Home Office TV

Good morning. Welcome to Home Office TV. I'm Amy Bibeau, your illustrious morning time host. You could be watching this at any time at any day, but it is Tuesday, March 2, 2021. And my guest is Candice Bailey. Hi, Candice. Hello. Hi. How are you? That's the live studio audience. How is your day? How long have you been with Cloudflare? And what is your role? Oh, I love it. So yeah, Candice Bailey, she, her, hers. My role is on the pricing team. So I help the deal desk and the pricing team with a lot of our analytics, basically. I just started in October of last year. So I've been virtually onboarding. So that is something that we can definitely talk about. But yeah. And what else did you ask me? I'm not sure if I answered everything, but. I know. Yeah. What are you doing? How's your day? How's my day? How are you doing in this pandemic? Oh, gosh. Pretty, you know, not, not too bad at this moment, actually. Things have lightened up, you know, brightened up a little. Maybe it's March. I don't know, because it's March and there's sun today or something. I don't know what it is, but I'm feeling more optimistic. February felt dark for some reason, even though, you know, I don't know why, but it just felt like trudging through the winter. So I don't know. I'm doing well right now, though. Good. I think that one of the things I've noticed for myself is it is, you know, the COVID coaster, you know, the Corona coaster is a thing, you know, like you can be up one day and then something happens and, you know, I'm an extrovert. So like, I really, I do get energy from being around other people. I miss there not being enough people to like laugh at my hilarious jokes. Like I miss that. Yeah. It's away from my quality of life. It's diminished. Yes. With like less of an audience, you know, where are you physically, geographically right now? Physically, geographically, I'm in Brooklyn, New York, temporarily. I used to, I've been living here the past four years, but due to COVID I was displaced back home to Austin and then ended up finding the Cloudflare job there and everything. So I'm normally based in the Austin office. Yeah. Awesome. And how has it been going? You know, virtual onboarding, like I imagine it could be a challenge, like to come in and make connections and get up to speed on what you're supposed to do. Yeah. Yeah. I will be honest. Like that is definitely interesting. I don't know. Have you done a virtual onboarding before or? I mean, I haven't, I haven't, I don't have a lot of like corporate experience. I was like a traveling massage jewelry selling it like a hippie before I started at Cloudflare. That's cool. Whoa. We need to talk about that in a second. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I get you. So yeah, I know before this, I had a little bit of room. I done like some remote work-ish like, cause I had, you know, global teams. So I was used to some zoom meetings and stuff. But no, I've never onboarded remotely. That was, that was interesting, but I actually not to drink the Kool-Aid too much, but I do think that the Cloudflare onboarding was pretty good for virtual onboarding. I'm going to be honest. Cause it could have been so many things. There could have been so many things wrong with it. Let's just say that I, it could have been, you know, all day blocks and like other like non -engaging or useful sessions or things like that, but it was very much like self -paced. There was still a social element. So I felt like it was good. It's just like you, I'm also, obviously you can tell chatty. So I, I do enjoy in person. I'm better in person. I think then maybe for, or I don't know, over chat or something electronically we're in person. I mean, maybe not all of us, there might be some people that are like, I really thrive in front of a screen. You know what I mean? There are some, you know, there are, you know, and, and sure. Have I been like, was my favorite day of the pandemic, the day that the oil prices dropped to zero, you know, and went negative. Yes, it was. It was my favorite day of the whole pandemic. You know, it was like not to throw shade. I'm sure some of them are our customers, but that was my best day when the, you know, the presidency kind of changed finally, I guess. What day was that again? I don't even know. Yeah, that was the 20th. And that was a great day for freedom and liberation, just like general humanity. What we've said it a lot on my show, you know, home office TV, you know, does tend to lean less, you know, I was a Bernie, I'm a Bernie memes. I got Bernie mitten memes. I put them on my trail by my house. You know, like I Photoshop, you know, like that was a great day. That was a great day. That was a great day. Yeah. Yeah. That was my, my favorite day of the pandemic. Yeah. So you're working from home. How do you know, like when to start your day and like when to be done with your day? Like how does one, when they're trying to work the deal desk and figure out the pricing and a lot of marketing, are you on the marketing team officially, or is it the sales team? I'm under product under product, but yeah, I work like very closely with the sales team. I ended up doing their training and everything. So yeah. Yeah. How do you know when to start your day and when to end it? Oh man. So when to start the good news is right now I'm in New York, right? So I'm ahead in terms of most of my team who's in SF like yourself. So I get my mornings to myself a little bit and get to just like, either slowly wake up or like today I woke up at eight, like chipper ready to get some things done. So whatever I want to do. And then I feel like I start like perusing my email working, you know, close to nine or whatever every day. But then in terms of ending the day, that's, that's the kind of nice thing about the work from home is there's flexibility there. Cause I can take little breaks more during the day in terms of both the mental and even socially, like at work, you can't take as many social breaks, I guess, when you're in the office all the time. Does that make sense? Like if you want to get something done or something. