The first Unitarian Society of Madison. This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical, and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment. Unitarian Universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual, as together we seek to be a force for good in the world. My name is Karen Rose Gretler, and on behalf of the congregation, I welcome all in attendance, members and newcomers alike.  I am both pleased and sad to be welcoming you on this auspicious occasion of Michael's final sermon at FUS. As we say goodbye, may we join together to glimpse possibility, new vision, and the good that is yet to be. We will now sound the gong leading us into a time of silence as we catch up with ourselves, slow down and breathe, and come fully into this time together. Please remain standing for the opening words in the lighting of the chalice. Come dreamers and builders all. Come to reconnect, to recommit, and to rejoice. We are all dreamers of a larger dream, creators of new opportunities, builders not just of bricks and mortar, but of a world where freedom, justice, compassion, reign. Embraced by the spirit of life that is with us always, we are united behind a common purpose, we are sustained by a common faith and aspiration, we are dreamers, and we are builders all. So let us rejoice this day in what we have achieved and dedicate ourselves to what remains to be done. And now please join me in reading the words of affirmation printed in today's program. We drink from wells we did not dig. We have been warmed by fires we did not build. We light this chalice in appreciation for all those who came before, who passed their light to us. May we be equally committed to those who come after. And now on this fine June morning, please turn to your neighbor and exchange with them a dry and warm welcome. I'd like to invite any young people who are in our midst today to come forward for the message which is the song for all agents today. So this is a song about love, which seems an appropriate song for me to sing today. There's a lot of love in this room today. But if you had to think about a shape that love is in, what kind of shape would you think about if you thought about love? Would you think about a triangle? Like Frank Lloyd Wright? Or a square? Or a hexagon? What shape do you think love would be? How about a circle? You know, when I perform weddings for couples, as part of the wedding ceremony, they always exchange one of these, right? Rings. Most of the time they exchange a ring. And the ring symbolizes love that never ends. It has no beginning and has no end. So this is a song entitled Love is a Circle. And there's some pictures that go with it too. Love is a circle around and around. Love is up and love is down. Love is inside trying to get out. Love is whirling and twirling about. Love is a circle it knows no bounds. The more you give the more comes around. Love is us and it's beautiful. And love is a circle trying to bend. Love is pieces trying to mend. And love is darkness waiting for light. Love is mine. Love is a circle that knows no bounds. The more you give the more and it's beautiful. Love is a laugh. Love is a look. Love is a chance that somebody took. Love will hide, love will show. The more you give the more it grows. Because love is a circle that knows no bounds. The more love is a... It's beautiful. Love is a circle around and around. Love in the corner of squares can be found. Love is reaching and spreading its wings. And love will dance and love... Want to sing along with me folks? Love is a circle that knows no bounds. The more it's beautiful. Love is a... So now you understand why love is a circle? Alright. So we're going to sing you out now with the refrain one more time folks. And we hope you enjoy your summer fun classes today. Love is a circle it knows no bounds. The more you give the more comes around. So the first of our two readings this morning comes from Edward Hayes who was a Roman Catholic priest. And the story is based on an ancient Christian legend of the hermits who lived in caves and small dwellings in Egypt. So it seems that a young aspirant to holiness once came to visit the hermitage of an old holy man who was sitting in the doorway of his quarters at sunset. And the old man's dog was stretched out on the threshold as the young spiritual seeker presented his problem to this holy man. Why is it Abba that some who come to the desert to seek God and who are zealous in prayer, why is it that they leave after a year or so while others like you remain faithful to the quest for an entire lifetime? Why is that? The old man smiled and replied to answer your question I need to tell you a story.  And he chased that rabbit over the hills with great passion. And soon other dogs joined him attracted by his barking. What a sight it was this pack of dogs running and barking across streets, up stony embankments through thickets and through thorns. But then gradually one by one the other dogs dropped out of the pursuit, discouraged by the course, frustrated by the chase. And only my dog continued in hot pursuit of the rabbit. And in that story, young fellow, is the answer to your question. The young man sat there in confused silence and finally he said Abba, I don't understand. What's the connection between a rabbit chase and the quest for holiness? You failed to understand, responded the old hermit because you failed to ask the obvious question. Why didn't the other dogs continue the chase? The answer to that question, they had never seen the rabbit. Unless you see your prey, the chase will become just too difficult. You will lack the passion, the determination necessary to perform all the hard work required by the discipline of your spiritual exercises. And the second is a short poem by the British poet John Orman. It is entitled Cathedral Builders. They climbed on sketchy ladders toward God. With winch and pulley they hoisted hewn rock into heaven. Inhabited the sky with hammers, defied gravity, deified stone took up God's house to meet him.  Every night, slept, lay with their tired wives, quarreled and cuffed the children, lie, spat, sang, were happy or unhappy. And every day again took to the ladders, impeded the right of way of another summer's swallows, grew grayer and shakier and less inclined to fix a neighbor's roof in the fine evening. Saw a knave's sprout arches, clear stories soar, cursed the loud fancy glazers for their luck, somehow escaped the plague, but got rheumatism and decided it was time to give up.  