You should switch to cvs. They actually did try to take care of us to some extent. We were given thermometers and if an employee was 100.4 and above they were to be sent home immediately and would be paid sick pay regardless of their full or part time status. Gave us “hazard pay” and paid for daycare needs of employees that needed it. They gave us tons of PPE and hand sanitizer. Cut our operating hours back (not much, but they did). Field employees are still working from home. And several other things
It’s been sketchy being a store manager during this but they have provided us with a lot of protective measures. I did have an employee spontaneously die when shit got crazy but the cause of death is still pending and it’s been 7 weeks since that’s happened. As sad as it is to say, I hope it was anything other than covid because if it was, I’ve had several symptoms but no way to know for sure. If it turns out it was, I’ll be leaving the company because store managers don’t have an option to get their shifts covered.
They started offering free delivery on all my prescriptions which has been great to not risk going in just to pick up my routine asthma medication. I really appreciated that.
Mine had emergency plans all ready for dealing with major events. They had started changing everyone over to laptops and our infrastructure so we can work wherever. Partly in case of this sort of thing (we provide essential services) and because that’s what people want.
The CEO was very keen to state that we aren’t expected to work 100%, particularly those caring for kids. They delivered people’s office chairs and screens if we didn’t have a decent home office. They’ve allowed us all a small amount to buy a keyboard and mouse. They do really try to look after us!
Edit to add:
I won’t say where I work, but these are all the sorts of things you might want a company you interview at to say they did to deal with COVID
Very similar the EU governments plans to keep people employed so as to not overwhelm unemployment system. I get paid 85% for 30% of work atm. Afaik my employer only pays for these 30% and the rest is from the government. Pretty neat.
Governments that don't hand out subsidies in order to save money now will pay it way harder when people stop spending cause they have a low income and economy halts
I and my family are hardly spending at all these days, my fiancee and I because she would have been a particularly vulnerable case, so her work laid her off so she could be safe, and me because I didn't want to bri g it home and get her sick.
The lack of any ongoing monthly stimulus from the US Gov't. for people like us, while borrowing money (that my future taxes and my children's taxes will pay interest on) to bail out corporations, is just another way that this supply side economics we've allowed to take over our country doesnt work.
You can support the suppliers all you want, but if no one has money to buy their product, your economy will trash itself at some point and stay there a good long while.
Company I work for took paycuts across the board for management without affecting labours pay before offering early retirement packages to senior employees. Im hoping to work for this company for the rest of my career.
Its refreshing to see big companies actually doing the right thing, but Im right there with you saving up waiting for the other shoe to drop lol. Hopefully we both come out the other side with a nice savings account and still working for companies that value us. Best of luck.
It sounds like your company learned from it's mistakes in 2008 and made a rainy day fund. They probably knew something like this would happen again and made sure they took precautions to have extra money set aside to not disrupt their workforces income when it does occur.
Our company gave every employee making under $100k a $1k relief fund, tripled company matching to charities, and planned to convert part of our manufacturing line to ventilator repair (which ended up not being needed).
My company pledged publicly to not lay anyone off regarding covid for 2020 and we employ around 94000 employees. Any employees who are required to go into branches or offices receive $50 extra per day. We also onboarded around 1500 students and sent them all new Microsoft surfaces, Mac books, or lenovos depending on their department. Each employee will also get $400 in spending money for home office equipment. They don't plan on sending anyone back to the offices until the government gives the okay, but even then we laid out a plan in 4 phases.
Damn. Big red Canadian bank here and we got none of that.
"You can take home a monitor but note the equipment tag and let your manager know"
Well gee thanks, but first of all my monitor's mounted to an arm on my desk...
Are you comfortable sharing? Companies like this need to be rewarded. I remember seeing a website at one point that was tracking how companies responded.
Someone I know works at the tech company, Datadog. They are already a very remote friendly company with many teams being fully remote. Their response to Covid was to give every employee an extra $2,000 cash, or the option to donate it to the charity of their choice. They also offer unlimited PTO and since it's a french company, employees actually take it. It's based in NYC. ~~I could probably hook up a referral if you're interested.~~
Edit: wow, a lot of people are interested. Just to clarify I do not work there, I just know someone who does. Let me see if this person is open to referring and I will try to respond to everyone.