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But, um, no, yeah, I think, uh, you know, it's just been like a lot of on and off as term in terms of like the end of the day. I don't know. I've always been pretty good at like setting boundaries with that one, just because I've had it disrespected in the past. Um, so I pretty much am pretty good at going, okay, cool. This is my, you know, today and I'm going to close the computer and maybe I'll check it later, but this is today and I'll do that. You know, that can vary on the day as well. Yeah. Yeah. And you haven't had to experience, you know, commuting to the office. Cause like, sometimes we talk on the show, like there's humans out there that actually kind of miss their commute. Cause it's like the one moment of buffer that they get kind of between like their, like maybe hectic family life. Like, I mean, if you've got at home or something and then you're like, okay, well I can get on the Muni or the Bart or in my car and like put on my music or my podcast or my book or whatever. And you know, and have that moment to yourself, like where you're starting your day and then on the way back. We actually have humans that I've talked to on my show that, that miss their commute. I'm not, I'm not really into missing my commute zone. I moved, I moved away from the city. Or something, or where are you? Yeah. I'm in Lafayette. I'm in Lafayette. Oh, cool. Okay. So nice here. Yeah. I like, well, that's a different discussion, but I like San Francisco, but is that not, is that everyone? I don't know. There's a lot of opinion. Okay. I don't think that we would, it could be just a portal or a vortex. It might not even be a portal to anywhere. And before, okay. So you're working at Cloudflare, you're doing this work, but I'm curious, like, what would your dream job be? You weren't, if you weren't doing this, was there ever something that you're like, okay, like if I could do anything, or if you could start your own like foundation for something or have your dream job, like, what would that be? Oh man. I think it would be, is in this scenario, does capitalism like not really matter or exist? Capitalism? Let's pretend it doesn't exist anymore. Sure. Like we're dreaming. We're dreaming. We're dreaming. No, no. No, I, I like to pretend it doesn't sometimes, even though it does, but no, I think I would say it's the same as always. I want to just kind of do my art. Like I would probably just sell my art slash maybe have like a cafe slash I've thought of a variety of things that could be like, this isn't good for COVID times, but I've always wanted to own like a cafe that was also, you know, sort of a community space, whether that be for like LGBT people or whatever other communities, but also just an artistic space, a space where people can like, you know, musicians will be there. We'll have like trivia nights and all that kind of stuff. So that would be like my deal, you know, thing to do all the time, but I don't even know how to start that. And it's probably not good to start in COVID, but yeah, that's probably what I would do. Yeah. You might not be the time to start that in COVID, but you know, post COVID, there are going to be a lot of empty retail spaces, you know, venue spaces. And I mean, I'm very pro a new model of like how art and music like gets out there. Like, I think one of the unfortunate things about like the live music scene is it's very alcohol late night kind of driven, you know? And so it's like, that excludes like a lot of people that might like music, you know, but it's like the selling the alcohol is how they pay the artists, you know? So it's like, if we had a community model where art was valued in a different way that, you know, maybe didn't, you know, again, you know, hashtag capitalism, hashtag why, hashtag I didn't start it, you know, we didn't start the fire or whatever. But like if there was a way that like the communities want to come back after this, I think in general, investing in those types of community models, you know, and even micro kind of settings could be really interesting. So don't give up that dream. And even with the fact that capitalism is still here to stay at this moment in time, as far as we know, you know, like I haven't, I guess I haven't been paying attention to like the economic think tanks, like for what the next model is. But people really seem bent on it. Yeah, just to be clear, I don't know either. I shouldn't have maybe mentioned that I don't like it if I don't have an alternative. But no, it's okay. I was just, you know, mentioning that factor. Yeah, it's something that we have to consider. I mean, because that is I mean, the driving force of like, you know, how things you know, how are you going to make a living? Right? Exactly. Yeah, no, that's true. So, okay, we covered virtual onboarding and what to do. Have you started any new hobbies? Or like, did you bake bread or start cooking at home? Man, everyone's very good. Yeah, no, I didn't bake bread or bake bread, break bread or bake bread. But I did a few things, I would say like the biggest, man, this is not a really fun answer. But the biggest thing is like, I