Especially thank you, Doug.  There he is. Thanks, Doug. Thanks so much. In 1887, Vice President George H.W. Bush was positioned as Ronald Reagan's heir apparent. And at that time, and before the infamous Willie Horton ad that submarineed his Democratic opponent, Michael Dukakis' chances, at that time in 1987, George Bush was dealing with his own Achilles heel as it were. He lacked this sense of vision, and his campaign advisors were warning him about that. You have no real sense of vision. And Bush clearly wanted to serve as president, but it was true that he was having a very hard time conveying a clear convincing message of what he hoped to achieve. Would he be elected as president? And so it rankles him, a commentator said at the time. Recently, Bush asked a friend to help him identify some cutting edges for the next year's campaign. And instead, the friend suggested that Bush go alone to Camp David for a few days to figure out where he wanted to take the country. Oh, said Bush in clear exasperation. The vision thing again. His friend's advice did not impress him. George H.W. Bush was, generally speaking, a moderate workman-like president, never particularly inspiring, never comfortable with catchy slogans or grand plans. And although he did ultimately prevail in that 1988 election, his rather lackluster, don't change the team in the middle of the stream message in 1992, failed to kindle much excitement among voters.  Well, like candidates for high office, parish ministers are frequently referred to as vision casters. Charged with giving the congregation a sense of possibility, a high purpose to work toward. And in our own system here of policy governance, it is a function that we ministers share with the elected leadership. But because the bully pulpit belongs to us, we have repeated opportunities to give powerful expression to any such vision. And it is an important function. Whereas the story that I told earlier about the old man and his dog would suggest, to continue the pursuit, one must have to have caught a glimpse of one's horrid. Because otherwise, the dog might just as well be chasing its own tail. And so the same is true for human communities, whether they be great nations or whether they be humble churches. To be quite honest, I have never really fancied myself as some kind of visionary. True, the construction of this atrium addition several years ago required a great deal of pondering and planning. And it also required a major commitment from hundreds of families. And so I think I probably did help to conjure up a vision of this expanded facility and how it would serve our congregation and how it would also serve the larger Madison community. And in many respects, that vision, now some 12 years old, has been fulfilled. But generally, however, generally I have always believed that providing high quality worship, cutting-edge religious education, good pastoral care, and institutional leadership, week after week, year after year, that that's really what mattered. And during my time here, my coworkers and I have striven to be consistently relevant, nurturing, artistic, and efficient. And for the most part, I think that vision casting aside, we've performed passively well. And so as I deliver this, my last set of reflections as FUS's senior minister, perhaps it's a little late at this point to be casting any further visions. Because I am not going to be the one that has to see them through. And yet I would feel somewhat remiss if I did not share what I believe to be the few important considerations for the future. After all, were it not for Moses' vision of a land of milk and honey, it's unlikely that those newly liberated Hebrews would have endured 40 years of marching through the arid desert of the Sinai. The philosopher Michael Walzer reminds us that we need to be taking that kind of vision seriously. And so laying aside my own reticence, I will don the visionary mantle at least one last time, asking only that you take at least some of what I have to say under advisement. I would first note that generally speaking, these are not very good times for American faith communities. Almost every mainline denomination is in serious decline. United Methodist, ELCA, UCC, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic. The old guard is dying. Many younger folks, suspicious of institutional commitment to begin with are finding grist for their spiritual mills in other places. And it doesn't help that the church in many quarters has gained a reputation for misogyny and intolerance and hypocrisy and irrationality, thanks in large part to scandals and the skewed priorities of the religious right. But despite this challenging cultural environment, the First Unitarian Society and Unitarian Universalism in general have been holding their own. And to the extent that our faith tradition can present itself consistently as a progressive alternative to the general run of churches in America, we should be able to buck the current trends. As Parker Palmer recently observed, serious seekers want churches that will support them in a lifelong exploration, a lifelong exploration of faith and action. A church that will help them keep sorting and sifting what they are learning. And that's exactly what we are about here. So in thinking about what this congregation might become, I'd like to begin with an observation that the church consultant Lyle Schaller made after he visited here in 1987 just as Max Gabler was hanging up his spurs. Having taken a close look at the demographics of FUS at that time, Schaller said, do you want to maintain your present appearance? Or do you want to become our heterogeneous religious community? And if the latter, are you willing to pay the price for that? Now what Lyle Schaller noted in 1987 was a lack of generational diversity, the modest number of families with younger children who were actively involved in the society. 