Have you ever been presented with new technology that professes to make your work-life easier to manage and more productive, and then thought to yourself, “Nah, I’m good?”
You may want to reconsider.
If you’re having trouble keeping track of your time and productivity levels, one of these apps could help. Here’s a rundown of some of the most popular choices:
HoneyBook (honeybook.com)
Jenna Kutcher of “The Goal Digger Podcast” loves it, so it’s gotta be good, right? HoneyBook was created to help “creative entrepreneurs and freelancers book more clients, manage projects, and get paid—all in one place.” The customer relationship management software is billed as being “like your own personal assistant.” Access ready-to-use templates (invoices, contracts, proposals, brochures, etc.), manage your bookkeeping, build out automated workflow actions, track your time, and generate reports and charts that give you a bird’s eye of your client leads, projects, bookings, and financial performance. HoneyBook isn’t cheap—it costs $40 monthly, or $400 for an annual plan. But it’s a great app to add some professional polish to your documents and client management, which can also free you up to focus on what you’re getting paid to do.
Trello (trello.com)
Project management app Trello is organized around the creation of “boards,” “lists,” and “cards” that help teams work more collaboratively and productively, from start to finish. Start your project on Trello by creating a “board”—similar to a visualization or mood board, but for team project management. Next, add “structure” to the board by creating lists, what Trello also refers to as a “collection of cards” that organizes ideas, tasks, or updates. Based on the cards you’ve created, you’ll fill in the content. For example, if one of the cards is titled Key Dates, you’ll add those key dates for everyone to follow. Add more detail to the cards with functionalities that allow you to add files, checklists, due dates, comments, and more. Trello might not put an end to the unproductive “this-could-have-just-been-an-email” meetings, but it’s a start.
GSuite (gsuite.google.com)
GSuite just makes communication and collaboration easier, inherently boosting productivity. GSuite offers different features depending on the level of service needed—$6 per user per month for its basic plan, $12 per user for business, and $25 per user for enterprise-grade. With each plan, GSuite offers additional layers of customization, storage, security, and admin controls with its lineup of communication, collaboration and task management apps, like Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Photos, Calendar, and Keep that will help you get work done. If you need it just for yourself as a freelancer or solopreneur, tap into many of these same Google apps for free to collaborate with clients, vendors, or colleagues.
Todoist (todoist.com)
Are you still keeping tabs on your to-do list with post-its or desk blotters? Time to check out Todoist. Amazon, Facebook, Disney and WeWork use the task manager app, a 2019 Editor’s Choice by Google. Todoist lets you assign tasks and due dates, set priority levels and reminders, and sync up other apps like Google Calendar, Slack, Workflow, and Dropbox, among numerous other features, all in the name of helping you keep track of what you need to do to move a project forward. At the end of the day, check the Your Productivity view, which gives you a satisfying (that is, if you actually got work done) infographic on your task completion and productivity levels. Todoist is free for starters, $3 per month for pros, and moves up to $5 per month for business teams.
Asana (asana.com)
Asana’s tagline: “Make more time for the work that matters most.” Workflow management platform Asana has productivity written all over it—companies like Airbnb, NASA, and The New York Times use it. Asana offers free and paid plans—basic is free, premium is $10.99 per user monthly, while business-grade is $24.99 per user monthly. (Asana also offers an enterprise-level subscription, which, presumably, comes with a higher price tag.) To get started, users can create project plans on which to collaborate using an array of templates, from content calendars and event planning sketches to product marketing launches and RFPs. And from there, the customization is seemingly endless. Overall, Asana’s goal is to help you manage and monitor daily tasks and to-dos, project plans, deadlines, and team collabs and assignments, from strategy to execution at-a-glance, so you can more effectively and efficiently reach your business goals and avoid sitting through yet another needless update meeting.
Photo Courtesy of Steve Trumbull / CVILLEIMAGES.COM
THEN: Spudnut Coffee Shop, opened 1969; closed December 2016.
NOW: Quality Pie, opened July 2018.
It’s fair to say Spudnut Coffee Shop, formerly located at 309 Avon St. in Belmont, was a C’ville institution. And when the owners announced its closure in late 2016, it was a sad day for potato flour donut lovers everywhere.
The original Spudnuts was founded more than 2,000 miles away in Salt Lake City in 1940 by brothers Al and Bob Pelton. In 1946, the pair started franchising locations nationwide.
Richard Wingfield and his wife Fay opened Charlottesville’s branch in 1969—his daughter Lori Fitzgerald and husband Mike would keep the legacy going when they took over the shop in 2005. While Lori said the donut bakery was still doing well as a business as of late 2016, she expressed a desire to move on. “Sometimes you feel like it’s time to do something else,” she told C-VILLE Weekly.
Before Spudnuts, in the early 20th century, a dwelling occupied the site where the current one-story commercial building sits, according to city records. The “utilitarian” but still iconic white concrete block and brick structure that we see now was built around 1961, after the Belmont Bridge was completed.
Quality Pie, purveyors of baked goods, sandwiches, and small plates (and sometimes donut-shaped beignets—#spiritofspudnuts), took over the old Spudnuts space in summer 2018, led by chef Tomas Rahal, formerly of Mas Tapas.
Spudnuts had more than 600 outlets in North America across its lifespan. But when the Charlottesville shop closed, it was one of the brand’s last remaining locations on the East Coast.
