Joe Peterson is the Head of Global Workplace Programs for Snowflake, a data platform that utilizes cloud data to help thousands of organizations harness and analyze their data for direction and growth. Joe worked in food and beverage management for more than 12 years before starting his current position in April of 2020 with a unique combination of facility, food and beverage administration, and consulting. With his expertise, he has helped organizations structure their initiatives and come out on top with better recipes and building processes.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Joe Peterson shares how cooking has helped his mental health during the pandemic
- Joe explains how his position has changed due to the pandemic and how Snowflake reorganized their remote work process
- What was the interview process like during lockdown?
- The most complicated parts of building kitchens with the ongoing lockdowns and regulations
- How can you use the current lockdown to revisit maintenance projects and add features before your company’s return to the workplace?
- What will the office look like in the future?
- Joe and Greg delve into how businesses and schools will reallocate their space in the coming years
- Building smarter and producing less waste
- How do you create a feedback loop that offers insight into what your employees need from your office floor plan?
- Joe shares his advice to those interested in Property and Facility Management
In this episode…
Facility Management is changing faster than you can order an Uber. When the pandemic first started, countless companies had to shift from the office to their homes—but that didn’t stop Joe Peterson from transforming his career as the Head of Global Workplace Programs.
Joe’s background in large-scale food management and as a consultant gives him the edge to see where the office space is going and how to direct the company’s initiatives. With a little elbow grease and a chef’s coat, Joe is taking what it means to be a chef and merging it with facility management in the best ways possible.
In this week’s episode of Watching Paint Dry Podcast, host Greg Owens interviews Joe Peterson, Global Workplace Programs at Snowflake. They discuss what it was like interviewing and creating a safe environment during the pandemic, what space reallocation will mean for the future of office floor plans, and his plans for restructuring their offices. Joe also shared how he and his team are creating better dining experiences and maintaining the facility. Stay tuned!
Resources Mentioned in this episode
- Greg Owens on LinkedIn
- McCarthy Painting
- McCarthy Painting Contact No.: 415-383-2640
- McCarthy Painting Email Address: info@mccarthypainting.com
- Joe Peterson on LinkedIn
- Snowflake
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by McCarthy Painting, where we serve commercial and residential clients all around the San Francisco Bay area.
We’ve been in business since 1969 and served companies such as Google, Autodesk, Abercrombie & Fitch, FICO, First Bank, SPIN, and many more.
If you have commercial facilities in the San Francisco Bay Area and need dependable painters, visit us on the web at www.mccarthypainting.com or email info@mccarthypainting.com, and you can check out our line of services and schedule a free estimate by clicking here.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:03
Welcome to the Watching Paint Dry podcast where we feature today’s top facility managers, property managers and property owners talking about the challenges and opportunities of managing hundreds of 1000s of square feet of real estate and how to beautify and improve their properties. Now, let’s get started with the show.
Greg Owens 0:31
Greg Owens here with another episode of Watching Paint Dry. And what we’re doing is talking to facilities managers, building owners, property managers and the people that support those services and learning about that entire industry on this podcast. This podcast is sponsored by my company McCarthy Painting. It was started in 1969, actually, by my uncle, I’ve been working at this company for 30 years, 30 plus years now. And we do all kinds of projects throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, both residential and commercial. We’ve painted for commercial companies we’ve painted for companies like Abercrombie and Fitch, FICO, Chase Bank is one recently we did, they’re gonna have us do some more work for them, which is great Google, Autodesk. First Bank also, and I’m super happy to have on the call today, Joe Peterson, Global Workplace Programs for Snowflake. And Snowflake is an interesting company. I had to do a little bit of looking at it before this podcast and it delivers data in the cloud, mobilize your data near unlimited scale and performance. And we also have Katrina Stephenson on the call. And sometimes she chimes in. She’s with McCarthy Painting also. And she chimes in with some questions too, as she is learning about these practices. Welcome, Joe. Thank you.
Joe Peterson 1:59
Thanks, Greg. Thanks for having me. Yeah.
Greg Owens 2:00
First, I’d like to just check in around like COVID how you’re doing, how your family’s doing and that kind of thing. I mean, this is unbelievable. We’re into 2021, the Bay Area’s severely locked down still, how are you guys doing?