31 years ago, FUS was what the literature called an upstairs downstairs congregation in which young people and adults occupied separate well-defined spheres. And except for a four poorly attended intergenerational services every year, the children seldom darkened the door of the adults' worship space. Now what we have done over the years is to create a more welcoming environment for parents and kids. And in this sense, First Unitarian Society is not nearly as heterogeneous as it was in 1987. Now our challenge moving forward is to think about what it would take to become the kind of multiracial, multicultural faith community that our inclusive values would seem to require. But as Schaller asked the congregation 31 years ago, are you willing to pay a price for that? Now over the past 10 years and even more frequently, after the racial equity issue and the hot button here in Madison and Dane County, the question that I have been fielding time and time again is the question, why is FUS so white? The congregation's racial homogeneity is clearly a source of concern for a significant number of people. Do I wish it were otherwise? Absolutely. But even with the high profile support that we give to the Black Lives Matter movement and the ongoing engagement with local communities of color on the part of many of our members, this de facto Sunday morning segregation that Martin Luther King complained about in 1964 still largely prevails here at FUS. And I can say from experience that this problem is hardly unique to us. The demographics of a vast majority of Protestant and UU congregations resemble our own. And for our part, there are very real barriers to greater inclusiveness. We are embedded in an upscale and very white part of Madison. And stylistically, our ways of worship may not respond to the spiritual expectations and needs of many African-Americans and Latinos. Theologically, we don't prioritize Christianity. And moreover, in Madison and in many other places, people of color may risk alienation if they join majority white congregations. I'm not going to say today that these are insurmountable problems, but they are ones that we do need to face squarely. And I'll also say that it is neither fair nor realistic to ask the institution itself to solve those problems. Homogeneity is, rather, a reflection of our own social circles and more often than not, those social circles are comprised of folks who share our economic and racial identities. Studies show that some 70% or more of people who will visit an unfamiliar faith community do so at the urging of a friend or a relative, oftentimes the friend or the relative, accompanying them to the service. So in other words, diversity starts at home. And until it does start in more of our homes, we're probably not going to see a lot of changes in our faith. Now, that's not to say that the institution bears no responsibility for fulfilling this vision. We need to walk our talk, expanding our outreach efforts, and demonstrating that we can be reliable, trustworthy allies in the struggle for racial justice, especially in such divisive and perilous times as these. Internally, internally we must continue the discomforting process of self-examination, identifying the ways in which we unwittingly reinforce America's white supremacy culture. As my colleague Rob Hardy said, All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C. wrote, and All Souls was one of our most diverse congregations. He said, communities all across this nation, congregations foremost among them, must commit, must fortify themselves to make this dream a reality by serving as laboratories, as incubators of this dream of a human family reconciled and whole. Now, I believe that this is a vision where it to come to fruition that has the potential to draw millennials and Gen Xers to us. I think this is exactly the kind of faith community that many people in the younger demographic are looking for. And I think the same is true of my second vision. And the second vision is of a society deeply committed to advancing Unitarian Universalism's seventh principle, respect for the interdependent web of existence, of which we are all apart. Far too few Americans are giving this issue the attention it deserves, despite dire warnings of planetary disruption. Political and religious conservatives deny the indisputable evidence of climate change, species loss, resource depletion, and overpopulation. While for the mainstream media, these are simply not newsworthy enough to carry on the morning or the evening broadcasts. So like the proverbial frog and the slowly heating cauldron, we have not yet grasped the gravity of our situation. Now Unitarian Universalists are probably more concerned about the state of the environment than most. Hey, here at FUS, we built this state of the art green addition to the landmark meeting house. We spent a great deal of extra money to conserve resources, to recharge groundwater, to prevent runoff into our lakes. And soon we will be adding an array of solar panels to further cut our utility costs and reduce our carbon footprint. All of this is to the good. But apart from our current sustainability task force that has been studying the society's consumption patterns, we do not currently have a ministry team that is actively collaborating with entities such as 350.org, the Sierra Club, Sustained Day, a thousand friends of Wisconsin, Gathering Waters, the Sand County Foundation, the Audubon Society, or Clean Wisconsin, not a single ministry team working with any of these entities whose mission is to preserve our land. It could be argued that many members of FUS already support these groups financially and give them time as volunteers. But faith communities are in a unique position to connect people with the natural world at a deeper level and at a level that may help to sustain their commitment. So back in 1988, the same year that I began serving First Unitarian Society, Thomas Berry's book, The Dream of the Earth, was released. In that book, Thomas Berry, a Passionist Priest and an Environmental Theologian, wrote, Our secular, rational, industrial society with its amazing scientific insight and technological skills has established the first radically anthropocentric society and has thereby broken the primary law of the universe, the law that every constituent member of the universe, especially those realized here on planet Earth, should be integral to every other member of the universe. Berry is talking about our seventh principle, the Interdependent Web of Existence and how much it ought to matter to us. And he then says that it may take a quasi-religious transformation of contemporary culture, a quasi-religious transformation for us to restore the sensibility that we have lost. And another Berry, Wendell Berry, shares his namesake concerns, faults the church for largely ignoring this issue. Faith communities' Berry complains routinely prioritize the building fund over the fortunes of the fowls of the air and the lilies of the field. It is high time that we begin promoting creation care, Berry suggests, spreading a gospel of love and care for the planet's