Drew in the Morning!
What happens when you give a guy from the RGV a platform to talk about the latest news, politics and musings of South Texas with his friends? Come find out.
Drew in the Morning!
Nappers Need Not Apply - Return to Office is Here! Also, why do boomers drink?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The workplace landscape is transforming before our eyes. What began as a temporary pandemic adaptation has evolved into a full-blown revolution in how companies approach work culture, accountability, and employee expectations.
Corporate America is making bold moves toward re-establishing in-office cultures. AT&T's CEO recently circulated a memo that struck a chord across industries, essentially telling employees that if remote work is their preference, perhaps AT&T isn't the right company for them. This isn't just about physical presence—it represents a fundamental shift away from tenure-based compensation toward rewarding capability, contribution, and commitment.
Why this sudden push for accountability? During the remote work era, many organizations experienced a slow erosion of workplace standards. The pandemic blurred boundaries between professional and personal life, creating confusion between working your life around your job versus your job around your life. As companies face increasing economic uncertainty, leadership teams are doubling down on performance metrics and collaborative environments they believe drive innovation and results.
The generational component cannot be ignored. Younger workers show different patterns in everything from alcohol consumption (down significantly compared to previous generations) to workplace expectations. This creates natural tension as organizations populated by multiple generations attempt to establish cohesive cultures that satisfy diverse needs.
For job seekers navigating this evolving landscape, the message is clear: know yourself and your values. Interview potential employers just as thoroughly as they interview you. Understand what you need to feel fulfilled professionally, and recognize that the right workplace fit might matter more than salary or title. Whether you thrive in high-accountability, in-person environments or prefer more autonomous arrangements, finding alignment between personal values and company culture has never been more crucial.
Have you experienced the return-to-office push at your workplace? We'd love to hear your perspective on how these cultural shifts are affecting your professional life. Share your thoughts and join the conversation!
Morning Multitasking Challenges
Speaker 1Good morning .
Speaker 2Good morning .
Speaker 1How are you ?
Speaker 2I'm good you know , a little hectic Ever feel like your mind is racing and you can't like you can't just lock down one thing to accomplish it and move on . I know we're supposed to do one thing at a time , but I feel like I've got 65 things I'm trying to do all at the same time .
Speaker 1Yeah , and then you prioritize Well .
Speaker 2yeah , but I want to get it all done well yeah , but you have to prioritize in order to get done what you want . Yeah , I hear you , but I'm talking about I want to get it all done right now , mainly because I want to take a nap . If I get it all done within the hour , then that means I can take a nap where are you gonna take a nap ?
Speaker 1I'm not gonna take a nap .
Speaker 2I dream of one day being the person
Desk Napping Confessions
Speaker 2that can take a nap . Dude , you know , but I don't know how to take a nap so I used to have this office .
Speaker 1We we had this big um like a big open area at this isp that I worked at and we had all these little desks out there and one day our general manager decided that he wanted to build offices for some of us and so I got an office . And I got this really great office with the desk in it , and I would close the door and turn on my music . I would crawl underneath my desk and take a nap . It was awesome . And then they started doing it in Seinfeld . It was like George Costanza would take a nap .
Speaker 2Wait , hold on Back up . You were taking naps under your desk .
Speaker 1Man , you know , you know what sucks . Hold on , Let me just say you know what sucks about someone who starts texting in the middle of a conversation .
Speaker 2Oh my God , I was finishing something .
Speaker 1Is that now I have to go back and repeat myself because you didn't think our conversation was worthy enough for your attention ? No , that's not what happened .
Speaker 2That's what you did . You didn't realize that I was in the middle of a conversation . That's not true . And you decided to interrupt with your verbal conversation and interrupted my texting conversation and now you're upset . If someone's talking to you , you don't pick up your phone and start tapping , I have to respond and say I will be , you don't have to respond . Yes , actually , actually , I did have to respond .
Speaker 1It's imperative that you responded within that 30 seconds , absolutely .
Speaker 2But if you want to get an answer , we can .
Speaker 1Just saying man Whatever .
Speaker 2You fit under the desk or not , because I can't picture it .
Speaker 1That's what your concern is . Well , because logistically I don't know how that works out . So I feel like I may have heard wrong .
Speaker 2No , I probably did no , no , I didn't know how that works out , so I feel like I may have heard Rob .
Speaker 1No .
Speaker 2I probably did no . No , I didn't hear Rob . Well , because you weren't listening , but somehow here I took away the important part . Okay , your 6'5 body fit underneath the desk .
Speaker 1It was a big desk , A giant desk apparently Did you have a pillow ? Yeah , I had a neck pillow . No , yeah , and I would put the neck pillow down and use it as a pillow .
Speaker 2Did you have snacks ?
Speaker 1No , I never really got snacks , and so the thing was , we all used to smoke at that time right , wait , wait , wait , wait .
