The first time I heard the term non-essential employee was when I came to DC. It meant that if the government went into a shutdown certain employees couldn’t come into work, they were deemed “non-essential.” I wasn’t so fortunate. In fact in case of a nuclear attack I got the honor of leaving my family and getting on a plane with the Vice-President just in case DC was bombed, but that’s another story. Personally, I think we need to come up with a better phrase than “non-essential.”
Currently real estate agents are deemed “non-essential” in Charlotte. So Suzy was on a Zoom sales meeting yesterday listening to a man talk about what she could and should be doing during this “downtime.” She was so impressed she invited me to listen to his presentation last night. One of his major points was to use this time to be of service. He encouraged his listeners to be creative, and most importantly he said, “you never have to be nervous when you are being of service to others.”
His words were one of my parachutes of hope. Too often we are so worried what people will think about what we are doing, we don’t do anything. He gave examples of agents teaching art classes and tutoring children, agents making face masks, and agents just staying in touch with people making sure someone is simply okay. Whatever skill set we may have this “Big Pause” gives us the opportunity to be of service.
If you hesitate worried about whether your idea is silly or that people will question your motives, remember the words, “You never have to be nervous when you are being of service to others.”
Leave a Reply +