millions of parcels of land, each in its own precious way different from all the rest. And only love, he says, can do this. Only love can bring intelligence out of our institutions and into the presence of the work which must be done. So again, to attract members of the younger generation, we must demonstrate in word and indeed that we are gravely concerned about the world that they are going to inherit and that we are prepared to partner with them in keeping this world of ours habitable, not just for human beings, but for myriad other species as well. So thus far, I've cast two visions that clearly would require the expenditure of time and of effort on behalf of two critically important issues. But faith communities have an obligation also to address the spiritual needs and the cravings of their members. So I suggest then that we might try harder to emulate those who subscribe to what is called engaged Buddhism. Engaged Buddhists are active practitioners of compassion out there in the world at large, while they also seek to maintain a stable contemplative practice in their homes and in their faith communities. So in short, engaged Buddhists try to balance the outbreath of service with the inbreath of self-nurture. Now here in FUS, we do encourage service, service to others. And we also invite people to participate in a number of inbreath activities in our centering prayer circle, our movement meditation sessions, our monthly contemplative gatherings for healing and hope, our insight meditation group that meets regularly on Sunday evenings, one or more of our chalice groups also focus on meditative and spiritual practices. But together these groups serve only a small fraction of our membership. And while attendance here at weekend worship can also qualify as a spiritual practice, it doesn't deliver the same goods as a contemplative discipline. The frustration, the anxiety, the distractiveness, the fear, the burnout that we see all around us. These are all, at least in part, a symptom of too little inwardness, as Albert Schweitzer put it. And so our faith community needs to provide more opportunities for people not just to do, but simply to be. To rest in the moment for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, a half hour, and just put the future on hold.  And if you have not found your form, your practice, make it your highest priority to do so. So I've saved what may be my most pedestrian, but not insignificant vision for last. In that list of recommendations that Lyle Schaller made to our congregation in 1987, he mentioned money, finances. He said, you all need more in savings. And to do that, you need to start asking members to include the society's foundation in their wills. Now at that point, our assets and our foundation stood a little south of $300,000. He said, by the end of the millennium, year 2000, it should be six to seven times that much so that the earnings can be used for necessary capital improvements. Lyle Schaller would probably be disappointed because we have not, on a regular basis, encouraged our members to leave bequests to the society. Now, our foundation currently boasts assets of around $3 million, but that has largely to do with a rising stock market. And moreover, unlike in 1987, when the society was essentially debt-free, we are now servicing a $4 million mortgage with interest and principal payments of almost $300,000 a year. So I don't need to remind you that every dollar that we spend to satisfy that debt is not going to be available for the transformational work that we need to do. So over the last 30 years, I have seen our members repeatedly rise to the occasion, increasing your annual giving, responding enthusiastically to three capital campaigns, contributing tens of thousands of dollars to local recipients of our outreach offerings. From a culture of scarcity in 1987, we have moved steadily toward a culture of abundance and of greater generosity. And we have this wonderful atrium auditorium and a restored landmark meeting house to show for it. It took many hands. It took many open-pocket books to bring us to this place.  Still, all the bricks and mortar and money aside, the world we have is not yet the world that we imagine. And that world, the world of our imagination, will remain forever elusive if we do not choose to invest in it. And so may our passion for these visions, a healed planet, a reconciled human family, a sound spirit, and a vital faith community, may these visions carry us into our next great adventure and far beyond. Blessed be. At this time, we do set aside a few moments for the sharing of joys and sorrows. We bring here our whole and sometimes our broken selves. We carry with us the joys and the sorrows of the recent past, seeking here a place where they might be received and celebrated and shared. So this morning we would note that longtime member Pete Dorner, age 93, passed away last Monday. He had been in ill health for quite some time, suffering from congestive heart failure, and there will be a memorial gathering for Pete at Middleton Glen in the fireside room on July the 7th.  We also keep in our hearts Phil Carey, who is in the rehabilitation section of Capital Lakes, and Phil has been failing for some time, is expected to be entering hospice care within the next few days. And so to joys we offer our sincere sympathy and promise of healing. And then some good news. Phoebe Yancey, who was hospitalized a short time ago for a brain tumor, which was successfully operated on, is steadily improving day by day. She's still at Children's Hospital, but I'm sure that her parents and siblings are most pleased by the progress that young Phoebe is making. In addition to those just mentioned, we would acknowledge any unspoken joys or sorrows that remain among us. As a community of concern and caring, we hold these in our hearts as well. Let us sit silently for just a moment or two in the spirit of empathy and hope. And so by virtue of our brief time together, may our burdens be lightened and our joys expand. It is now time for the giving and the receiving of our offering, and your gifts today will contribute to the fine programming that we offer in society. Please be generous. Natural gifts for the support of our congregation, and we also thank those who have provided service this morning to help our services run smoothly. Mary Manoring is on our sound this morning. She reminded me she's been doing this for 25 years now. Karen Rose, of course, is our Lay Worship Associate, and Smiley, the Lay Minister, and has also served as an usher, along with Nancy Daly and Dan Bradley. Our greeters this morning, Claire Box and Dorrit Bergen. Hospitality being provided by Nancy Kostoff and Blaise Thompson. And following our service today, Rose Detmer will be offering a tour to people who would like to explore our facilities a bit more this morning. And Rose will be over there by these windows after the service to guide you on your way. And so I would invite you now, we have no other announcements to make, to turn to hit number 1008 in the Holy Place, and please join me. Are also beginnings. May the spirit of love dwelling in this community strengthen our hearts, lighten our way, carry us forward until we meet again. Our service is about to conclude. Our service to the world continues. Please be seated.