Speaker 2How old were you ? Man , I don't know Because what grown man gets underneath the desk to take a nap ?
Speaker 1Was I 21 yet ? Yeah , I guess I was 21 already . Okay .
Speaker 2I don't remember man . Hey , but lots of people take naps .
Speaker 1Yeah , I was like 20 years old . This is like 2000 . Somewhere around 2000 .
Speaker 2I may or may not have someone in my office right now that closes the door after lunchtime and puts his head back on his little chair .
Speaker 1Well , so it was funny , but you know that they're there . So what I would do is all of us smoked at the time and we'd all go down and take a smoke break , and so I guess the universal symbol was that if you weren't in your office and you closed your door , you were downstairs .
Speaker 2Smoking .
Speaker 1You know , having a stogie . Well , I guess stogie is for a cigar , but we always called them stogies .
Speaker 2We never smoked .
Speaker 1Smoking a square .
Speaker 2I couldn't .
Speaker 1Anyway . So people thought I was just downstairs taking a smoke .
Speaker 2But I was taking a nap , and how long did these naps last ?
Speaker 1I have no idea . I was asleep .
Speaker 2I would have fired you .
Speaker 1I've been taking naps like that for years and then when I lived in Mexico City , that was the best because they were like it's nap time and I'm like this is the most amazing country in the world .
Generational Drinking Habits
Speaker 2I think I'd have a hard time .
Speaker 1You wake up angry from naps .
Speaker 2Yeah , from naps . Yes , that's why I don't nap .
Speaker 1It puts me in a whole tailspin . If I get woken up before I'm ready to wake up from a nap , I get this pounding headache .
Speaker 2Maybe that's why you shouldn't nap , no , maybe that's why you shouldn't nap .
Speaker 1No , maybe that's why you shouldn't wake me up .
Speaker 2Well , I mean , I don't know how that works , I don't know what the limits of nap time are , but I can't do it .
Speaker 1Moving on , hey , I'm recording this , by the way . Oh great I don't know if it's going to come out . I tried to record that conversation we were having the other day , but that was a good conversation actually . The phone was synced up on Bluetooth .
Speaker 2Is this synced up ? No , I brought my fancy . This is not on the phone . It's not . I brought my fancy recorder . Oh , and last time you tried to do it from your phone . I brought my fancy recorder . Oh , and last time you tried to do it from your phone .
Speaker 1Yeah , no , I feel like this is going to have to be a redo , because I'm not prepared what I'm not prepared to have a conversation .
Speaker 2I'm not in the right mindset . You know the first reason why you stopped doing the podcast with me I don't know if I like you today .
Speaker 1You don't like me today .
Speaker 2No , I do like you today , but I'm not like in my moment . I need a little more caffeine , a little more oomph . What time do you get your oomph in the morning ?
Speaker 1I don't know .
Speaker 2You know for as loud and cheery as I am .
Speaker 1I'll give you the loud part For as loud and cheery , as I am . As loud as you are .
Speaker 2It takes me a minute in the morning . I have to be a little quiet . I don't wake up wanting to be loud or as cheery .
Speaker 1I wake up just ready to go . I wake up , switched on .
Speaker 2Because you don't realize I don't talk a whole lot in the morning . It takes me a minute .
Speaker 1I like to wake up . I like some music jamming . I like to wake up , I like some music jamming . You know what's been different ? I like to grab a cup of coffee . I'm like , ready to rock and roll .
Speaker 2I'm not ready to rock and roll . It takes me just a little bit , a little bit of time . That's why I like going to work out in the morning , because then that gets me ready to go , and so if I come back after the workout I'm like whoo , it's on . You think sometimes they get your motor going .
Speaker 1Is that what ?
Speaker 2you're saying yeah , if not , you're the only one grinding my gears . This is fucking like true boomers , oh Okay . So , speaking of boomers , I was reading an article how the new generation , which is what ? What's the current , like normal age generation , like the kids that are 20 to 30 , what is that ?
Speaker 120 to 30 , yeah , millennials so there's still millennials what's underneath the millennials .
Speaker 2Okay , well then I guess the alpha guys they're not drinking as much as the millennials they're not , or boomers and the millennials they're not , or boomers , and the statistics are insane .
Speaker 1It's insane .
Speaker 2It's down considerably . I saw it yesterday . It popped up on something and I thought to myself well , if y'all aren't drinking , what are you doing ?
Speaker 2Then it led me into a whole other conversation . As to now that I'm a little more mature , I had a great conversation with a client who was telling me how he completely stopped drinking and at the time he was probably , I guess maybe two or three months sober . And what he's done to kind of combat the peer pressure of having to have a drink when you're amongst your friends is he just takes with him his I guess alcohol-free beer Okay , and that at least gives him the kind of illusion Near beer .
