Been talking to many clients this week with bosses who aren't quite getting it yet about COVID-19. While I'm convinced they will get it soon, it's really not time to be dilly-dallying around the social distancing rules. People can be infected for up to 12 days (and contagious) before showing symptoms. In this post, I'll share a little rant I wrote on Facebook last night, as well as an article I found tonight that said something similar. First, the rant:
Honestly, if your employer is making you go get a positive test before you get to stay home, pardon me, but screw ‘em. If you have symptoms, you are saving your entire company the hassle of 100% employee quarantine for two weeks. We can not wait for every employer to move from denial to acceptance right now. Be the voice of reason in your office. Think of it as conscientious objection. No means no. Flattening the curve in the US is far more important than any single project at your job. The bosses are slow to react, and I really really get it. It’s going to be money lost. But if you are a boss, sort out your personal baggage about this while working from home and trust that this tsunami is coming. To do otherwise is actually the worst choice right now. Don’t be the underreactor who sent someone into the battle, then sent them home to their partner, their housemates, their grandmother. You will regret it.
And now the excerpt from How to Plague from Buzzfeed:
Our company is now officially working from home. However, in my department, they are going to require a few of us to get together for a meeting somewhere offsite tomorrow. Do I just go? Do I protest? I’m not sick, but we know people who are asymptomatic can spread this disease. I know some people have no choice for work, so do I just suck it up and submit to this?
Your boss is 100% wrong. You should not be getting together to work offsite if you have the ability to work remotely. The issue, of course, is how to protest without seeming like a shitty employee who just wants to goof off all day in pajamas.
My advice is to leverage a time-tested tactic for establishing workers’ rights: strength in numbers. Start by discreetly asking your other team members how they’re feeling about your boss’s plan. You’ll probably find that a lot of your colleagues feel the same: They are worried about it but don’t want to be the only one to complain.
Use this leverage to tell your boss as a group that you don’t feel comfortable.
Maybe your boss is a coldhearted jerk, but I’ll hold out hope that they’re just unaware of the risks of gathering at this point in time. The situation is changing really fast. I mean, Jared Leto just found out about this whole thing on Monday! Send your boss an email with links to news articles like this and this to help make your point, and say that the team has raised concerns about their own health and that of their families.
Your case will be a lot stronger, though, if instead of just saying no, you offer some viable alternatives. How about a Zoom video chat meeting, or even something like a team-building exercise where everyone video chats during their lunchtime? Hey, if we’re all living in a dystopian timeline, might as well go for it with a whimsical background on Zoom.
Honestly, if your employer is making you go get a positive test before you get to stay home, pardon me, but screw ‘em. If you have symptoms, you are saving your entire company the hassle of 100% employee quarantine for two weeks. We can not wait for every employer to move from denial to acceptance right now. Be the voice of reason in your office. Think of it as conscientious objection. No means no. Flattening the curve in the US is far more important than any single project at your job. The bosses are slow to react, and I really really get it. It’s going to be money lost. But if you are a boss, sort out your personal baggage about this while working from home and trust that this tsunami is coming. To do otherwise is actually the worst choice right now. Don’t be the underreactor who sent someone into the battle, then sent them home to their partner, their housemates, their grandmother. You will regret it.
And now the excerpt from How to Plague from Buzzfeed:
Our company is now officially working from home. However, in my department, they are going to require a few of us to get together for a meeting somewhere offsite tomorrow. Do I just go? Do I protest? I’m not sick, but we know people who are asymptomatic can spread this disease. I know some people have no choice for work, so do I just suck it up and submit to this?
Your boss is 100% wrong. You should not be getting together to work offsite if you have the ability to work remotely. The issue, of course, is how to protest without seeming like a shitty employee who just wants to goof off all day in pajamas.
My advice is to leverage a time-tested tactic for establishing workers’ rights: strength in numbers. Start by discreetly asking your other team members how they’re feeling about your boss’s plan. You’ll probably find that a lot of your colleagues feel the same: They are worried about it but don’t want to be the only one to complain.
Use this leverage to tell your boss as a group that you don’t feel comfortable.
Maybe your boss is a coldhearted jerk, but I’ll hold out hope that they’re just unaware of the risks of gathering at this point in time. The situation is changing really fast. I mean, Jared Leto just found out about this whole thing on Monday! Send your boss an email with links to news articles like this and this to help make your point, and say that the team has raised concerns about their own health and that of their families.
Your case will be a lot stronger, though, if instead of just saying no, you offer some viable alternatives. How about a Zoom video chat meeting, or even something like a team-building exercise where everyone video chats during their lunchtime? Hey, if we’re all living in a dystopian timeline, might as well go for it with a whimsical background on Zoom.
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