Ultimately, saving that energy of what I used to do with what Andrew am I today, what role am I playing, let's focus on playing the role of being in the office, I can one, focus that on just doing better work. But also working remotely in that sense has been a godsend for my mental health. Hello and welcome to a new weekly webcast from GitLab. Each week we'll take about 30 minutes to talk about the realities of remote work. We'll tackle the real challenges, we'll ask the hard questions, but of course we'll try not to take ourselves too seriously. So I'm Darren, I'm head of remote at GitLab. I've worked across the spectrum of remote for 14 years. And in this show we want to share some of the best practices that we've learned here at GitLab as an all remote team, as well as talk to other amazing, interesting and insightful people from across the industry to share their perspectives on remote. We know there's a lot of great content out there and we want ours to be as digestible, and as fun as possible. So with that, let's dive right in. Joining us today is Andrew, he's a solutions consultant at Sprinkler. I'm also told he's a plant parent, dedicated academic turn tech specialist and tattoo aficionado. Andrew, I love that you've described yourself as, and I quote, a PhD dropout turned uncompromisingly best in class social strategist specializing in consumer brands. I feel like we just needed some walking music to go along with that. So welcome, Andrew. Thanks for joining the show. Tell the audience a bit about yourself, what you do at Sprinkler and how long you've been working remotely. Yeah, sure thing. So thanks for having me. So as we already said, I am a plant dad. So you want to get a peek of my office background. I do have some plants are there. Certainly am a tattoo aficionado. But yes, I am a PhD dropout dropped out of my PhD. Very proudly about six, seven years ago and since then I've been working in the social and the social tech space. I work for Sprinkler now for the world's first unified front office platform for any kind of modern digital engagement you need. I've been working remotely kind of quasi remotely since last August, I went remote still working for professional services or an agency. And I've been full remote since January of this year. Okay, so still relatively new to that. Okay, so I've worked in co-located spaces. I've worked in hybrid remote scenarios and now at GitLab we have over 1200 people in over 65 countries all remote and they all have their own nuances and their own differences. I'm just curious what your kind of core takeaways are in going remote since January. Are there any things that you miss? Are there any things that you've discovered that you actually love more than you thought you would? And how is this impacting both your work, the people around you? And how much of it is tied to the current situation that we're in which for historical context is in the the back half of the COVID-19 pandemic which has essentially most of the world working remotely for those who can't work remotely. Yes, yeah, so my role starting in January, the old world as I like to call it. My role has been remote since the start. I'm full-time remote. I don't have an office here in Philadelphia where I live. My kitchen is my office. You know, I'll say I started working remotely in January and it has been a lot harder than I thought it would be. I did not realize that, you know, working remotely is a skill. There is a real difference between working at home and being at home. And it's kind of the responsibility of any successful remote employee to make sure you have the skills to bridge the gap between those. So I'll give you an example. So you know, I have my couch right behind me over there and when I had a job that involved more traditional commuting, I would work, I would commute, I would come home and I would kind of just lay on the couch on my phone and just do really unproductive things for an hour like Twitter, YouTube, just let my brain kind of melt from the day.  And I realized really quickly that that meant I had not successfully differentiated working from home from being at home. And so that's just one like kind of microcosm of what it was like to adjust to working from home. Now I'll say I had reached a really good balance right before this all kind of hit the COVID thing hit and it's kind of all been on lockdown. The first few weeks I did a really great job at getting dinner with a friend after work, booking myself a workout class so that I had to go and I couldn't just lay on the couch for an hour. I put a lot of effort into leaving my apartment, leaving where I work so I could kind of trick my brain into thinking, oh, you commuted, you're not working anymore, you're switching that part of your brain off. So I think, you know, successful remote workers really need to put that time in to trick your brain into actually thinking, OK, I've left work. Even though I'm going four feet away, I went on a walk around the block or I just went upstairs for a few minutes and I completely separated myself. So I said that's one very small example of the effort I've had to put in to learn the skill of being a remote worker. Yeah, it's very interesting in that you can't just go from the office into home and just think that everything is going to be the same. Unconsciously, you actually worked a lot of habits and rituals into your day when you were commuting back and forth. And that actually provided some structure and rigidity to your brain of, OK, I'm here now, I'm here now, and this helps compartmentalize. When that line is blurred very suddenly, it can be jarring and disorienting. And actually, we just ran a social media poll and for those of you that