Joe Peterson 2:14
We’re doing great.
I mean, aside from you know, going a little stir crazy, we’re following the rules, you know, we stay home quite a bit. Fortunately, I’ve been a chef most of my life. So cooking at home is easy. And I kind of enjoy it, we do the occasional runs to the grocery store. But other than that, we’ve we’ve pretty much sheltered in place. And I think the hermit in me kind of enjoys that a little bit. Because I had been out and about for so many years traveling for work and to get up in the morning and commute from my bedroom to my office down the hall is a is actually not that bad. But the pandemic and the loss of life and all the crazy stuff that took place in 2020. And so far in 2021 has certainly been difficult, but I’m trying real hard to have a positive outlook and just keep looking forward to the future and just trying to stay open and happy.
Greg Owens 2:54
Yeah, I know, I know that feeling of, you know, like having your schedule changed up like I was traveling a lot before this too. And I seemingly just fell into a new pattern and enjoying that pattern, right, sort of exploring things close to home and that kind of stuff. Also, I got into cooking about a year and a half ago. And it’s super grateful that that became a new hobby of mine, because it’s been really great to be sheltering in place and cooking lots of good food.
Joe Peterson 3:20
Sure. Yeah, I
heard I heard an interesting quote the other day that said, if you’re reading this in 2020, wasn’t that bad for you think about everybody else. So it does put it in perspective. I mean, it is the journey, not the destination. But you know, people miss their routine, you know, wearing face masks and how it’s changed. Just the simplest things has been a little bit difficult. But I every time I start doing the poor little thing I think about the people that didn’t get to say goodbye to their grandparents or their father or their children, and that really puts it into perspective that it could be worse a lot, a lot easier than it could be better. So we’re just chugging along. Absolutely.
Greg Owens 3:49
I like that one. And I also like the view of like 20 years from now, how do you look back? How do you tell like your grandkids or your kids what you were doing during this pandemic? What your behaviors were right. Are you proud of who you were?
Joe Peterson 4:03
Right? Absolutely. Everything is what you make it I mean, there’s politically there’s so many different angles to this. And I have a family from Italy that that one of them is working in Texas has been working for a while and he said it’s so weird from county to county, some counties they’re, you know, they don’t wear masks at all other counties. They’re, they’re very strict about it. And you know, there’s a lot of opinions and conspiracy theorists and all these things. And for me, I know a couple people that got it. I have some friends that are that are medical professionals and specifically lung doctors that have said no, this is a real thing. And it’s where it came from. It’s up to debate but at the end of the day, it’s you know, it’s taking lives it’s making people sick, and it’s causing a lot of stuff so I’m just trying to wear my mask and wash my hands and and, you know, limit the exposure to things and stay inside of my bubble and keep my head down and just keep right on working.
Greg Owens 4:43
Yeah, us too. Same way. I mean, I think every day we’re having conversations about how we can do things safer. We have dedicated two man crews or two person crews were so they you know we don’t mix our employees and that kind of stuff. And Trina here is the only one that’s going to the office lately. For weeks now, which is interesting, always, how are you guys doing at snowflake? Is there any like what what kind of changes and things like that have you guys had to adopt? Because I know like in the last year 2020, your role changes significantly. And you were just telling me before the call how much you even change positions significantly? Sure, it’s a little bit of backstory on that and what you guys are doing there?
