Brad Gutwein
Yeah, I like to, a lot of times if I'm working on, you know, some sort of an education or spend a little time doing a little more, deeper thinking, all put headphones on. I'll just walk around a little bit, try to stretch my legs, just put myself in different environments because I find that just sitting in front of my computer and staring at it, I can certainly get, you know, tasks done, but it doesn't really engage parts of my brain to just think about some bigger picture, strategic things.

Laura Seney
Welcome to Connected Conversations, the official podcast of Kosciusko Connect. Kosciusko Connect is a subsidiary of Kosciusko REMC. Since 2021, we have been providing fast, reliable fiber to the home internet service to rural portions of northern Indiana. On Connected Conversations, we talk about fiber internet, technology community, and how to navigate the digital world in which we live. I am your host, Laura. Thank you for connecting with us today.

Laura Seney
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Connected Conversations. Today in studio we have guest Brad Gutwein, who is a local Kosciusko Connect customer. He sometimes works from home and we have invited him on today to talk about his work from home experience as a Connect customer.
Hello Brad, how are you doing today?

Brad Gutwein
Hey, I'm doing well.

Laura Seney
Awesome. Thank you for being willing to come in today and talk to us. What do you do for a living and how often do you work from home?

Brad Gutwein
Yeah. Great question. So I work at Winona IT. We're a local IT service provider. So what that entails is essentially providing IT service, helpdesk, and support for local companies. I've been with the company for a little over five years. In that time, we've grown from about ten when I started to just about 70. So it's been a pretty quick growth. I really manage our helpdesk team and our infrastructure team, just making sure that we're delivering high quality service for our customers and taking care of their IT needs. My role is largely in the office, but I certainly work from home at times, just depending on, you know, what I have on my calendar, if I have a lot of meetings or something like that. So probably a couple times a month, I would say on average I would typically be able to work from home.

Laura Seney
That's awesome. I've heard lots of good things about Winona IT through the community.

Brad Gutwein
Sure. Thank you.

Laura Seney
What led you to start working from home?

Brad Gutwein
I mean, I think like everybody, you know, pandemic happened and we all went home. And then we kind of really revised a lot of our start processes to be able to be a little more streamlined. Working from home. IT support you can do a lot of it remotely. So I think that was a big part of it. And then really just, you know, needing a space, a lot of focus time, a lot of times just, you know, a lot of people in the office, a lot of questions, a lot of things pop up. And so it is nice to be able to kind of work in a separate location and have an ability to step out of the usual day to day and just be able to focus on some things that require a lot of maybe thinking or some more complex operations to help guide.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. Do you offer the option to work from home for all of your employees, or just some of you? How is that structured?

Brad Gutwein
Yeah, so we try to be flexible. So there's some departments for instance are helpdesk team, primarily in the office. So we really, really try to have that high touch personal engagement with our customers. And so the bulk of them report to the office every day. They'll go out kind of visit a lot of customers, really a lot of hands on activity. And then a lot of other departments, it is a bit of a hybrid approach. So some folks have a couple of work from home days. Most are in the office. And we do have a software development part of our company. A lot of them are primarily remote, so it does depend on the workflow, the workload, kind of the function of the role. But we do try to be flexible and really kind of strike a balance between the collaboration you get in the office versus, the focus you can get at home.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. And I think a lot of companies have found that that works well and provides a nice balance. Yeah. It is it's a nice balance because I think you get some of the benefits of both kind of trying to, you know, play both sides or a little bit. And that makes sense. What does a typical work from home day look like for you.

Brad Gutwein
Yeah. So my work from home day typically it's you know I'll, I'll just start in the morning. Mornings are usually the best time. I have four young boys at home. So ten, seven, five and three. So as you can imagine, it's quite an exciting time. In the morning, they're all getting, ready to go. So, yeah, usually I'll just try to spend a little time with them and then really just try to get my setup going again. Depending on what I have, either a mix of meetings or just focus time, I'll really just try and get right to it. I might try to, you know, book out my day at least in advance, you know, maybe the day before. And so I've usually already established what I'm going to be working on. And that helps me get right into it, because it oftentimes can be pretty distracting. Just, you know, so having a focus that what I'm going to work on and then really working through a list has been very helpful for me.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. That is a very practical and useful task management approach.

Brad Gutwein
Yeah. Otherwise you just get so distracted and bogged down and you don't really end up getting anything done. So yeah, I try to be as focus as I can going into it, for sure.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. Do you have a home, office or work from home space?

Brad Gutwein
Man, I used to, back when we were all remote. A couple of years ago. I did have a little space downstairs that I had set up, and it was, you know, had a lot of the set up. Now that I do most of my work in the office, my space is just a corner in one of the bedrooms with a table that I haul up there. So it's definitely a very temporary space. I wouldn't say it's anything, you know, permanent, but it works, you know, for the amount of time I'm there, it does a pretty good job for me.