don't follow us, be sure to follow that. We'll be teaming up another poll soon to see who all now is working remotely in the wake of COVID-19. And we had almost 2,000 responses and we had 87% say that more than half of their team is currently working remotely. And a lot of people actually replied on top of that and said 100% of our team is remote, which means there's a lot of people that have been thrust into their homes for the first time and maybe their home isn't necessarily amenable to remote work or they haven't had any planning or preparation to remote work. And that fits in perfectly with the theme of this week's webcast, which is managing work, whether that's an individual contributor or as a team leader from our homes and instead of our office desk. And one thing that I recommend for people that are used to having a commute is to plan something in their calendar with the time they used to spend commuting, whether that's sleeping more, whether that's reading, whether that's cooking, cleaning, doing anything. If you plan it in your day, it helps you kind of mentally ramp into the day and ramp out instead of letting work or something else to sort of consume it. And then it's just this one unambiguous blob of a day. And we talked a little bit earlier, one of the interesting perks of remote work that now we're kind of getting on the second order of once you're stabilized, why should you keep working remotely? What's in this for companies? What's in this for team leaders? What's in this for your own kind of mental health and mental sanity? And we had touched on something that I found really interesting, which is remote helps you replace the charade with actually doing good work. And I think this may be a bit of a taboo topic, but I think it is worth diving into so much of what we have experienced in an office environment. There's a certain amount of pomp and circumstance. There's a reason why people dress a certain way and they check a piece of themselves at the door every day so that you kind of get the worker, but not really the actual individual. And in a remote setting, that subjectivity doesn't really have a place. You have to measure metrics, you have to measure results. And what you look like on a given day really has no bearing on any of that. And you and I were saying it's a massively liberating thing to embrace because you spend a lot of mental cycles on the quote unquote charade and it does no one any good. And I think we all kind of realize that in remote kind of gives us all permission to say, look, the charade is out the window. Let's spend our mental cycles on something more creative. So how have you seen that play out and what truth have you seen in that? Yeah, you know, that's that's been really critical for me. I mean, I'd say, right, you go to an office. You do worry about you do worry about what you're wearing. And it almost feels like every day we wake up and we're almost preparing a little bit for a role, right? Like and it's dependent on like, OK, I'm Andrew Gearing for a promotion today or I'm Andrew and I'm going to go above and beyond. And you you base so much of your thoughts and your actions preparing for that. And it's just so unnecessary. Like I feel like the covid and everyone going remote has really revealed that like it actually never mattered. It never once mattered what you look like if you were the first person or the last person in the office.  Those things that we worry about throughout the day to day simply never mattered. And so for me, I've been able to take all those extra thoughts that I would I would previously worry about. And one, I can just focus on doing deep work. Like I can just focus on muting slack, not looking at my emails and just working for an hour or two at a time and just doing my best work possible in an environment that I'm very comfortable in my own home. And so that's been really critical. I mean, there have been a few adjustments, right? We're now a lot of us are working remotely. I'd say the number one thing I've found is that as folks are working from home, some folks are in their sweatpants, right? Some folks are they have a kid screaming in the background, which is fine. It shows that we're all human. What I want everyone to embrace a little bit more is that we're all human, right? Like we're all working from home. And I think a side effect of that is we can get significantly less productive because we get caught in these really stupid long slack or email chains because we're trying to avoid we're trying to avoid calling someone, right? Because we don't want them to know it's 10 a.m. And maybe I just woke up and my voice is so little groggy. Or maybe I'm not wearing a shirt. Maybe I'm wearing sweatpants, right? And what I want people to what I encourage people to do is to just like get past that a little bit. Just just pick up the phone and call or give someone a video chat because that lets you balance the best of both worlds. It lets you balance those micro interactions that you used to have in the hallway with just focusing on doing deep work and not focusing on the charade of the theatrics of being in the office. Though those are the things that I've really loved. And ultimately saving that energy of what I used to do with, you know, what Andrew, am I today? What role am I playing? Let's focus on playing the role of being in the office. I can one focus that on just doing better work. But also working remotely in that sense has been a God sent for my mental health as someone who overthinks a lot. And I overthink, you know, the interactions I might have, like what was on my monitor when my boss walked behind me. How did I interact with that person? It's just the great equalizer in that sense. And it lets me not worry about those things and just do good work. It's so well said. Remote, I think, is largely democratizing work in a huge way. I've been asked by talent leaders that suddenly have hundreds or thousands of employees that are all distributed all over the world. What should I do to ensure that the bonds remain, that there are good relationships between them? And it's an interesting question because there are certainly some intentional things you can do. Get Lab, we do things like happy hour, social hours. We recently did a talent show where we had over 130 people in six continents doing crazy talents on Zoom. And we actually had a panel of judges and prizes were given out. It was very elaborate, very well thought out. So we can do things like that. But just the simple fact of interacting with executives and leaders in their homes and seeing that, oh, they're their homeschooling kids too. Oh, their dog actually barks at FedEx as well. It's this great equalizer to your point where it democratizes things. And I think one of the main things we should get from this is allow ourselves to enjoy that for so long.  