President-Elect's Message | April 2020

By Marcus Pimentel, CSMFO President-Elect & Assistant Director of Health, Santa Cruz County

Even the best work and family relationships are under significant stress right now. California’s statewide shelter-in-place order has disrupted our work routines and connections with staff and moved many of us to work from home, where our family’s relationships were perhaps already tense.

CSMFO recognizes these stresses and we hope these 10 activities can be used to strengthen your work and team relationships while also providing some fun to your family networks.

Staying connected while working virtually.

There will be a time when we are able to come back to our workplaces. But we may also find that there are new ways to keep remote work in place. So, for the time being, and maybe to prepare for expanded local government remote work scenarios, use these three tips to stay connected with your coworkers.

1. Group Video—While You Work Silently!

This one might be challenging for some, but we encourage you to try it. Basically, work as though you are next to each other in real life—that is, silently, but with video on.

Believe it or not, just hearing someone nearby typing away and working diligently can be a huge boost for mood and morale (not to mention productivity) and is part of the reason why private sector coworking spaces are so popular for individual business owners and contractors.

Plus, this setup allows folks to ask quick questions aloud without the nonsense of wondering whether to call or Slack. Finally, “working together” will help regain some of the spontaneous ideas that come up when you’re all in an office together.

2. Create a health challenges for your remote teams.

Just because we are working from home, doesn’t mean workplace health is any less important. Start by assigning different health challenges to your teams each week and let competitive juices flow. Consider various tasks like completing “X” number of steps, push-ups, squats, lunges or hold joint meditation sessions.

To help, consider letting your team vote on the top 5 activities for the next five weeks. If your staff help select the challenge, they are more likely to embrace it. Also, explore any of the cloud-based employee wellness platforms that can help you organize and track progress.

3. Re-purpose your former commute time.

Sweet, now that everyone is remote you can roll straight from bed into work! Not quite. Consider reusing your former “commute” time to schedule a “coffee” with a different team member. Get your team to sign up for coffee talks with each other and create a solid rotation throughout the whole office. You’ll gain social time, mentor-ship, different perspectives, and regain some of the spontaneous conversations that are lost in remote working.

Three tips to creating fun memories while away from your family.

While some of us with kids at home might experience new levels of stress or frustration, other members of our family might feel lonely, frightened, or sad from so much isolation and negative news. Try some of these tips to share joy and connect across your family networks.

1. Share a meal with your extended family.

In our house, we brought back family dinner with our parents while still eating apart. Both my wife’s parents and my parents live within driving distance, but we don’t get to see them much anymore. As families that love to cook, our win-win was creating meals where we’d cook for each other and have my daughters deliver food to everyone’s house. We’d then eat together over video chats.

Another strategy for families that are further apart is to rotate a meal once a week together. Start by having someone email out their favorite recipe and ingredients needed for a simple, friendly meal. For easy fare, think rice- or pasta-based dishes (which are easily adaptable to dietary preferences) or get creative with gourmet hacks for pantry staples like instant ramen. Then, pick a time later in the week to prepare the meal “together” and sit down to eat, while comparing notes.

2. Video scavenger hunt

The basic idea is that one person, the moderator, says an item, and everyone else has to run and try and find it and show it on the screen. Start by scheduling a time for your hunt and send out invites.

There are a number of different video formats you can use for your hunt – Google Hangout, Zoom, and Skype are a couple to consider. You can find many “home item” scavenger hunt lists online to get this jump-started. Hint, this could also be used for a workplace team activity or in real-time around the neighborhood for your kids.

3. Create a story together.

Some of us grew up with word games where one person asked for a name, adjective, noun, and action verb while the other drops them into a silly story template. Take that once step further with this fun family game.

As humans, we are really good at creating stories. The only thing that you need to do here is to give some random words that will be common for everyone. And then, ask them to create a story using those random words.

To step this up, assign different members separate paragraphs under a general story frame and then weave all the responses together. Printing this for a “remember shelter in place” times puts a bow on this activity.

Four activities for your house to keep learning fun and kids engaged.

For those with kids, here are four activities to keep your kids engaged, entertained, and active during these times where playgrounds are off limits, after school and group/team activities are gone, and play-dates and sleepovers are no longer possible.

1. Check in on the animals

Live-streams at zoos and aquariums give animal fans of all ages a quick pick-me-up. Check out California’s own Monterey Bay Aquarium for their creature-filled open-sea camera and other live cameras, especially during feeding time.

Another kid favorite is the San Diego Zoo live web cams. Finally, don’t forget about national treasurers like the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. You’ll not only find hours of live video, but plenty of engaging kid activities.

2. Give your neighbors an art show

Organize a once a week art experience for your kids. This can range from decorating cardboard or large poster boards to put up in your front windows to finding sidewalk chalk and decorating your sidewalk. Hint, the chalk can turn into those sidewalk games we played as kids too.

Not only will you keep your kids entertained, you might start a trend in your neighborhood that can liven up everyone’s neighborhood walks.

3. Camp out at home.

Pitch a tent in your backyard for a little thrill, sleep in it or just keep it set up for a while as a makeshift playhouse. Make s’mores on the stove to make it more special. There’s nothing like a camping experience to reconnect with kids and with your own inner child.

4. Take a Shape Walk.

It is fun to have a mission, and this one can last a few days. Start out with a mission of circles. Walk around the neighborhood and photograph everything circular (tires of a car, flowerpot, signs on houses, etc.) then make a virtual (or real) book with all the images. Next time, let’s try squares! Then triangles. And then squiggles.

Don’t forget about you- Physical fitness is key to mental fitness.
During these increasingly stressful times, creating a simple daily 10-minute fitness habit will help your mental state of mind. This could be a few pushups, a walk around the block, yoga or basic stretching. You do not need to break a sweat.
And not only are there plenty of gym’s putting out free training content (Planet Fitness), check your local Parks & Recreation department which may also have online activities for you.

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Marcus Pimentel is the Assistant Director of Health of the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency. Marcus serves CSMFO as President Elect leading the 2021 San Jose Host Committee and member of the Communication and Membership Committees. Marcus has over 20 years of local government finance and administration experience in the Monterey Bay area serving previously as the Finance Director for the City of Santa Cruz. He is proud of his family’s Portuguese heritage and is grateful for his wife Laurie and daughters Kaitlynn and Kirsten.

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