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How You Can Manage Stress During These Uncertain Times

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As human beings, we have all experienced stressful periods at some point in our lives. We all know what it feels like to be “stressed out”, and we usually know how to manage our stress. However, the current coronavirus pandemic has elevated the idea of stress into the stratosphere. With most of the country under stay-at-home orders, this black swan event has an impact on every aspect of our society. Whether it be families shut in the house 24/7 with parents trying to balance working from home and educating children or a single person living alone in isolation, we are all experiencing stress in a way we never have before.

As stressful as the uncertainty we face is, remember that it will pass. We are all in this together, and together we can beat COVID-19. Corvus is here for our customers, franchise owners, teammates, and communities. To that end, we would like to provide some brief insight on how you can manage stress while you are doing your part and staying at home:

Movement and Exercise

Movement is essential to relieving stress, tension, and anxiety. We already know exercise is good for our bodies, but it can also improve our mental health by releasing endorphins, improving our quality of sleep, getting us out of our heads and releasing tension held in our bodies. Exercise doesn’t have to be something you dread; instead, get creative and find activities you enjoy! Dancing, walking, jumping rope, shooting hoops, yoga, or anything that gets your body moving is great. Many fitness studios are offering online streaming classes, and YouTube has free videos on many different types of workouts.

Focus on Your Breathing

Often times when we’re stressed and under a lot of pressure, we breathe shallowly instead of deep and slow. When we breathe deeply, it sends a message to our brain to calm down and relax. By gently bringing your awareness to your breath you can start to intentionally slow down and deepen your breathing. Spend a few minutes focusing on your breathing whenever you are feeling stressed. You may not feel a difference right away, but with continuous practice, you will notice the calming effects.

Disconnect to Reconnect

With so much fear and negativity in the media it’s important to take the time to disconnect from all that is going on in the world. While it’s good to be informed, you don’t want to overload yourself with information and negativity. Choose how much media you want to consume and once you’ve reached your limit turn off the TV, get off social media and find a way to disconnect. Our brains focus on what we feed it, so be sure to find positive outlets. This could be talking to family and friends, watching a funny show or movie, making a list of everything you are grateful for, getting outside, reading, or cooking a healthy meal.

How You End Your Day is How You Start Your Day – and Vice Versa

This applies to our work life and our personal life – how we start our day is how we end our day and how we end our day is how we start our day. Many of us are working remotely and find it easy to crawl out of bed and hop onto our computers right away. But by taking a few moments each morning to take care of ourselves, organize our workspace or plan our day, we can start our day refreshed and clear-headed, leading to a less chaotic day.

If we end our day in a frenzy of sending last-minute emails and feeling frazzled, we are more likely to wake up in the same state and continue this pattern throughout the day. So, take a few minutes at the end of each workday to set yourself up for success the next morning. For your personal life, take time at the end of the day to decompress, rest, and do something that brings you joy.

Uphold a Positive Mindset

Staying in a positive mindset can be especially difficult right now. When we find ourselves stuck in negative or fearful thoughts, we can simply acknowledge the thought and choose a new thought. Ask yourself, how can I reframe this thought? What positive spin can I put on this to change my outlook? For example, “I am stuck at home” can be “I am safe at home.” A simple change of “stuck” to “safe” alters our mindset to think more positively. While it’s important to stay positive, it’s equally important to give yourself compassion if you’re having a hard time and let yourself feel the emotions that are coming up. When you’re ready, start reframing any thoughts that are bringing you down.

Social Support Systems

Now more than ever we need the support of others to get us through an unprecedented time. While visiting people in person is not advised at this time, there are alternative options. Calling, texting and video calls are easy ways to stay connected with friends, family members, colleagues or counselors. It’s great to reach out to others and check in with them on how they are doing, as some people might have a hard time reaching out if they are struggling. There are hundreds of Facebook groups covering a wide range of interests. Joining a group can be a good way to connect with people online who share the same hobbies as you.