Joe Peterson 5:24
Well, you know, fortunately, and unfortunately, I interviewed and started right at the beginning of the pandem. So so it’s a little odd that the majority of the people I’ve met via zoom or some other type of electronic virtual meeting, but it’s not like is committed to their employment and all the tech companies I work for all the jobs I’ve had in my life, they walk the talk, though, first and foremost was the safety, the employees, the offices are closed, they’ve been closed, we did a very good job of working with our vendor partners and our suppliers and such to ensure that has smooth transitions and we put safety number one, we worked very closely with a third party consultant for the environmental health and safety specifically around the legal requirements in all the places that we do business, every county, every city, every country has a different way that they’re handling this, which has made it a little bit tough, you know, no single source of truth. But we have tried very hard. And we’ve done an excellent job and being in compliance and making sure that we’re we’re following the rules of regulation. And that goes from you know, while offices are closed, there’s oftentimes there’s still things that need to take place, you know, you have general facility upkeep you are going through your h back filters and the other things, some of the projects that were going on, were put on hold some projects in certain counties have been able to continue. So we’ve really had to keep our finger on the pulse of each location and what the regulations are, a lot of things are suggested not required. So we’ve always erred on the side of caution, making sure that anybody who does business with us in one way or the other is safety’s number one, contact tracing is a very difficult thing. So there’s a lot of procedures that have to be put in place of knowing who’s coming on site, if they’re allowed to come on site, when they’re there, when they leave where they went, who they talk to what they touched. And that’s definitely changed things quite a bit, you know, all tech companies have been, you know, there’s a heightened level of security for information and this and that, but when the office is closed, and you have very limited people with access, it takes a really darn good reason to be able to go in if you’re even allowed to in that county. So we’ve we’ve made quite a bit of changes. And at the time, our offices are still closed, we don’t haven’t given a hard date as to when they will be reopening. And right now it’s on a case by case and location by location basis.
Greg Owens 7:19
Yeah, that’s interesting. You have a few things that I’d love to touch on one being what was that process like of doing the interview process and having to do it all over zoom calls for you in that beginning? And this is I’m assuming back sort of March or?
Joe Peterson 7:33
Yeah, March, April, somewhere around there.
Greg Owens 7:35
So you came into this as a new role from what what was your previous role?
Joe Peterson 7:39
Well, I had a, I was a vice president for a design company doing consulting for facilities, workplace, specifically kitchens, and working with some really, really big companies, professional sporting teams and such and helping them with their expansion plans for a business of the future. And the pandemic came along, and it slowed it down. And at the same time, snowflake reached out, they were looking for someone to come in and run their food program. I think at the time, no one really knew how long they’re gonna last. I mean, clearly, nobody knows how long it’s gonna last still, but you know that the company has a very good and sound leadership team, right. So the direction in the truenorth is there, we all know what we’re working towards. And so the interview process was really good. I mean, I ran a global program previously. And so a lot of meetings happen on Google Hangouts, or on zoom or on blue jeans, or whatever your your median is there. And so meeting with people online and virtually isn’t very difficult, as we were talking earlier, you know, on the phone, you don’t get the facial nonverbals, you don’t get the it just seems a lot less comfortable, right. So when you can at least see someone whether it’s their regular background, or a virtual background, or whatever the case may be their little insights into their personalities and things that they’re into. And my process was interesting, I interviewed with quite a few different people that had some very high levels throughout the organizations. And you know, it was it was interesting, because everyone was just starting to work from home and trying to understand what that looked like in dealing with kids running and or dogs barking or the doorbell or, you know, the gardener’s in somebody’s house outside blowing leaves, like whatever the case may be. It was a new world and some new distractions. Some of the process was good snowflake, the recruiting team was great. They’re just really, really nice people. And there’s definitely a human element there. It’s not so robotic, I got several emails, and they were custom. I don’t feel like they were a cut and paste. So the process was smooth. You know, it’s tough juggling schedules. And with everybody shifting to working from home, the schedules were a little more and more complicated. It took some time, but I was very confident in you know, what I could bring to the table. And they were very clear about what they were looking for, including the fact that they would be looking for someone that did more than food. And I have done more than food in the past. And so I was open to the opportunity and the challenge and you know, I’ve been there a little under a year now and the whole time has been during lockdown. So aside from a few essential times where I’ve had to be on site actually chose to be on site for different installations or different things that were going on. Everything’s been remote man. It’s just the way of the future for now.
