Out of An Abundance of Caution

After 20 months of not being in the office or physically sharing a space with the team that I had previously spent most of my waking hours with, we were officially getting back together.  We were having a team offsite!!

The offsite was planned for Tuesday through Thursday and we were going to spare no expense: the team was flying in from all parts of the country and while in San Francisco we were going to enjoy cocktails at Hubert’s Tuesday night, spend a day in the office for “work” on Wednesday, have a fancy dinner at Spruce Wednesday night and then loosen up with a day of wine tasting on Thursday before everyone went their separate ways again on Friday.

With Martin’s family coming in Thursday afternoon, I decided to get a hotel room for Thursday night.  While I might be fun company after a day of wine tasting I am not sure they would find me charming or entertaining after not seeing their son and grandchildren for 2 years and flying 12+ hours to see them.   It seemed like the responsible and polite thing to do.

And then omicron arrived and, though slim, the risk of me bringing home the dreaded virus from my festivities resulting in potentially having Martin and kids in quarantine right when the family landed didn’t seem worth the pain… so out of an abundance of caution, I extended my hotel stay to include Tuesday and Wednesday night to officially separate Martin and the kids from potential exposure.

The week started off great. There was a Controllers All Hands on Tuesday morning in the office followed by a lunch and party with the entire Controllers Org Tuesday afternoon.  Thanks to our plans, a lot of other teams decided to have offsites the same week resulting in one larger gathering of all groups and, in hindsight, the perfect storm for potential exposure.

Cocktails at Hubert’s house were amazing as always and Wednesday started off strong with canid conversations about burnout, energy levels and team accountability.

And then it all came to a screeching halt. Someone who had attended the Controller’s Org lunch and festivities the previous day had tested positive.  And out of an abundance of caution, their manager informed the leadership team before going through the normal channels of communication.  With this information in hand, we had no choice but to do the responsible thing.

By 11am Wednesday morning, our offsite was cancelled.  Dinner was cancelled.  Wine tasting was cancelled. Fun bonding time with the team cancelled.  We all immediately got tested again in the office and those who flew into San Francisco rebooked flights out for later that day. And me? Out of an abundance of caution, I headed back to the hotel where I would quarantine for the next two nights until I could test again 3 days from potential exposure (Friday).

And like all things in life, I made the most out of my “quarantine/staycation”.  With only cute outfits packed for the offsite, I bought a pair of comfy pants online from a store next to the hotel that offered curbside pick-up, I had Martin leave a bag outside our house with my kindle, an at home COVID test and a few other necessities (which I walked to pick up) and then in hunkered down my hotel room with room service, Christmas movies and plenty to read. I even snuck in a SLO girls happy hour on Thursday night.

The team continued to test on Days 3 and 5 and we all came back in the clear thankfully. And I was able to reunite with the family on Friday as planned, refreshed and ready for the Christmas chaos to come.

As a side note, if we hadn’t been informed by the manager, we actually wouldn’t have been notified at all since we weren’t deemed to be in “close contact” with the individual based on contact tracing and the offsite would have continued… but again hindsight.