Photo Courtesy of Conscious Capitalist Group Foundation
Many organizations—for-profit and not-for-profit—get their start out of a desire to seize a market opportunity or fulfill an unmet need. Similarly, the Charlottesville-based Conscious Capitalist Group Foundation launched because no other organization was providing what it does—entrepreneurship, community engagement, and career readiness training that young people need to not only prosper in life and work, but develop a spirit of “giving back.”
Robert Gray and Derek Rush, both Albemarle County natives, founded Conscious Capitalist Group in October 2019 as a way to lift “opportunity youth” out of poverty and help them become not only productive citizens, but business leaders and change agents who then learn to pay it forward in the future. (“Opportunity youth” is defined as people 16 to 24 who are in the transitional years of their life but aren’t enrolled in school or participating in the workforce. According to the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions, approximately one in nine Americans in this age group falls into that category.)
“I think we need more young people in entrepreneurship at an early age because the skill sets that come with entrepreneurship are critical thinking skills,” says Gray—like making good decisions, being good leaders and team members, and other skills that impact everyday life. Social entrepreneurship specifically, he adds, teaches young people how to make the world a better place to live, and “leave their community in a better place than it was before.”
Both Gray and Rush grew up in the Esmont area, an impoverished pocket of generally well-off Albemarle County, where Gray says the poverty rate is notably above the average for Virginia, so he understands the importance of having better resources in place to help young people.
“We’re both entrepreneurs, and we know what entrepreneurship did for us, what type of skill sets it equipped us with, and so we want to use those skill sets to basically reach back and leave a ladder for other people coming from similar situations as us,” adds Gray, who is a first-generation college graduate—he graduated from Saint Augustine’s University, earning a degree in political science. More recently, before co-founding Conscious Capitalist Group, he was a pathway coach at City of Promise in Charlottesville, where he created and led a youth social entrepreneurship training camp in the Westhaven neighborhood.
The programmatic pillars of the Conscious Capitalist Group—its Youth Social Entrepreneurship Leadership Academy and Beyond the Bars Re-Entrepreneur Leadership Academy—are built around providing leadership, financial literacy, career and business development, and social entrepreneurship training. Y.S.E.L.A. runs in classrooms, after-school programs, youth camps, college campuses, and community centers, and partners with other nonprofits, like the Cherry Avenue Boys & Girls Club and Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries, while the Beyond the Bars program partners with facilities like the Blue Ridge Juvenile Detention. Youth interested in participating can also apply at consciouscapitalistgroup.org.
Over the course of the academy, Y.S.E.L.A. participants get matched with internships, help transitioning to post-secondary education or into a job opportunity, and gain access to guest speakers, workshops, visits to area businesses, and one-on-one consultations with business professionals. At the end of the program, they also get to partake in a pitch competition, with the winner receiving seed money for his or her business idea.
Gray and Rush, both alumni of the Community Investment Collaborative entrepreneurship workshop and members of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Charlottesville initiative (Class of 2020), see social entrepreneurship and “compassionate capitalism” as a vehicle for building a stronger community and helping young people reach their full potential in the workforce and life after school, especially if they aren’t on the traditional four-year college or university track or need assistance in establishing a career or business.
“We just added the social element because we’re living in a time where I feel like every company, every business, should have some type of social responsibility,” Gray adds.
Photos: Stephen Barling, Jack Looney, Eze Amos, Tom McGovern
What could be better than getting out of your home office or work site for a few hours, sipping a macchiato, and getting sh*t done in a buzzy coffee shop? Luckily for us, options abound in Charlottesville. Here are our top five picks for the local java spots most conducive to that sweet #teleworklife. (Note: All locations listed offer free Wi-Fi plus outlets to plug in.)
Shenandoah Joe (945 Preston Ave.)
Vibe: Restoration Hardware-meets-“Friends’” Central Perk. Think industrial concrete floors, black, white and beige tones—a super-chill, meditative space to get some work done. That’s Shenandoah Joe’s on Preston Avenue. Take a seat at one of the communal tables, comfy sofas, or oversized armchairs. The cozy yet minimalist-modern space always seems to be teeming with coffee- imbibers, but you can still likely find a place to perch with your laptop. Noise levels are moderate at its busiest. Plus, you are right across the street from what is destined to be another future tele-working hotspot, Dairy Market, so when you’ve worn out your welcome here, you’ll be able to hop across the street.
Mudhouse (213 W. Main St., Downtown Mall)
Vibe: Like walking into a friend’s moody yet welcoming den. The Downtown Mall is where all the action happens, and the Mudhouse is often the center of the buzz. Walk inside and you’ll find a certain gravitas, with well-worn wooden floors and a long, tufted black leather sofa with tables and chairs buttressing one side of the wall. A pillow-strewn window banquette and solitary leather chairs offer additional seating, as does a mallside patio. While the downtown Mudhouse likely sees more of a “who’s who” of C’ville for those remote workers looking to make an impromptu connection, it can also be too crowded for comfort. The local chain’s newest location on 10th Street, just off West Main, is light and airy–ideal for those of us who need a little more space.
Belle Coffee & Wine (407 Monticello Rd.)
