We’re all together in this, and together is how we’ll make it through. With that in mind, we thought we’d give you an insight into our approach to navigating these uncertain times and our new work from home model. We also thought we’d share some of the more lighthearted moments that have helped us all bond more tightly together.

Leveraging our ‘why’ to frame our approach to COVID

When the PSC leadership team got together last year to put words to our vision, mission, and values, they never imagined how important these guiding principles would become. Less than a year later our ‘why’ – empowering people to make a difference and do the right thing – has become a powerful framework in fashioning our response to COVID-19.

At the start of March, CEO Alex Boyd looked to our ‘why’ when moving early to encourage PSC’s people to consider working from home. In the face of a global pandemic, ‘doing the right thing’ meant protecting the communities in which we operate by taking any action we could to flatten the curve. Since then, the PSC Emergency Management Team has met regularly, up to three times per week, to stay on top of the latest situation, advise our teams and empower each of our people to make a difference and do the right thing.

Attitude of gratitude

Our mantra is one of service to our communities and we want to acknowledge the essential workers we’re all depending on, now more than ever. Beyond our utility clients, who continue to generate and deliver the electricity we all need, we are grateful for all the health-care professionals, grocery store employees, teachers, public transport workers, postal workers, police officers, and others who continue to serve our communities.

We don’t necessarily think of these as acts of service, but we can all help support our essential workers by following the rules that have been put in place: Stay at home, exercise physical distancing if you must be in public, and practice good hygiene. We’re all pitching in to support each other.

Adapting to change

While some of our staff are on-site with clients, 93% of our people are now working from home. Luckily for us, the nature of our services, combined with our globally dispersed workforce meant that we already had in place the technology and security systems required to move to a full ‘work from home’ model.  The only things missing were how to deal with kids suffering cabin fever, sharing bandwidth with our working-from-home spouses and partners, and keeping our furry co-workers in line. Like most of you, we’re adapting with variable results in solving the human-related issues, but on the cat front, our top engineering minds have nailed it! The best way to trap a cat is not with a box, but in fact with a keyboard and an urgent deadline as proven by these PSC cats.

These are challenging times, and by living our values, we are managing. No one quite knows when this will end or what the world will look like after COVID, but there have been some unexpected silver linings, which we hope you are all experiencing as well. Our team is closer and more united than ever. We are all sharing our experiences, getting to know each other better and becoming more grateful, compassionate humans.