Rebecca has been busy since the COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down. As an experienced HR manager, she thought she’d seen and heard it all but recent events are providing new frontiers to fascinate a student of human behavior.
Zoom meetings are an excellent lab for studying humans. Debbie’s co-workers have doubled down on hating her for taking over meetings with rambling updates and for her clothes. Who the heck puts on a professional suit for a video meeting when there’s not a customer in sight?
Dark rumblings are bubbling up to Rebecca’s ear about brown-nose Debbie trying to make the rest of the team look bad.
Mike and Emmy, who Rebecca privately calls the Evil Twins because they work together when causing trouble, are again complaining that Alice is a rotten manager who is taking all the joy out of working from home. Rebecca suppresses her overwhelming urge to tune them out as white noise. When you’re the HR manager, you have to listen to all the whining because there may be an actual violation of the law buried in there somewhere.
Worse, since the work-from-home initiative began, the company has split into two factions. Lower paid employees visibly sour as higher income employees casually chatter about their on-line buying habits and the difficulties of doing business while the cleaning lady is running the vacuum. Rebecca’s bracing for a corporate version of Les Miserables if the higher paid employees ignore her hints about empathy.
Mack, the company owner, recently asked Rebecca to redesign the office space so that the staff can return. Mack is struggling to renegotiate the contract of a key vendor. He thinks the negotiations would be easier if he could yell across the hallway of the office when he needs help instead of wasting time sending emails and attending Zoom meetings.
When rumors leaked of a possible return to the office, several employees offered Rebecca bribes to think of clever reasons why returning to the office is “bad”. For parents, there are obvious childcare challenges with the school year beginning on-line 
only. But Rebecca has also noticed that productivity is up since everyone went home. Even micro-manager Ron’s subordinates have settled into a level of contentment leaving Rebecca free to deal with the Evil Twins.
How should Rebecca advise Mack on requiring employees to return to the office?
- She can point out that during a Zoom meeting Mack can turn off the video allowing him to do other work during the boring bits of the meeting.
- She can show him the stats that employees are happier and more productive working from home.
- She can hint that parents will bring their children to work until schools reopen for in-person teaching.
Government guidelines on safely reopening are just one aspect of the myriad issues a company should consider before calling employees back to the office.
If your company is struggling, Corporate Compliance Risk Advisor can help you create HR policies that are appropriate for your company’s size and then serve as a resource as the policies are implemented.
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Back in the 1980’s Huey Lewis sang about wanting a new drug. Small business owners want a new plan for coping with the pandemic. Instead of slowly re-opening, they are facing a new partial lockdown as covid-19 infection rates increase again.
Whatever the final decision, it will be hard on everyone. No one likes layoffs or terminations, but the company has to be able to survive so that it can provide a living to those still employed. If the final decision is to reduce the workforce permanently, I’d like to suggest an approach that is not required by any employment law. 
If your company has questions about how to deal with employment issues related to covid-19, Corporate Compliance Risk Advisor can help. Whether it means answering HR questions, revising policies, or being a sounding board for ideas on getting through the pandemic, we’re here as a resource for your team.
We’re going through economic carnage due to the closures required to slow the COVID-19 infection rate. Unfortunately, many small businesses were financially unable to survive the shutdown. More businesses will close when customers fail to return either because they are too afraid of risking infection or because they have changed how they buy things.
Whatever the reason, unemployed workers should step up their job searches now because competition will heat up quickly. At the end of July, unemployed workers receiving unemployment are scheduled to lose the federally funded $600 top-up of unemployment benefits. That top-up has allowed some lower income workers to make more money from unemployment than they did in their old low-paying jobs. When the extra money goes away, unemployed workers will need to look for jobs.
Becky is actually looking forward to getting back to the office now that the Covid-19 lockdown has eased. If she reads one more e-book downloaded from the public library or binge watches one more show on Netflix, her head may explode. Whatever lurks at the office doesn’t seem as dreadful as continuing to stay at home.
So this morning, Becky awoke to the alarm for the first time in two months. Then she had to dig an old pair of stretchy slacks out of the bag destined for Goodwill donations. Who knew that reading books and binge watching TV could be so detrimental to the waistline? A quick look in the mirror revealed limp hair with dark roots. She briefly cursed the government men who thought gun shops were an essential service, but not hair salons. What kind of idiot believes that, she wondered as she wrapped her hair in a scarf and grabbed a homemade mask on her way out the door? 
A quick check of the bathrooms showed they were well-stocked with toilet paper, soap and hand sanitizers, and paper towels. 
If your company has questions about bringing staff back to the office, Corporate Compliance Risk Advisor can help. Whether it means reassuring employees that it is safe to return or revising policies to allow continued telecommuting, we’re here as a resource for your staff.
At the moment, the covid-19 crisis rages on. Almost every day there is a new directive telling us to stay at home or extending the length of time to remain at home, but the covid-19 pandemic will eventually recede and a new normal will be established. 
In the 1990’s, Zurich Financial Services (ZFS) decided to buy an insurance company based in the U.K. During the due diligence phase of the acquisition, the IT staff noted that the English and Swiss companies used very different computer technology. In plain terms, the two IT systems couldn’t “talk” to each other. For a variety of reasons, the business leaders plowed ahead anyway, apparently expecting IT to overcome the programming issues by the date of the merger.
I’ve worked from a home office for years and enjoyed it.
If your company is struggling with all the changes required by our rather scary new world, Corporate Compliance Risk Advisor can help you adapt your HR policies for telecommuting workers and continuing work during a disaster. We will be a resource for your staff as the policies are implemented.
A new week has brought fresh hysteria. This morning Reba dashed through the office announcing that Rick had the coronavirus.
He yelled at Caroline to stop being a baby. Then he demanded to know what the heck had happened. The answer left him apoplectic.
Covid-19 is a serious public health threat, but hysteria is the enemy of common sense.
Brittney is finding her first job since leaving college to be scarier than she expected. The company has been in perpetual chaos as the senior management team feuds. Her supervisor, Christy, says the feud started when Weldon got a promotion that should have gone to Randy. Christy calls Weldon a weasel and encourages her subordinates to push back against any requests from his staff.
As senior managers whiz out the door to be replaced by Tom’s family and friends, no one feels safe. Brittney watches as Christy is effectively demoted despite her sycophantic support for Tom. Christy is still a senior manager but all her decisions must be approved by Tom’s daughter, the new VP.
Shelly owns a small company that is growing rapidly. She’s hired four new employees in the past year, including Anna and Zach.
Unfortunately, what worked back then isn’t working now.
Different skill sets are needed at different times in the development of a company.
Helen sat in her boss’ office stoically waiting for him to wind down from his latest temper tantrum.
She has been trying to fix employee morale. Her first suggestion, a tuition reimbursement plan, caused Henry to erupt like a Yellowstone geyser.
That’s how it’s gone for six months.
HR Compliance Jungle 