really worked on my mental health over the past year, like crazy. I mean, it's sort of facility COVID sort of facilitated that in some ways. Being able to like make that part, take that time away, I guess, like make that progress. Um, yeah, so that's one good thing. But I think the other than that, I've learned to like, I've always in pottery, but now I'm doing hand building at home, because I can't be on a wheel. I don't have a wheel. So yeah, I'm doing at home. So that's fun, because it's very different. It's very different. And but also kind of the same. What else I figured out how to brew cold brew for myself, because I drink, I drink iced coffee, literally year round. I think it's just like an addiction. It might be mental, you know, I don't know which part it is. But I've learned that as well. And I've started trying to garden but that's still very early. So I don't want to talk about it until it's been a while. You know, so so pottery, is that your main like art form that you like to delve into? Is that your is that your I love this because you're traveling jewelry. You're a jewelry maker. Yeah, I'm a jewelry designer. And I make watercolors like that's been my pandemic. Like whatever thing. Yeah, no, no, that's cool. So I did pottery before. But yeah, my main I don't know, I always thought my main medium was more like, like pen and ink and stuff. Like literally just drawing pen ink. But yeah, in the past few years, I've just upped my ceramics game, I started going to classes so that I could be like more set the time out to do it. And so yeah, I guess it would be my main form. But I do a lot of different like photography. I'm so interested in hearing about jewelry making or designing and also like I have a friend who does leather working although, you know, faux leather leather. But yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, like how much are we trying to affront the cow friends with our art? Yeah, you know, I maybe not at all. I'm a lesbian. So I have to be you know, vegan friendly. I can't, you know, branch out from that too much. Because all you know, I will have a girlfriend ever again. So I'm just kidding. I mean, not to like, you know, stereotype, but there is, you know, an intersectionality when we start getting into like, you know, rights of all the beings. I'm a reluctant omnivore, who knows that I shouldn't eat animal friends. But I'm very kind of like addicted to how delicious they are. And it's one of those things that I feel like I'm going to overcome at some point on the earth. But I'm not sure, because I'm pretty sure that when you leave this planet, there's like a fancy vegan planet that's been destroyed yet. And that like, all the better people are going to go to the vegan planet and that I'm going to be left behind, like trying to clean up the mess on this planet. This is like just my weird. Oh my gosh, about like, what happens like when you die? And like, like, I'm going to be trying to get on the bridge of the ship to go to the vegan planet. Yeah, cows and pigs are going to be there. And they're going to be like, No, I'd be like, you, we know what you did. Exactly, exactly. So those are, I'm going to be there with you, too. That's the case. I guess we're going to be cleaning it up here on this planet. So yeah, these are the things I think about too much. I think going back to your focus on mental health. One of the things that I've talked about on my show is going through this like pan pandemic. I like to say because it's way I'm going through the pan and Mia altogether. It's been like a collective shadow, like we're kind of going through like a collective shadow with our with our culture with our society, especially last year, there was like, Hey, like, there's all this stuff going on that you can't just stop looking at just because you don't, you know, want it to be there. And you want to, you know, feed into every other like distraction that is going to make you avoid this shadow is going to come for you. So it's like, I know that we've been going through personal shadow and, you know, collective shadows. So like, for me, the mental health piece has been pretty important during this, this COVID thing for me real quick, like, when I started my job at Cloudflare, I was still deeply grieving my dad's leaving of the planet back in was it was in 2017 in March. And I started in September 2018 at Cloudflare and just having that routine going to work because I was previously doing my hustle, like selling jewelry and, you know, TaskRabbit and whatever, like, whatever, like things that I could do to like hustle to stay alive in the Bay. And when I started working at Cloudflare, it was like new routine, new friends every day, super busy. I was exhausted. I was taking naps, like 3pm, like I was in the nap room. I'm like, how have people I was taking like transit. And I'm like, how are these humans doing this every day, all week with children at home? Yeah, that's for years at a time. I was I was like, I was like, I had a whole new respect for just like the regular like default society and the people who've been participating in that for so long. I was exhausted. I was exhausted. And I'm concerned about building my stamina back up to like really be in the office like 40 hours a week. That's scary to me. I know. I was wondering, like, do you think we'll have sort of a hybrid? I mean, this isn't Cloudflare specific. I'm thinking like societal. Well, I'll say America ish or some big cities or something. I think like societally, generally, people will start to like kind of do like a hybrid model or something. It feels like it's going to be like, you can go into work if you want, or I think so. I think there's, I think we've learned that people can work remotely. And we know that the commute, you know, is a nightmare from a climate perspective and from people's like just except for those ones who are just trying to get away from their kids for an hour. Especially now that they've had to have them at home all the time. God bless all the parents, our hearts go out to you. Like that is hard to have to be the teacher and work a full -time job and like be with people that you normally, you know, like your partners there and like everybody's in your house. You know, so sure. They're going to be excited about that one hour commute again, but like, I think we've proven that we don't need to be in the office all the time. So they're going to have to be a transformation. So I know that was my role. