June Newsletter 2021
Queen Bee Anniversary
20 years.
Yes, you read that right, our very own Queen Bee, Angela Danessi, has been with the company for 20 years this week. It is also her birthday today, July 1st, which is why we waited just a little longer than normal to send our “June” newsletter.
We are grateful and so incredibly lucky to have her on our team as our client liaison.
Many of you know Angela very well through years of speaking with her, but here are some fun facts you may not know about her.
She speaks five languages! You can talk with her in English, Spanish, Italian, French, and most recently Hindi. In fact, she actually taught herself Hindi without ever having gone to a class. She’s a natural linguist.
While she grew up in the Midwest, she spent many of her early years in Europe, having lived in London, Paris, and Ibiza. She moved to Denver from Taos, New Mexico where she worked at the Taos Ski Valley. She has been in the hospitality space for some time now, including a stint at what is now the Ritz Carlton in Denver before she came to us here (a great day for our company).
She has the coolest protective dog, a feisty Corgi also known as Frank. Sometimes known as Rishi, but that is a story for you to ask her about directly.
In short, she is one of the most unique people on the planet and we want to take this opportunity to recognize her for her loyalty, consistency, and for being the main person in our company for so long.
While we aren’t sure we will be able to convince her to stay another 20 years, we are thankful for whatever she will give us.
Guide to Summer 2021
We made it to Summer. Sadly, no one seemed to tell Spring, which evidently took a wrong turn and never made it here.
But that’s ok because the nice people at 5280 Magazine came out with a bunch of fun and interesting things to do in our wonderful state.
They covered nearly everything, from road trip gear to the best rooftop patios in Denver. We didn’t know that Le Meridien hotel actually has the highest open-air rooftop deck in Denver, the 54thirty lounge.
We also love to eat so seeing the best BBQ joints in Colorado made our mouths water.
We hope you have a wonderful Summer!
Colorado Income Tax Cut
You read that right, income taxes are going down in our state.
Amazingly and despite COVID, Colorado now is expected to exceed the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights revenue cap for both this fiscal year, which ended on June 30, and for the next two years as well.
From the article in the Denver Business Journal:
“Colorado will have to employ all three of its methods for giving back excess revenues — reimbursing local governments for Homestead property-tax exemptions, reducing the state income tax rate from 4.55% to 4.5%, and offering sales-tax refunds directly to state residents.”
Great news for all of us, and the article also goes into Colorado’s unemployment numbers and why we are still slightly behind the national average.
The full piece from the Denver Business Journal can be f0und here.
Is Working from Home Here to Stay?
Last month we asked how much working from home was worth. In many cases, $30,000 wasn’t enough.
We wanted to dive into this issue further, more specifically what are most companies planning as they move forward? What are the pros and cons for both employee and company?
In a great article, Stanford Business published a piece on how the pandemic “Blew up the American Office, for Better and Worse.”
As the graphic in our header shows, working from home increased eightfold in 2020 from 2017. Where will it go from here and how will it impact business going forward?
What are the takeaways? For starters, it seems that a consensus is emerging about a hybrid approach where employees would work both from home and at the office in a split.
More fascinating to us was the belief that innovation would be impacted by working from home in the long run, due to the creative collaboration that it requires.
Finally, this shift has harmed cities’ downtown areas in many ways, as people remain at home in the suburbs and not spending money downtown.
How’s Your Sleep?
Hopefully, it’s getting better as life is getting back to normal around us.
When we found a simple sleep assessment tool, we took the leap to see just how many bad bedtime habits we really have.
The answer? A lot.
The quiz took us only a minute or so to complete, and then gave us a score of 10 out of a possible 18 points.
Normally scoring a 10 is perfect, but in this case, it told us we have some work to do.
At the end of the survey, you can provide your email and you will get a five-part series on improving your sleep, along with exercises, videos, and the like.
If you aren’t sure about your sleep, the stats say it can probably be better. The most recent data shows that in America, 70% of adults report that they obtain insufficient sleep at least one night a month, and 11% report insufficient sleep every night.
With thanks to the folks at Better Humans, you can link to the quick sleep survey here.
Good luck improving your sleep, we are surely working on ours!
Monthly Award Winners
Our monthly award winners for May were Simona Estrada, Rosario De La Rosa, Maria Zapata, Aurora Dominguez and Patricia Rodriguez.
In the Team Leader ranks, it was Laura Varela and Isela Mendoza.
We are so proud of our winners, and of all the folks that are in and out of your homes each week.
We continue to be grateful to you for allowing us into your lives during these challenging times.
Please join me in congratulating our best performers for the month of May.
Queen Bee Corner
by Angela
This month I celebrate 20 years with Denver Concierge. 20 years!! Yikes!
I doubt many people can say that their job is so closely aligned to their personality that the two actually mesh and the word ‘work’ ceases to apply.
It’s a tough business we’re in and can be stressful if not handled with care, respect, and endurance. A sense of the absurd is always handy; a sense of humor is essential.
I applaud our clients for offering me all of the above.
As I accept this gold statue of a giant bee, I’d just like to say that I have been inordinately lucky to work with the best in the business and for the best in the business. Bar none. I love you all!
Bee