Maintain a Routine

It can feel like we are losing control over our lives, leaving us feeling powerless. While we cannot always control our outer circumstances, we can turn our focus to what we can control – our routine. Establishing a routine can help us establish some normalcy in our lives and help us feel less like a victim of our circumstances. Start by following the routine that you already have – waking up at a certain time, getting dressed for the day, taking walks, eating meals at a set time, and performing household chores you do every day. From here, you can add in other habits such as at-home-workouts, self-care practices, social hour – carve out time to reach out to others to maintain social connections or any new habits you would like to work on.

Conclusion

Though these are stressful and uncertain times, there are things each of us can do from our homes to help manage our emotions. The list above is by no means comprehensive and each person will have their own ways to destress. However, if you are having a tough time right now, incorporating a few of the listed items may prove beneficial.

This piece is meant simply to inform, not to provide any legal or medical advice.

About Corvus Janitorial Systems

Founded in 2004 to make people’s lives better, Corvus is a full-service commercial cleaning franchisor that offers cleaning services through reputable local Franchisees. Corvus has been guided by its mission to transform people and transform places by consistently delivering independence, security, and freedom to Franchisees who deliver high-quality cleaning to offices, educational buildings, medical buildings/offices, recreational centers, industrial parks, and other spaces. The company has 17 regional support offices across the United States with nearly 900 Franchisees. For more information regarding Corvus, visit www.corvusjanitorial.com or www.corvusjanitorial.com/franchise for franchise information.

Make Lives Better – Corvus’ Mission and the “Why” Behind Our Business

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To our Community of Franchise Partners and Valued Customers,

Since our founding in 2004, our objective has always been to Make Lives Better. By providing customers clean, healthy, vibrant workplaces that foster safety and productivity, we believe Corvus can positively impact people’s lives. Equally significant is how our franchise program facilitates our objective to Make Lives Better through business ownership and the independence it provides. Never before has that founding objective – to Make Lives Better – been as salient and as crucial as it is in these uncertain and unsettling times.

The COVID-19 outbreak, which is taking the world by storm and surprise, has touched us all. Commercially and socially, our communities have each seen an impact. This virus has threatened our safety and health. Despite those headwinds, our community of Franchisee Partners has embraced their role of cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing workspaces. Cleanliness allows people some normality with the ability to get back to work, back to worship, or back to socializing with those they care about and love. You, the Franchisee Partners, and Valued Customers are living and breathing examples of our core value of genuinely Making Lives Better.

Starting this company nearly 16 years ago, we knew we had the potential to impact our stakeholders’ lives positively. Never would we have imagined a crisis of this proportion would so validate the positive impact inclination. To our customers and the communities we serve, thank you for your trust and partnership. To our employees, thank you for your dedication and efforts. Finally, to our Franchisees, thank you for Making Lives Better, and thank you for your grit, determination, and commitment to helping America overcome this challenging environment.

With respect,

Justin Douglas
Co-CEO
Founder

5 Things You Can Do Right Now to Prevent the Spread of Coronavirus

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As you all know, the novel coronavirus has landed in the United States. As of writing, cases have been confirmed in 46 states and Washington DC. According to the latest estimate from Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 1,700 confirmed cases across the United States. Understandably, there is a plethora of uncertainty, misinformation, and fear spreading along with the virus.

Corvus Janitorial Systems recommends taking the time to do your research, stay up-to-date, and most importantly, take steps to prevent the spread of the virus. Though you should be concerned and take this situation very seriously, now is not the time to panic. By taking preventative steps in our personal lives, businesses, and communities, we can help to slow the spread and long-term impact that coronavirus will have on our health, lives, and economy.

1. Use Good Judgement

Are you experiencing a fever, a cough, or shortness of breath? Is anyone in your social circle showing these symptoms? If so, now is the time to implement the age-old “better safe than sorry” approach. If you are experiencing symptoms of the novel coronavirus, stay home. Even if the symptoms are mild (they are in approximately 80% of cases), you are still contagious and can spread the virus.