Speaker 2Right and it gives him the illusion , or like the feeling , that he's actually drinking and then he doesn't wake up sick or hungover or anything sort of the next day 20% of adults age 60 to 64 currently report binge drinking .
Speaker 2I mean think about it though . So the binge drinking I'm going to say something that sounds wild , and I don't mean go out and do anything . I say to do , but binge drinking is really the only way to do it , because Monday through Friday we're all stuck working and having our responsibilities . So what happens Friday ? You rip off the band-aid and you're like I done for the weekend .
Speaker 1The kids are , you know , either home or continue so you're saying and then you grab one margarita , two margaritas , a pitcher of margarita three margarita floor and then , yeah , you remember that shirt from spring break white , I do .
Speaker 2But I also remember that other song , one margarita something .
Speaker 1Anyway , it's a tick tock so the question is do you believe in moderation in excess or excess in moderation ? What you're saying is excess in moderation . If you're going to go , go big , is that what we're ?
Speaker 2getting to . No , I'm not . Look at this guy for real . Oh my , that could have been an accident .
Speaker 1That's cool , just pull out in front of me , that's nice . At least he pulled out in front of me . That's nice , at least they pulled out .
Return to Office Mandates
Speaker 1The life habits are difficult to break for boomers , but other risk factors are also involved . As people age , they encounter triggers that may lead them to misuse of alcohol . This is why boomers drink Retirement boredom , social isolation and grief .
Speaker 2Wow .
Speaker 1Wow , let's get old .
Speaker 2No , that's not why I drink .
Speaker 1You're not a boomer . Over the past two decades , 65% of baby boomers continue to drink , and the number of these adults who are older than 65 have a 25% higher drinking rate than the national average . Boomers dog , that's what they do .
Speaker 2They drink . I got to find some old friends . They sound like a good time .
Speaker 1Well , but think about it , there are people who had the , you know .
Speaker 2They're done .
Speaker 1Responsibilities are somewhat over made . The the the martini after work , every day the scotch when you get home , the nightcap . You know what I mean . Like there's , that's that generation of of people that imbibe Okay , but Okay but this goes back to what I was saying .
Speaker 1So if the youngins today are not drinking , what are they doing ? So for a little while , marijuana was on this total rise right , everybody was smoking pot . Everybody was doing the gummies , so that would be 37-year-olds today reported drinking alcohol in 2023 down from 72% , so 62 . Down from 72 20 years before , so 10% decrease . That compares to 69% of adults aged 35 to 54 , whose drinking habits have stayed consistent yeah I mean , we don't , we don't .
Speaker 1I don't feel like our drinking habits have changed . You know what ? What really changed drinking habits was um covet dude . Oh yeah , damn , we drank a lot during covet . Like we drank so much during covet but was it just us drinking ? No , the whole world was drinking during COVID . It was tough for people that may have been borderline alcoholics . I work with someone who quit drinking completely because during COVID , yeah , I was just binge drinking over and over . It's like what are you going to do today ? Nothing . The world's not doing anything . Let's drink .
Speaker 2Let's drink , and that's what it was . I'm fascinated to find out the liver studies of this time Like what's resulted in this .
Speaker 1I don't know man .
Speaker 2Okay , so going back to this generational thing , covid , the outcomes that have happened . So the kids that now were in COVID that were in their prime years of high school , that had to be shelter in place for those two years , last two years of high school , maybe first two years of high school they're now in the workforce , right ? They're now 18 years old , they've gone out . Either they went to school or they didn't go to college . Like they either went to college or they didn't and they started working . What has the result been with the soft skills in the job market ?
Speaker 1I don't know . I mean . Well , here's . The thing is that even before then , when we were doing the nonprofit down here , the biggest thing that we could teach wasn't computer programming and it wasn't resume writing . It was soft skills . Everything that we needed to teach , like what we found out over time is yeah , granted , we taught some really technical things and we got people some really incredible jobs by teaching them how to be technically proficient and you know cybersecurity and coding and all this stuff , but the number one thing that we learned from all of that was that soft skills are absolutely the most important thing that you can teach anyone , and we pivoted to doing a lot of that because it wasn't .
Speaker 1It wasn't necessarily about like you can teach anybody how to code , but you can't teach .
Speaker 2It's really difficult to teach people how not to be an asshole or just kind of the common courtesy of working in the same space or in the same office how to interact with what the expectations are also like office etiquette . What the expectations are also like office etiquette right is it is it ? Do I need to tell someone not to wear yoga pants to work like that should just be an assumed we have an office etiquette that you should hold on hold on it .
Speaker 1That depends on your workplace environment , and so this is this is teeter-tottering on what we were talking about before about return to office .
Speaker 2I have a strong opinion about appearance in workplaces .
