Home Office TV

Well, good morning. We should be live. Welcome to Home Office TV. My name is Amy Bibeau and today we have Cassandra Morris. Cassandra, do you want to introduce yourself? Hi, I'm Cassandra and I work as a system engineer with a focus on quality assurance at Cloudflare on mostly on the work team. Okay. And are you enjoying that? Yeah, Cloudflare's been great. I mean, I've only been here eight and a half months, whatever month this is. But yeah, I'm loving it. That's awesome. And so you are in our Seattle area office. Yeah, technically, I'm at home. You started out, we initially met each other when you were working in the actual Kirkland office, right? Yeah, yeah. So it was, um, it was a barely an office. We were growing and thinking about where we're going to expand to and then COVID happened. So yeah, who knows what the future holds for the Kirkland office, if it'll still be in Kirkland or Seattle or Bellevue or, you know, I'm rooting for Bellevue because that's where I'm I'm I'm stationed so You're in Bellevue. How long was your commute when you had a commute to the office? Man, it was like 15 minutes. Yeah, I'm pretty spoiled. Um, yeah, I've been I've been pretty fortunate about about where I the location. There's a lot of tech companies in this area. So it's easy to find a place to camp out in the middle of them all. So it's a great place. It's a great place to be for Cloudflare too because there's all kinds of great people around to to recruit onto on board. Yeah, as we were discussing before we went live our Cloudflare Seattle area office has like almost doubled since COVID started like we wouldn't even have a place for our employees, if we still had an office, basically. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so, um, some once people found out that we have an office. A lot of people had used to live here or they have family here. And so they were easy eager to To come join our office. And then, of course, our own teams expanded some because that that's growth. Right. So right when COVID happened. Yeah, it is right when we started expanding. So everybody ended up having to work from home. But because the office was so small, hopefully we'll get a new fancier one in the new year and we can all share and meet each other in person. Right. What's been the biggest challenge for you from going to an office like to work in a home. Yeah, man. Um, so at first, I'm sure about half your people would say that first, it was great. Right. All of a sudden, I get to, I don't have to like try to find A reason to work from home today I get to work from home every day and you, you know, you have more flexibility. You're like, I'm going to get chores done and this done and all this stuff and then Before long, you know, you're itching to go to the movies and you're itching to go talk to people at work and and your place gets messier and messier for somehow the longer your home and it gets messier instead of cleaner. So, yeah. Yeah, it's, it's, yeah, you just you use stuff and then you put it away and then you stuff and you don't put it away. The next time. Next thing you know, there's stuff everywhere. So I feel like I'm always cleaning Right, I know that, um, we were so blessed at the office. Like for me, one of the hardest things was creating like a routine, you know, for myself like like just that, um, It's like the office life for me was really great and vibrant like I lived pretty close to work and I loved people. So we go in and and I was at the front desk and I see everybody come in and get to say good morning to all of the people who use that door and It gave me like I'm an extrovert. So I got that kind of energy from, you know, the people and then it's just like being at home with myself all the time. And I'm just like looking in the mirror. I'm like, oh, it's you again, you know, Leave me alone. I'm tired of your face. Fortunate that I have a roommate. So at least I can look at other another person pretty regularly. Right, we were chatting and you said you're living with like a really close friends. Yeah, my best friend, Chris. He's, he's also my roommates and so I got lucky that if I got trapped with someone for the rent for nine months of the year that it's someone that we get along with and We both are gamers, too. So we have our own time where we go off and play games or do our work. And then we so we don't pester each other too much. And then we come back and we can watch TV. So it's pretty nice. A lot of my friends are trapped at home by themselves. So it makes it a little bit more challenging. At least I have I have that outlet. So I'm lucky on that regard. I do, I do wish I could go, you know, do more stuff, of course. So I do have a bad habit of like just going I want to go out. So I'll go to a drive through and I it's always Starbucks. So I'm basically Starbucks best customer now for the country. I think I'm always there. Just said, I think, I think it's just a psychological thing. Like, I just want to get out of the house and do something, but I can't think of anything to do Yeah. Especially now. What is the air quality like for you guys in Kirkland It's, it's really bad. Yeah, I think over the weekend. They said Portland and Seattle had the worst air quality over the in the world. We have a thing. I don't fully understand the the weather system here that much, but something related to the way the pressures go We get really stagnant air. And so when the smoke comes in from other places are closest fires are pretty far away. But when the smoke comes in from Canada and Oregon and eastern Washington, it just kind of hovers over us and stays there. And so now the skies are just solid smoke every, every