Now we have permission to not do that. Let's just admit that we're humans first, colleague, second. We're kind of all in this together.  And it also allows you to empathize more with each person you interact with, which helps you get work done. There are less preconceived notions of why is this person struggling? Why is this person not getting back with me? Well, take a look at what's going on. And that will help you empathize and understand and also offer a helping hand. We've seen people come together in a big way. So even though they're more isolated, they're actually coming together in a more powerful way. Yeah, I hope people lean into that. And I think we're reaching this point where teams have stabilized enough that they're starting to look at, OK, what are the benefits? What are the opportunities here now that were in this environment? And you did mention that one of the perks of being remote is it's easier to get deep focus time. It's easier to just put your head down, plow through work and then make time for other things. But one thing that I've seen is that it's also easy to never look up. It's also easy to just get in a work mode and kind of forget that you need to get out of it at some point. And so I do want to touch on the topic of avoiding burnout, being self aware of setting your own boundaries. But I want to take a deeper dive in this of beyond the surface. You and I were talking all fair on some of the concerts that we've seen throughout the years. And I had seen some crazy concerts that I remember that were like defining moments in my life that happened on a Tuesday or a Wednesday night that would have been fundamentally impossible to arrange to do if not for the flexibility of remote work and the notion of working asynchronously and being able to schedule my day in a nonlinear way that I could get work done, but also travel and also be in these places. I've been able to kind of unlock a lot of opportunities. I think remote is one of life's great cheat codes. So how does that play into it, structuring your life that you're taking advantage of the opportunity of being remote and allowing that to be part of what helps you prevent burnout? Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of it is, you know, it's just it's more of removing the charade, I think, right?  Because I just went on a run and took a quick shower. And I think, you know, when the when the world kind of goes back to normal, I think what we're going to realize is that and it goes back to what I was saying with doing deep work, too, is that. You you likely don't need to be reached right now. Unless something is genuinely actually on fire, you likely do not need to be reached right now. And I think that's a matter of as we're all remote, maybe just while we're evaluating all of all of the things we do in terms of our workload, all of our behaviors, I think we should pay special attention to. Is this actually critical or is it just critical to my workflow? Did I plan this as well as I could? And the answer when we take a step back and start to evaluate that is very few things in our work are critical. If you're on this, if you're on this, you are likely not a doctor.  And so I think I think you bring up a really great point in that if we actually plan our work accordingly and we can actually start to differentiate ourselves, do I really need this person's attention right this second? And it doesn't involve my productivity or my workflow. We can start to restructure not only how like where we work, but how we work and to take advantage of more important things than work. And I want to make sure I let the gravity of that sentence hang for a second. More important things than work because there are a lot of things that are much more important than work. 100% agree. I think one of the benefits of this great global pause is it allows people to take a personal health check on how tightly they've allowed their own personal identities to be woven into the actual act of going to and from this office, this building. How much of you allow this building to define who you are? Because the truth is you're more than that. You're more than whatever this building was. You're more than that, that nine to five commute. I love to tell this story, but if you took tally marks and you put them on the front and back of one sheet of paper, that's all you would get before you ran out of weekends in the average human lifespan. That's it. One sheet. Yeah. So if you're allowing your work to define everything, that's always the first priority and the commute owns everything, you essentially have one sheet of weekends to live for, which sounds like a pretty raw deal to me. So it doesn't matter if you're an individual contributor, a team leader, an executive, a founder. We're all worth more than that. And the freedom and flexibility that comes with remote, what we've seen at GetLabs is if you give people the ability to live their lives first and then work, work into it, they end up giving back in a massive way. It's not like you're going to get shafted by by doing this. If you hire the right people, they're managers of one that can appreciate that autonomy and they have the ability to manage their own time. They end up giving back to the business. It's a it's a win-win. You'd mentioned some things on some tips and tricks for for individuals, but I'm curious what your view on how much of that is dependent on the company being supportive of the company creating a non-judgmental culture, of the company creating an atmosphere where work can happen asynchronously so you don't have to be always on synchronously looking at Slack messages. I feel like you can get a certain amount of this done as an individual and then kind of the last mile or two that gate has to be lifted up by a company and a team that is supportive of that. Yeah, I'd say I agree and I disagree. I think it's always helpful when a company that you work for supports an initiative, whether that be a business initiative or a cultural initiative. But at the same time as as remote employees, there's a there's a significant degree of things that we can do, whether that. Well, it's typically culturally, right? So let me