Greg Owens 9:51
You probably haven’t done any food things since March. I would well we actually
Joe Peterson 9:55
have Yeah, so we’re building a full service kitchen in our headquarters in San Mateo where we Have some projects going on in other locations, other countries, we’re building out break rooms or retrofitting buildings or you know, that kind of stuff. We did an RFP request for proposal to source the proper food vendor as well as a break from vendors for the new expansion. There was a lot of planning with the design, development and conceptual design that we did on the back end with the architects in the general contractors, we had a lot of meetings of, once we source the vendor and found the vendor, then it was talking through the service level agreements and scope of work to make sure that you know, their vision and our vision align. And then sourcing the equipment is very time consuming. The kitchen equipment itself is man hundreds and hundreds of line items where you’re really going through and ensuring that it’s the right equipment. And then after it’s all selected, and you go to bid and make sure you’re getting the right value for the prices in the things that you’re selecting. And then on top of that, you’re doing all the rough ins and making sure things actually fit before they start cutting holes and concrete and this and that. So doing all of that virtually was a little bit difficult. Yeah, I’ve done kitchens in multiple countries, I’ve been very fortunate to be a part of a really collaborative team. So I have quite a bit of experience there. And this certainly proved its worth in this process, being able to visualize things and having it not be my first rodeo. So so far, so good.
Greg Owens 11:09
Wow, yeah, I can only imagine I’ve built a few kitchens and commercial kitchens and that kind of thing in my day. I’m also as a painting contractor, but I also have my general contractor’s license and have gone down some rabbit holes like that. And, man, they are complicated, because you get in there with you know, you got the building department and the health department involved. And
Joe Peterson 11:28
I don’t think people always kitchens are, I always think are the most difficult part of a commercial bill, right? I mean, you’re in very dangerous place,
you know, you
have fire, you have sharp things, you have everything’s and on top of it, you know, you’re it’s food, it’s, you ingest it right. So if your house procedures aren’t in place, if you’re, if you’re not keeping hot food hot and cold food cold and doing the right sanitation, you know, people real sick, and there’s a lot of procedure that takes place. And fortunately, we’ve selected some outstanding vendor partners that I’ve either worked for with in the past, I’m very comfortable with their ability to execute at a high level, and we’re just looking forward to it. But you know, it’s hard to tell what workplace is going to look like when we return from this, you know, and I think that might be a decent segue into into some of the other conversations that we’re having, you know,
Greg Owens 12:11
and I think that’s great, because it always like warms my heart to hear that companies are still moving forward with some capital projects, like a kitchen build out, right? Because that means they’re betting on things coming back to the same thing, right, that we wouldn’t be able to be able to share food again, inside a cafeteria in the near future. And not the companies are betting on that, because there’s so many companies that we’ve been even a part of that where they just stopped completely all maintenance, all things that are not necessary, right, like just on hold until further notice until this Sure, when some
Joe Peterson 12:43
of it too, is, uh, you know, there’s contracts in place, right, there’s things that you know, we’re going back to work at one point, to what level we’re not sure, and what the future really looks like, we’re not sure. But I will say to that a lot of it is kind of improvement stuff as well, you know, when you look at it from a real estate standpoint, and you have buildings, and you’re looking with the next 10, it looks like I mean, you always want to have an exit strategy, and you want to make sure that you’re leaving the place better than you found it. So setting yourself up for the future, at the end of the day, people are coming back. And you know, they’re how they eat and how they interact with change, right, the days of the I personally feel the days the open buffets are over things will be individually packaged, and as much as my sustainability hot beats to see, you know, everything being wrapped and everything being single serve. There are some ways around it, there’s excellent companies that we’ve been discussing things with, like discraft that do a lot of you know, one location that does a lot of Washington warewashing. And so we’re washing and sanitizing and their their facilities built with a much more sustainable approach to water and wastewater management than say an individual site would be so there is a lot of opportunities inside this pandemic, to really take a look at what food service and operations and facilities in future look like in general. And you know, where we we have already broken ground, we were already doing construction, you know, so at this point, you know, in the areas of the times where we’re in compliance and able to allow construction teams into the building, and they’re following all the local guidelines and restrictions, it does give us the ability to get things done without disrupting the standard office, right, the hammering the drilling, the grinding, that can be a little difficult to coordinate. So you know, it depends on what what side of the coin you’re looking at here. But we had some plans, and we just kept pressing forward and can’t remember. I mean, a lot of people when this first started, they were they didn’t know it was gonna be a month, two months, three months. So our plan was to finish and be ready to open. And now we’re looking at going wow, it’s been a lot longer than we thought. But we don’t have too many other capital projects going on. We wrap up the ones that we’d started on and the rest there’s some there’s some planning, but we’re not you know, we’re we we finished what we set out to finish and now the rest of it is kind of the waiting game and more strategy.
Greg Owens 14:36