Vibe: European-style café meets neighborhood hang space. One of the newest coffee shops on the block, Belle, is just that—a beautiful space. The name, of course, is a play on the neighborhood where it resides, Belmont. Chill out and get some work done amidst Belle’s cool Euro vibes—white and blue tones, blonde wood tables, and a giant map of Belmont on the far wall above a cushy brown leather sofa. Music selections run to adult contempo for the millennial generation with some throwbacks for the rest of us–everything from Bread and Hall & Oates to Haley Reinhart and Lord Huron. Can’t find room inside? Stake out a picnic table on the banana tree-curtained patio or a seat in one of the bistro-style chairs under the yellow awning.
Grit Coffee (2035 Bond St., Ste. #185)
Vibe: Do work, drink coffee, then reward yourself with shopping. While you may think the Downtown Mall location of Grit Coffee would be the best tele-work option out of its multiple local cafes, its stylish outpost at The Shops at Stonefield is even better. The café is outfitted with giant white orb-shaped pendant lights, lots of tables to spread out (but don’t—share that space with your fellow itinerant workers!), a wide, sunny yellow banquette, and stools and bar tables. The buzz is low-key and contemplative—overhead music plays at a gentle decibel. And if the weather is nice, you can grab a seat at one of the purple sidewalk chairs outside. Side note: Grit is ever- expanding—a new café opened recently at the bottom of Pantops and another from the Grit Coffee team is coming to the under-construction Wool Factory.
Snowing in Space (705 W. Main St.)
Vibe: Bold, bright, and colorful West Main Street café filled with murals. Let the artfully disembodied head of Bill Murray (whose film Groundhog Day inspired the coffee shop’s name) spark some work creativity. The Murray mural and frenetic color scheme are the first things that capture your attention when you walk in. Ample seating is available (try to score one of the booths, upholstered in sparkly fuchsia fabric), while the likes of Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and Incubus play on the overhead speakers. The café’s undertone of coolness tempers the loudness of the wall graphics–and the music. Snowing in Space may be best for the kind of work that requires free-flowing idea generation and creative thinking, maybe less so for hammering out that tedious RFP proposal or white paper. Grab a can of nitro cold brew coffee on the way out for the all-nighter or early morning work sesh at home.
Photo: Courtesy of Steve Trumbull, whose third book of historic C'ville photography, "Vintage Charlottesville," comes out late 2019. / cvilleimages.com
THEN: Leggett’s, opened in 1939 // NOW: Violet Crown, opened in 2015
“Quality merchandise. Popular prices.” So went a 1954 ad slogan for Leggett’s, a department store well-known in Charlottesville—and throughout the Mid-Atlantic—for its mid-priced fashions and homewares.
Leggett’s, then a privately-owned retail business, opened its first store in downtown Lynchburg in 1927. It arrived in Charlottesville in 1939, opening at 200-204 West Main Street, according to City of Charlottesville architectural and historic surveys. (Leggett’s later expanded into 212214 West Main Street around 1956.)
The 200-204 West Main property has a long history of department store use; it was also a Hidy & Company, a Robey and Co., an A.D. Cox, and a Sears. Years later, Regal Cinemas took over the location, only to be replaced by Violet Crown in 2015.
In 1980, Leggett’s left the Downtown Mall for the greener pastures of Fashion Square Mall. In 1996, North Carolina-based Belk bought out Leggett’s, and their store—a last vestige of Leggett’s—still remains at Fashion Square Mall.
You see it splashed across social media— #selfcare. It’s one of the hottest buzzwords in wellness. (The hashtag appears more than 21 million times on Instagram.) Hashtags for #corporatewellness or #workplacewellness aren’t as sexy, but don’t let that mislead you. Corporate America has been in the self-care game for years.
Whatever moniker you want to apply to the concept, workplace wellness is defined as the company-sponsored practices that support and aim to improve overall employee health. Most employees spend at least a third of their life at work (or more than 90,000 hours, according to the book Happiness at Work), so it makes sense that many businesses and organizations are seeking ways to create a culture of health—both mental and physical—for workers.
Examples of workplace wellness programs include nutrition counseling, stress management resources, smoking cessation, health fairs, preventative screenings, workout challenges, walking clubs, on-site gyms, and employee assistance programs. It can even include offerings like in-office yoga classes, healthy snack and lunch options, nap rooms (Ben & Jerry’s, Zappos, and Nike have snooze-friendly on-site rooms and policies, according to the National Sleep Foundation), well-being days, dog-friendly workplaces, and office vegetable gardens.
Improved worker productivity, reduced absenteeism and “presenteeism” (when a worker is there, but not really there because they don’t feel well and are thus unproductive), morale boosts, higher employee engagement, a more connected work culture, decreased health care costs, and of course, healthier employees, are among the hoped-for outcomes of workplace wellness programs, as is, ultimately, an improved bottom line.
A wealth of research backs up the purported benefits of such programs, as well as their prevalence in the workplace. According to a “2017 Employee Benefits” report from the Society of Human Resource Management, roughly one-third of organizations surveyed “increased their overall benefits offerings in the last 12 months, with health (22 percent) and wellness (24 percent) benefits being the most likely ones to experience growth.” The main reason for increasing work wellness benefits (or benefits overall) per that SHRM report? To attract and retain top talent.
Another 2017 report, from Aflac, found that “employees who participated in wellness programs offered at their workplaces had higher levels of job satisfaction.” And a majority of millennials—the largest generation of workers in the U.S. labor force, according to the Pew Research Center— say they value workplace wellness. Nearly six in 10 say both “work-life balance and well-being in a job are ‘very important’ to them,” per Gallup.
