wbjournal.com | June 21, 2021 | Worcester Business Journal 3
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
Staff Writer, Monica Benevides,
mbenevides@wbjournal.com
(Manufacturing, equality & inclusion)
Editorial Interns
Amy Thai, athai@wbjournal.com
Sharon Boateng,
sboateng@wbjournal.com
Devan Greevy,
dgreevy@wbjournal.com
Contributors
Susan Shalhoub, Livia Gershon
Lead Researcher, Timothy Doyle,
tdoyle@nebusinessmedia.com
Research Assistant, Heide Martin,
hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com
Production Director, Kira Beaudoin,
kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com
Art Director, Mitchell Hayes,
mhayes@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Senior Special Accounts Manager
Mary Lynn Bosiak,
mlbosiak@wbjournal.com
Marketing & Events Manager
Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com
COO, Mary Rogers,
mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers,
rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Account Receivable Specialist,
Patty Harris,
pharris@nebusinessmedia.com
Human Resources, Jill Coran,
jcoran@nebusinessmedia.com
Director of Audience Development,
Valerie Clark,
vclark@nebusinessmedia.com
Operations Assistant,
Leah Allen,
lallen@nebusinessmedia.com
Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton
pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com
Associate Publisher, Mark Murray
mmurray@wbjournal.com
President, Tom Curtin
tcurtin@hartfordbusinessjournal.com
Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is
published bi-weekly, 24x per year, including 4 special
issues in May, September, October, and December by New
England Business Media. 172 Shrewsbury St., Worcester,
MA 01604. Periodicals postage paid at Worcester, MA.
Copyright 2021. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Please
send address changes to: Worcester Business Journal,
PO Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894.
Subscriptions: Annual subscriptions are available for
$60.00. For more information, please email wbjournal@
cambeywest.com or contact our circulation department at
845-267-3008. Fax: 845.267.3478
Advertising: For advertising information, please call Mark
Murray at 508-755-8004 ext. 227. Fax: 508-755-8860.
Worcester Business Journal accepts no responsibility for
unsolicited manuscripts or materials and in general does
not return them to the sender.
Worcester Business Journal
172 Shrewsbury Street, Worcester, MA 01604
508-755-8004 tel.
• 508-755-8860 fax
www.wbjournal.com
Worcester Business Journal
WBJ
T
his past week marked some-
thing of a pandemic milestone
at Worcester Business Journal:
We had our first in-office,
in-person staff meeting since
February 2020.
As an office 100% vaccinated against
the coronavirus, the switch back to seeing
each other maskless around 172 Shrews-
bury St. was only a matter of time. It was
nice to be back among people again, and
the energy of an interactive, in-person
newsroom is hard to replicate remotely.
Yet, this was hardly a return to a
pre-pandemic workplace, if such a thing
could ever exist again. Since the early
summer of 2020, I've been going into the
WBJ office at least part-time. Now, I'm up
to five days a week, but I'm still only phys-
ically there for about five hours before I
head to pick up my daughter from school
and finish my workday at my home office.
Likewise, nearly all WBJ staffers have long
settled into a hybrid or entirely remote
worklife; while some in-person collabo-
ration is lost in this balance, the remote
work brings its own efficiencies and fewer
in-office distractions.
As a manager and the editor of WBJ,
I would like to rekindle that magic lost
when we switched away from in-person
interactions to communication via email,
text, and Google Meet. Still, it's difficult
to tell employees they must switch back
to default coming into the office when the
home office offers such advantages and is
something I readily take advantage of my-
self. Even moreso, the idea of in-person
interactions being the only way to capture
the best collaboration is probably a fallacy.
Yes, our pandemic interactions were all
basically via text (or the dreaded phone
call), but we ended up being connected in
a way we had never been before.
is is a long, long way of saying the
move away from the pandemic-forced
lifestyle is going to be a messy one. As
articles in this edition point out, colleges
are returning to full in-person instruction
with the fall semester but are dealing with
students who need extra instruction and
help with their mental health (page 12);
and Worcester restaurants are pushing for
the temporary outdoor dining program to
become permanent, which will come with
its own headaches (page 8).
I N T H I S I S S U E
Much like the start of the pandemic,
where we were all feeling our way through
the dark with limited information and
experience, this phase near the end of the
pandemic requires a lot of trial-by-error
and informed guessing, too.
– Brad Kane, editor
Feeling our way through the dark
N E W S & A N A LY S I S
4 Central Mass. In Brief
14 Focus on Architecture & Construction
16 The List: Top architectural firms
17 Guest column: Worcester's
architecture
18 The List: Top commercial contractors
19 Know How
20 Movers & Shakers
20 Photo Finish
21 Opinion
22 Shop Talk: Dress for Success
Worcester
10 The global dean
WPI's effort to take its project-based
learning model to the global stage will get
an added boost with the arrival of a new
dean.
19 A virtual acquisition
Know How advice columnist Joseph Kask
details the lessons learned during Worcester
consulting firm blumshapiro's acquisition by
CLA, which was done entirely remotely.
D E P A R T M E N T S
A division of:
Member FDIC
For more information, contact:
Peter Staiti, First Vice President
Commercial Lending Center Manager
508.957.1108
Peter.Staiti@RocklandTrust.com
RocklandTrust.com/Worcester
A relationship your
business can rely on.
Now with three branches across the greater
Worcester area, and a dedicated commercial lending
center – our team is ready to support your business.
193 BOSTON
TURNPIKE
SHREWSBURY
967
GRAFTON ST
WORCESTER
301
GROVE ST
WORCESTER
100
FRONT ST
WORCESTER
W
CORRECTION: The June 7 advice column "How to counter
the Shecession" in the Know How section incorrectly listed
Bowditch & Dewey attorney Chelsie Vokes as the sole author.
Partner AiVi Nguyen co-wrote the column with Vokes.
