Episode Transcript
Monica Pitts 0:08
Hello, and welcome back to marketing with purpose. I'm your host Monica Pitts. And today we're tackling a topic that hits close to home for many of us, quite literally, working from home with your spouse and managing to not go nuts, get your work done, and stay married. Yay. I personally do not know how to do this. When my husband and I worked from home, and well now when we work from home, we occupy separate spaces. And we treat the kitchen like our water cooler. So we like gather in the kitchen. But my guests today, Tyler and Christie Ernst are another story. They have been remote working from the same room for the past four years. And they still like each other. Yeah, I know what a success story right? So Tyler is our lead developer and CO art director at may create and he's been working remotely since 2014. When he and his wife Christie moved to Belton, Missouri, it's like near Kansas City for her nursing career. So yeah, I was hoping that we could just start this off by first having the two of you introduce yourselves. And then we'll take a trip back in time to uncover all of this, like co working wisdom that you've gathered through this like work at home journey. So I want to know, where did you meet? How long have you been together? How long have you been married? So that way people know? Can? Like what? What's your story? Tell me.
Tyler Ernst 1:49
You want to start?
Christi Ernst 1:51
Tyler, you can go you're better at storytelling.
Tyler Ernst 1:53
Fair enough. Technically, if you want to ask when we first met, it'd be middle school. But we weren't friends until senior year of high school.
Christi Ernst 2:02
I don't think I knew who you were other than the rat tail kid in middle school. So we can call it that. Any one of the kids with the rat tail?
Tyler Ernst 2:10
Mainly mainly band, I would say. Like, that's my it's like, freshman year band probably marching band. Me start to really get to know everyone.
Monica Pitts 2:21
And you guys, you went to college together, right? Did you guys date in college?
Tyler Ernst 2:25
We did. We started dating freshman year college. So we I actually went to the Art Institute my freshman year, and she went to UCM. And I was like, well, private school sucks. And and then she was like, well, you can transfer schools and I hadn't even thought that that was an option. And then I was like, Oh, I can't do that. Well cool. I'm gonna go over there. And so we both went DCM
Monica Pitts 2:51
and when do you guys get married? 2023 2023 man So
Tyler Ernst 2:58
11 years ago this summer?
Christi Ernst 3:00
Yeah. That's
Monica Pitts 3:02
awesome. Kind of makes me feel old but awesome. All the same time. Okay, so
Tyler Ernst 3:10
anything about it? I only worked for me creed for a year before, but as a not married person.
Monica Pitts 3:16
Now when you started it may create. Did I have kids yet?
Tyler Ernst 3:20
You had Ella's Okay, all right. She was was pregnant with her first.
Monica Pitts 3:25
Man. You got to live through all of that with us. Oh, that's incredible. Thank you for that dialer. Now, okay, so one other thing I wanted to tell people about because this is a really cool and interesting fact about you guys. Sorry, I told everybody that Tyler is Miko art director and He's our lead developer. But you guys, you have like a really interesting hobby, we say it may create we're like, two ticks away from being like a full blown circus, you know? So tell everybody what your guys's hobby is? What do you guys do when you're not at work?
Christi Ernst 4:04
Well, I think the biggest thing that Monique was alluding to is that we're both competitive power lifters. And so we like to lift heavy circles for fun is about the best way to put it and not just like some heavy circles, but a lot of heavy circles. Like my best benchpress is something that everybody always talks about. Like what do you bench bro? I bench 275 pounds at least once. We go
Tyler Ernst 4:29
twice now. Yeah,
Christi Ernst 4:30
I have no 275 just wants to 65 I've done like three or four times. But yeah, powerlifting something that we do together. So not only do we work from home together most days of the week, and we live together in the same home but we go to the same gym at the same time and train together too. So there's a lot of like, a lot of togetherness. Be like we share that same hobby. So yeah. That's one of our big circus things. I guess you could also say another circus thing is, uh, I've started to dabble into the sourdough realm of things. Yeah, I
Monica Pitts 5:05
was gonna talk about your sourdough. Yeah,
Christi Ernst 5:08
I've got some starter in the fridge and I've got some discard in the fridge. I want to make some English muffins with later. So yeah, I've
Monica Pitts 5:15
heard that sourdough is actually like better for you than normal bread, like it's supposed to digest better. Is that true?