day for the past like five days. In the morning, we get it's made it a little colder, though, and then morning. It's been foggier and colder. I think because of the layer. But yeah, it's pretty rough and so you yeah you can't even go for walks right now. Yeah, I know. I was really excited to move to my spot and it just moved last week, and I was excited because there's like hiking and outdoor opportunities nearby me. You know, and those those opportunities are still going to exist. I mean, the important thing I think is to remember that like What is a temporary inconvenience for, you know, for me and for you and for others who are just impacted by the air quality is a, you know, like a horrific loss of Trees and people's homes and loss of life of our little animal friends and some of our human friends, you know, so it's a really, you know, and the scientists are saying that this is what has been predicted as, you know, Result of our climate, our climate change crisis that we're in right now. Yeah, it is. It is an unfortunate symptom, you know, and So just, you know, I'm going to give a shout out to the earth as I'd like to do on my home office TV show, you know, which gives us everything we have and and, you know, not just have to take it lightly that like Somebody's posting on Facebook that in all these little particles of smoke, you know, are, you know, is the is the remnants of former living beings. So, you know, it's a it's a thing. You know, it's more than just a heaviness in the air, you know, it's like this kind of energetic heaviness. And so just like reverent grateful, you know, for what What we do have, which isn't clean air right now, but hopefully you know we're going to get some rain and blessings to all the firefighters out there who are Oh yeah, what a crazy job. We were fortunate to get rain last night or this morning, something like that. But yeah, I used to live in San Diego and we had to we've had fires, but we had two sets of really bad fires where They were they were super close and then currently all of my relatives in Oregon. All my relatives are in Oregon and they all had to evacuate over the weekend. To other scattered around different places of Oregon and I remember the firefighters that we'd watch it on TV in San Diego, just how They've worked 1216 hour shifts and their breaks were just more like go take a short rest. Like it wasn't anything real and it's just amazing to think that someone could go through that and they're doing that just to save all of us and It's really, it's really a heroic job at the time I was in veterinary also back in that day. And so we did have a lot of a lot of sick animals come in because of it. So it's a it's a pretty rough time. For everybody, people you don't think about everybody's affected directly by the by the fire. So I my heart goes out to everybody in California and And Oregon, and I guess there's some in eastern Washington. I'm just fortunate not to not to be affected by any of it right now. Just some annoying smoke in the air, something to talk about. Yeah, it's, it's, um, well, one thing that happened that was a positive in California is that There's been a lot of uproar that, you know, we're using prison labor to fight these fires and then they were not allowed to actually apply to be firefighters, but Governor Newsom Changed that. And so that's pretty exciting that I think about we can raise up as a positive And, you know, in all this, you know, you shine that spotlight on those practices and, you know, you get that attention. And so that's good. So like, you know, hopefully some of the people that are getting this experience and, you know, being I don't know if the prisoners are like they have to work as firefighters. I'm sure it's probably a choice, but at least now that they can go into that as a field when they when they are then being part of like the prison industrial complex. So that's a blessing as well. So let's circle. Yeah, back I agree. What's the point of a prison reform system. If we don't give anybody any reform options. Like exciting like I would love to see more more reform in those areas. I think that You know, there's so many of course there's so many like aspects of of our culture that pushes people towards the prison industrial complex. And so, you know, if we if we're not going to have like an outlet at the end of that. So hopefully we'll get some You know, some like lasting change and progress from that. So just circling back to how you ended up at Cloudflare. So you're part of a team that Cloudflare acquired you were part of a startup. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was a small group of us and it grew fast. To be honest, I'm a startup startup itself wasn't only around for a year or two, and I was only there for six or seven months. It, it definitely felt a little longer because everything was so fluid and so Or shorter. It depends on the day right when when things are moving that fast. It's like one day feels like four days and the next day feel Like the next four days feels like one day. So you have no sense. And then the and then the acquisition, of course, happens rather fast to and it was just so much excitement. And we were really fortunate to have joined Cloudflare. It seems like You know, you know about it as a company, but you don't know about it internally until you're with the company and we were we're lucky enough to be able to come down to the in person orientation and And We were able to do it as a group of us, unlike most people who have to go by themselves. So we have that comfort of knowing each other. And it was just a real great time meeting everybody seeing the San Francisco office and just