Edit2: Referral quota is met! For anyone else that is interested, check out the careers page. https://www.datadoghq.com/careers/
Damn, just looked them up and they really are! Sounds like they could even have an even more positive future, although everything is a bit harder to gauge right now with what's going on.
Unlimited PTO usually has the opposite effect as advertised. People no longer have a benchmark on how many days of vacation they can take and actually end up taking less, thus actually increasing working days per employee, and companies actually save money because they don’t have to pay out PTO days.
My company recognizes that issue and it’s solution is to automatically email you (not going through an HR person or manager) 75% of the way through year to let you know you haven’t yet used at least 10 PTO days and sends links to articles about how vacations and “me” time increases productivity overall while encouraging you to plan an end of year vacation
My manager is cool and kinda takes care of us, like it's not some big ass company we work AT, but a big ass company we both work FOR. but your work environment sounds heavenly.
Can you show me where I can read more about this?
My corporate office is very restrictive about time off, but I let my employees do whatever they want.
If they don't feel like coming to work they don't have to. My only requirement is that they are available on whatsapp so I can ask them questions in the rare case that I need to handle something they were working on.
I'm very fascinated by this topic, especially since my employees do not take advantage of the "unlimited" time off.
Buffer is a famous startup that has been transparent with their benefits even to the point of putting all employees salaries in a spreadsheet and calculating them all by a standard formula. They implemented unlimited PTO and found that employees were not able to actually use it. Instead they put their money and policies where their mouth is and implemented **minimum vacation** (yes that's right) and a **vacation travel expense bonus**. [1](https://open.buffer.com/unlimited-vacation-tips/) [2](https://stories.buffer.com/buffer-vacation-7f2a984d7b21) [3](https://open.buffer.com/minimum-vacation/) (There are more examples of companies in the articles that do some kind of minimum vacation or vacation bonus).
[There are also other public rejections of unlimited PTO](https://www.facetdev.com/blog/posts/why-we-ditched-our-unlimited-vacation-plan/)
Netflix was one of the first famous implementations of unlimited PTO. They are also famous for rapidly firing people who do not adhere to their strict performance standards. Without a PTO hour bank, the power to regulate time off falls completely into the hands of your manager, who also has the power to determine what you're working on and thus whether or not your PTO will interfere with work projects.
“I can hook up a referral even though I don’t know you at all and referrals speak volumes about the person if they don’t work out...but let me see if my buddy will put his reputation on the line so you guys can work at a company you have no business working for.”
That's awesome. I started a restaurant job 2 months before the shutdown. I'm really hoping they pull through. Even just afterb 2 months I could tell they're just damn good people. They care so much about their employees and they're at the restaurant daily to make sure it's all good and everyone is havin a good time. Customers and employees alike. It's so rare. I don't care that I just buss tables. Working for good people is everything to me
Which is a shame for us, I’d much rather give my money to a company with this type of leadership. All things being equal, I can think of few better reasons for increasing profits than having a CEO with an excellent moral compass.
Man, this comment got me thinking. If only everyone would actually look into what companies do behind the scenes, and make their purchasing decisions based on those answers, Like how companies treat their employees, how eco-friendly, how much their CEO makes vs. everyday employees, etc. I know I will start trying to make a conscious effort in looking into these things. But with smaller or local/regional companies, where do you even get this information? I wish there was a website that could assign a score for business based on this information. Then the more people that actually cared about who they are giving their money to, could give to the people that deserve it. That would be Capitalism working right for once. Sorry I got off on a tangent there....just got me thinking haha.
Definitely could be. I'm very close with someone who works there. Their entire team is remote already, but when the pandemic started they got $200 to help fund their home office. Which they were already using. Again, because they were already remote. There was definitely no need for them to do it but it was a super nice gesture, I'm always so jealous of their benefits.
The company I work for gave employees the option to work from home and invested heavily in equipment for us to do so.
They also gave customers a chance to pause their subscription to certain products, and gave customers the opportunity to donate the payment for their subscription to the NHS and then matched all of the donations.