Speaker 1Okay , hold on , hold on , so okay , but I think it's important to understand what that workplace environment is , because if it's somewhere that's non-customer facing and you're just sitting in the back and you're grinding away and you're doing your job , is to stare at a computer screen and walk back and forth to a printer and just grind , grind , grind and you don't even talk to customers . You're just back there cranking away paperwork and customers are never going to see you . Then , in my opinion , wear whatever you want , because no one's going to see you .
Speaker 2Okay . So I don't believe in this , because a lot of , a lot of getting dressed and being forward facing and presenting like looking presentable , putting on clean jeans , a nice t-shirt I'm not saying you have to get an office wear . I'm not saying you have to wear slacks and pumps every day . I'm saying put on clean jeans and a clean shirt and look somewhat Well .
Speaker 1I'm saying put on clean jeans and a clean shirt and look somewhat put together . Well , you have to , yes , Brush your hair . Yes , Well , you're going anytime you're around people . But I'm saying don't I mean like yoga pants do and you're going to the office .
Speaker 2No , yoga pants are absolutely never okay to wear to the office .
Speaker 1What about meggings ?
Speaker 2Even worse .
Speaker 1The male jeggings , no man .
Speaker 2No one needs to see the outline of your panty line . Get out of here with that . Put real pants on .
Speaker 1Well , it's always fascinating to me when I go up to one of the offices in the Bay Area . You know typical tech , right ? You walk in , everyone's rocking a t-shirt and cargo shorts .
Speaker 2The cargo shorts I don't understand , but the t-shirt fine .
Speaker 1As long as you look , hey man , you might have to carry stuff , things , floppy disks , I don't know . You can put tools in all your pockets .
Speaker 2Yeah , man .
Speaker 1You've got to carry your megahertz around Like man .
Speaker 2Unless you're a fisherman , you really shouldn't be wearing cargo shorts , even at that . What if you're ?
Speaker 1What if you just want to feel ?
Speaker 2like a cool dude . I mean get out of here what if you need pockets . I hate your cargo shorts I'm not even dude . I haven't worn cargo shorts in forever . Why ? Why don't you wear cargo shorts ? Because you throw them away that's right , I have done you a favor whatever I got society a favor whatever , what if you want to feel tactical ?
Speaker 2there's no tactical in anything that you do . Focus , okay , but okay . So the career that comes back to work . Right , because it is return to office mode . We are in return to office mode If we're going to get things
Accountability in the Workplace
Speaker 2done , we're going to collaborate , we're going to work together and we're going to get it all knocked out in the office . No more work from home , at least not in my office , which I'm so thankful for , because , as a team that works together , you need everyone on deck , you need to be able to run into someone's office , you need to be able to ask someone's opinion . I don't know how to do this . Got to ask questions . Oh my gosh , it's Nadia . Interruption . Stop it , you're going to crash . Stop my gosh , she hates you . Well , at least you got her smiling this morning . What people can see is that Drew's causing traffic accidents .
Speaker 1I'm road raging our neighbor .
Speaker 2Okay , so where was I ?
Speaker 1All right Back to the conversation at hand . Pre-red rage . Okay , so we're in return office mode .
Speaker 2That's what you say , so it's time to get back to it so here's the here's what happened a couple days ago .
Speaker 1last week , the ceo of at&t put out this memo and this letter and it came across . It was either very well received or not well received at all , and it said that . It said and I'm gonna , I'm gonna paraphrase right , but it said that if , if the type of job that you want that goes along with your lifestyle is something that's self-directed and has worked from home and is remote , then maybe the company that he runs isn't the company for you , because it doesn't align to what that company's goals are . And the idea is that the goals of that organization are to buckle down and figure out how to be relevant and innovative and creative and market dominant again , because not that their stock share has been slipping or anything , but what's happening is we're in an economy right now where you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow . You don't know what tariffs are going to be in place . You don't know what political implications are going to affect your business . You don't know if you're going to have a business to operate tomorrow . You don't know if ICE is going to come and pull all your workers off of your construction site . You have no idea what business is going to hold from one day to the next .
Speaker 1So the people that are in the industries that are affected overall , I guess , which is pretty much all of them is they're trying to figure out how to make the most business sense that they can out of the environment and they've realized that it's time to to shore up their sales right .
Speaker 1They really have to figure out what it is that they need to do to be a strong , successful business . And so it's all hands on deck , right and to use five sailing references all at the same time . But essentially what they're doing is they're saying we need to buckle down and we need to get our shit together , and we need to . We need to go back to being badass , hardcore companies , because if we're not , we could fall apart tomorrow or something could affect us tomorrow . So AT&T is pushing real strong to bring everyone back to the office , but they're doing so by saying , hey , you know what ? Number one , if returning to office isn't your jam , then go find another job . And then they're saying that now their culture isn't going to just the corporate culture at AT&T isn't going to just be there for you because you decided to work for AT&T , you're not going to have a job forever .
Speaker 2It's performance .