getting to immersed in the Cloudflare culture. Just, just all at once. Right. And then When we, when we got back. It was just like, let's learn this. Let's learn that we're getting to know everybody and then all of a sudden chaos. Right. All of a sudden, Mother Nature decided she was going to get revenge on us through the year of 2020 or celebrate herself. I'm not sure which was happening. We start with, yeah, we start with a pandemic that was impossible to even believe And as you as you accept it, it gets more unbelievable and they have to accept more stuff about it. And then it's more unbelievable. He was like, how is this This is like we're in the movie 12 monkeys or outburst outbreaks of the terrifying so So we're all getting through that. And thankfully, I actually don't know anybody who's been affected directly by coven so it's been really are by the disease itself. Obviously, we're all being affected by the pandemic. Sure. And then and then may 31 the country had a reckoning and I myself went through a great deal of just like stress. I was just Non stop violence on TV is just shock you know you know as a as a privileged white person living in Washington State. I know that that not everybody's getting the right treatment and I tried to be open. I tried to, I tried to acknowledge my own You know, things I can do to help others and that sort of thing. But you don't actually comprehend That people are being hunted down in the street, you know, and so that stuff was was really, really shocking. So the whole transition was just just non stop. And then we had a little break them fires hurricanes and winters coming There's It's a, it's a rough. It's a rough year. I know, you know, originally from Minnesota. And so, you know, like with Minneapolis kind of being the like flashpoint, you know, in this unrest that You know, absolutely. Like you said, as a reckoning, you know, it's like we can't hide from the history of this country and what it was founded on and As people who are melanin deficient like myself, you know, and I haven't had to go through the same types of I haven't had the same types of barriers just created it like at every point when I'm trying to make progress. And, you know, but I have always questioned. You know, just why, why people try to say that everyone has the same opportunity in this country. Like, I've seen it since I was a young person that that no not not everybody does have the same opportunity. And so, you know, I, one of the things I talk on this show is kind of like it's almost like we're going through like a collective shadow period and like You know, like in like Jungian psychology, you can't avoid the shadow. The shadow is going to be there and it's going to be Exerting pressure and it's going to be exerting force on the system. And unless you look at that shadow, you know, so things are rising to the top that I think as a culture. We really need to to be aware of and hopefully we're going to get like real change. We've seen some reform, you know, obviously there's been some Municipalities that are that are starting to reform what they're doing with like police and safety and how that you know like How they're going to allocate funds like I was part of the protests in Minneapolis against the there was a big protest. In 2008 around the RNC coming through. And that's when we really started talking about like How much we're militarizing our police forces in America. And like, why are we allocating money to militarize police forces when When we, you know, we need those monies for school and we need police to be working cooperatively in the communities and we need, you know, good educational opportunities and we need Everyone to have access to homeownership and we need to dismantle systemic racism and so Home Office TV definitely believes in Black Lives Matter and dismantling systemic racism and and acknowledging that, you know, if I have privilege, like, how can I be an ally and I think that's another nice thing about Cloudflare is that we have a lot of active groups where we can You know, we have women in engineering and a woman flair and have Afro flair and Latin flair. I think we just started Latin right now it's Latin History Month, which goes Um, I think September 15 October 15 and so we'll be seeing a Some output from our, from our Latin flair about how we can be engaged and more mindful and I think that that's been kind of a plus in a way in the pandemic is like people have a little bit more of the bandwidth to like raise their awareness, hopefully. Right. Yeah, absolutely. On one hand, you can't get away from it. On the other hand, that's, that's good. We need to accept it and yeah as as things were going on and you're, you're realizing what's happening now as you brought up our history. I started, you know, you start hearing about things you start reading like, oh, what was the event at this place at this date that people keep talking about you and you look that up and then you click on the next link to the next Issue and the next one and you discover so much about history that we literally are not ever taught as children in school by our parents or parents don't know it's just hidden So it's really important that that we try to make each other aware like just because we're adults doesn't mean We know everything. And just because we've been living in this country for 40 years doesn't mean we know What this country actually is about. It's a huge, huge place with a lot of people and it's already so challenging to get everybody on the same page. It's, it's impossible because there's so many people, but At least we should all be aware of of our past and what each other. Where each other are coming