Christi Ernst 5:21
It's a lot like sauerkraut, or like fermented foods, that sort of thing. It's got all that like good gut bacteria in there. So it helps your good gut health and that sort of thing. That's why it's better for
Tyler Ernst 5:31
you. We were like reverse hipsters. For sourdough. We came into that trend way later, because when everyone else is making sourdough in 2020, we're making pizza dough.
Monica Pitts 5:45
So um, Tyler, I know that when you both decided to move for Christie's jobs, originally, like you thought that you were going to work in an office, you were going to move to Kansas City, you were going to work in an office, you were looking for other jobs, we were devastated. That may create. And then you decided to stay on and work remotely for may create. So that was a big transition. So I want to kind of start there with the remote work theme. Like, how was that? Was that a hard decision? Like how was it at first? I
Tyler Ernst 6:19
got a lot of questions from people because it wasn't a normal thing then. And so like, when we started looking at, at moving, I started looking at jobs, like you said, and then like nothing was really panning out. And I remember the moment I was staying in your office, and I was talking about it. And we were talking and I was like, I'm like freaking out right now. You know, we're moving in a couple of weeks. And nothing's panned out yet. And I have a job, like, that's a little freaky. And you're like, well, most of what you do is online, you can just keep working for us. And I was like, I had not thought about that. And you're like, I had neither till just now we're like, let's do it. Why not? You know? And so it was, it was a little frightening, because it was like, there isn't really a norm for this. And like, I remember my uncle asked me he's like, Well, how long do you think that game is gonna last? And I was like, I don't know, you know, I really don't know what it's gonna, it's gonna last until I can hopefully find something else. And then lo and behold, 10 years later, it lasted pretty well, I would say,
Monica Pitts 7:24
Well, we had a trial period at first and we like checked in a bunch because it isn't for everybody like working from home is not for everybody like I, I don't do it super well, I can do it for a while. But after a few months, I kind of just need to leave the house and have to have a reason to put on real clothes to feel good about myself. Not everybody needs that though. I mean, um, so yeah, definitely
Tyler Ernst 7:47
helps with that the gym is a good excuse to leave the house, you know, four or five times a week. And that that helps. When we first moved to the next one we weren't super into lifting I was there were points where it'd be like Friday night, and I'd be like, I haven't left the house in four days, we need to go do something.
Christi Ernst 8:05
Not only had you not left the house yet and seen sunlight because you were working out of the basement and then like a little corner, and you would like Come upstairs for lunch and then go back down and eat your lunch in the basement. So you've been solely chillin out down there. Yeah,
Tyler Ernst 8:18
if it was winter, and you know, the sun, wasn't there, like just coming up as I was going downstairs. And then by the time I came upstairs after work, it was down already.
Monica Pitts 8:29
Is there anything? I mean, you've spent more of your career now working from home than you have in an office? So is there anything that you miss about being in an office environment at this point?
Tyler Ernst 8:42
Um, I mean, we work somewhere long enough. Like, like, I haven't made great like, you know, you guys are actual genuine friends. So I miss seeing people like that in person. But also, like, I'm so much more productive when I'm at home. That like the heat. When you do a lot of that you get into a rhythm of like, this is how I work. This is my day. And I don't know, I don't know if I could ever really go back to an office quite frankly.