Speaker 1It's performance based instead of commitment based , instead of tenure based . It's no longer this workplace environment that's like well , Bob's been here for 25 years , so he's got to be here for another 25 more years . It's not it's about commitment , it's about capability , it's about contribution , and those are the things that they're going to start to judge people on , and by judge I mean compensation . The other one of those important four C's right is your compensation is going to be directly based on what you contribute back to your organization . So returning to office isn't just about okay , everybody , we're trying to make your life miserable . Everybody , come back in so we can do more work . It's not . It's companies that are tightening their belts and going all right . We have to figure out how to remain relevant in this world and we have to figure out how to be the best at our jobs , and maybe having people that aren't completely dedicated to working for the company full time aren't the right group of people that you want if you're trying to kick ass and take names .
Speaker 2I don't think it was the lack of dedication . That's not what the issue was . I think what happened was they needed to see that everybody was still willing to care about work , still willing to drive the change , was still willing to be performance , to show the performance , to show that they're willing to be accountable for their projects , for whatever they have .
Speaker 1Yeah , but all that goes back to dedication man .
Speaker 2Well , hold on , and so we can't expect a lawyer , okay . So I think it's like there's two folds , right ? So I can see it from both perspectives . As an as a business owner , I would want that everybody has the same work ethic and they come to work every day . They give it their all , they have the best interest in the company , but we all know that that's not true . You have people who come in and it's just a paycheck for them . They clock in , they clock out . They do the bare minimum . Don't ask me to do anything more , because that's going against my time . I'm out of hours , whatever it is , and they don't show up giving their all for the company . So you let that slide right and it keeps going , it keeps going and then you end up with someone who's worked for the company for five or six years . That's just doing the bare minimum to get by , but that's not the thrive that you want or need to excel in this market .
Speaker 2So you realize , oh crap , it's not working out . So now you pull the bandaid off and you say , okay , it's going to be dog eat dog world . It is performance-based . You've got to prove what you're doing . We are no longer honoring loyalty . We don't care if you've been here for five to 10 years .
Speaker 1And those employees they freak out , they're like dude . What you have to show us what you're doing .
Speaker 2You have to show us what you're doing and what your worth is . I'm not saying that that's entirely wrong . The work ethic has suffered and it has changed . I've seen it . I have seen that people just it's . I mean I don't want to call it a laziness , but it really is like well , I go to work , I have something stable , it takes care of me , it's complacency , right , I just do what I do , but there's no motivation , no drive to continue to excel . Okay , well , hold on .
Speaker 1But the problem is right is that you have a whole group of people that were brought up this way . And let's go back to COVID and the way that that affected not just binge drinking and people but also the workforce , where you had people who got told that it's okay , you can be remote , it's okay , you can , you can work , work , work around your schedule is essentially what it came to , because for people that have never been remote , they didn't see it the way that I see it , because I've always been remote and you don't work your life around your your . I'm sorry , you don't work your work around your life . You work your life around your work and that's always been the big thing . It's like okay , I can't , I can't go to this . You know volleyball game . I can't go to the soccer game because I have a call or I've got to be on a conference or I've got to be on an airplane , because you work your work around your life and I think somewhere that turned into working your life around your work .
Speaker 1And so you get this . You get this generation of people that have come into the workforce , that are used to that , where they get to do and be in , you know , participate how they see fit , when they see fit , and you turn that into okay , now you all need to go back to the office . Of course it's a shocker for them . They're all like , dude , hold on , wait , I gotta do what . This isn't , this isn't the same .
Speaker 1And then for the people that have just received the ability to do this and who've gotten used to being able to work their life around their work , and they've they figured it out . Now they're like well , dude , I don't want to go back in the office . It's horrible . Like I don't want to go back to the nine to five thing . I enjoy being able to drop my kids off at school in the morning . I enjoy being able to go take a little bit longer of a lunch to go see an old friend . But how do you balance that out ? And I mean I think that comes back to the whole dude , your job's your job . I mean , if you're working for yourself , you do whatever you want . You know it's like that , saying that you can either work for your own dream or you can find a job working towards someone else's dream . If you're working for a company to achieve the goals and the objectives of that company , then you've got to be all in . If you're going to half-ass it , then there's no place in that organization for you .
Speaker 2Yeah , I was just going to turn around and say the same thing . It's become incredibly difficult to gauge if people care or not and I think , because you can't run the risk anymore in trying times , you have to turn around and say , come back to work , at least there . I mean , it gives you a sense of also , like I feel , when I read all of this , I felt like it's a little micromanaging a little bit . But people got to gain the trust . You've got to earn it . You've got to earn it . You've got to show that you're willing to work hard and again , at the end of the day , it's your livelihood , right . So you got to pay attention to your work .
Speaker 2It's like school we teach the kids , care about school , pay attention at school , make sure you're getting good grades , make sure you're doing all that . But then you go into the workforce and what are we doing ? We're not caring that we're making good grades , we're not caring that we're actually completing our deadlines . We no longer care that you know certain things have gotten , you know we lost certain accounts or that we're not fulfilling what we need to fulfill . Our office isn't making budget , whatever it may be , people stop caring about it .
