First published Februry 14, 2022. Last update inicated above.
A few years ago, I took a trip to Florida with my daughter and her friend. We visited a few colleges that they were both considering. Because the teens were engaged with each other, I was in essence a lone traveler with supervisory duties. I’ve since taken other trips like this! I think this becomes a theme as daughters are in their teens and 20s …
As I waited out my travel time, I was struck by the interactions I witnessed amongst coworkers. At the airport restaurant, in between slinging pizza and beers, the wait staff was laughing, dancing and catching up about their children.
On the plane, my (special) seat assignment at the back of the plane allowed me to hear the attendants sharing restaurant recs, complaining about the (unnamed) airlines’s policies and generally just passing the time while we waited for de-icing. Maybe it was just my anticipation for the sun to break the winter Chicago gray, but I connected with the humanity of folks just doing work together.
We spend A LOT of time with the folks we work with. Focus, attention to detail and the bottom line aside, we are lucky if we can also benefit from connection along with the paycheck.
One of my favorite things about Two Hands, beyond the beautiful spaces we create, is our love and respect for each other as a team. We trade parenting advice along with cosmetic recs, fashion finds and life hacks in tandem with a listening ear.
Monday mornings often find us settling in as a team with coffee and sharing about our weekends. We know each other’s children’s names, we care about the gray hair conundrum, we relish the tales from the younger set of our crew – it’s good, it’s real and I’m grateful.
Once the coffee cup is drained we shift to the work at hand, often with a good crowd-sourced list of resources. In the spirit of our community table – we’ll be sharing our random but honest list of recommendations, and perhaps a few things to avoid. These recs may be as varied as the conversations around our table, but trust that they come vetted and worthy of sharing.