Monica Pitts 9:08
There's lots of distractions. I do miss you popping my back for me though. I have to go to a chiropractor for that now. Much more expensive. Christie, you're a health care professional. Tell us what you do and how you ended up working from home. How'd that happen? So
Christi Ernst 9:30
I guess it kind of starts when we moved to Lenexa, I worked in a cath lab. So I worked around like cardiology, outpatient, so essentially busy hustle bustle, worked a job where I carried a pager, worked a job where had to be within a range of certain hospitals. So I worked there for just shy of five years. But at the end of that five years, man Was I feeling all of the extra hours I worked Was I feeling I like to call myself an extrovert piece of toast at the end of Got a job, it was very emotionally exhausting, very physically exhausting, looked for something different. So then I started working basically within the healthcare IT space. And when I started there, I actually started working from home one day a week. But it was mostly in the office. And that started in 2018. So I worked in an office and worked from home one day a week, for a couple of years, until March of 2020, where the transition to work from home happened and everybody was forced to work from home. So I had been kind of used to like working from home once a day. But let's be honest, when you work from home, once a day, it's not the same sort of situation, you're still going back to the office for the other days, you honestly kind of use that day to make your appointments like your doctor's appointments to kind of flex your time around a little bit. And I worked from the recliner. So that's where that's where I worked, I did my work that way, or I'd go work at a coffee shop. But then when the pandemic happened, and everybody was forced to work from home, at first, it was a weird transition, because you didn't know how long that was going to last like the initial thought was. And it was really weird, even because we were potentially moving to a new office locations. So it was like, do I take all my stuff out of my desk in these moments? Or do I not. And so I actually left a few things at the office. But I took most of like my personal items with me when we got the email at a start working remotely. And initially, it was supposed to just be for a couple of weeks. So I thought, okay, cool, I can work from my chair for a couple weeks, no big deal, this big recliner had, you know, I can use my mouse, my job was very easy to do that from. And then, um, you know that two weeks goes by and you get another email and it's like, oh, we're not going to return to office until the middle of the summer. And then you get another email and another email. Basically, the summer of 2020 was when I decided, okay, I need an actual desk to work at. I'm moving in. So I moved into the office with Tyler. Um, I don't think he was very excited about that initially, but I was like, I need a hard space to at least work to put this extra monitor up. And to work from time to time, I think we tried working toward me working at like the dining room table, essentially where I'm sitting right now for a little bit, but it just wasn't the same. And so I got a desk you can see it's right behind Tyler but and then we transition to a sit to stand desk even so I kind of just made myself at home and moved right on in and that was kind of a shock for Tyler at first.
Tyler Ernst 12:33
I'm a creature of habit. So like, like you're moving things around in here in my office, that's now our office. Okay, I guess you're gonna do that. And I guess I'm gonna be okay with it.
Monica Pitts 12:47
Well, you're really laid back like, You're about as low drama as they come. And I'm sure that that's not all the time Christy but me, he's you know, it's kind of like my kids go to school and they're, like, really functional at school and they come home and are like a complete sideshow. It's, I feel like it's the same with spouses versus bosses. Right? But so like, like, what were some of the thoughts going through your head as Christie is moving into your office that's like, your space in the house.
Tyler Ernst 13:22
So one of the like, the big points of contention that we had to work through. And this is gonna sound so stupid, but I had like a schedule for I listen to this podcast on this day, this podcast on this day, this one this way. And these times, because when they released, and she was like, I can't focus when you're listening to those now I was like, that's too bad, I guess I don't know.
Christi Ernst 13:47
So you're missing the point that you don't listen to anything through a set of headphones. And so everything is through speakers that are loud. i We didn't really discover that I wasn't being enabled. Like I wasn't able to focus while podcasts were playing. I probably didn't realize that till for like three solid months. So I realized it took a long time. But I was like, searching the internet scrolling social media, like my brain did not like listening to podcasts. And I didn't realize it but I tolerated it for so long, simply because I had to,
Monica Pitts 14:24
you know what, Christy? I can't do it either. So like, if, when we were before we came on, I said Hey, okay, so my, my office is in like 120 year old building and it's over the top of a bar that opens it too. And it's one o'clock, you know, so sometimes the people come in and have really loud discussions below me, but somehow that doesn't really bother me because it's like weird muffled ambient noise. But if I have music with words on or a podcast rolling, like with a podcast rolling I cannot work with Music with words on I can design but I can't write at all, like I can't write because my brain just latches on to the words. And so I have to, I literally have a whole playlist that's filled with songs with no words on them for when I have to write. So what I'm saying is, I feel you really hard there, because I could not have done it like, at all, I would have been erupting.
Tyler Ernst 15:22
And so what ended up happening is, eventually, we figured out, you know, the certain set of circumstances that it was like, Okay, well, this isn't working here. That's why I have a nice pair of headphones now, because I was like, alright, well, I'm not going to not listen to these, because I really enjoyed them. And they helped me focus. So I got a nice pair of headphones. And then, you know, just figured out the schedule a little differently for when I listened to him.
