Handling Coronavirus Employee Situations | Coronavirus Update April 7

Follow the guidelines provided by the CDC

related to self-isolation of any individual experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or that has tested positive for the virus. The CDC recommends waiving the requirement of a doctor’s note during a crisis since it’s more difficult to access a health care provider. 

Regulations within the

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

restrict employers from sharing health information with other employees. You can tell your team that there has been a potential exposure without singling out any one individual.

Asking directly about a specific illness can lead to a

disability-related inquiry through the ADA

. It’s better to ask general questions about your employees’ health and whether they’re experiencing specific symptoms.

You can also

take your team’s temperature

during this crisis to help prevent the risk of exposure as long as you keep any findings confidential.

The

CDC recommends

that anyone who has had potential exposure to the coronavirus should self-quarantine. At this point, you can require an employee to stay home.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) extends FMLA leave to anyone who cannot work if their child’s school or childcare service is closed due to COVID-19. FMLA will also likely extend to anyone who has contracted the coronavirus. The Families First Act also requires small businesses to offer two weeks of paid sick leave for anyone in quarantine related to COVID-19.  Learn more about how the Families First Act affects small businesses.

We are running a skeleton crew right now. One guy doesn’t want to work for fear of anything surrounding the virus, one office staff who is staying home with her daughter, my dad is 58 and I told him to stop, and a fourth just had a baby and is out. 

Working harder, more efficiently and just sucking it up. 

Typically we run 3-4 calls per person per day and take our time but now people don’t want us in their homes any longer than we have to be so we are rushing more and running more calls per day per person.

From the administrative side of things not much has changes except every so often you have a kid screaming in the background but customers understand and appreciate that we are doing our part to take care of our employees and them

Biggest challenge has come from her no longer being able to run parts to us when we need them while on a job but the rest of the team has been stepping up and taking it on

First and foremost knowing that this will end, but recognizing that it could change behavior for ever.

Don’t let the fear surrounding this drive every decision you make

We follow Dave Ramsey’s principles and don’t owe anybody anything and save up to 6 months of expenses becuase life happens and the economy will contract again in the future and you have to be prepared

This is the time that exposes broken pieces in companies

But let's take a company that has a 10% net profit. That means for every $100 you generating revenue, $10 goes in the bank. Correct. [inaudible] so another way you could think about that is for every $10 you save, that's $100 you don't have to generate in revenue. 

It's really powerful to think of it in reverse cause people don't always equate it that way. As easy as it is to spend, you can save too.

Seven steps; save $1,000 in a starter emergency fund, pay off all debt besides for the house using the debt snowball, save 3-6 months living expenses, invest 50% of your household income into retirement/child’s college fund, pay off your home early, build wealth, and give

The new families first act does say that employees, no matter how long they've been with you get two weeks of paid sick leave for COVID-19 related illnesses. So if you have symptoms and you're exploring whether or not this is COVID-19, then that would count, but once you know its a regular  cold or you have twisted your ankle or whatever it is, that's not COVID-19 related. So that's not part of the family's first act. So you should treat people like you've been treating them with regards to attendance and certainly honesty, that's a whole other thing. You don't have to keep dishonest people on payroll. Now that being said, I mean if someone's really ill and they're confused and ill, I mean be empathetic. 

No, the PPP is looking at your total payroll costs, not which social security numbers were on your payroll. So they're not saying that I have to keep Roland and Alexa, they're just saying I have to keep my payroll the same. So PPP wants you to employ people, they're not concerned about which person. So, you can still discipline people, you can still terminate people. You can then hire someone else and that will increase your payroll. There is nothing written that you would lose ability to have the loan forgiven if you let someone go or fire them.The key is to maintain your payroll costs. So if you normally spend $5,000 a week, you have to keep spending $5,000 a week on payroll. 

Mel: I would offer the employee an unpaid leave of absence which would maintain them as my employee. I would then also encourage them to apply for unemployment because of not working any hours and that they would just state honestly that although work is available due to my family situation and the current pandemic, I am, you know, uncomfortable accepting work at this time. It sort of becomes more like a temporary layoff or you know what might be called a furlough where you're just not scheduling them any hours, but you are maintaining them as, as your employee and they, they should be able to qualify for unemployment. 

If you offer benefits to your employees, your benefit provider may at this time be extending benefits to people who aren't actively clocking hours but still remain your employee. Even up to not working at all. I know our benefits provider, normally you have to work 30 hours to receive benefits that have made at least through May 31st and exception to that, that even if someone's hours were reduced to zero, we would still be able to keep them on our medical plan, which is not the normal situation. So, there could be some good reasons to way just an unpaid leave as opposed to laying them off. 

It sounds like you are doing the right thing to provide the resources that are available, especially if it's no contact with any people that is according to OSHA, is a very low risk occupation at this time. But my recommendation and my answer was to lean in and ask the questions, you know, find out what's going on. It might be that they're feeling like, Hey, maybe this isn't an essential service right now and I don't even wanna leave my house if I don't have to, if it's not essential or maybe they've got three other things that they wish they had that are available that you didn't realize that you could help them with. Have them be part of the solution, usually the people closest to the problem have the best solution. So talk to your team.Ultimately they're the ones that are going to feel comfortable, uncomfortable, regardless of what you either provide them with or not. So let them be the barometer when it comes to that. 

You want to know where to find them? Supply houses. Everyone's talking about who's laying off. They're everywhere. It's yours for the picking. If you want to find out, just go to a local distributor. Ask them, Hey, what have you heard? They know what's going on. They know who's struggling, who's not, who's laying off and who's hiring

Now is a good time to reach out to a tech that was working for your competitor, their GM or maybe their ops manager or someone that you've always had your eye on and say, Hey, what's, what's going on? How are things with you and your family? Just so you know, I've, I've got a lot of work. If you were open to it, I'd be happy to have you. These are good times to reach out and in a very innocent way just ask them.