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O P I N I O N
The pandemic highlighted the importance of workday social interaction, protecting key technical staff from burnout, and using technology to engage with clients. Lessons learned and moving forward
T he COVID-19 pandemic was the first major challenge MKN faced after almost eight years of booming growth in a hot California water resource market. The firm had benefited from a huge need for water, wastewater, and recycled water infrastructure in central and southern California. Our design, condition assessment, planning, construction management, and project management practices were expanding with new staff, new clients, and new partnerships. Our team had great talent among our seller-doers, management team, and production staff in our seven offices, extending from Fresno to Oceanside.
Mike Nunley
The pandemic struck California in early March 2020, resulting in Governor Newsom issuing stay-at-home mandates for most non-essential businesses. As a firm focused on public water and wastewater engineering, we could continue to operate in an office setting, but made the decision to send nearly all our office staff home in mid-March. We slowly allowed staff to come back into offices in June and July of 2020, with the requirement that conference rooms or break rooms couldn’t be used to congregate. Staff could only work in offices with doors, and all staff had to wear masks when they left their offices for any reason. Many of our staff elected to work
from home to take care of children or to keep themselves safe. Our financial performance remained solid and the firm continued to grow. We were fortunate to have eight months of backlog headed into the pandemic and were able to continue executing and winning work. Our recruiting efforts continued as well, resulting in new senior engineers, assistant engineers, and construction management staff. However, looking back it’s easy to identify what we learned and how it should change our business,
See MIKE NUNLEY, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER SEPTEMBER 20, 2021, ISSUE 1409
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