Monica Pitts 15:46
Are there other bumpy patches that you guys had to figure out? I mean, especially working in the same room. That's a lot. He
Christi Ernst 15:52
didn't talk about the disk. So Tyler has a tendency that things have certain places, and they have to go certain ways, my desk overlaps our window a little bit in the office space. And that drove him absolutely insane. When I was ordering this desk initially, he said, it's going to overlap the window, it's too long. I said, well, I need the space. Like, I need to be able to have my monitor on my laptop. And, you know, let's face it, it's not a big desk, it's very small. But the fact that it overlaps a window drove him insane. He wanted it to sit to where it angled against the wall, but I wanted to see out the window. And at that time, we had this big beautiful tree that blossomed to every spring. And so it's just nice to be able to see out of a window, especially coming from that clinical background where I worked in a little rural LED Room. You can see the sunlight at all. So it was just nice to be able to have my window in my office or our office. And, you know, it was our space, not just his space. So that transition was a little bit much to
Tyler Ernst 16:54
I think it's it's it's a lot of the like little stupid victory arguments that you have as a married couple, except for about a room that you spend your entire day and came down to. But
Monica Pitts 17:06
you guys are good communicators. You guys have been like friends and married obviously, for a long time now, which is kind of where I was going for the beginning here when I asked you guys how long you've been together. So you know how to communicate with one another and how to respect each other's triggers? For sure. Okay, so is there anything that you miss about being in an office Christy, that you don't feel like you get working at home with Tyler.
Christi Ernst 17:36
So honestly, I actually am in a new role that's actually hybrid. So I am in an office two to three days a week. With that being said, it's not the same going back to that office, because most of my team is still remote. So I don't get to like go to office and collaborate with those individuals have whiteboard sessions, where you talk, those are the things that I really enjoyed about being in person. Having that face to face. Now, obviously, you can meet over video chat, but a lot of people within healthcare IT that you'll find, especially individuals that are behind the scenes, so engineers, even people that work on the solution side of things don't turn their cameras on. So it's a lot of like cameras off. And so you don't even get to see facial reactions to what you're saying. So that can make it hard. There were a couple of meetings when I worked at my previous company that we always had cameras on it was super laid back, but for most of the cameras were off. So currently, sometimes I feel like I might be in an office but I'm still working remotely, but I still had to drive somewhere every day sort of thing. I don't one thing I don't like about working in the office other than the fact that it feels like I'm working remotely sometimes at the office is the drive for some people I think driving to and from an office is nice, but because of where we live I have to take almost a different way to and from work every day and sometimes I take different ways home from work depending on traffic like I have to ask Google which way to you know guide me home because one way could take an hour and the other one could take 30 minutes so Yeah, but what I have found that I really enjoyed working from home that is different is I get to do like I can cook my lunch like I don't have to worry or stress about prepping my meals for the week as much on Sunday night. Like if I didn't get the opportunity to do that. Then I can like grill a steak during my lunch break and prep my meals for the week during my lunch break. Right at Home. It's really nice.
Monica Pitts 19:38
Yeah, we're unload the dishwasher. That's what I found like because now I like deal with it before and after dinner which is just one more nighttime task but and I am nodding my head over here I also when I work from home really like I can make eggs for lunch. That makes me very you know
Tyler Ernst 19:57
that back to the our hobby when you're when You're lifting you have a decently specific diet, not like we're not super strict like bodybuilders or anything. But it is like I need higher protein, higher carbs. So like, usually that involves cooking specific things and prepping them ahead of time. So you don't have to cook that stuff. And if you're at home, like I, I'll start right at 11 o'clock. So 3d Whenever I'm ready for lunch at noon, you know?