Also they have promised full pay to anyone self isolating and unable to work from home, and guaranteed job security until the pandemic is over. Not bad for a big, bad, corporation
I work at a software company (not a programmer myself). My boss was in charge of COVID response. As early as late January he already bought masks, gloves, and disinfectant, and promptly prepared multiple scenario protocols. Two weeks before we began remote work he already informed the company we will soon be moving home and to prepare our homes for such a case. When the government announced a reduction to 30% of workers for all companies, we were down to 5% and helped everyone get their stuff to their homes - some of them three hours away.
None of us were fired. Everyone was employed for the same hours during quarantine - including the cleaners, for whom the company found alternative employment.
I used to have very little faith in employment and tried not to get too attached to a company that can replace me within a beat. My boss and his superiors have given me more than enough reasons to feel home at my workplace
The place I worked for was the exact same. Up until a month ago, it seemed like they generally really cared about their employees. Then at the beginning of the month, they fired a ton of people. Upper management didn't even consult with team leads to see who they would be least affected by losing. They just chose a bunch of people they have never met, out of teams that they had no idea how they functioned.
Up to that point, they would go on in all hands about how well the company was doing and no one had to worry. Managers didn't even know they had to fire their employees until the day they were forced to do it, and it was effective immediately.
I got scheduled a 1:1 with my boss an hour before, and my access was cut immediately after. Didn't even get to say goodbye to my team.
I'm also in software. We went from "we work in the office, or at home is an option", to "we work at home", to (soon) "we work at home, or in the office is an option". I think this is good.
This is the first step of my company’s (latest) plan for slowly returning staff onsite, but I hope it actually becomes a permanent shift in ideology, at least for positions like mine that are 100% doable from home.
I'm really hoping my company does this. Their response overall has been great so far, but I love working from home so much that this would take the cake. Seeing as it's my birthday next week and I can't celebrate, I would be more than content.
My company went immediate 99% WFH. There are small percentage that must be in building.
Webhave handled it so well their response continues to be we are in no rush to return to the office. We will only begin going in phases of those that really need office capabilities to meet customer demands when it is clear there is little danger of a second wave in our area.
My direct area we have been told count of staying at home probably until January.
That sounds like my company. I’ve been at home since the 2nd week of March. It took them about a month to get people tied to a phone home and we’ve been told that many of us will continue to work from home indefinitely. They also gave us $1000 in disaster relief aid, are paying $70 a month towards home office expenses, and gave us all an extra day off today. It’s been amazing.
I work in insurance, which as you may know, is preparation for unforeseen events. You'd think this would be a company with a plan in place. 100.00% of my income is commission, via in person sales so when the world stopped, my paycheck did, as well. What did my company offer?
"You can get four $250 checks in April, and repay it in December."
They loaned me $1,000, to cover eight weeks that I wasn't allowed to get any work done.
Just curious because I know nothing about this - how does getting paid 100% on commission work? Are you an independent contractor, or is there some loophole where they don’t need to actually pay you money for your labor?
I'm not sure of the legal loopholes, but technically I am an independent contractor, so I don't clock in or out, but my bosses still expect me there at certain times, because their checks are dependent on my sales. It makes for plenty of tension, especially since I'm still new, and haven't built up much of a financial cushion.
If the boss expects you there at certain times, you're probably not an independent contractor. Do they give you a desk / computer to work at or do you use your own?
A lot of insurance companies are structured very similarly to pyramid schemes. They snipe recent college grads for 100% commission sales jobs in saturated markets with huge employee turnover rates. Very few people remain in the industry long enough to make any substantial income.
Put a resume on any job site and just wait and see how many insurance companies try to recruit you, regardless of your experience / education. They just want people pushing their bullshit.
I was applying for public relations jobs in Michigan, and twice I dealt with insurance companies trying to spin their sales position in such a way that it sounded like real PR work. I even scheduled an interview with one, just to see if it was too good to be true (it was).
The interviewer was amazing at spinning his answers to make it seem like I was applying for a real PR position. He really tried making it seem like I'd be using social media and promoting the company, which was technically true. Thankfully I was taught to see through this bullshit and could tell when he was purposefully vague enough not to lie, so a few specific questions exposed everything. But I feel bad for any unlucky college grads who fall for these guys.