C’ville area organizations are no stranger to workplace wellness, with some setting the bar when it comes to developing opportunities for employees to live their best, healthiest work-life.
Crutchfield’s holistic approach to workplace wellness
Photo: Martyn Kyle
Creating a “safe, comfortable and challenging” work environment is a top priority for Crutchfield Corporation, says Chris Lilley, chief human resource officer, as is one that supports wellness.
“We look at wellness holistically and include mental, physical, emotional, and financial health in our approach,” Lilley explains.
The consumer electronics retailer— which employs 615 people at locations in Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, and Wise County—offers such workplace wellness benefits as fitness event registration and Weight Watchers membership fee reimbursements, gym membership discounts at ACAC, Brooks Family YMCA, and UVA Wise Gym, seasonal wellness challenges, free annual flu shots, and standing desk or ball chair options, to name a few.
According to a 2017 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, dog-friendly workplaces have been shown to reduce rates of absenteeism and boost worker morale and productivity. Crutchfield—like many other companies such as Amazon, BISSELL, and Etsy— is on board with that policy, with dog-friendly workspaces at its Charlottesville headquarters and its southwest Virginia and Charlottesville contact centers.
“We have installed and actively maintain wooded walking trails on our headquarters property, where we also have a fenced dog run to support our employees who choose to take advantage of our ‘Dog Pawlicy,’ which allows them to bring their dog to work,” adds Lilley.
Employees can also take advantage of Crutchfield’s employee assistance program—EAPs are typically designed to help individuals with personal and work-related concerns, including mental, health, emotional, financial, legal, and other issues that could impact job performance. EAPs, in general, are employer-paid, and offer confidential access to a range of programs and services like eldercare support, health coaching, marital counseling, and substance abuse treatment.
In addition, the company offers a voluntary “Live Longer, Live Better” wellness program, created in consultation with the University of Virginia’s Medical Center, which further incentivizes and rewards good health. When employees visit their primary care physician for a physical exam, “depending on the level of wellness achieved as determined by the employee and the physician, the employee will receive a monetary award,” says Lilley.
Lilley adds that for Crutchfield, workplace wellness has been integral to creating an engaged, high-performing workforce—so much so, the company plans to add to its menu of wellness initiatives and partnerships, including mental health, to further develop its culture of wellness.
“Eliminating real and perceived stigma and disparate treatment for those dealing with mental health is an important step in that process,” Lilley says, adding that overall, efforts like these “are known to support a reduction in absenteeism, presenteeism, apathy, and loneliness which all deteriorate the employee experience in corporate America today.”
CCRi customizes workplace wellness
Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith
Commonwealth Computer Research, Inc., a C’ville-based data science and software engineering company with almost 145 employees, has created a collegial work atmosphere where on-site grilling, food truck days, and movie and board game nights with co-workers are routine–activities that set the tone for the company’s approach to workplace wellness.
Other fun wellness perks: A communal massage chair, which is “in our library area, so you can go close the door and turn the light off and get a little relaxation time,” says Julia Farill, CCRi human resources and recruiting manager.
Access to a wooded park with walking trails also gives employees a break when they need it. “That’s been great for wellness as well, especially for the folks here whose job requires really intense thinking and they’re working on the computer and staring at the screen. Being able to get out and walk around on the trail is huge,” she says.
Customizing workplace wellness as much as possible, and creating an environment where employees are listened to and heard works best for a growing company like theirs, Farill adds, because employee wants and needs are constantly evolving and changing over time.
“I like to try to understand that before we make corporate decisions about where we’re going to invest,” says Farill, “Because I think that it’s really crucial to take a look at who’s here, what they care about, what matters to them, and then allocate resources towards those things based off of what their interests are.”
If CCRi’s employees are into biking as a health and wellness activity–like they are right now, for example–Farill says she tries to figure out how the company can support that even more.
“We have an area set up to be able to work on your bike, so if you ride in as a commuter you can bring your bike in,” she says. “And we have an indoor bike parking area and a little table set up that has a bunch of bike tools so you can work on it. We also have a couple of loaner bikes if people wanted to go out for lunch or something like that.”
Gym and yoga discounts with places like ACAC, FlyDog Yoga, and Formula Complete Fitness are also standard, but because wellness is different for everyone, Farill will make sure she explores other employee interests. “I’ll ask them: ‘Hey, if you have a different interest—if you have a different type of gym or place you work out and you want us to try and contact them to see if they are interested in setting up a corporate partnership, then I’m happy to reach out.”
Farill says the company offers not one but two employee assistance programs. “Those programs are great because they are kind of a one-stop-shop for employees if you are dealing with something that’s going on in your life,” she says.
“The idea is that everybody at some moment in their life has something come up that’s hard to navigate, whether your child care fell through, you have a parent that needs more support, or you’re dealing with a financial issue, you have to do a trust or will or something,” she says. “So the idea of the employee assistance program is that you can just go there and say, ‘This is my issue, and what resources exist?’”
Having a customized workplace wellness program at CCRi is important, Farill says, because ”our people are absolutely the most important thing about our company.”
Supporting wellness in the workplace—whatever that looks like—is in “everybody’s best interest” and is critical to creating an environment where employees can flourish, she adds.