Monica Pitts 20:25
So I got to know, you guys both have meetings. Right? So how do you handle meetings? How does that work? Because like, I mean, I'm in one face with my marketing assistant sometimes. But she doesn't take meetings unless she's on the meeting with me. So there's not like, people's voices jockeying. And I remember when Mike and I worked from the basement, and Mike is on the phone all day long with his job and he talks really loud, he would have to go into the laundry room and shut the door and have all of his professional conversations in the laundry room, because no one could hear anything except for Mike talking. So how do you guys do it, I got to know. So
Christi Ernst 21:08
this is one of the big things that I just kind of took upon myself. So Tyler, Tyler works from a desktop computer, he's at a desk, there's no mobility to that he's just kind of stuck in the office, there's, like, Sure, he could maybe take some of his calls from a phone, but most of his stuff, like he's sharing his screen, he's, you know, working with clients, and, you know, rearranging their websites for him. Whereas I have a laptop, so I am super mobile. So that's just one thing I started from the beginning was coming to the living room and taking my meetings, you know, I used to work from the living room. So I'll just take my meetings from the living room. Now, previous roles that I had, I didn't have as many meetings. So it wasn't as big of a deal. But like today, already, I've spent most of my day out in the living room, because I've been in meetings all day. Now there are some instances where I enjoy having my second screen. Like if I'm presenting on a call, but most of the time, I don't necessarily need it. But if I do need it, that's where I'm like, Hey, Tyler, just so you know, I have to you know, I'm gonna take this meeting from the office. And so we just kind of respect each other's boundaries, big communication there. I like to share my calendar with him everyday too. So even if it's just a screenshot of like, Hey, these are the meetings I have all day like these are this is my schedule is just so that way we can kind of like that way. We don't interrupt each other's meetings, or like, there's been a couple instances where I've been working out in the living room, and I walked back to the office, and I'm like, Oh, I forgot he was in a meeting. And he's got a camera on. I'm like, Oh.
Tyler Ernst 22:48
I mentioned earlier, sometimes I think people think we're weird. That may create because we always have our cameras on like all the time. And that's not super normal. But like, I told Christie when she because she asked me once and I was like, well, we just kind of did when I started working remotely. Because again, no one was doing it. We just kind of did that. And now we just keep doing that.
Monica Pitts 23:13
It is unacceptable. I'm gonna sound like a real boss here. It's unacceptable to me when I have a meeting with an employee and they do not have their video one. Nope. No, like not gonna work. I got to be able to look you in the eye. Because some people like their nonverbal cues are really loud. And so like, there's people where I tell them instructions. And they're like, Yeah, but their face says no, like it says, I do not understand what you're talking about. And I can tell immediately, even through video that you don't understand what I'm talking about. And so that means that we need to go to plan B and I'm like drawing pictures and holding it up to the camera. So you understand like, I would say like Rebecca can be one of the was one of those people early on until she learned how to really ask questions and see her own cues when she doesn't understand something. But like, You got I can't tell if you're just saying yeah, yeah,
Tyler Ernst 24:08
way it's way better in like in Ralph's meetings, when clients won't turn on their their cameras, which like it happens, that's just the norm sometimes. But when you get a client that will turn on their camera. It's like, it's like, I can't tell if you're happy about the changes I'm making right now or not like, I genuinely have no idea because you're not talking either.
Monica Pitts 24:28
Well, it's also a liability because you don't know if they're actually paying attention. Yeah, that too. They can be checking their email. And if they're like, Christie, your I, I'm assuming Kristen, you're probably the same way. I can pay attention to like one thing at a time. Any more than one thing at a time. And I'm not going to remember anything that happened with one of the things and so there's not a whole lot of multitasking that goes on in my universe. Like
Christi Ernst 24:53
I can multitask. But if I'm trying to do something else, at the same time, say pay attention to a meeting and most of the time I don't actually to hear what's going on. Or I could be trying to pay attention to said meeting and I still don't hear what's going on sometimes it's very interesting. But
Monica Pitts 25:08
I always wonder if that's really multitasking. You're ignoring something and doing. Like, yeah, I do think I wrote that down cameras on is definitely a trick for like remote work. And I like to Christie your comment earlier about like going from not like sitting in the recliner to being at the kitchen table to setting up a desk to having a raise and lower desk because having a work environment that actually works for you is pretty vague. It doesn't matter whether you're at home or had an office, you need something that works for you, you know, and it's not the same for everyone. I know when Tyler first started working from home, we got the raise and lower desks that may create. And then he was like, I don't want to raise and lower desk. I want a great chair, which he's sitting in it right now. Yeah. So we bought him a baller chair, you know, that cost the same as a standing desk.
Tyler Ernst 26:04
She was like, she's like, we're getting everyone saying desk. Do you want one I was like, I got my I have a six foot wide giant. This thing. So heavy wooden desk, I got off Craigslist for $20. And it's like the best thing ever. And I was like, I really liked my desk, actually. So yeah. So
Monica Pitts 26:24
all right. So the other thing that I feel like we haven't quite touched on yet is okay. So let's say that somebody comes to you, and they're like, Hey, I've never worked from home with my spouse before or such, and so is going to start working from home. What What would you say to them? What would like what are some questions you might ask them to see if they're going to explode themselves? Because like, that's really what we're all guarding against, right? So the relationship explosion, like it's not not going to work. You can be like Mike and I and just work in separate areas of the house.