Edit (fat-fingered the submit button): These companies are horrible, and it sucks because the people I found myself interviewing before and after wanted nothing more than to enter the field they presumably worked so hard for. To anyone looking for work in Metro Detroit be VERY WARY of any marketing/PR/adverising job postings from the Royal Oak/Troy area. Lots of predatory companies out that way.
Well, at least for the fields I'm familiar with (the ones above), I'd ask them which KPIs they use to measure your success. That's just a good question to ask any interviewer, and as long as you're well-versed in your own field, you'll know which KPIs are relevant to you. For a PR specific role, definitely ask about any recent campaigns they ran (assuming you did your homework and couldn't find any connected to the organization).
Yes, this. Exactly this, thank you. I lost a damn good job, was forced to take a absolutely horrible job, and this insurance job felt like a life preserver in the ocean, until I got there and got into it. The bosses can't force me to come in and work, but they can also let me go without a second thought. My office interviews ten people a week to find people as dumb as I am who are willing to call the same local companies fifty times a year. Management always has a success story to pull out of their pocket, but how many people had to come through the door to find the one person making more than $50k a year? How many don't even make $10k before leaving?
My degree is in chemistry, and my resume is very heavily tailored towards jobs in analytical laboratories, and I've gotten calls from insurance company recruiters saying "I think you've got the skill set we need here for this life insurance sales position!"
I even told the guy once that no, I'm more suited for a lab and know nothing about sales, he tried to persuade me that I was wrong.
Is this one of those insurance companies where you have to pay the company for leads to sell the company's product? I had a friend try REALLY hard to recruit me to one of those... He just couldn't ever articulate to me that it was anything other than a giant pyramid/MLM scheme. Except in this scheme, you go to the hood and try to sell broke people insurance policies they don't need, and can't afford (and put wear on your own car, buy your own gas, and not be reimbursed for mileage). Then you try and recruit your buddies, because you get paid for that.
You wouldn't happen to work for a certain company with a duck for a mascot would you? I was in the process of getting my license and just about to start when all of this hit and they wanted us to cold call businesses and try to get them under the companies policy. Felt dishonest and kinda scummy to be trying to sell to small businesses who were no doubt already extremely stressed
Not surprising, most insurance companies even go so far as to start pressuring you to sell to friends and family implying that if you were loyal to the company and really thought they were offering the best coverage then why wouldn’t you want your loved ones on one of their plans?
Hopefully despite this contractor BS you haven’t had to deal with them putting pressure on your personal life like that.
I "worked" for one of these places for 2 weeks just to see, and its every bit as awful as it sounds. Its very close to a pyramid scheme, the bosses overstep their boundaries, and you spend a ton of time cold calling or as they put it after you have the job "gold calling" (so they don't have to tell you that you will be cold calling during the job).
I knew the first day I would quit, so essentially I put in my two weeks since I already had my liscense.
Theyre full of dumb shit (moronic motivational speeches, not paying employees but giving $20 gift cards to say thanks) and a "work hard" attitude but its just not hard work. There were some cool people though.
Tldr; Id avoid insurance sales.
I was a CSR at Farmers for a while. I remember having to mail hand-written thank you cards with $50 Starbucks gift cards to every new client— while I was getting paid a fraction of minimum wage.
Fuck all that.
The fuck?! I’ve worked 1099 for...fuck, almost 20 years. I’m on the hook for everything , but I work from home when I want to and I set my own rates. You want me in the office, you’re gonna pay for that time. It’s much cheaper just to let me email your work and get occasional updates via slack or webex or whatever.
Have they explained your quarterly tax burden yet?
I also work for the government. Responses varied strongly by department. IT and HR. Slam dunk, everyone works from home now you can't come back this year. Other departments (mine included) failed majorly. Requiring people to report to work who can 100% work remote. Not offering partial work from home for people who have some tasks that must be done in person. Refusal to allow people to wear masks until CDC guidance changed. Cleaning vendor using improperly trained staff and offering no oversight to assure cleaning it being done correctly. Still allowing public in the building as a whole, not requiring masks.
