Where We Are Now: March 24, 2020
Work From Home Day 9 — Real People — Real Feelings! — 5:50AM
Team –
Good morning on another inspiring day!
If you think about it, every day is an inspiring day! Our days are what we make of them, how we act, behave, compete and inspire others.
In the past two weeks, I have become closer and closer to all of you as we are sequestered to our homes. It’s amazing what distance and adversity does to gather people around common causes; whatever they may be. We gather in new and different ways. I am humbled and honored by so many heartfelt emails.
For us common causes are safe families in homes, teamwork, communities and the pursuit of dreams! It’s not about transactions or “houses in boxes” via advertisements. It’s humbling to get to know so many of you and share our stories. Keep ’em coming!
Why did it take SIP and adversity? Candidly, it’s because our world, as we know it, was put on pause, all at the same time. We all had to hit the reset button at the exact same time. The reset takes us back to core values and diminishes the noise in our lives.
What is changing now? For us, we are aggressively reducing costs, dialing down marketing and advertising unless is it’s compassionate about homes, people or children. Our thoughts are deep on health, safety, community activities and thinking about others. It’s wonderful to see.
We started the day yesterday with an all-employee call. On the call we shared what our challenges will be ahead. Everyone has access to news, most is not compelling, positive or inspiring. We shared with our team our path forward and most of all how amazed we are at USA consumers’ determination to own a home.
Fiscally, we elected not to take steps to engage with layoffs. Together all employees will share in a 20% income reduction in order to keep the team entirely engaged. This 20% reduction is scheduled for a period of 60 days from March 30th – May 31st. It’s our hope we roll back to productive times in May and the velocity of our industry rebounds and ultimately thrives.
That’s a wow in my mind! Team committed to each other.
There is not a day that has gone by in the last thirty, that I have not reflected on my experiences of the great recession. If I can find some free time, I will write a timeline of my journey in residential real estate from 2006 – tomorrow. I’ll share it with you, it’s not to be a book; just a simple sharing of our journey from 2006 to now! You have all played a role!
For today, try to inspire others!
Talk soon!
Mark
Mark A McLaughlin