from, why they why they act the way they do because we'll never be able to get along with each other or learn to find a middle ground. Otherwise, and so that'd be the same with the police from issue. You know, my views are my views, but I understand that that's probably not going to be good for the entire country. So it definitely has to be like something that we come to together, but I feel like having Leaving it up to town by town to figure it out is not the smartest option. There's just going to be like one person will be safe in one town and in danger than when they drive to the next. There has to be some sort of overall National guidelines for people that that are actually enforced that aren't just like, here's some papers and if you feel like you know reading this website someday. Cool. Like we should have like an OSHA for for safety for cops or something along those lines. Yeah, that's, that's my feeling like everything's going to be a little bit changed, but there should be some basic some basic civil civil rights laws, human, human rights laws. That people just have to follow or else. Yeah, there is no union to protect you from those specific federal laws, you know, You can have unions to protect you from small stuff, but not certain things. And there's got to be some sort of a compromise between both sides because yeah The police situation we have now is so outdated. It's like, you know, thousand years old. But we can't just not have anything that that would be too dramatic change for for our country for our culture where we're used to having something We wouldn't know how to how to respond. And so we need some sort of some some plan a compromise plan. So I agree. I'm hoping that this chaotic year is just, it's more of a rebirth like a Phoenix year and we'll be able to to have a bright future in 2021 I That's good. That's another question I kind of like to ask people is like, what are you optimistic, you know, because it is, you know, we're kind of A bit of a dark vortex. So curious, like what you're optimistic about in your, you know, in your, in your realm. Yeah, yeah. So it's, it's dark right you just keep hoping maybe in the spring coven it'll be over and the snow will be over and flu season will be over and we can all go out and then you're like, well, literally everybody in the world is going to be out at the same time. So that it's just going to be a whole new issue. So it's just going to be nonstop and then we might not be in the spring. That's just our, our current hope like maybe We can do more than but right now my friends and I have a plan for a trip in October in September of 2021 Okay, and so that's our goal to get us through this like we're going to celebrate coven being over by going, we're going to try to hit Oktoberfest if if they have one and if it's not over, then we'll have to come up with an even more epic plan for 2022 Okay, so you're working far into the future for some like personal adventures. I know I I was bummed. I was supposed to go to Brazil in May. And again, um, you know, it was, it was disheartening for me because that's, that's where my like Like spirit resides and my heart lives in Brazil and and like that's right. You know, I always feel naturally drawn to want to be with my community of friends and stuff there. And so, you know, it was, it was a Um, you know, something to have to process like during the depths of like the isolation. I feel like I've come out a bit from the isolation. I did go back to Minnesota. A couple weeks ago and I was able to see family and friends and, you know, I think that was that was good for my for my soul to just like connect with with people again. Um, But yeah, I'm optimistic that you know that hopefully as we've I mean, like, for one thing we have put less of a burden on the planet, you know, just because there's been, I mean, granted, now we have a lot of mask and hand sanitizer trash. But there has been less like sport ball waste, you know, because you don't have all the like stadiums and, you know, like All the people in all the stadiums all across, you know, the earth, like maybe making that single use plastic Yeah, like I'm hoping maybe we could get a reset on some of the things like maybe when we come back to things people You know, can be, but I know that people are still shopping a lot. There's still a lot of, you know, because then it's kind of like, okay, well, I'm just going to online shop because I'm I'm missing that void of like being able to go out or, you know, I mean, like, how am I going to like fill this, you know, this like need for for stimulus or whatever. Right, yeah. Um, I think that. Yeah, honestly, I think that a lot of our waste that we're saving is being translated and other things gasoline is probably one of the best things that we're saving on and then Buildings just they're not using as much electricity for air conditioning. I don't have AC at home. So I'm, you know, in the offices of there. So like things like that are are probably better. But Um, oh, you know, they it's just a it's a whole different set of issues and and that sort of thing with the with the planet. I really honestly think that people Have been going through another like in the 70s, going through another revolution where we were going to care and we're going to do something I hope we not about to enter a phase of like the 80s, where all of a sudden we're reject all of that right afterwards and we have to start over. Hopefully we can we can continue it And it seems like we have a lot of great ideas. So we just have to get people to implement them and work together. I am pro electric cars, by the way, I've had a Nissan Leaf and it's fantastic and it