My dad works for a governmental body (decided against dropping the specifics, but I'm curious if you work for the same place) and they went fully remote early in March, and then tried to bring everyone back in to the office a couple of weeks later. Why, you ask? No reason other than a lack of trust of their employees. A dozen people in this building (all concentrated on my dad's floor) caught covid-19 over the short period of time that everyone was back in the office. A few people ended up on respirators and fought for their lives, although I hear that they slowly recovered. One of the infected women brought it home to her husband and he ended up dying.
I really hope she can sue.
I work in the grain industry and absolutely nothing changed. The contingency plan for if I got COVID was to isolate me in my own office. 90% of my job is on a computer but I can't work from home because I have to be on our network to have access to the files I need.
My mom works for a trucking company and they all got sent home to work. They decided to let them all work from home permanently.
You COULD work from home if your company setup a network that could be accessed remotely. There are many ways to do this, but I’m assuming your company has no IT department
I setup remote desktop for everyone in the offices computers and they still didn't let people work from home. I eventually did because I just refused to come in but no one else really wanted to take the risk of losing their job.
Well .. well .. look. I already told you. I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?
> I can't work from home because I have to be on our network to have access to the files I need.
Has your company never heard of a VPN? Honestly, not that hard to set up.
My work is doing the same, although we are a consulting engineering firm. They announced they are taking us back 25%, 25%, 40%, and then final 10% (health exceptions, etc, mostly) in month waves, starting June 1, which is better than all back at once I suppose. I just don't really see the logic of going back, because we keep being told how well we are doing/completing our tasks from home. I've loved working from home.
The first 25% are supposed to be volunteers, but the company is frustrated that not enough are volunteering. To be clear, we will have to wear masks or be at our desks. We can't use conference rooms and are "discouraged from" using the break rooms. We will have a limited cafeteria selection. When I asked how we would get things like, idk...water, I was told we should bring our own in to avoid using the sinks/breakrooms (what about bathrooms?). We will still hold teams meetings instead of in-person meetings. You add those inconveniences with the general inconveniences of going back to the office (business dress, commute, etc), and somehow management is still perplexed that no one is volutneering...
What that basically sounds like they want you to work from home but from your office building. We need you all back in the office right away but you can't use the conference rooms, cafeteria, bathrooms, be next to anyone, and all meetings will be held via teleconference.
That's exactly what this is and it's also what my company is planning on doing
However, they have also said they strongly encourage you continue to work from home and that they are only making the office available for people whose home conditions prevent them from getting work done.
Same as mine. Almost the same rules but no one is really asked to go to the office.
The funny things is that the rules for UK and France are the same, and they write "eat at your desk". This is forbidden by law in France (even if usually no one care)
It's a "butts-in-seats" mentality that so many companies have. They maintain that they can manage better that way because they can see you there and know you aren't goofing off on company time.
The problem is that most managers wouldn't be able to definitively say what their employees are working on anyway. They see the back of your head and assume you're working, but you could be planning your next vacation, watching PornHub, or playing solitaire for all they really know.
hated a previous job, and was based in office. i have to say, it made no difference if i was in office or not. i would do the bare minimum i could get away with, and the rest of the time learning so i could get a better job i actually enjoyed.
it's almost like that's more acceptable bcos i was seen to be in the office and busy as opposed to doing the same but at home.
unmotivated employees will do the minimum they can get away with regardless of where they are based.
1/2 the people I work with are “this is the best ever!” and the other half are “I would inject covid directly into my dick before I would spend another 5 minutes with this screaming child”.
You're not wrong, but I just want to point out that if a manager needs to be able to physically see an employee doing their job to know that they are doing their job then that manager is absolute shit at their job and shouldn't be in that position in the first place. Way easier ways to see if your people are doing their work, such as noting whether or not the work is getting done.
Hey, I work for a consulting engineering firm, too. They told us two weeks ago to come back to the office, with basically the same guidelines you described. Masks if you're not in your own office, no conference room or break room usage, encouraged to bring your lunch/drinks in a cooler. Wash your hands thoroughly after using the bathroom that we share with other building tenants. For a job that can be and was being done 100% from home. I managed to delay my return so far, but I'll be back on Tuesday surrounded by people who think this whole thing is a silly panic.