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, sorry. I think it was healthy for everyone who was overworking, especially, I mean, I know some people still have been working extra during the pandemic, but a lot, I feel like a lot of people were very, you know, a lot of people I know, at least like I said, I was in New York and other things like that and very narrowed in on it. And so it was kind of good for everyone to just take one second, even though it was scary, but yeah. Yeah. Pull back and be like, yeah. Yeah. Like doing me, like I felt like it confirmed a few of my theories. Like I had already had the, you know, I'm sure this is not just me, but I was like, I'm pretty sure we don't have to have this many meetings or do we need to, you know, work from home every day or sorry, work in the office every day. No, you know, those series. And I feel like this pandemic now proves that. So yeah. Yeah. The home office TV host is a big proponent of the four day work week, just in general. Like I, you know, I'm grateful to the labor unions for getting us the original weekend. And you know, I think that a lot of companies have done studies on this and they found that people can be just as productive even in a 32 hour week. But you know, I don't have any I'm an office coordinator, but I'm assuming it's flexible, right? Like, I don't know. There could be a new way of working. I don't know if we have to be in these shifts necessarily, or, you know, that the strict like Monday to Friday kind of the timing, like where everybody's on the road at the exact same time. Yeah. Like in this traffic congestion and everybody's like rage is just, you know, flaring up. I was going to say, yeah, did you so if you had to drive? Yeah, I've the past since I was living in New York, I was just subwaying, which is its own thing. But at least you don't have to. I think I get a little road rage. So I don't know if I would do well with the like morning traffic necessarily. But when it's a train, you just go stupid train. You know, you just I hate this train. Right. It's not like a person you're like, that Mercedes. Yeah. Why did they cut me off? You know, why are they not driving like carefully? I think that for me, like with the driving right now, we still aren't on those shifts. So when I do go into the office, which is more often now, because we are doing a big renovation. Speaking of the way that we're changing the way we're working, we're actually changing our physical space in the San Francisco headquarters. And we're going to have a different, you know, just a different like thought around the workstations and how the work is going to be in different like different spaces. So we're I am busy going into the office these days, but I have some flexibility when I go in. I'm not like, oh, I can't wait to get on the road at 830. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. And the way home is already still bad. Like that. Oh, really? Bridge at three o'clock or four o 'clock. Yeah. It's a thing, you know, people. So how do you like, we used to have really great snacks at Cloudflare. And I'm excited for you to get those again. But it's like, I like to ask people, what are you snacking on during the day? How are you doing your like lunches and stuff? Oh, man. Are you cooking for yourself? Oh, man. Yes. No, I am somewhat. Well, OK. OK. It was better last year in 2020. I was cooking for myself quite a bit, all that kind of stuff. And then this early this year, I don't know. I just it's been very busy. Yeah, I came here, all this stuff. I don't know. And I just have been eating out a lot. So I haven't been cooking a crazy amount, but I've been like ordering in a lot or yeah, from cooking. It's like my own avocado toast or something or like it's like cooking. I mean, I love a toast. Oh, yeah. And I like, you know, and I can cook. I do love cooking, by the way. But I just don't I don't know something about the grocery shopping now gets me so anxious, but I like going in person more or like, yeah, I like picking out the things, but I don't want to feel like anxious and like rushed or something. But I kind of feel rushed now. It's very mental. It's very mental. But I just feel rushed during COVID. I'm like, ah, too many people. OK, when you're in. So when you're when I'm in the door, you're like in and out. Let's go a little bit because it's just a very like don't you feel like grocery stores can be very jarring? I mean, not always, but they're like just it's intense. It can feel like a lot of people sometimes. No, it's just me. You know, as long as I don't hit my vape pen like right before I go in, because if I do, I'm like, maybe that's what it was then. Maybe that's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Like don't eat any edibles or anything before you go to the