Christi Ernst 27:01
You can totally do you basically work in an office without working in an office when you're doing that.
Monica Pitts 27:06
Yeah. But with your spouse where your filters are lower. And so what would you ask them?
Tyler Ernst 27:15
I think, are you flexible? Yeah, you
Christi Ernst 27:17
have like, you have to be flexible, and you have to be willing to compromise, I think is a big thing. Especially if you're moving into somebody's already established office, like I did. It was you know, like when we first started, it was not exactly the smoothest thing. And there were a lot of things that we talked about and disagreed on. But compromising and working through that was a big piece. And so how much are you willing to bend? When you go into that space? How much is the other person willing to bend? Like, really? How flexible are you I think is a big piece.
Tyler Ernst 27:53
Yeah. And then communication off of that is like, How well can you talk about those things that you're willing to bend about?
Monica Pitts 28:04
One thing that I mentioned earlier was can you work in the kitchen together? Yeah. Oh,
Christi Ernst 28:10
100%. So Tyler's my sous chef in the kitchen. I am basically, I'm the pickiest one. So I kind of take lead. And that's just something that we've learned as we've been together for so long Tyler's cooked meals, and I haven't been happy with them. I personally think I'm a better cook. But he's taken on that role of like, cleaning up after me because I'm not the greatest of cleaning up as I go when I cook. And I've done the like, I'll do like the nitty gritty like making sure the steaks don't cook too long on the grill or making sure the airfryer set to the right time, that sort of thing. So I think if you can work together in the kitchen and cut, like, cook a meal together, whether that's when I say cook a meal that includes doing the dishes, like are you doing the dishes as the other ones cleaning or cleaning the island office, that sort of thing? Can you work together in the kitchen, then you can probably work together in an office.
Monica Pitts 29:07
I would I would agree with that. I mean, like so we're actually designing a new kitchen at Mike and I are and I'm like I'm always the one at the sink. Okay, so I'm the Tyler. I'm the owl cut stuff. And I you know, and he's always in front of the stove. And I'm like, no, no, no, the stove and the sink cannot be opposite one another like the plans came back and there was a sink in the island with a stove right behind it and then like this, ah, I want my own space. I want my does this give you some insight into our universe. I'm like, I want my own sink with my own dishwasher next to it. And then over there, you can have your beautiful range, but it cannot be close to my sink.
Christi Ernst 29:48
See, I just want a booty bump and that's what would happen in our house is like you just bump into each other over and over again. So
Tyler Ernst 29:58
we're not small people.
Monica Pitts 30:03
Yeah, I do understand from an aesthetic standpoint why people put things together like that. But then like, yeah, so we like to have our own space at the pits household. And it's totally okay. I wonder too. So this is something you guys haven't mentioned before. Now, I feel like both of you guys are very respectful of each other's careers and work roles. Does that make sense? Like, I always have felt like you guys are pretty equal in that and you sacrifice for each other, especially as Tyler has grown into his role. I wonder if it would be challenging to share workspace with your spouse if they felt like their role was superior to your role? And then it would be like butting heads all the time. Does that make sense? Because I remember when, when Mike was like, at his job initially, and it was like, he had the ability to make way more money than I did. And so like, it was our agreement that any doctor's appointment I took the kids to, anytime they were sick, I stayed home with them, because I knew that he was the one that could make the most money. And so I was gonna, like, take that hit for us. I wonder how that will go down. If you were sharing space, like when meetings came up, and
Tyler Ernst 31:17
I feel like that could be really hard, because it'd be like, like, well, I'm more important. So I should be able to use the office for my meetings. First, like, for us, it's literally just a functional thing. Like, I like she said, I have a desktop. If this doesn't work, I'm not going to carry it into the kitchen every time there's a meeting.