“As a company, trying to individually understand what matters to our people right now, and how is that changing and shifting, and what are we doing as a company to help people not just feel that they’re supported and appreciated, but understand that they really are—this is a big deal to us,” she says.
Charlottesville City Schools gives a boost to teacher and staff wellness
Public school employees have rewarding–but stressful–jobs. A 2017 issue brief from Pennsylvania State University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reported that soaring stress levels “are affecting teacher health and well-being, causing teacher burnout, lack of engagement, job dissatisfaction, poor performance, and some of the highest turnover rates ever.”
The brief suggests that “organizational interventions” designed to help reduce teacher stress can help. Charlottesville City Schools employee wellness program, for example, was created to help employees not only get and stay healthy, but feel valued and cared for, says Laura Floyd, the district’s human resources coordinator.
While CCS’ wellness program is “something that we’re constantly monitoring to see how we can improve,” Floyd adds, current offerings include fitness promotions like discounted gym memberships to area facilities, including ACAC, Brooks Family YMCA, and Smith Aquatic & Fitness Center and Carver Recreation Center. If an employee joins and visits one of those gyms at least eight times per quarter, the school division will pay $29.50 per month towards the membership, in addition to the already discounted corporate rate.
“So it’s an incentive to not only join but to make sure [they’re] actually going,” says Floyd. The school system’s hike/ bike-to-work program similarly incentivizes employees with an extra stipend to get and stay active.
Like many other organizations, Floyd says a key element to workplace wellness is access to an employee assistance program; CCS offers theirs through a partnership with the Faculty and Employee Assistance Program at the University of Virginia. “That’s important to let people know if they need to talk to someone, they can do that. [FEAP is] completely confidential. It’s free of charge,” says Floyd.
Some of the best workplace wellness programs are ones that are derived out of an understanding of your employee population and what motivates and incentivizes them, adds Floyd.
“You have to get to know what works, and understand that there is not necessarily going to be a one-size-fits-all—you need to have some sort of combination of things that you can do to suit the needs of your entire population,” she says.
“Wellness programs are very costly, so you have to be willing to invest,” she adds. “But you are investing in your employees, and what better thing is there to invest in?”
Apps for workplace wellness
Yes, there is an app for that. If you need an extra nudge—or maybe even an assertive push—to motivate you to adopt healthy behaviors at work, look no further than your mobile phone. While these apps are for living well in general, they have useful applications for on-the-job wellness.
Headspace: “A few minutes could change your whole day.” (Subscription)
Who wouldn’t want to be Zen AF at work, ready to blissfully and mindfully handle any challenge that comes your way? The Headspace app just might be able to get you there. Headspace features meditation exercises designed to address things like personal growth, anxiety management, work productivity, and creating a performance mindset. In addition to a more focused mind and less stress, Headspace purports to help you sleep better, so you can wake up feeling refreshed for another day at the office. Try the free, 10-day beginner’s meditation and mindfulness course.
MINDBODY: Book a local fitness class, spa appointment, or wellness treatment. (Free)
MINDBODY may be one of the more ubiquitous wellness mobile apps out there. With MINDBODY, you can sign up for a wake-up-your-brain, pre-work “Rise and Shine” yoga session from Common Ground Healing Arts, an early morning motivational running class set-to-music from Tread Happy on Eighth Street, a mind-and-body strength-building barre class from barre.[d] on Water Street, and plenty more wellness options to fit your busy work-life schedule. (Note: The app is free, not the classes.)
MyFitnessPal: “Fitness starts with what you eat.” (Free)
Weight loss challenges and nutrition counseling are common components of many workplace wellness programs. MyFitnessPal, routinely listed as one of the best calorie-tracking apps available, is a solid app that can help you be more mindful of your dietary needs and jumpstart your physical fitness journey, especially if your work-life is all-consuming. Tap the app’s massive food database and document your daily food intake into the food diary, monitor your nutrition stats and weight loss, and access other food tools and insights.
Mental health in the workplace
While physical health is often the centerpiece of workplace wellness programs, a focus on mental health is equally important to fostering a happier, healthier, and productive place to work.
Experiencing mental health issues on the job “is the norm, not the exception,” according to a recent report that surveyed more than 1,500 U.S. employees. With depression-related absences alone costing employers about $44 billion a year, helping employees address these issues makes business sense, says Elizabeth Irvin, executive director of The Women’s Initiative in Charlottesville.
In the workplace mental health report, 61 percent of those surveyed said their mental health impacted their productivity levels, and in general, employees were reluctant to talk about the topic at work, especially with human resources or senior leaders.
So how can employers create a more resilient work environment that supports mental health?
First, businesses and organizations can create a culture where workers feel safe to reach out to their supervisors or co-workers if they need help, suggests Irvin.
“So often, peers in the work setting are the ones that are going to notice changes in people’s ability to perform their daily tasks…so having those relationships where there’s a culture of being able to ask for help or ask how colleagues are doing [is important],” she says.
Second, basic training, like mental health first aid (which teachs skills for how to help an individual in crisis) can help prepare employers and supervisors to support staff who are struggling when they do come forward.
“That being said, there are going to be situations that would be outside of basic training, and so that’s where your supervisors or your HR folks would just want to know local resources and know that they wouldn’t have to go through the situation alone,” Irvin says. “They can actually get on the phone with a crisis counselor and walk through the steps that they need to take for an employee.”