Use your best judgment; if you have a fever, stay home and limit your interactions with other people. Work from home if possible if you have a cough. If you are exhibiting any symptoms, avoid the vulnerable population (the elderly, people with underlying health issues) entirely. Avoid traveling to areas with widespread infection if you are healthy and try not to travel at all if you know you are ill.

2. Wash Your Hands Often and Use Proper Hand Washing Techniques

One of the best ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 – or any virus for that matter – is frequent hand washing using the proper technique. Hand sanitizer doesn’t cut it; traditional handwashing with soap and water is still the most effective way to kill germs. To properly wash your hands, use warm water, fully lather your hands with soap and scrub them until they are fully soapy and sudsy.

A ten-second rinse is not enough – you should spend at least 30 seconds washing your hands. Timing tip: A good rule-of-thumb for handwashing: if you sing “happy birthday” while washing your hands and don’t get through it in its entirety, you have not washed long enough.

3. Catch Your Cough

This one is straightforward – if you have a cough, cover your mouth when you cough, especially in public spaces and around other people. Catch your cough with your elbow, hand, or a handkerchief. Doing so can prevent community spread from person-to-person contraction. COVID-19 has shown an ability to live outside of a host for a longer duration than standard influenza, therefore if you do cough on a surface, wipe it down immediately with disinfectant and sanitizer.

4. Elbows, Bums, and Tums – Avoid Common Touch Points

Avoid using your hands while interacting with common touchpoints such as doors and door handles, railings on public transit, light switches, and sink handles if possible. Open doors using your elbow, rear-end, or stomach if they are push-to-open. If a door is pull-to-open, consider waiting on someone to open it from the other side, or cover your hand with your sleeve if necessary.

If you do have to open a door with your hands, wash them after. When you are finished, you should turn off the sink with your elbow or a paper towel. Do not touch your face with your hands at all; use your shoulder or upper arm to scratch an itch. Rather than shaking hands, use a fist or elbow bump when meeting or greeting someone.

5. Dinner? Not Tonight. Practice Social Distancing

The phrase “social distancing” has been thrown around a lot in recent weeks, and for good reason. Limiting social interactions, especially in public spaces and other high traffic areas, will highly increase your chances of staying healthy. Cook at home as opposed to going out to eat. Limit your social interactions to a close circle of people that you know are healthy, and even then, only for interactions that cannot be conducted in any other manner.

Thankfully, social distancing does not mean complete social isolation; there are many alternatives to face-to-face interactions in the digital age. Call or video chat with your friends; conduct meetings through video conferences; start a group chat with your social circle.

Recommended Resources for Coronavirus Research and Updates

Center for Disease Control and Prevention

World Health Organization

ABC News Live Updates

This piece is meant simply to inform, not to provide any legal or medical advice.

About Corvus Janitorial Systems

Founded in 2004 to make people’s lives better, Corvus is a full-service commercial cleaning franchisor that offers cleaning services through reputable local Franchisees. Corvus has been guided by its mission to transform people and transform places by consistently delivering independence, security, and freedom to Franchisees who deliver high quality cleaning to offices, educational buildings, medical buildings/offices, recreational centers, industrial parks, and other spaces. The company has 17 regional support offices across the United States with nearly 900 franchisees. For more information regarding Corvus, visit www.corvusjanitorial.com or www.corvusjanitorial.com/franchise for franchise information.

What is Coronavirus and What Can You Do to Stay Healthy?

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What is Coronavirus?

The sudden appearance of this new health threat has already triggered a significant level of panic across the globe. It has also been the cause of a lot of confusion. As cleaning professionals, the Corvus Janitorial Systems team would like to inform you about coronavirus and provide some tips to help you stay healthy. So, before we get to the symptoms, what health professionals are doing about the virus, and what you can do to avoid it, let’s talk a bit about the official definition, where it started, and where it’s going; what is Coronavirus?