Speaker 1Okay . So the big question is is it going to make a difference , difference Like from the perspective of the viability of the organization or how well a company is doing ? Is it really going to make a difference If everyone comes back to office ? Are there going to be numbers posted up a year from now that showed holy moly ? This was a great idea . I'm glad we all came back to the office .
Speaker 2So here's . The thing is that I feel like we get back to the office , we start to build a culture that works hard . We see each other working hard , we see each other being held accountable . We see each other either posting the numbers up not posting the numbers up , but at least coming together and saying , okay , this is happening here , this is happening here . We're now more self-aware because you're not locked , you're not in your houses , right ? It's terribly inconvenient to have to team somebody or call somebody because they're not in the same room as you . So I don't know if it necessarily changes the outcome of productivity . I would assume that , yes , time will tell on that , but I will say that at least it , for the very , very least thing that we can consider is that it goes back to holding people accountable , which I think has been totally lost .
Speaker 1Well , yeah , if you're sitting in your office , the accountability factor is like well , I sent an email . Well , I called . Well , I sent a text message no , no one calls .
Speaker 2Either they just send emails and assume that we don't need to pick up the phone and follow up , or assume that it's not important enough for me to say okay , I've now left three emails , it's now for me to pick up the phone . We need to learn these things from one another . Culture is different .
Speaker 1It's so different I can't . I don't talk . You know I work . I've been working for this company for a year and it's so rare that we I don't know . I only call one other person .
Speaker 2You're on the phone all the time .
Speaker 1Am I ? You are on the phone all the time , so-and-so just called me So-and-so , just called me .
Speaker 2Hold on , I got to take this . It's now that you've got salespeople calling you , you've got managers calling , you've got all sorts of people calling you all the time .
Speaker 1But those are like set meetings , those aren't to
Career Values and Commitments
Speaker 1check in and like , hey , I just want to follow up on this , I want to follow up on that email . I feel like the Anyway , but it goes back . What you're saying is it goes back to accountability . So here's what Stanky said in the memo Commit to adjusting your own behaviors and actions without looking to your right or to your left or above to see what everyone else is doing . So break that down right . Commit to adjusting your own behaviors and actions without looking to your right or left or above . So this is it's about doing your job without worrying about what other people are doing or how other people are doing it .
Speaker 1A favorite quote by W Clement Stone comes to mind so many fail because they don't get started . That's something else that he said in this memo is that people aren't doing their jobs and they're not holding themselves accountable . What they're doing is they're looking at everyone else and they're saying , well , it's their problem , or it's their problem , or it's their problem . There's no , the accountability thing is huge . And he ends it by saying please jump in and avoid the human tendency to blame the neighbors for the problems in the neighborhood .
Speaker 2My gosh , it's , it's . I talk about it all the time . That goes back to the accountability thing . It's . It sucks that you were given a bad hand . It sucks that your department is in shambles . It's terrible that all your employees are quitting , but at the end of the day , it's your department . You're responsible . Figure it out . If you don't eat , you don't eat . If you don't sleep , you don't sleep . Get the job done . The reward comes . Not only is that like self-fulfilling reward , it's also an award that people can see like oh man , they were able to handle it with . You know , skeleton crew , they were able to hand it despite of all of these things . It's understanding that I have a responsibility to make . And just because everything around me sucks doesn't mean that I have to suck .
Speaker 1Well , that's right , and I think that's what he was getting at is is now's the time for you to show what you can do . Now's the time for you to jump in , to do it , to charge forward , to help define who you are and what you do and what you can do for the company that you work for .
Speaker 2Which is incredibly empowering , Like . What more would you want for an employer than to tell you do what you have to do in order to be successful at something ? Come in , show up , get to work , do what you have to do , thrive . Show us that you're thriving and you're going to earn more . That's right . You'll be seen like the merits come when you can show worth .
Speaker 1That's exactly what he said in here is um . He said loyalty , tenure and conformance with the associated compensation . They're moving to a more market-based culture focused on rewarding capability , contribution and commitment , and that's the thing . If you're working , you know , I think there's two schools You're either working for yourself or you're working for somebody else . And if you're working for someone else , then what are your key drivers for working for someone else ? It's your compensation has got to be pretty high up there . It's your ability to contribute and make the organization successful so that you can carry that on somewhere else down the line , whether it's starting your own business or contributing to another business . Like what are the main drivers for you going to work other than just earning a paycheck ? Working towards a goal that you believe in , working for a company that's providing services that you agree with or that you believe in . And if you do that , you want to make sure that the way that you are recognized aligns with why you're there .