give you an example. My last job, no one talked about mental health ever. I was the first person to say, I'm taking a mental health day or was the first person to put in my Slack status, meditating to address my mental health. That is something you can do as a remote employee. That's super simple. And not only does it help improve your culture, it gives cover to everyone who also wants to do that, who also needs to do that. At the same time, like I'm incredibly lucky to work for sprinkler because we have some structural things that we do to help us. So I'll give you some examples. Sprinkler has a wellness coach and I'm sorry, three times a day for 15 minutes at 9 a.m. noon and 9 p.m. We have a group meditation. So we hop on the line and it's a guided meditation. That's incredibly helpful during lunch at 12 30 and 5 30. We have coaches to do virtual workouts with us together. And while that is great, that sprinkler does that. And I feel incredibly supported. If you're listening to this and you think, man, like, I wish I had that. Bro, can you send the calendar invite? Because if you can send the calendar, just do it. Like if you want to lead a 15 minute guided meditation for your team or a broader department, just do it because the chances are someone else needs it too. It's such a great point in the absence of leadership lead. And I found that a lot of talent leaders right now want their employees to be the change because there's so much going on. They might not know to do something like that. And it can be as simple as sending the calendar invite or starting the Slack channel or just being the impetus. Because to your point, if you're thinking about it, chances are high that other people are looking for similar opportunities. And I wanted to talk actually a little bit about our work spaces. And this goes hand in hand. I was sharing off there that I recently moved the location of my office. I was in a room downstairs, like right in the front door where all of the foot traffic was going to and fro. And I didn't really notice that it was negatively affecting me until I moved upstairs. So now I have to physically walk up a set of stairs to be at work. And then when I physically walk down the stairs, there's this very clear mental click that happens that you left work. It's up there. You can now fully engage with life and mentally close the tabs in the web browser that is your brain. And I was shocked at how much of a difference it made. I've worked remotely for over a decade. I feel like I had it fairly well dialed in. But it goes to show that, hey, even 14 years later, iteration on homework spaces and just kind of the way you do things can be useful. So you're in a very different situation where you have a very small space. Feel free to show us around or just give us some advice for anyone that is in a similar situation where they're limited on space, but they want to create that separation. Yeah, sure. So first of all, please excuse my MacBook Pro clunky camera work. But I have a very small space. I'm a young urban professional. I live in a very small loft, just like you'd imagine someone covered in tattoos wearing floral shirts would. So you'll see, you know, so I have my desk. It's a fairly small desk. If you're looking for kind of like a remote worker pro tip for your desk. This is a coffee warmer. It can also be used for tea. That was life changing when I got my coffee warmer. But I have a pretty small desk. You'll see, like as I pan around, like that's the rest of my living space. That's the couch that I used to chill out on for an hour.   Unfortunately, I'm going to have a flight of stairs up to my to my bedroom. But in terms of like this is the space if I'm not in bed. I cook here, I relax here and I work here. And so you were talking about your stairs. You know, I had one day, I think it was two weeks ago, maybe the week the week before where I just had a stressful day. Right. I had a stressful day. I went on a run outside to differentiate. I came back and I just like it still wasn't enough to separate. It wasn't. And so what I want to encourage everyone. A lot of people might be thinking like, dude, I work in my kitchen counter and working on the couch. Like I'm just making do with whatever space I have because I don't have a dedicated space. That's fine. But sometimes you have to get creative. So my creativity, because I don't have another space to hang out in, I put a towel over my desk. I put a towel over the monitor because even though I shut my computer and I put it in my backpack so I can't see it, even I'm just going to take it out of the backpack tomorrow. I still put it away so I don't look at it, even just like the computer monitor, the keyboard and the chair. It was too much. It just still wasn't enough to separate.  I love that. You know, sometimes it's the simplest things. For me, it was a set of stairs for you. It's a towel. I actually had a guest on earlier that said they actually bought two chairs. There was a work chair and a non-work chair. And you only sat in the work chair when work was happening. And if you sat in the other chair and told your brain, work cannot happen here. You can't think about work. You can't engage with work. You have to physically get out of the chair and move to another chair if you want to engage with work. And those are some of the simple forcing functions that any remote worker can look to to help create that that line of delineation. Andrew, this has been fascinating, man. I loved it. Thank you so much for being a guest. Where can our audience get in touch with you on the worldwide interwebs? Yeah, sure thing.  If you're a Twitter user, you can follow me on Floral Andy. If you're so inclined, but I'm around. If you have questions about remote work, I'm really passionate about this. I'm really passionate about documenting my journey, because, like I said, it's it's a skill that has to be learned. I love that. I love your floral shirt as well. I was this close to wearing my Aloha shirt and I didn't do it. But but I should have like any express the Aloha spirit, you should. Yeah, for the audience. Thank you so much for joining us. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn and tweet us questions at and get lab and we're trying to work those into the next episode. Be sure to go to all remote info to download our remote playbook and sign up for our newsletter and get a heads up on episodes like these. We can't wait to talk more soon until then. Stay cozy. Be excellent to one another. Aloha and.