Clearing the air

If you’re a fan of Mad Men, it’s hard to imagine a midcentury interior without the cloud of cigarette smoke swirling above the heads of those seated on the very stylish furniture. In the 1950’s and 60’s cigarette smoking was considered glamorous and cool. Anybody who was anybody was a smoker. James Dean and Audrey Hepburn, to name just a few. Most everyone was smoking or aspiring to smoke – how many old movies have we seen where kids can’t wait to try smoking, just like their parents?

My parents were young smokers, but quit cold-turkey when my older brother was born and his little lungs had very little tolerance for cigarette smoke. As a child of the 60’s I don’t remember my parents ever smoking. I do, however, remember lots of family gatherings surrounded by a foggy haze of smoke from relatives.

Little by little, it has become clear that smoking is harmful to the body – both for the person smoking and the people around them. Contemporary research and information shows us how damaging and life-shortening cigarette smoking can be.

It’s for that reason that as of January 1, 2018, all Room & Board facilities will be tobacco-free. This will include cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes. The buildings have been smoke-free environments for years, but this policy will include outside areas, parking lots, alleys, etc.

Yes, it starts in 2018. As I write this it will be pretty much over a year from now that this policy activates. The understanding is that it can take a while to kick a habit that many have had for years, often working through several failed attempts before finding a treatment that sticks. Smoking can be a tenacious monkey on your back.

We also understand that being smoke free benefits not just the staff member but those that love and care about the staff member, at work and at home. It’s important to your quality of life. For this reason Room & Board is offering lots of support like telephonic tobacco cessation counseling, access to state-sponsored programs, doctor prescribed Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) products at no cost through our company insurance, and even support for alternative treatments such as hypnosis or acupuncture if traditional treatments aren’t successful.

The good things in life endure – like classic, contemporary midcentury inspired furniture . . . ahem. And those things that we once thought were good and sexy and cool, but now know are harmful, well, those things have had their time. It’s time for a journey forward to a happier, healthier tomorrow.

Chicago Tribune Features Blog

Voting, Pets and Other Life Essentials

Voting

Voting is an important civic duty and we encourage all staff members to exercise this right. Although we hope our staff members can find the time before and/or after work to vote, we certainly can make reasonable schedule accommodations for a staff member if they let us know of this scheduling need in advance. Should this be the case, the staff member should reach out to their leadership team.

This is one of the topics under Guidelines and Policies on our intercompany website. It’s listed along with such topics as Bereavement, Jury Duty, and even Relocation Guidelines and Social Media Guidelines.

In writing this blog, I was all set to talk about how ALL U.S. employers are required to allow an employee time to vote and that I appreciate how Room & Board very clearly states it as part of our policy. But with a little bit of Google research, it didn’t take me long to see that that’s not the case at all. A person’s right to take time from work to vote is really decided on a state-by-state basis. Depending on where you live, the answer may be: “of course!” “nope” or “well, it depends” – even during a presidential election.

There are currently 30 states with varying laws regarding employee voting rights and 20 other states with no laws at all. Of the 30 states with laws, 18 of those states have no penalties at all if your employer chooses to deny you time off to vote. Even with laws, some employers may choose to mark any time off needed for voting as unpaid.

With this new understanding, I’m even more thankful for our company policy, no matter what state in which you work. Room & Board believes that “each staff member is afforded the flexibility to balance his or her personal obligations with equal priority to the needs of the business.” Equal priority; I like that.

It’s a relationship that takes responsible commitment from both sides for it to work. Whether it be a sick child or a sick pet, car trouble or a long line at the polls – Room & Board works through each with trust and understanding and prefers to pay individuals for missed time and not reduce one’s pay or request the use of vacation time.

In the coming presidential election I don’t foresee needing to change my schedule in order to cast my very important vote, but if I did, I would trust that my leadership team and my company would be ok with it. It’s a thought that leaves me hopeful for the future – mine and my country’s.

Equality for All

“At Room & Board we believe in equality for all.” This was the leading sentence of a recent company announcement regarding our disappointment of the passage of HB2 in the North Carolina General Assembly. The HB2 law sets a statewide definition of classes of people who are protected against discrimination and it does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. We shared our public statement on the issue with the Governor of North Carolina, the members of the General Assembly as well as our North Carolina upholstery partners, mill partners and others with which we do business. Our hope is that they formulate their own statement to support the repeal of HB2. Our company does that.

