The tragic events of the COVID-19 pandemic have affected many, placing people and businesses out of their normal operating procedures. Individuals typically have routines consisting of a normalized work schedule, personal or family responsibilities, and hobbies or other choice activities, in addition to the drudgery like laundry and cleaning the bathroom. All these activities fall into day to day life. Businesses have routines as well. Monday morning sales meetings, Thursday weekly training sessions, safety meetings, sales calls, purchase order acknowledgements, payroll and other various activities that make the work world turn.
What should be done during an “upset” condition? Risk management in both our personal lives and work obligations needs to be a frequent topic. We must combine the worlds of our personal lives and our work lives because the reality of this “upset” condition impacts both.
As a rental boiler and related equipment supplier, in addition to a full-fledged engineering and procurement company, Nationwide is essential to keeping North America operating at survival capacity. Our customers producing food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and heat for hospitals and correctional facilities need us to be ready and available to continue to operate.
We also have the fiduciary responsibility to our employees to keep them healthy. In the office we are maintaining the required distance between people. We are washing down high contact areas; employees are even working from home. In the shop, where we work on the equipment that generates steam, feedwater and emissions control, the team is twice as vigilant. Management must lead the team to help them do the job while maintaining their own health and safety. Good planning of where equipment is placed for maintenance while rerouting higher foot traffic areas for items like parts, welding machines, tools, etc. are all considerations thought through to keep the machine turning and our people safe.
So, the question, “Can a boiler rental company work from home?” is not that simple. Yes, sales, engineering, marketing, and accounting can do much of their work outside of the building. Boiler mechanics, testers, painters, QA and safety, in addition to leadership, needs to be hands on. There are gloves on those hands and masks on those smiles, but even in Silicon Valley there is no app for that.