Speaker 2Well . So this really goes back to the very beginning , like let's stop and think about okay , I need a job . I go out into the workforce looking for a job , I'm worth something , I know that right . I put my resume out and I get let's just say I get three interviews . I go to those interviews . I ask the questions what's your mission statement ? What's your culture ? What are you providing for me to succeed ? Those are real questions to ask when we're looking at our careers , when we're saying am I going to last here ? Does this make sense ? Does this thrive with who I am ? Does it provide me an environment where I am going to be valued , where my efforts will be seen ? I know that my work ethic is different . Right , I know that I show up , that I try to get things done , I try to move things along , I try to show some leadership in everything that I do , and so when I'm interviewing , I think it's important to remember that you're interviewing the company as well . What works for you ?
Speaker 1Well , I think about this last gig that I took where I'm working now . You know . It was an opportunity to come work at Amazon in a position that was an awesome position , but I was hesitant . I was hesitant to work anywhere .
Speaker 1I'd taken 2024 and I had gotten very comfortable just working for myself and doing my own thing , but this opportunity came along for me to work for a company that has a much larger impact , or could give me the opportunity to have a larger impact doing what I love to do travel around and fix people's problems and find new , creative ways to help people and interact with people and be the person that solves the problem , and do it for one of the largest companies in the world . That's a great opportunity , and so I interviewed them a lot . I wanted to know what it was like . Is it worth my time to come work here and that sounds kind of goofy because it is a pretty big company , but I really did want to know .
Speaker 1Man , if I'm going to put because I know how I am if I'm going to put a lot of time into this organization , what am I going to get out of it ? Then it's not . It's not compensation driven . I'm at a point in my career , thankfully , where I can be choosy about who I work for , and it doesn't have to be compensation driven . There's things that are that are that are more important than that and and that's what 2024 put , that put a lot of focus into that for me , because I had the opportunity to to go back and spend a lot of time with you and the kids and everyone , and it was great .
Speaker 1And so to me that was part of it was like ah . But then they hit me with return to office and they said , if you want this job , you've got to move to San Francisco . And I was like , oh shit , that's going to be tough , but I wanted it enough . I wanted to work here enough that I was willing to make the move to San Francisco . And what I found out was that our team wasn't necessarily affected by the RTO , the return to office , but what they wanted was someone who was committed enough to say , yes , I'm willing to move to San Francisco . And that's what they were looking for . They weren't looking for me to actually move to San Francisco .
Speaker 2They were looking for the commitment of someone who was willing to do it Well , and I would also tell anybody don't hedge your bets on that , because that was a moment you know that was a hard .
Speaker 2it was a hard decision for this entire family because I have my opportunities and they keep me , you know , in the region that I'm in , and so it was a very difficult decision to make . We felt that the impact that you could make on the world right , because we always talk about what's the impact that we're making on the world , what's the change that we're creating .
Speaker 1Granted , my world of Wi-Fi is a smaller world than a lot of people's , so it's not like I'm out of elementary school named after me for my contributions to Wi-Fi . I think I'm going to have an elementary school named after me for my contributions to Wi-Fi .
Speaker 2I say that with really truly . You have to know who you are , what you're worth , what you want out of it , and then you go for it . No-transcript
Work-Life Balance Realities
Speaker 2. So just as much as they're looking for a certain person to fulfill their culture , you need to be ready and understand who you are and if you fit into that , yeah , because the thing is is that it might be great for some people If they say , hey , come in , this is a highly competitive situation .
Speaker 1You got to wake up in the morning ready to go , charged you know . Charged up , ready to go , you know . Just do whatever it takes to win the business and when you win that business we're going to compensate you ridiculously well and you can do all of the things that the big sales people do .
Speaker 2There's a lot of people who are like , yes , that's there's a lot of that type of person in the world and that works really great . I happen to be . You know , I'm driven that way , right , I'm , I'm super competitive to me . None of that scared me . I read that back to office and I was like yes , right on , so it didn't offend me . I wasn't mad I thought yeah , finally , you know .
Speaker 1Well , I feel like it's great to see people taking a stand saying , look , we got to do this Because , as small business owners and both of us right and our friends it's like nothing . It's so difficult when you're a business owner to find employees that are really driven , that are really committed .
Speaker 2Well , they care about your business and the thing is .
Speaker 1it's like it's not just committed to your business , right , because the approach that we've taken the approach you know at some of the stuff that we've done has been to bring people in and make them a part of it . It's not like , hey , I'm going to make all the money off of your backs . It's like , hey , let's figure out how do we , how do we do this so that we all work together , so that we don't ever have to have a boss again ?
Speaker 2You know that was I think that was like one of the founding tenets of why we started the first company was we don't want to work for someone else , have people who come in and start with us and it seems to be very great . But then you kind of find out that they're not doing anything to motivate the change , they're not doing anything to make a difference , they're definitely not doing anything to drive business .