At the store level, we’ve also recently changed the designation of our 4^th floor bathrooms so that both are gender neutral. Our customers deserve that.

A few weekends ago, we celebrated Pride here in D.C. The annual Saturday Pride parade ends just two blocks from our store and we traditionally set up big tubs of bottled water on the front sidewalk to pass out cold water to passersby. You can’t imagine the goodwill created by giving a free bottle of cold water to someone on a usually hot and humid day. The sign on the table states: “Room & Board Shares Your PRIDE.” We want to be part of that.

That same weekend, we also heard the news of the terrible shooting in Orlando. This senseless act deeply affected our staff for many days and continues to sit with us. As with other retailers on our street, we have kept the Pride flag in our window in memory of those killed and in solidarity with our local LGBTQ community. We want to do that.

I don’t think that all retailers would take these actions, but Room & Board does. And we do it proactively because we believe in “equality for all”. It’s not a marketing plan or a PR opportunity. It’s something that we believe in from our corporate office to our store locations and I’m very proud of that.

 

 

Today . . .

Today, I met a man who was raised in Ireland and received his degree in architecture there, but has recently moved here to D.C. to get married. He’s in his late 50’s and has decided to start his own furniture company by utilizing skills he developed at University in fine woodworking and cabinet making.

Today, I talked with a woman who works around the corner. She’s the Development Manager for a local non-profit that helps certify teachers wanting to work in Washington D.C.’s school district. She invited me to their open house tomorrow.

Today, I met a woman who has a house in Palm Springs and wrote a book about her house and the architect that built it. At 91, he had a lot of input in the book.

Today, I worked with a man who is getting married to his partner in May. It’s a country wedding and he’s thinking of getting fake unicorn horns to strap to the horses in the field next to where the ceremony is being held – just to add a little more magic and whimsy to the occasion.

And all of this happened while working on the 4th floor of the showroom. You never know what a day at Room & Board will bring you . . . or what the next day holds.

Always a Kid at Heart

As Brand Liaison, I’ve written other blogs about meaningful events here in our Washington DC Store. We are host to such a wide range of organizations and projects that there’s always something interesting to experience or learn.

For some reason, I’m usually scheduled off for our Kids events. It’s not that I don’t like kids – I taught elementary music for several years – but my schedule just never really coincided with the Kids events.

That all changed on a wintry Saturday morning in February…

That Einstein’s theory of gravitational waves was confirmed in the same week that Room & Board successfully hosted over 275 parents and kids for the Lego Man event is not happenstance; both are monumental moments in history.

On a snowy, windy, sunny and sometimes calm Saturday morning, Room & Board’s third floor was bustling with activity as multitudes of kids played in piles (and piles!) of Legos and parents sipped complimentary coffee and relaxed on the new 2016 collection pieces.

Many parents thought the event was purely a community outreach event because the service we provided parents that morning was so great. With a warm room, complimentary beverages, free engaging activities and comfortable seating it isn’t hard to understand why. One mom was even able to take a short nap on our Delia Chaise while waiting for her two boys to complete the group Lego project of a huge red heart. Some dads were even more engaged – and building bigger projects – than their kids.

Other parents used their thoroughly engaged kids as an opportunity to shop for furniture. Stating they rarely get this kind of time in a furniture store to shop, parents asked Room & Board staff many questions about product and availability.

It was a great event that spoke to Room & Board’s core belief that promotional events should be meaningful, engaging and echo the best of Room & Board.

Pallas Blog, Reblog

As Brand Liaison I work with developers to create model units that showcase our product in their spaces (see my 05/15/15 post, A Model’s Life). It’s a very enjoyable part of my job in that every project is different, with different requirements.

We’ve recently installed two units at a development called Pallas in North Bethesda, MD. It’s a great location with an urban vibe in what’s usually considered a more suburban area near DC. As part of this installation, I was asked to write a blog about our design concepts and why we chose what we did for the units.

