trips have been canceled. New partnerships have been put on ice.
After the stay-at-home order fromthe governor on March 23, we let most staff set up at home. We are stayingopen, but out of seven staff, only two are in the lab keeping things moving(while distancing and maintaining a fastidious cleaning schedule).
Our Seattle office closed a monthbefore the lockdown here, but we already were used to working remotely, stayingproductive over video calls and sharing docs with staff at home.
However, this is not an idealteleworking situation: Both of my boys (kindergarten and third grade) are homealso, doing their classes over Google Classroom and videoconferencing with theirteachers. My wife and I juggle our work and home responsibilities,communicating about upcoming meetings so we don’t have kids wandering into thevideo call, as in a now-famous BBC interview that illuminated just what it’slike to share a workspace with children.
It has been exhausting.
But it is not all bad.
There is a super-supportivecommunity of small businesses in Santa Fe, organized in part through the SantaFe Business Incubator, which now hosts its regular meetings virtually and onSlack. We are discussing what we can do in response to COVID-19.
We followed the COVID-19 stimulusbill closely and are exploring our options. We persist, we innovate.
As a family, wagons are circling: Weare talking and working through worries about our relatives in New York City,the United Kingdom and Australia, communicating daily over video calls. In thelast few days, I have seen more of my sons than in the last few monthscombined. I love seeing into their workdays and helping them. The youngestsaid, “I love having Teacher Mama.”
Though isolated at home mostly, weare not alone — we are in this together with everyone in Santa Fe and aroundthe world. No one is unaffected. We’ll get to the other side of it, but thereare indicators that home, school and work life will never be the same. Staywell, and flatten the curve!
Linkto Article: https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/business/woodruff-scientific-persists-in-coronavirus-era/article_006087fa-7912-11ea-8342-db30957a9ad6.html?fbclid=IwAR20NFkpnagY5hKrtPjb6Ny6Fk_YvToTUhzYh3vH7tnX0fi2im3EGUdzzXU
