by Jeannette E. Garcia – Reporter for
SAN ANTONIO, May 27, 2020 – CEO of CNF Technologies Corp. looks forward to soon opening the company’s phase two expansion of its office at Port San Antonio’s Project Tech 1 building. Her final construction walk-through was this month, and furniture has been delivered.
Before Covid-19 the space adjacent to this new area, which is about half of one of four offices the company has in San Antonio and Maryland, would be filled with its employees. Since March 19, all of the company’s employees are working from home, something that wasn’t considered by company leadership until early that week as most of its work is with the federal government, which was operating as normal, Ramirez said.
Due to the nature of its business, CNF Technologies has an undisclosed number of employees within Defense Department installations working as normal within their respective posts. All are following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mandated measures, which includes wearing masks, social distancing and getting temperatures checked regularly.
The company started 15 years ago and has grown from one employee, its founder — and Roxanne’s husband — Fred Ramirez, to 150 employees. She expects to further grow as the company continues to garner federal security contracts. As previously reported by the Business Journal, CNF was selected last year as one of five nationwide for the Air Force’s $950 million research laboratory agile cyber technology 2 contract, and it is competing for further contracts that could potentially add an additional 25 people between Colorado and San Diego.
CNF rents its offices, except for its headquarters at 9415 Dugas Drive, which the Ramirezes own. While the company is stable, its leaders worry about potential cuts to the defense budget, and those worries will not go away until the new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1. Ramirez worries have extended to her employees during the pandemic, many of whom have worked with the company since nearly its inception. She has been calling each of them regularly to see how they are getting along.
“I worry about the stress the employees are going through (during this COVID-19 pandemic) while balancing working from home, … and as CEO, I am reaching out to each of them individually. Talking to them one-on-one lets me know how they are really doing. While it’s hard to find time for me to do it sometimes, it’s something that I need to do,” she said.
While the company is evaluating the feasibility of returning to its offices by July 1, Roxanne Ramirez recognizes that flexibility will be needed moving forward. “We’re lucky that our customers have been understanding and flexible,” she said. “When we return, more than likely we will give a certain time for people to do a hybrid of working from home and coming into the office.”