grocery store because then it starts to feel a little claustrophobic or like it feels intense, like being normal. I don't know. Yeah, it's because we haven't been in groups. You're right. And so we're very used, especially those of us who are a bit sensitive, like I'm a bit of a sensitive girl, but delicate flower. And so when I get used to being in my own energy frequency, you know, be that positive or negative, depending on the Corona coaster of the day, being around like other people in crowds, it can feel jarring and like an invasion, invasion, like literally into my energetic field. So it could just be like a sensitivity thing, but I still, that's, yeah, it's so funny. Cause you know, a year ago or whatever, I, I love concerts, for example, I know you just said very low. Yeah. And I used to do like late night alcohol focus, but yeah, I, you know, I love live music and all that stuff. So I, in my head, I'm like, I love live music, but then, yeah, when I was there, I was like, wow, crowd, crowd, crowd, crowd, crowd. So yeah, it is, it's interesting. I just never would have thought of myself as someone who would be sensitive that until now probably. So that's cool. That's interesting. Yeah. Well, I just think that we're not used to it this at this moment in time. We're not used to like being in, in public and being around people and, and, and there is a bit of fear because we don't want to get the Rona, you know, like, well, yeah, exactly. Ravage, especially, you know, I mean, we're still seeing it. I mean, we're number one, we're number one, you know, in cases of coronavirus and deaths, like it's very sad and it's not funny. It's just, yeah, sorry. I mean, but we are, we are, I mean, cause America, because America is just, you know, the best only country in the entire world. So, I mean, was it the Netherlands that put like, got the word number two video? No, I didn't see that. It was like, it was like America first, but I think it was like Netherlands second. It's pretty funny. I mean, one of the fun things I think that's come out of the pandemia, like is like people's creativity, like you see like on Tik TOK and. Oh yeah, true, true. You know, so people have been getting like with their videos and it's fun to see the, like the triumph of the human spirit, like push through and be like, you know what? Yeah, we're going through a shadow. We're going through hard things, but we're going to still find joy. We're going to still be funny. We're going to still make jokes. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I've that's funny. You just mentioned that jokes and like comedy stuff. I was just thinking about how I was listening to this podcast and all these comedians are saying how they are going to have to repractice like standup because they haven't stood, even if they had been doing it consistently for however long years and years, they're like, I'm going to have to repractice. And I feel like a brand new standup comedian again, which I thought was so interesting too. It's like, wow. Yeah. I guess it feels like it can go away quickly, even though that might be mental too, but yeah. Well, I mean, you know, you got your crowd work and being in front of the crowd. I used to do some comedy, some standup comedy, like just, you know, amateur stuff. How did I know? How did I know? Oh, just amateur. Oh no, really? Like, cause you know, the scene, especially in San Francisco, it was like, it's pretty super male dominated, but also I would go to open mics for like a year and I would just hear the same people like telling the same jokes. I'm like, that's your same joke. Like this is your same material in a year. But then they were getting like booked and like, I would always have like fresh stuff and you know, like not really. And I was just like, and then my dad, my dad like disembarked from this spaceship. And I was like, I did not have the wherewithal to like go and be funny in front of people. But now I miss, now I'm missing it. Of course. Yeah, of course. Now I miss it, but no, I, that's valid, you know? And I think that's cool. I, I, I, I wish I had the gall to tell the comedy on stage, but I'm too sensitive. You said you're sensitive to energy. I'm too, I'm, I am too sensitive to popular opinion a little bit. Like if everyone booed me, although do you just get over it? You probably just get over it, right? I mean, you just move on. You know what I mean? It's like, you can't, you can't, you don't, it's like with anything, like, it's like, if somebody doesn't like your joke, hopefully you have another one, you know, somebody who's really heckling you, you know, hopefully you have a way out. We have a minute left, so I just want to wrap up, but I would say this, if you do want to do performance, like stage performance, there's always storytelling, you know, and like storytelling venues and crowds are a lot more forgiving and understanding than like a, because you're just, you're telling an interesting story. You don't have to have a joke every 25 words. Sure. So like, that's always a place people can expand or like open into. So with 33 seconds left, I just want to, I'm going to wrap us up, but we're really lucky to have you at Cloudflare. And thank you for hitting the call. Thank you for hitting the call and being on my show. So now we, you're, it's like, this is the half hour of the week that I feel like I have a friend. So now you're my new friend. I know we're friends now. Okay. You can ping me anytime and we can discuss vegan leather and making everything else. Hashtag no more capitalism. All right. Thank you so much. Bye Heather. I mean, Candice, what was that random name? Bye.