Laura Seney
Nice. If you could upgrade your work from home space with any one feature, what would it be?

Brad Gutwein
Yeah, kind of like I mentioned. I mean, having just a folding table and a chair is a little bit, spartan for my taste. So it'd be great to have a little more of a set up. I'm a little more of a dedicated space. Again, the trade off is a lot of our space is where the kids are. So my basement became kind of the toy area. So there's usually stuff everywhere. There's a lot of noise. And so not really practical to use that space. So yeah, I think even just a dedicated desk with some stuff would be great. At some point. But again, kind of being as fluid as I am with sometimes working remote most of the time in the office, I just haven't really taken the initiative to get that stuff set up yet.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. I fall into the same problem of looking at my desk every day and being like, oh, I should really clean up or add some decor or make it look nicer.

Brad Gutwein
For sure. Yep.

Laura Seney
Do you have any fun work from home habits?

Brad Gutwein
Yeah. I really like to walk around. You know, a lot of times I'm in the office, you know, I have a small little office. Kind of get weird looks from folks. If you just walk around looking at people's desks and different workspaces. So, yeah, I like to a lot of times if I'm working on, you know, some sort of an education or I'm trying to think about something or spend a little time doing a little more deeper thinking all but headphones on. I'll just walk around a little bit, try to stretch my legs, just put myself in different environments because I find that just sitting in front of my computer and staring at it, I can certainly get, you know, tasks done, but it doesn't really engage parts of my brain to just think about some bigger picture strategic things. So, yeah, it's walking around. Sometimes I'll walk downstairs, obviously grab a snack, whatever, but just trying to be a little more mobile than I normally would be definitely helps me a lot more at home.

Laura Seney
That makes sense.

Brad Gutwein
Yeah.

Laura Seney
What's playing in the background while you work? Do you have a podcast? Music?

Brad Gutwein
I mean, this podcast, 100%.

Laura Seney
Love to hear it.

Brad Gutwein
Hey, you know, yeah, I'm I've never been great at focusing on what I have to work on, kind of while there's, you know, a lot going on in the background. So, you know, if I'm trying to work on something that requires a lot of thinking, a lot of times I'll just have nothing. If I do have something, it'll be, you know, kind of a maybe an instrumental or something that a little more quiet if I really need to get myself energized. A lot of times in the afternoon, I'll put on maybe some electronic EDM, something that has an upbeat beat, but again, it doesn't have necessarily something I have to focus on, because I find that if I listen to a podcast or a video, I'm just not able to focus on what I'm, you know, supposed to be focusing on. So kind of a mix, depending on the day and just how I'm feeling at the time, it makes sense. What has been the biggest challenge of working from home for you? I think for me personally, and I alluded to a little earlier, I think it's separating, you know, the space between home and work. So obviously my kids are young. They don't understand why sometimes I'm home and sometimes I'm not. And so it's trying to balance, you know, wanting to, you know, spend time with them a little bit, but also take advantage of the opportunity to be a little bit outside of the office, to be able to focus on things. And so, yeah, it's just balancing the fact that I want to say hi. They want to bust in, they want to talk to me. They don't understand that it's I'm, I am actually working because I don't do it as frequently. And so trying to just understand a nice way to tell them, hey, I do need to get some things done. So you can't just sit up here and, you know, do loud things the whole time I'm here. But again, trying to balance, I think has been challenging, but getting used to a little bit more, the more I end up doing it.

Laura Seney
That makes sense. Yes. Being at home and having kids and pets and dogs and chores and other distractions can be challenging for sure.

Brad Gutwein
Yeah. They just want to be part of it.

Laura Seney
Yeah, exactly. Can't blame them for that. What devices do you typically have connected throughout the day?

Brad Gutwein
Yeah. So typically going to work from home I don't have a lot. I used to just have my laptop and maybe my, you know, my phone just for, you know, whatever prompts I need there. So pretty small footprint for my personal working as far as what we have. I mean, you know, pretty standard stuff. I am an IT nerd, so I of course have some, you know, smart home things. I've got lights that you can try with your voice and different things that drive my wife nuts because I can change them. And then they stop working and she can't change them. So, that's the type of stuff I have, you know, some smart TVs, you know, iPads, things like that. So again, fairly regular stuff overall, I would say.

Laura Seney
Makes sense. Why did you choose Kosciusko Connect as your service provider?