CoV is more than just one virus. It’s a cluster (or family) of viruses that lead to illnesses ranging from mild, like an everyday cold, to more serious diseases, like SARS and MERS. Coronavirus strains like MERS and SARS have been around for years, but the newest coronavirus, called COVID-19, started in China in 2019. It is believed that the new outbreak started in an animal reservoir. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the outbreak was declared a public health emergency on January 31, 2020.

The virus is most commonly transmitted from person to person. Certain strains can also be transferred from animals to humans, although this is far less common. In the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China, some patients had connections to animal markets that suggested they may have contracted the virus from animals, but the growing numbers of patients without animal connections tells us that it’s spreading through human-to-human transmission. Coronavirus is said to spread in a similar way to the flu; contact with an infected individual’s sneeze or cough, and less frequently, touching a surface that an infected person had recently touched may cause infection.

What are the Symptoms of Coronavirus?

Now that we’ve answered the question, “What is the novel coronavirus,” let’s talk about the symptoms of it. Symptoms typically range from mild to severe, with the most common ones being fever, cough, and shortness of breath. In individuals with compromised immune systems, the infection can cause pneumonia, respiratory issues, kidney failure, and death. More research needs to be done to determine the exact timeframe, but it is believed that symptoms appear between 2 and 14 days after an individual is exposed to the virus. This timeframe was determined based on information from previous strains.

What Has Been the Global Response?

Across the globe, over 3,000 people have died from the recent coronavirus outbreak, with nearly 90,000 (and counting) confirmed cases in dozens of countries. Outside of Antarctica, each continent has been affected. In response to the potential severity and growth of the disease, many countries are preparing action plans.

Quarantines in Italian cities are on the rise, as they’ve suffered 52 deaths due to the coronavirus so far. Outside of China, only one country has a higher death count; Iran has lost 66 residents to the virus. But China, by far, has been hit the hardest. Over 2,900 of the 3,000+ cases have occurred there. Factories have been closed, quarantines put in place, experimental drug trials scheduled, and numerous lockdowns have gone into effect.

In the U.K., where there have been forty confirmed cases, the British government is working on a virus backup plan that includes calling retired medical professionals back to work, delaying tax bill due dates, closing schools, and encouraging adults to work from home. The French government is similarly allowing delays in tax payments for companies that are struggling due to the global outbreak. There have been 191 confirmed cases in France, including three deaths. In Germany, an international craft fair that was expecting 100,000 visitors has been canceled. Meanwhile, many international testing sites for college admissions have been shut down to help slow the spread of the virus, and Iranian officials sent drones out to disinfect the streets and teams to conduct virus checks.

In the United States, there are have been six fatalities to date, with just over 100 confirmed cases. Washington state is on high alert, as it is currently the state with the largest number of infections and deaths in the US. The virus has also been detected in California, Oregon, New York, Rhode Island, Georgia, and Florida. Conferences and other large group gatherings are being canceled, schools are being closed, workers in certain states and industries are being urged to work from home or avoid coming in if they feel any symptoms, and travel is vehemently being discouraged. The governor of New York has waived fees for coronavirus testing so that lower-income families and individuals can get the care they need.

The business conglomerate, Amazon, has recently switched to video conferencing to replace many of their in-person interviews. Amazon’s headquarters is located in Washington, where several schools have also been shut down temporarily. Twitter Inc. is also doing what it can to protect its employees by placing mandatory restrictions on global travel, as many other international companies have done.

As a byproduct of the growing fear of coming into contact with an infected individual, online grocery sales, antibacterial or disinfectant purchases, water bottles, and children’s books about germs and personal hygiene have all significantly risen. There is currently no vaccine, but healthcare officials and agencies are working on producing one. In the meantime, it seems that each state, country, and health organization is doing what they can to slow the spread of the virus. Now, let’s talk about what you can do, too.