Locally, employers can rely on resources like HelpHappensHere.org or emergency services from Region Ten, which also offers mental health first aid training.
Nationally, Irvin recommends the American Psychiatric Association Foundation’s Center for Workplace Mental Health as a resource. “Just knowing that professional help resources are available [is helpful]. And then the Women’s Initiative offers walk-in clinics and support groups as well,” she says.
Unique local workplace wellness resources
Local Food Hub and 4P Foods: While the occasional doughnut or pizza order for the office is a nice treat, healthier, locally cultivated delivery options are available.
In 2015, the Local Food Hub launched its Fresh Farmacy Fruit and Veggie Prescription Program, created to provide community participants with more equitable access to free, fresh, healthy food.
“But we very quickly realized that lots of people out there would benefit from seasonal shares of local produce,” says Portia Boggs, associate director of advancement and communications at Local Food Hub. “And a lot of workplaces were interested in providing those shares as a way of supporting their employees, because there is so much data out there that supports [outcomes like] reduced health care costs that come about from eating healthy.”
Later, a workplace wellness program—paid for by the participating companies themselves—was added to the Fresh Farmacy fruit and veggie prescription initiative.
In June 2019, Local Food Hub merged its distribution operations with Warrenton, Virginia-based food hub 4P Foods. Now, Charlottesville-area employers who want to sign up for a locally- and regionally-sourced seasonal fruit and vegetable share and have it delivered to their office need to go directly to 4P Foods.
Meanwhile, Local Food Hub continues the original mission of Fresh Farmacy by working with organizations like the University of Virginia’s BeWell program, where they provide free, fresh fruit and veggie shares to UVA employees most in need of health support services.
“Along with that food, participants get nutrition information, information on where the food comes from, recipes, and storage and preparation tips and all sorts of things that are designed to give participants confidence when working with whole produce, and ensure that they have the skills that they need to carry on those healthy lifestyle changes after the program ends,” says Boggs.
PivotPass: Richmond, Virginia-based PivotPass—originally founded in Charlottesville but now available in both RVA and C’ville and anywhere in the U.S. and internationally—offers corporate wellness solutions to organizations. In Richmond and Charlottesville, that includes discounted access to a network of participating gym and fitness studios. Through a custom app, PivotPass is also able to collect anonymized fitness data and insights that enable employers to better measure employee wellness and engagement levels, and reduce company health care costs.
Participating local gyms and fitness studios include Bend Yoga, Hot Yoga Charlottesville, Iyengar Yoga of Charlottesville, Solidarity CrossFit, and The Yellow Door (yoga and fitness).
Local PivotPass clients include Apex Clean Energy, GreenBlue, and Fringe (“the world’s first fringe benefits marketplace,” based in Richmond).
Whether you want to try Crossfit, or spend more time practicing yoga, co-founder April Palmer says PivotPass not only gives employees the option and variety to do what they like when they like, but it also layers in an “accountability factor” to help keep them on track.
The best thing [about PivotPass] is it’s so versatile,” says Palmer. “It’s a wellness program that meets me wherever I am at the moment.”
Common Ground Healing Arts: Common Ground Healing Arts, a nonprofit community wellness center located inside Jefferson School City Center, offers a workplace wellness program dubbed “Ground Work,” consisting of services designed to help employees de-stress, improve focus, and enhance productivity.
Services include yoga, chair massage, auricular acupuncture, and mindfulness workshops, the latter covering such workplace-relatable topics as “overcoming challenges,” “eliminating overwhelm,” and “dealing with change,” among others. To participate, employees can visit wellness practitioners at Common Ground, or the nonprofit can come to your office.
Common Ground executive director Elliott Brown says the benefits of workplace wellness are well-established. “Studies show, and most everybody you talk to will say, that the less stress they have, the better they can work, the more productive they can be, the happier they are, the longer they want to stay,” she says.
Brown adds that because they are a nonprofit, accessing workplace wellness—or wellness services in general—from Common Ground is not overly costly. Plus, providing access to wellness services like these can have a big impact on the employee, “which ultimately comes back around and makes it worth your cost because you get it back in productivity,” she says.
There is a podcast for just about any aspect of business life you can imagine–#entrepreneurlife, #bossbabelife, #contentmarketerlife–you name it. So. Many. Choices. But you have to start somewhere, and so we did. If you are looking for inspiration to help you grow as an entrepreneur, tips to introduce more work-life balance into your world, or career insights to help you find your purpose, then check out our list of recommended, must-listen-to podcasts.
“The Goal Digger Podcast”
Hosted by marketing guru Jenna Kutcher, “The Goal Digger Podcast” empowers women to “dig in, do the work, and tackle your biggest goals” and “live more and work less.” Kutcher has seemingly navigated many of the topics she discusses. She gave up a “nightmare” of a corporate job to build her own business, which has become a lucrative, motivational personal brand.
Sample Episode: A recent edition featured lifestyle influencer Sazan Hendrix, who discussed navigating new “seasons” of her life and work, including how motherhood and the evolution of the influencer space impacted her business, how she conquered fear, change, and uncertainty, and realigned her entrepreneurial path along the way.
