In work-from-home era, some CEOs miss seeing their staff in person

By Herald Staff

Updated October 16, 2020 4:40 PM

Dance NOW! Miami created a series of COVID(eos) reflecting the fear of contagion and the need for intimacy that have made Zoom gatherings a daily occurance.... South Florida CEOs were asked: What has been the most challenging part of working from home for you? And how have you adapted? Miami

In a pre-COVID world, we would customarily sit with our younger attorneys to review documents or materials related to a litigation or transactional matter. As a result, the most challenging part of working from home has been recreating in-person training by using telephone or Zoom.

Luis Flores, managing partner, Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr’s Miami office

As with most businesses, most of our staff is working remotely. Since our retail operations shifted largely to e-commerce, a few employees have remained in the office to fulfill online orders and handle customer service. Thanks to our strong online presence before the pandemic, adapting to this new way of doing business was relatively seamless for us. Our previously scheduled exhibitions and research expeditions are on hold for now, though we continue to work with our local research partners to deploy satellite tracking tags on sharks and billfish to keep much of our scientific program on schedule. Zoom is our go to for “face-to-face” meetings with our team, partners and potential sponsors. We also began promoting our free educational videos at GuyHarvey.com as well as marine-inspired art instruction sessions my daughter Jessica and I began to do live on Facebook and Instagram where I share my art techniques, talk about where I draw my inspiration from and take questions from viewers. We recently partnered with Discovery Education to develop online marine science courses that will be available to students globally, filling the gap in marine science and conservation education.

Guy Harvey, founder, Guy Harvey Enterprises

As a 57-year-old who is not as well versed in technology as younger colleagues, on-line meeting platforms can present challenges. Zoom seemed to be the standard in the early months of the shutdown – but now other software is being utilized by various vendors and partners and it is all taking a toll. It requires additional log-in time to make certain that software is downloaded. The more competing meeting platforms on the market, the more confusing it gets.

David Jobin, president, CEO of Our Fund Foundation

The most challenging part of working from home is being able to coordinate and work collaboratively with my team. While we communicate daily via email, text messaging, phone calls and regular zoom meetings, nothing can replace the human interaction, which I truly enjoy the most. But for now, we continue to improve our infrastructure for remote team participation. We have introduced various new software programs to assist in collaboration and dissemination of information. To us, it is imperative that we are in constant communication to achieve the team’s goals.

Coralee Penabad, principal, Urban-X

As an organization, the quick transition to work from home went smoothly and has not been an insurmountable challenge. We “table top” this type scenario and test it regularly in preparation for hurricane season. The concern we have is the diminished interaction time of the team working together at HQ. The collaboration, team building, shared innovation efforts, etc. have been impacted by the isolated context of remote working. We are looking forward to prudently and safely bringing the team back together on-site in mid-October.

Allan Prindle

CEO, Power Financial Credit Union

I miss connecting with my community and the amazing YWCA South Florida team. Though we have reopened, we have minimized traffic into the buildings to keep our clients and front-line staff as safe as possible. I miss seeing everyone and their unmasked smiles, hearing women and young people in our hallways, exchanging hugs, and breaking bread while we brainstorm and problem-solve together.

Kerry-Ann Royes, CEO, YWCA South Florida

I continue to go into the gallery- there are very few visitors and we enforce mask wearing.

Mindy Solomon, owner, director, Mindy Solomon Gallery

The most challenging part of working from home for me has been not being able to be as spontaneous with new idea generation or program development. Before this shift, it was a lot easier to communicate as we were all together at the museum with open offices and this naturally lead to regular interaction and brainstorming.

Frank Steslow, president, CEO, Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science

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THE MIAMI HERALD CEO ROUNDTABLE IS A WEEKLY FEATURE THAT APPEARS IN BUSINESS MONDAY OF THE MIAMI HERALD. RECENT QUESTIONS TO THE ROUNDTABLE HAVE INCLUDED:

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