What a strange couple of weeks it has been. Life has changed. But this storm too shall pass. It feels like a slow-moving hurricane that is sitting outside our door. It has increased anxiety for everyone. We all have more to be worried about—from personal health to family and friend’s health, and from our ability to earn a living to the strength of each neighborhood and community in which we live and work. It is a lot to think about and the overhyped news is not helping.
We were monitoring the storm for months, but several weeks ago it got very real and very serious. TD formed a COVID Crisis Management Team (CCMT) to guide and adapt our preparations and decisions to protect our Partners and the company. We meet every day at 8 a.m. and 80-140% of our normal week is being spent on this. Our task is an ever-evolving Pandemic Response Plan based on what we learned from past threats and the deluge of data that comes in daily. Like all of you—we are layering these demands on top of our day jobs.
Every decision that we make is guided by our Mission and Core Values. Our #1 goal is to enable our front-line Partners to keep working safely and serving our customers. Without our front-line Partners, there is no office.
We are blessed that our immediate population of TDPartners has no confirmed cases of the virus. In accordance with CDC guidelines, to date there are 27 Partners who are staying in isolation due to their symptoms or exposure to others who are confirmed to have the virus. It is very important that no one goes to work with symptoms or after a known exposure.
Our first line of defense is personal hygiene and 6 feet social distancing. Please, just do it.
Remember, TD has several resources available to help you and family:
• Our medical benefits are ready should you need them.
• Teledoc is easily accessible.
• We have a great sick pay policy.
• TDCares exists to help Partners in a crisis like a pandemic.
Please see the Partner manual or the TDPipeline for more details. CrisisHotline@tdindustries.com is set up to answer your questions and concerns. Your questions and feedback will be helpful for our future communications.
And there is good news – No confirmed Partner infections to date. Our service and facilities business is vital for healthy buildings and customer demand continues. Our project backlog is diverse, solid, and moving forward. Healthcare clients are asking for our solutions to help. Strong sales efforts are underway to help our clients better prepare and improve their buildings. Our industry associations have reason to believe that the Governor of Texas will not shut down construction sites! And we are working on the same in Arizona.
With our news cycle I find it is easy to be drawn into fearful place. I fight it with the mantra of “Live by Faith and Not by Fear.” Then Look for ways to help others wherever I can—by giving of my time and treasure. I replace worry with prayer every day. And ask that we all let our TD light shine bright as an example of hope for others!!
I know that we will come through this pandemic test even stronger as a company.
Thank you for your trust, commitment, hard work, and support. Hang in there!
Sincerely, Harold
PS. My first attempt at a selfie video update did not go well. I am getting some help. 😊
I miss "Between two plants with Dennis."