“Secrets of the Most Productive People”
From Fast Company magazine comes a podcast focused on how to “work smarter instead of harder.” (See a modern work theme?) Hosts Kate Davis and Anisa Purbasari share pro tips, hacks, and insights on everything from the morning routines of successful people and the plausibility of four-day work weeks to managing digital distraction and staving off burnout. Each episode is short and sweet, at 30 minutes.
Sample Episode: Are you crazy busy, but still not getting everything done? Join the club. Then listen to Episode 8: “How Can We Feel Less Busy?” with time management expert Laura Vanderkam, who tells us how to slow down, expand our perception of time, and work with intention.
“Don’t Keep Your Day Job”
Host Cathy Heller spotlights creative entrepreneurs and experts, like Seth Godin, Mark Manson, and Angela Duckworth, and asks interviewees to share ways we can find more joy and purpose in life while making a living doing what we love. Episodes also pack healthy doses of the latest thinking on building a business, from disrupting the status quo to designing your creative path.
Sample Episode: Email has made a comeback in a big way. Heller talks with the co-founders of the seven-million-subscribers-strong, Oprah-approved e-news digest Daily Skimm, who reveal how they developed their millennial women-focused company, which now includes an app, book, and podcast (natch).
“Creative Pep Talk”
Creativity comes in ebbs and flows. In this podcast, host and illustrator Andy J. Miller hopes to spark more flows than ebbs as he sheds light on the intersection of creativity and business. Topics include influencer marketing for creatives, unlocking your creative biz potential, and approaching creativity and business with a healthy mindset.
Sample Episode: In “Starbucks Doesn’t Sell Coffee: This is the Secret to Unbelievable Growth,” Miller draws analogies and lessons for artists from our fave mass latte-maker, specifically, how to generate consistent income in your creative career and create art that sells.
“The Tim Ferriss Show”
Lifestyle design guru Ferriss, the bestselling author of “The 4-Hour Workweek,” chats with a variety of successful people, from Michael Pollan and LeBron James to Aisha Taylor and Cindy Eckert, sharing takeaways to help you live your best biz life.
Sample Episode: Ferriss extracts plucky business lessons from SoulCycle co-founder Julie Rice, who talks about her career journey, from launching the indoor cycling powerhouse to, later, co-working company WeWork, both of which have strong community-building components.
Customized landscaping that creates welcoming outdoor spaces can elevate a business's brand and leave a positive impression on the customer or employee. / Photo: Courtesy of J.W. Townsend
As a business, you don’t have to limit your branding to the design of your website, or the packaging of your product, or the logo on your delivery van.
After you’ve enticed a customer with a benefit-promising commercial or meticulously curated Instagram aesthetic, and it’s time for them to actually pay a visit to your place of business, why wouldn’t you extend your branding further–with a visually enticing exterior?
It’s the exterior that makes the true first impression, beckoning customers to spend their time at–and money on–a biz that has thought about the holistic user experience, inside and out.
Local landscape and fine gardening specialists J.W. Townsend Landscapes demonstrate how businesses can enhance their branding by creating tailored, inviting outdoor spaces and experiences where customers or employees want to stay a while longer. At the CFA Institute (the former Martha Jefferson Hospital site), for example, the landscape company transformed a new employee entrance from something that was “stark”–lots of metal, cement, brick, and glass—into a more welcome-to-work space, says Townsend employee Avery Ellis.
“There wasn’t a lot of color [or] a lot of greenery, even though the rest of their landscape was really nice,” adds Ellis, who is “hotpots team leader” at the company. J.W. Townsend installed several planters–a.k.a. hotpots–lining the walkway to soften the hard edges, filling them with a bright assortment of spider flowers, annual salvia, and vinca. “It made a big difference to how the overall building looks,” she says.
Ellis says dressing up the outside of their building wasn’t something the CFA did to attract more clients or customers—they did it so their employees would feel more welcome. Those thoughtful garden features communicate a message–that ”this is a good place to spend your time eight hours a day.”
Last spring, J.W. Townsend also helped Downtown Mall hang spot Common House create a “summer jungle vibes” theme on its rooftop–essentially, an extension in plant form of the social club’s overall brand as a stylish community gathering space. And they brightened up Tiger Fuel’s gas station markets with flower containers. “It’s amazing the difference that just a couple of containers full of flowers next to the door makes. It makes you feel like this is a safe place. This is a clean place. This is a place where I want to go and spend my money,” says Ellis.
At Albemarle Dermatology Associates, the landscape company installed lush, multi-tiered potted plants full of curvaceous begonias, purslane, vinca, climbing mandevilla vine, and euphorbia at the entrance–creating a peaceful, cared-for vibe for patients.
When The Shops at Stonefield wanted to communicate to guests that they were a local shopping destination, Ellis’ team helped send that brand message with splashy container gardens. “We tried to kind of blow them out almost and make them really full and a showstopper,” she says. “It goes a long way on a bald, cement sidewalk to line it with planters.”
Well-designedlandscaping and garden features not only show appreciation to your employees, they invite customers to hang out a little longer, buy another drink, take another spin around the shop, or make a repeat visit to that well-maintained gas station, which leads to more sales, maybe even more customer loyalty and worker satisfaction. In a competitive job market and commercial environment, what business wouldn’t want to aim for that?
