#04 - COVID Concerns - GBA Emerging Leaders - Experience Dealing with the Pandemic

COVID Concerns Episode 4 – GBA Pop-Up Town Hall Meeting for May 8, 2020 - GBA Emerging Leaders - Experience Dealing with the Pandemic

GBA Members from the Emerging Leaders Class have been invited to attend this Pop-Up Town Hall meeting hosted by Executive Director Joel Carson in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on geo-professional firms. In this episode, GBA’s newest leaders discuss COVID Concerns with Joel to cover its impact with co-workers, supervisors, and clients.

GBA addresses its members questions and concerns by sharing experiences and challenges in the hopes to learn and help each other during this trying time.

Our panel:

• Joel Carson host and GBA Executive Director – Link to Profile
• Abigayle Teller, Project Manager (Terracon) - LinkedIn Profile
• Tiffany Vorhies, Senior Associate & Vice President (SME) - LinkedIn Profile
• Ryan White, Principal & Geotech Group Manager (PBS Engineering & Environmental) - LinkedIn Profile

Topics for discussion include:

• What’s been the biggest challenge for you with the new “work from home” situation? [min 3:54]
• What guidance do you (Tiffany) have for people working from home? [min 7:28]
• Now that you (Abby & Ryan) have been working from home exclusively, will your “work from home” habits change post-COVID? [min 11:15]
• What communication methods are being used to reach your supervisor, co-workers, and those that report to you? [min 14:45]
• How have you adapted to your client’s needs? [min 23:51]
• Are you seeing tension between your client’s senior members and their project managers? [min 30:15]
• Recognizing that most of our audience is mostly geo-professional leaders, what changes do you see happening to the way firms do business post-COVID? [min 33:45]
• What do you miss most about going into the office? [min 39:00]
• The big silver lining in all of this (COVID) is ? [min 43:47]
• Do you have any clients that are slowing down their spending, aka using this pandemic as an opportunity to not pay? [min 47:25]
• What are some challenges of on-boarding new employees? [min 50:56]

Calls-to-action:

• Visit the GBA Website at https://www.geoprofessional.org for more information about Covid-19 resources and/or to become a member
• Visit the GBA Website for training resources and reference material for professional development that could be helpful during a slow time.
• Visit https://www.gbapodcast.com for future Podcast Episodes
• Contact us at info@geoprofessional.org with any podcast-related questions or comments

This episode was produced by the following GBA Members:

• Ryan White, PE, GE – Principle/Geotechnical Engineering Group Manger/PBS Engineering and Environmental
• Tiffany Vorhies, NACE CIP-2 – Chief Consultant/SME
• Donald K. Blackburn, MBA – Business Manager/Blackburn Consulting
• Shawn Leyva, PE – Associate Senior Engineer/Crawford & Associates