Speaker 1They're not doing anything to hurt you . Yeah , but they're not doing anything to help you succeed more than the nine to five . They're waiting for the task to be given .
Speaker 2They're waiting to complete their duties , and that's kind of it . And that's okay . But I think , with these companies and this , you know , what this memo had to say was that this culture is just going to change for that specific company .
Speaker 1This is what they're trying to do .
Speaker 2And so you know , I read all these negative reactions to this memo and I think , well , it's just not the company for that .
Speaker 1So my reaction to this memo was like wow , good for them , but that's not a company I would work at . It's like you know .
Speaker 1it's not what they're offering , isn't what I'm wanting you know for me for me and the thing is is I look at what I have with this current employer and I look at what Meta offered and I looked at , you know , what Cisco offered and all the companies I've worked for and there it was during . You know it's . It's the big work life balance thing is always important to these organizations and I feel like you know , any day the shoe is going to drop and you know RTO happened at Amazon , where all the Amazon employees were asked to return to office going to drop . And you know RTO happened at Amazon , where all the Amazon employees were asked to return to office . And if they turn around and they tell me today , if I get a phone call today that says , hey , we're no longer offering your position as a remote position , because that's how they tell you , they don't tell you you're fired .
Speaker 1They say we're no longer offering your position as a remote position . If that were to happen today , I would have a tough decision to make , not because I don't want to stay working at this company because I do , I'm really enjoying it but because what I have down here in our home Right . I would have to transplant all this and move out there , and I was willing to do it before . But some of the dynamics have changed a little bit , so if it were to come down to it .
Speaker 1I'm not sure . I'm not sure if I would , if I would say yes or no , well , it come down to it . I'm not sure . I'm not sure if I would , if I would say yes or no , well , that's safe to say . But you are also but not in a bad way like I'm not . It's not me being an asshole saying , oh , the company sucks , it's like dude I totally understand .
Speaker 2I don't think that your position is a return to work .
Speaker 1Your position isn't even remote your position is an airport , it's a .
Speaker 2It's a travel job like yours it's not .
Speaker 1That's why my position made .
Speaker 2You can't even call it working . I guess you can call it remote working , but you're not remote working from your house . You're remote working from hotels from airports from lounges , you're not really working from home . That's the other thing .
Speaker 2Some positions are just like that . I don't know if we expected for the travel to be as heavy as it is . Yesterday someone asked me at the office and they said well , is Drew in town ? I said yeah , he's in town today . He's not going to be in town , you know , on Thursday or Friday or whatever I said . But he says , you know , I worry about that . And I said you worry about what he says , I worry how you balance it all . And I said , well , it's difficult . I think we've seen right , it's really difficult but we've put our , I guess , routines in place so that it's not as difficult . We worked our lives so that it's not difficult . You know , we've budgeted things in our lives to make sure that I have the support that I need , especially with the children , and then you try to make it back absolutely , absolutely for everything that you need to be at .
Speaker 1But it's just going back to my season , that's exactly what I was about to say there's some times where it's way , where there's a lot more going on and unfortunately , you know , like being in , we were just in California for two weeks
Travel Job Challenges
Speaker 1and it was a commitment to be out there to support what I was doing and it was great and I got to bring you guys along and go immediately to something else and spend . Not . You know , I was supposed to be there for one day , end up spending three days and then come home it's like all right and then had to fly out again that Monday morning . There's some unforeseen stuff . And you know , like right now , if you look at my calendar , right now I only have one week out of the month , one week in September , one week in October . I one week out of the month , one week in September , one week in October , I'm sorry , two weeks in October , one week in November and one week in December . Right now , that's what I have right now .
Speaker 2I laugh because it's right , but it's right now .
Speaker 1Yeah , but the thing about that is it's like September , that one week is Orlando and Vegas and California all in the same week , and then in October , those two weeks are like are like totally international .
Speaker 2Well , the reason I say that is because , like the one in October , I'm 14 hours ahead of here , so the time change all of it is a sacrifice , and I think that when we stop to think about where we're working , what we're doing , the impact we want to make on the world , what shapes us , what we thrive , what we need in order to feel fulfilled all of those things , be careful , be aware of who you are , what that means to you and , when you're seeking employment , interview them just as much as they interview you .
Speaker 1And if it doesn't work out , depending on your age , you can just binge drink .
Speaker 2Well , I mean binge drink when you get the job , binge drink when you leave the job .
Speaker 1I mean , I don't know . Now's a great opportunity to tell you about vino vest Anyway .
Speaker 2No anyway .
Speaker 1So yeah , speaking of it's time to get back to work , Okay , Well , I'm going to post this and it's audio only , so no one can see my beautiful face and your angry looks . We'll see how well that goes over .
Speaker 2They can't see me kicking you .
Speaker 1Well , you're not kicking me because we're sitting in a truck .
Speaker 2I know , okay , I've got to get to work . Anyway , love you Bye .