Dairy Market is poised to join the food hall trend when it opens in early 2020, while adding to C'ville's growing reputation as a food and drink destination. / Photo: Courtesy of Dairy Market
As part of his Dairy Market research, Chris Henry, president of Stony Point Design/Build, traveled across the country and around the world to research food halls. Photo: Eze Amos
From long-standing icons like Union Market in Washington, D.C. and Chelsea Market in New York City to relative newcomers like Workshop Charleston, food halls are a mainstay in urban districts across the nation. And Charlottesville will be getting one of its own in spring 2020 with the Dairy Market on Grady and Preston avenues, part of Stony Point Design/Build’s $80 million mixed-use, multi-phase revitalization project of the historic Monticello Dairy complex.
The first phase of the overall project is the adaptive reuse and reimagining of the 1930s-era Monticello Dairy building into a “shopping and dining destination”–specifically, an open market hall with restaurant and retail space.
To inform Dairy Market’s vision, Chris Henry, Stony Point Design/Build president, took on the enviable task of researching more than 75 food halls and markets around the world, from Napa Valley’s Oxbow Public Market and Atlanta’s Krog Street Market to Torvehallerne market in Copenhagen and Mercado Central de Santiago in Chile. “I’ve been on a food hall bender,” he says.
Dairy Market will include 18 market stalls—to be filled mostly by artisanal food vendors—two larger retail stores, a 166-seat, 7,245-square-foot common area, and two “endcap” anchors—a new pilot brewery and tap room from Starr Hill and a to-be-announced restaurant. Angelic’s Kitchen, which specializes in soul food and traditional Southern flavors (garlic shrimp, country ham rolls, fried fish, for example) was the first food vendor to sign up for a market stall.
So…why a food and market hall for Charlottesville? The idea originated with John Pritzlaff, senior vice president at Cushman & Wakefield/Thalhimer, who is working with Stony Point Design/Build on the project.
Not long after the idea was discussed, Henry found himself in New York for a conference, “and [we] went to Chelsea Market, Gotham West Market, and a couple of other ones that are up there, and I was just like, ‘Yeah, this concept will work.’ And Charlottesville needs one,” he says.
Visiting Oxbow in Napa Valley cinched it for Henry because of what he considers the similarities between Charlottesville and Napa–population size, proximity to major metro areas, a thriving farm-to-table food scene, and mutual statuses as wine and wedding destinations.
“I think we even have an advantage over Napa and that’s UVA–we have the college town as well,” he adds.
Rotating vendor concepts and shorter- than-average market stall leases will be part and parcel of Dairy Market. “We want new things happening in the market all the time [to give] reasons for people to come back and shop or dine,” says Henry. “And that will happen organically because the leases are structured over a shorter time period [of] three to five years instead of a traditional 10- to 20-year retail lease.”
Ongoing programming in the complex’s event room, patio area, and private street network–think block parties and farmers market days–will encourage repeat visits and maintain excitement levels. “I was meeting with the Tom Tom guys yesterday, and walking them through the site, talking about how we can do Tom Tom programming here next year,” Henry says.
Meanwhile, another food-and-beverage destination just two miles away is in the works at the long-dormant Woolen Mills site, a 12,000-square-foot project dubbed The Wool Factory. It will feature event space, a craft microbrewery, a restaurant, and a coffee and wine shop. (Tech company WillowTree will also relocate to an 85,000-square-foot office space on-site.)
Brandon Wooten, one of The Wool Factory’s partners, says the project–also slated to open by early 2020–will complement the existing community of restaurants, breweries, wineries, and event spaces in the area.
“We’ve looked at successful food hall concepts in larger cities and wanted to offer a similar experience but tailored more to our community. Our aim is to provide the optionality and experience that comes with a food-and-beverage hall, appropriately sized for the traffic we expect,” Wooten says.
Even still, Wooten says he hopes The Wool Factory will become “a destination–and representation of Charlottesville–for people across the commonwealth and beyond.”
While C’ville will soon be spoiled by choices with even more food and drink hot spots, Henry says he believes there is room for everyone. “It’s enhancing and building on a lot of the great things that already happen in Charlottesville… I mean, you can’t beat the Downtown Mall. This is just enhancing that and creating another destination, a second option for people,” he says.
Photo: Courtesy of Steve Trumbull / www.cvilleimages.com
THEN: Woolworth’s, opened in 1965 (originally 1924); closed in 1997 / NOW: Caspari, opened in 2005
“Your Money’s Worth More at a Woolworth’s Store” was one of the ad slogans of the beloved discount department store, a downtown C’ville fixture for 73 years. Woolworth’s first opened downtown in 1924 on Main Street, and in 1965 it expanded and relocated two blocks away to 100 W. Main St., current home to specialty gifts and home accessories shop Caspari.
Before Woolworth’s arrived at First and Main, a funeral parlor occupied the space (per one University of Virginia Magazine article), and after Woolworth’s closed, it became a Foot Locker.
Its larger Main Street location comprised 15,700 square feet of retail space and a new lunch counter with a seating capacity of 54 diners. (Woolworth’s old lunch counter stools can now be found at Quality Pie on Avon Street.)
The F. W. Woolworth Company was founded in 1879 in Utica, New York, and through the years, evolved into a variety store pioneer and retail chain powerhouse. Yet inevitable changes in the retail landscape–shifts to shopping malls and suburban, big box stores–foretold its doom. On October 22, 1997, Woolworth’s faded to black, forcing wistful Charlottesvillians to forever say good-bye to the iconic five-and-dime.