While this could seem daunting – to write a blog for publication on a well-visited website – I realized that my experience writing for the Room & Board Design Associate blog, this blog, has given me experience in doing just that…..writing blogs for publication on a well-visited website!

I think that’s the fun part about your experiences at Room & Board; you start by doing the things that interest you and often later find that they’ve given you experience and expertise in an area that you never really thought would be part of your job description. I think that’s a great way to grow professionally.

With Room & Board, I’ve now written over a dozen blogs and have a body of work that expresses my point of view and writing style. Pretty cool I think.

Now without further ado, here’s a link to my original blog for Pallas. As far as blogs go, I think it turned out well.

It’s All Part of the Process

So I moved recently.

“I love moving!” said no one ever. Moving pulls at all those comfort zones that you think you have down pat. Yes, you’re a neat and tidy person, but why are you keeping the twisty ties from every loaf of bread you’ve ever bought? Sure that book was a best seller, but if you can’t get through the first two chapters do you really need to keep it? And do you really need to keep that faded bloom from a special someone? I mean, it’s dusty and half the petals are falling off.

I once read that if you’re deciding to keep or not keep something, you should hold it in your hand and ask the question, “Does this bring me joy?” If the answer is “no,” it needs to go.

I’ve done a lot of this recently. There are things that, at one time, I thought were very important to me, but that I am now able to part with. There are other things that, when I look at them and hold them, I hear a resounding, “Keep Me!” in my head.

Through this process I’ve found that one of my favorite pieces is the Devin Media Cabinet. The Devin was one of the first pieces I purchased after I started with Room & Board. It’s in walnut with glass doors and its clean lines – well, they make me happy. They bring me joy. And although I’ve been in the home furnishings retail business for over a dozen years, it was one of the first new “good” pieces of furniture I’ve ever purchased. I want to take care of it. I even went so far as to tell the moving team that this was my favorite piece and to be extra careful with it.

That admiration for our furniture, my furniture in particular, gives me confidence to specify our product every day. I know that it’s well made and that, with care, will serve our customers well for many years. We hold ourselves and our vendors to high standards. Our ability to stand behind our furniture and all our products runs to the core of our business. It helps make us successful. It brings us satisfaction. You might even say it brings us joy.

Oh, and that faded bloom? I’m going to go ahead and keep it for now.

 

A Model’s Life

Beautiful things. Traveling around the world. Getting your picture taken. Having people fuss over you all the time. All things that fill the life of a model, right? A model’s life at Room & Board includes many of these activities, but granted it is a bit more stationary – not so much traveling around the world with this particular role. The life of a model unit is what I’m talking about.

With my secondary role as Brand Liaison I get to work with local developers to create model units to help promote our product in a residential setting and to help the particular development sell their units. It’s a great way for me to really work with so many fun duties that are outside my normal showroom role.

Like that glamorous model, the flawless presentation takes a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make everything look easy. There are on-site visits often involving hard hats and construction sites, meetings with developers to determine who the target audience is and, if the project aligns with Room & Board as a brand, design meetings with my Visual Associate to figure out the best product and placement, collaboration with our Central partners and finally setting up the logistics of installing and propping the units so that they look as if someone very chic is living there – even down to the kettle on the stove and clothes in the closet.

Our model units stay in a complex for usually six months to a year and are seen by hundreds of people. We often go back to primp and fluff just to make sure that everything looks perfect. Flawless always takes work.

Recently, we’ve worked with a great development in Washington D.C. called 2030 Atlantic Plumbing. It’s very near our store, has a signature look by a noted architect and is very much in line with the aesthetic of Room & Board. It’s been great to talk with customers who saw our model units, are now purchasing items for their new place and are coming to us.

All in all, it’s a great mix of design savvy, business acumen and collaboration that creates a great and successful model unit.

I think we’re ready for our close-up.

Spring!

In retail we often feel like we’re a little out of synch with everyone else. In order to be ready for seasonal product or major introductions we need to start early to learn about the incoming product, its attributes and its placement on the showroom. We therefore feel a bit ahead or behind of what everyone else is experiencing. In the winter we’re thinking about spring/summer and in summer/fall we’re already thinking about the new year.