How You Can Prepare for Coronavirus in the United States

Currently, the best way to stay healthy is to avoid infected individuals, wash your hands frequently, stay home if you’re not feeling well, cover your sneeze or cough with your sleeve, and avoid touching your face after touching public surfaces. Wearing a face mask isn’t recommended for people who are healthy, but they can effectively help infected individuals keep from spreading the virus through their sneeze and cough particles. Disinfecting shared surfaces and carrying hand sanitizers that include alcohol to be used when you don’t have immediate access to soap and water can also help.
You may recognize these suggestions as similar to the ones that health professionals suggest for flu prevention. COVID-19 spreads in a similar way, so many of the same methods of prevention can be used. However, if you have any concerns, feel any symptoms, or need more information, we recommend checking in with your health care provider. This article is meant simply to inform, not to provide any legal or medical advice.

About Corvus Janitorial Systems

Founded in 2004 to make people’s lives better, Corvus is a full-service commercial cleaning franchisor that offers cleaning services through reputable local Franchisees. Corvus has been guided by its mission to transform people and transform places by consistently delivering independence, security, and freedom to Franchisees who deliver high-quality cleaning to offices, educational buildings, medical buildings/offices, recreational centers, industrial parks, and other spaces. The company has 17 regional support offices across the United States with nearly 900 Franchisees. For more information regarding Corvus, visit www.corvusjanitorial.com or www.corvusjanitorial.com/franchise for franchise information.

Corvus Janitorial Services Celebrates Black History Month

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Corvus Janitorial Services celebrates African-American History month, also referred to as Black History Month, during the month of February. Initiated in 1926 by Mr. Carter Woodson and minister Jesse E. Moorland to acknowledge the tremendous contributions of the African American community to the United States, Black History month has become a permanent staple of the American dialogue and cultural landscape.

Throughout February, every Corvus Janitorial Services regional office will research, profile and exhibit impactful or ground-breaking entrepreneurs from the African American community; those who paved the way in terms of innovation, success and breaking of traditional barriers for subsequent entrepreneurs…of all backgrounds.

When queried, Andy Smith, Regional Director of Corvus of St. Louis, reported his regional office intends to profile three highly successful, yet starkly different African American Entrepreneurs. Notably, his regional support team and area franchisees elected to profile founders of Black Entertainment Television and owners of three national sports teams, Robert and Sheila Johnson (at one point a formidable husband and wife team); Oprah Winfrey; and Ms. C.J. Walker (1867 – 1919) who through her “walker Method” hair product is largely recognized as one of the first African American female entrepreneurs to become a millionaire – those hair care products still being sold through an affiliation with Sephora.

Corvus, its employees, franchisees and entrepreneurs will recognize and celebrate the achievements of past and current African American business owners and leaders who paved the way for entrepreneurialism in our country.

Corvus Janitorial Services – 773-276-2227
Corvus of St. Louis – 314-205-1945

Corvus Recognizes Janitorial Services Franchise Owner, Joe Kasperski

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Joe Kasperski Corvus of St. Louis was thrilled to present Joe Kasperski , a St. Louis based Franchisee since April 1999, with its I Will / We Will Citation of Excellence for outstanding, consistent, and quality delivery of service. In addition to his businesses track record of customer satisfaction, Joe embodies Corvus’ Values and the Corvus Difference.

Regional Director and Senior Vice President Andy Smith says, “my team has the incredible pleasure of partnering with Joe, whose efforts, business acumen and integrity have not only resulted in commercial success, but have enriched and benefited our entire platform”. In acknowledgement of his accomplishments, Joe received several non-business oriented prizes, as well as a credit towards the upgrades of his equipment inventory. According to Joe, “The St. Louis regional support center has done an outstanding job of supporting my franchise, which in turn has provided additional, reliable business opportunities. I know they have my best interests at heart, which is very comforting when you’re an entrepreneur like I am”. On behalf of Corvus Janitorial Systems, our most sincere thanks to Joe.

St. Louis Office:
314-205-1945
16A Worthington Access Drive
Maryland Heights, MO 63043