Brad Gutwein
Yeah. Really. Again we're in the area. So they already were my electric company. And so when they advertised it I just really liked the offering. I like the fact that it was you know fiber option. I like local I was working with a big national, large company that, you know, probably knew who I was based on the number and then it transitioning to just a, you know, smaller company where I know the folks around, it's just a little more local and just, you know, contributing to that, I think was really good opportunity. And then just again, the service has been great. And being able to go to a really nice fiber connection has been really good for, just overall in general.

Laura Seney
It's great to hear I think most Kosciusko Connect customers share that sentiment. They like having their internet from a company that is local run by people they know, they're friends neighbors sometimes.

Brad Gutwein
Yeah, for sure. Absolutely.

Laura Seney
How has the service impacted your work from home experience?

Brad Gutwein
You know, I would say it hasn't impact on me at all. And I say that in a good way. What I mean by that is, you know, I work in IT. So we had a lot of complaints were the ones typically that go out and fix the connectivity problem.
So it's been great. There's really been no issues. Every time I need it, it works. It's reliable. So again, impact to me is really nothing because it's exactly what I expected. It delivers. It's consistent, it's fast. There's really no issues. So yeah, it's been a really good experience overall for me.

Laura Seney
That is great to hear. No impact or like not even noticing that it exists or it's not something that's actively on your mind is such a good thing because it means you're not having problems or issues with it at all.

Brad Gutwein
Yeah.

Laura Seney
How is the setup process for internet with Kosciusko Connect?

Brad Gutwein
Yeah, it was really smooth. So I think I remember hearing about it. And then there was maybe a sign up process. Again I can't remember all the steps. So I signed up. And then I got a call from someone here at the company. Got a couple details. And then I had an install date set. I actually think it was actually moved maybe up a couple weeks to. So I was like, hey, we're actually free earlier. So, you know, all the lines had been ran, so the day of two techs showed up was very, very smooth. They just ran the line to my house. Of course, being in IT, I nerded out a little bit and created a little spot where I wanted the fiber. So they're like, oh, that sounds good. We'll put it wherever you want. And so, they were really nice. Ran it through the attic down a little space I'd already created. And so really, when they showed up to when it was live, it was, it was really probably an hour, maybe, maybe an hour and a half.
And then I was up and running on it very quickly. So yeah, really smooth. And again, contrasting with some of the other providers that can be, you know, hey, we'll be there at some point in the next month and you know, just hopefully year round type of thing. So yeah, I really appreciate it was very smooth and very hassle free overall.

Laura Seney
That's awesome. Yeah. Our fiber technicians definitely do a really great job and they know what they're doing and they, get it done well, and they get it done quickly. Yeah, yeah it's great. Would you recommend Kosciusko Connect to a friend working remotely and why?

Brad Gutwein
Yeah I definitely would like I said it's been a great experience for me. I can't recall that I've had an outage. You know knock on wood. Now I say we probably will, but no, it's been great. And so I definitely, even, you know, we're support a lot of local businesses. And so, you know, the business side even is one that we'll definitely recommend a lot if it's within the service area. Yeah. I would highly recommend it. It's been great for us and definitely I hope it continues to expand.

Laura Seney
Great. That is our goal as well. What advice would you give to someone who is starting out working from home?

Brad Gutwein
Yeah, you know, in my experience, and again alluded to it earlier a little bit with the kids, but I think it's so important to just be able to separate honestly, mentally, the space because again, I think there's a natural separation when you can get in your car, drive to the office, you've kind of got this is where I am mentally at work and then home is different. And so what I notice a lot is when I am home, the space gets so blurred. And so it's just whatever works for you. You know, for me, I don't work from a space that I do anything else in some kind of big about spaces in my house. And so I have a chair that I typically will read on in the morning. So that's my reading space. You know, when I work from home, I set my laptop and I set my desk up in a space where I don't do anything else in. And so it just helps you mentally transition versus everything kind of running together. And, you know, I'm thinking about things at work and home and it just it can kind of get all meshed together a little bit. And so really being diligent about kind of separating those spaces that you can really get right into what you need to do, have a clear mind on it is been really helpful for me. So that's definitely one thing I do recommend.

Laura Seney
Yes, I find that to be very true in my own life that having different spaces set aside for different activities really helps mentally transitioning from thing to thing.

Brad Gutwein
Yeah.

Laura Seney
So for sure, yeah, very good advice. Thank you for joining us today Brad. And I hope that you have a good rest of your day.

Brad Gutwein
Awesome. Yeah, thanks for opportunity. Great to talk to you a little bit this afternoon.

Laura Seney
You as well.

Laura Seney
If you would like to learn more about Arlo security cameras or have Arlo cameras installed by Kosciusko Connect, call (574) 269-0327 and our Kosciusko Connect team will be happy to assist you.

Laura Seney
You have been listening to Connected Conversations the official podcast of Kosciusko Connect. From all of us at Kosciusko Connect, thank you for connecting with us today.