It’s felt that way a lot recently. We started learning about outdoor product and figuring out where it’s going to be shown in our showroom as early as January. It’s been a particularly cold and snowy winter for many of our locations and it always seems a bit strange to be looking at pictures of beautiful patio scenes while you’re wearing three layers of clothing.

As I write this it’s the first day of spring. And as I look out the window the snow is falling. Not quite the warm sunny day I was hoping for to herald in the new season. But we make the best of it. We began receiving our new outdoor furniture several weeks ago and have been placing pieces on our fourth floor deck as well as the small garden area beside the store at street level. It’s been a normal sight to look out the window and see a lovely outdoor grouping covered in frost and snow.

We recently scheduled a morning meeting to talk about some of our new outdoor furniture and on this particular morning it was snowing – quite a lot. Not to be undone by weather, our team made the most of the situation and took some photos of us “enjoying” the new outdoor collections as seen by the photo above. Who says that gracious entertaining can only be done in the warmer months?

So while it may feel a little odd for us at times, the hope is that we’ll be all ready and prepared when our customers start looking at our outdoor collection and asking questions. And hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy some of our outdoor setting in a little more seasonably warm weather……while planning for new 2016 introductions in January.

5 Things I Learned from Visiting Atlanta

1. Going away is like going home, sorta.

When I travel to a different market, I always know that there are going to be things that feel very familiar to the environment in which I normally work. The showroom and aesthetics are going to be pretty similar to my normal store location. The product will be pretty much the same and, for the most part, the reference materials will be in about the same place so that I can help customers with ease. There are also a lot of things that are different. For instance, we usually try to find unique buildings to use as showrooms throughout the nation. The DC showroom started out as a car dealership in the early 20th century and the Atlanta showroom was originally a meat processing plant. Atlanta even has the original smoke room as part of their showroom space. Needless to say, with such unique floorplans I rely heavily on the kindness and memory of Design Associates that work there to point out the location of product for me.

2. We hire good people.

I naturally think the staff that I work with in DC is the best, but I always enjoy visiting other markets. Not just because I get to travel, but because I get to put faces with names and develop working relationships with people in other stores. I’m always struck by the consistently fun, interesting and professional people that I encounter. The Atlanta staff is no exception. This is my third time in as many years to visit the Atlanta market and I feel like I’m not just developing working relationships, but friendships. It’s always fun to catch up and see what everyone has been doing as well as get to know those that have been hired since my last visit. It’s amazing the things you can learn from just hanging out on the showroom floor and talking…..which brings me to my next point…

3. The biggest things can often come from the smallest conversations.

When I travel, I often have an agenda of meetings or conversations that I plan to have to take advantage of having a colleague standing in front of me. But sometimes the biggest moments come from, again, just hanging out and talking. I work a lot with custom windows and in DC we are always working to see how we can engage the customer more with the product. Without going into too much detail, in Atlanta I happened to be watching an associate working with a customer in the Design Center by custom windows. He was working with solar shades and did something so simple but effective and helpful for the customer that I knew I had to take it back to my store. It really was my “ah ha” moment of the trip.

4. Every store has its own vibe.

While every store is an extension of the brand and has a similar look and feel, each is also a reflection of its own community. In DC we incorporate clothing from nearby Howard University in our Room & Board Kids department display. We also highlight local producers of food items in our Everyday Dining area. Atlanta does the same. For instance, they highlight local preserves made by Preserving Place, a great store in the shopping complex that makes their preserves on site. Atlanta also features cookbooks throughout the showroom of regional interest. The city has a plethora of great chefs and there were more than a few recipes I noted while checking out the display. I think it makes for a more intimate shopping experience and focuses on our goal to really be part of the community in which we’re located.

5. The food is amazing!

Really, did you think I could write about visiting Atlanta and not talk about the food? It doesn’t take too long of working at Room & Board to find that most associates are foodies. Big foodies. And most will gladly talk to you about the food they like. It can be anything from an original Cheetos recipe to recommendations for the best restaurant in the city. Either way, I’m not going to be disappointed. Ok, truthfully, I haven’t tried the Cheetos recipe yet….but the next time I’m down, I might!