Christi Ernst 31:38
But I think you have to prioritize sorry, I think it's a prioritize, like what the purpose of that meeting. So I think obviously, one thing I thought about as we were talking is we kind of almost have like a Scrum is how we call it in like the IT world, where we talk about what we have for the day like Tyler will tell me he has this meeting at two o'clock or, or I just send him my whole calendar List of Meetings. And so we kind of get a day plan of like, what each other's day looks like. So we can communicate with each other. And like, based on that, too, for me, like, it's all about what type of meeting it is, what layer of meeting is it. So when I was in my previous role, I did a lot of present. I did some presentations for clients. And so I made sure that those meetings were held in the office, because I liked having two screens. And that's essentially how we prioritize things. So these meetings that you can take from your computer, or like even from a leadership perspective, so like, If Tyler has a one on one, or he has a review with one of his, you know, one of his peers, then I give him that privacy in the office, because I don't want to be in there. That kind of is also like the HIPAA part of the nurse, me too, is respecting that privacy of the other individual by me not being in there. And same with me when I would have one on ones with. With my team and individuals, I would always take them out here. So that way he wasn't in the room respecting their privacy as well. So you kind of have to look at each meeting and decide from there like, especially if both people are mobile, then you just kind of have to, you know, prioritize it that way.
Monica Pitts 33:18
I do feel like though Christie, I always value your opinion. And so there are some times where I'm really glad that you're in the room. Because, like, we like having an outsider's opinion is really good, especially since you're like in a more corporate environment. And there are a lot of times where Stacey and I will be having a conversation about stuff even with Tyler and we'll be like, we need to go ask Mike my husband or Ryan, her husband because they both work in corporate. How do you handle this over there? Because we don't frickin know. We're just making crap up as we go over here. And I'm not like offended when you're in the room because I'm like, Haha, maybe she heard Hey, tap Christy on the shoulder.
Tyler Ernst 34:00
Or sometimes when it's when it's like, I don't know, if I have an opinion on this. Hey, what do you think?
Christi Ernst 34:06
I'll be completely transparent. Sometimes something will come up that you guys are talking about. And I'll like Slack, Tyler real fast and be like, hey, this might work for you guys. It's like, I'm kind of listening to what you're talking about, but not completely. So that was
Tyler Ernst 34:21
something I was gonna say earlier on the communication front is we actually have a Slack channel, which is the two of us on it. That like it was like, let's just do this. And because I'm on Slack all the time. You're you guys used to use Slack. You don't anymore, but it's like we're both on Slack. Let's just make a new channel and use that which feels weird using that communicate in the house when you're both there. But same time. It's so useful.
Monica Pitts 34:46
I put mike on Slack too. I'm like this texting back and forth all day does not work for me. If you need me during the workday, you need to be on Slack. This is where I'm at. It's so much easier. I like just don't get on text during work. I only Slack. So if you want me, you should slack me. If
Christi Ernst 35:04
that one if you don't have access to Slack, per se, I think you can I think slack is a free for so many users because we created like our own family. But even like Google chat, you can use that. And you can add that to your you know, your taskbar at the bottom. And that was a great tool that we both used for a long time, because that was before you guys were even on Slack. We use Google Chat. The two of us did. So what
Monica Pitts 35:24
I haven't installed on my phone too. So like, right, I get the messages when I need them. And it's just yeah, yeah. It's
Tyler Ernst 35:34
not that commercial for slack. But it's pretty great.
Monica Pitts 35:37
It's awesome. Okay, so last question for you guys. Housework. So housework during the workday, this is a contention that Mike and I had when I first started working from home, like back in 2000, because I had a stint where I worked from home from like, 2008 until like to maybe 2010. And he would be like, Monica, will you move the sprinkler? And you need I need you to like unload the dishwasher. And if you could please switch over the laundry. And I'm like, Dude, I'm working. And I'm not like functional to multitask. And when Mike works from home on Mondays and Fridays, he'll get like 20 loads of laundry done. And put them away and stuff while he's having conversations with people on the phone. And I'm like, wow. So it's totally not fair. It's
Tyler Ernst 36:31
like you, I feel like Mike specifically could get away with that if part of your job is talking to people while you're doing stuff. Like, I can't really coat and fold laundry at the same time. That doesn't really work. But that was actually when Chris he started working from home, she was like, you don't leave your desk ever.
Christi Ernst 36:48
Because I he didn't. He didn't even really take bathroom breaks, he would just sit at his desk. And I didn't he didn't really realize that's what he was doing until I was like you don't even like go for like a 10 minute walk around the house or like, do anything during the day. And he's like, No, I just sit here. And he he would like even eat and code at the same time. So his brain never got a chance to like step away and refresh itself.