saves so much money. You don't have to do oil changes gasoline. So it's a it's great for the planet to and yeah I'm all for promoting that stuff too. It's great. I think we have a we have a good future with that technology wise. There's, there's so many Things that are about to come out that I've been reading about. So we got a we got a lot of good options coming out soon. Right, because we need, you know, we need corporations to lead the way when it comes to sustainability, you know, because consumers can definitely make choices, but we're choosing from the options. That the manufacturers and the corporations like are selling to us, you know, so we really need You know the beverage industry and you know all the all the industries that you know have been propagating, you know, their, you know, ecological footprint that maybe isn't turning out to be amazing. Um, you know, hopefully that they're going to Um, Start giving us what we need what the earth needs, which is sustainable options compostable packaging, um, you know, Yeah. Absolutely. And, and to be honest, a lot of us are just a little lazy. We don't feel like rinsing out our straws. We want to just throw it away and and we don't feel like throwing that towel. Cleaning out our yogurt container at the office. I mean, I don't miss. That's one thing I don't miss is like seeing The way that You know, educated adults in my in my work sphere like don't take that extra couple minutes to like swish out there like hummus container or like throw it in the trash and it's just kind of like, okay, well, We all kind of need to work together because like we know that the only plastic that gets recycled. It's clean and dry plastic You know, and so it's like now that we don't have, you know, because for at one point like China was taking our plastic. It was like 20% contaminated and now they'll only take it. If it's only 5% contaminated, but most of it isn't. And so people don't quite understand that it's like, you know, just putting something in a blue bin doesn't mean that that's going to turn into a new item, you know, and so a lot of education. I think that, um, You know, hopefully is going to start dropping in. But again, we kind of need those, um, the corporations to make it a little easier for us so that we can just have something that's just composable like wouldn't it be great if it just broke down. Yeah, well, Yeah, absolutely. And, and there are a couple countries in Canada and Sweden or two of them. I might be wrong that are working at finding ways to their Their Dispose of trash in a new way. And then also I think Canada made a lot of that the plastic like this single use plastic people have to They have to participate in some sort of program to get to get rid of single use plastic. There's all kinds of laws that various countries are trying to do not the US, but we'll get there soon enough. Right, that's the thing is regulations right because honestly corporations aren't going to do it until the legislation. Forces them. I mean, I think we've learned that that we, you know, as much as it's a great talking point for your, you know, political campaign to say, you know, we're going to let businesses. You know, lead the way with without legislation that says, hey, you know, you can't do this like there's no incentive for corporations to change. So I guess That loop where we need the humans to put the pressure on the politicians to create the legislation to make the corporations be responsible so that we can have You know products in our lives that we can purchase without, you know, having to like cry ourselves to sleep or whatever. Right, right. But I mean it's it's our it's our money towards the corporations and our pressure our vote. Towards the politicians in a way as who we pay who we spend money which corporation is our way of voting for that corporation because right now. Have as much power as our as our government. So we're voting for those corporations to be in charge. We're voting for the politicians to be in charge. And that's what it all comes down to. And a great way to end it too is To really push everybody. Make sure that they register to vote and they vote, not just for the presidential but for local elections for everything because it's such a it's such a big deal. And so many people don't get the right to and we're lucky That's a good shout out. So yeah, we can. We got about a minute left. So we're just going to spend. I'm gonna spend the last minute And maybe I'll just do that up until November to just encourage my five viewers to make sure that registered to vote. Make sure that you have a voting guide that tells you who you want to vote for in terms of your judges. We have to really pay attention to who we're putting in the office and like the appellate courts, we need to look at who we're putting in the office as far as like attorneys general, we need to look at Office in as sheriffs and so yeah please everybody who's watching the show and anyone who has friends are watching. There's also A cheer. We had a meeting yesterday with open progress and they have a nonpartisan way to help. So people don't have a particular You know, they don't want to work for a particular affiliation, but they want to just help people get on the boat, they can they can go to open progress and be on the The turnout true and if people want to work for any candidates with open progress, they can they can work on the text route. But yes, We have 10 seconds left. So get out register to vote. Make sure you're registered and make sure you know who you want to vote for in all of your local elections Cassandra. Thank you so, so much. Thanks, Amy. That's been great. Thank you for having me.