Monica Pitts 37:19
That's a different style. Yeah, because I get the same way Tyler because I'll sit down and my brain will just be like, clicking along, it's solving problems. And I don't want to stop the flow. Because I'm gonna get to the end. There's like really process driven things. But then like, if I get stuck, then I'm going to do what Christie says, which is get up and go take the dog potty or something. So it sounds like Tyler's not doing housework. That's I'm hearing i
Tyler Ernst 37:46
i have a rule with myself. I'll I'll change around loads of laundry and like little stuff like that. But if it takes more than like 15 minutes, it's not going to happen during the day.
Monica Pitts 37:57
What about your steam?
Christi Ernst 37:58
So one thing with him too, is I was like, even while you're warming your lunch up in the microwave, you could be unloading the dishwasher at the same time because it's right there. Like it's just a little simple thing to keep our kitchen nice and tidy. So for me like I was very wifely. Yeah. But like I don't do it. I think it just depends on the day and like what I have going on the day. So I like to like I can cook a lunch or I can cook us lunch. Like there are some days that I cook the both of us have fresh lunch, which is really nice. And that's when he shows up like this big bowl of like deliciousness. But I also like to garden during the day. So like during the summertime, we would like and I like gardening is a very broad term. I'm talking like watering my plants outside or even like picking some tomatoes. So taking 15 minutes and getting some sunshine that wait in the middle of the morning, stepping out and doing that or like if you're on a town hall, which is a big corporate thing. And then you get like I have a town hall later today actually, that's a great opportunity that you like listen in and you're not on video. It's more of like a big presentation type thing where you can go around and like you can do things and multitask. Some people like to take walks during those meetings. But housework was I don't I'm not the greatest at housework, just in general. That is not a big piece of me and our relationship and how we work together. Tyler finds a lot of joy and gets a lot of dopamine from doing a lot of household items. And so he does end up doing a lot of that stuff but like cooking is one of the things I like to do or even like sourdough. I'll get some of that going. during the work day I'll do some of the folds or Yeah, the gardening is a big piece.
Tyler Ernst 39:52
I think I think the best advice for that sort of thing though, is like finding the balance point of I can do the Use things and still get all my work done. Like for me, right? It's like I'm, I'm always making sure that everything's getting done. And it's like, well, like you said, I'm kind of stuck on this point. I could use a little break like, okay, now's a good time to go real quick. Yeah. Or take that afternoon walk with the dogs. I'm amazed that you said that out loud. Over there, Christy, because you have the dogs out there with you. She said, Oh, I didn't. I didn't.
Christi Ernst 40:28
They're sleeping. So
Monica Pitts 40:31
it must be that time of day. Yeah. Well, I think that's good advice. Anyway, like, find your rhythm for me. Like, I have a couple of breaks during the day. But it's not. It's because I need a break mentally not not that I can't just walk away from what I'm doing always and pick it right back up where I was, especially if I'm writing.
Tyler Ernst 40:54
Okay, sometimes that I'll work to like, like, six o'clock 615 or so it's just because increases like, are you still working on? Like, I was really just in the middle of this book. And I just figured it out. So I'm done now. Because
Monica Pitts 41:08
you find joy in it. Yeah, exactly. I find I find joy in it. Okay, friends. So there you go. Now you have it. Now hopefully, you guys can take away from the story of Tyler and Christy, how to work from home with your spouse and manage to not go nuts, get your work done, and stay married. And hey, you know what, Mike and I when we work from home together, it's a completely different scenario. But it works for us. And it sounds like what we're really all saying is just do what works for you. Right? Absolutely. Okay. So I was gonna make it a goal to tell people what our next episode was going to be. But then I closed airtable. So that's great. Actually, no, wait. Okay. So if you enjoyed this conversation with Tyler and Christie, then you can hang out with me next week, because we have episodes every single week with Chris West. Chris owns West contracting, and it's a success story. He and his team got together and made some big changes over this past year that's really improved their company culture and efficiency. And he's going to talk all about that and working in a family business because he manages a third generation family business. And that is a feat in and of itself. That's tricky. So join us next week for our interview with Chris West with West contracting. And yeah, subscribe so that way you don't miss it. So until next time, go forth and mark it with purpose. Ciao.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