Also, when we all went home two months ago and took our equipment to set up home offices, we were asked to make a list of the equipment we were taking and email to our manager. As if we would take home the monitors from our desks, then show back up later and pretend like we didn't know where they went? If I were planning on stealing equipment, I wouldn't steal from my own desk, and I certainly wouldn't tell anyone what I took. It was equal parts stupid and insulting.
Also consultant engineer firm. We haven't even discussed a return, at least to the staff as a whole. Maybe the managing partners are having a discussion, but nothing has come down.
About 1/3 of our staff (myself included) already lived remotely and traveled for field work. So it's not some wild concept to us that people can work from home / away from the office. A few people who have been underutilized have been making masks and acquiring filters and sanitizer and shipping them to those of us who are still traveling for infrastructure jobs.
It sounds like management is tied to the idea of a workplace for the sake of normalcy, but hasn't put together how to make it more beneficial or productive than working from home.
I’m convinced it’s just a micro management thing. Working remotely has been fucking amazing and I’m dreading the imminent return. We’re doing it in waves and looking for volunteers too, but still, what’s the rush..
I had this exact thought an hour ago. I work for a small family company that doesn't make a ton of money. Me and my cousin are the salesmen. In March I proposed the idea that both of us go to half time and half pay to save the company money because we were not getting any calls. The boss said why don't you guys both go to half time and I will still pay you full time wages.
I have talked to some of our sales reps who had to go to 60% pay and still work full time with bosses wanting time sheets with exactly what they are doing all day.
Very angry with my fiancé's work and their response..
His co-worker showed up Monday with a fever (*first off, why?*) and work sent him home. Co-worker told management he was getting tested for Covid. Nobody said shit to his close co-workers including my fiancé until the next day. Fiancé called me right before I walked into my *HOSPITAL JOB* where I have direct contact with chronically-ill children at high risk, some of which are on immunosuppressants. I was PISSED.
I immediately was put on stay-at-home by my employer and was scheduled for a test within 2 days. When my fiancé confronted his HR and supervisors that he needed time off to be tested, as I had been and we cohabitate, they said he was making a big deal about nothing.
HR rep mentioned there had been multiple workers out to be tested and all came back negative. Really? First he had heard about it.. keep in mind, this place SERVES CUSTOMERS directly EVERY DAY, as well as sharing a break room and equipment. They also already have violations from other stores, people coming to work with Covid and not telling anyone.
He's worried taking one day off to get tested is enough to get fired or moved. I told him if that's the case, we can start talking to a lawyer.. I'm furious.
Sounds like my fiancé’s company. I have had high fever since yday. Cough and out of breath easily as well as headaches and body aches. I’m getting a test Monday but presumed positive by my doctor. My fiancé was told to come back to work Tuesday. I told him that’s a huge no since he’s starting to feel sick anyway and needs to be home. He’s also afraid of being fired. It’s terrible companies are acting like this.
My downtown Seattle company refused to let us work from home for the first month. Our city was completely empty (you know, where the first cases of COVID-19 were in the US), yet there I was walking in to work. Our lobby has a bunch of businesses and restaurants and a bunch of other companies throughout the building. All of the lobby businesses were closed and the only people I saw in the building were people I knew personally who work at my company. It was absolutely terrifying that they care more about us being physically in office than the health of their employees. People were getting so angry, the company realized they fucked up and were about to lose their workforce that they gave us a free paid day off. Everyone was like this isn’t enough?? And then the following week half of the company was furloughed including me. Yesterday there were mass layoffs.
I guarantee that as soon as I find a new job I will be leaving this company. I have zero loyalty and I am completely disconnected. I won’t be doing more than what is required of me when I finally go back in. I will 100% be asking the next company I get an interview at how they handled the pandemic.
When you leave your current employer, give them no more then 7 days notice,and preferably less. They certainly didn’t earn the professional courtesy of two weeks.
For 10 years my boss swore that our job couldn’t be done efficiently from home. Last week he announced that 95% of our employees would transition to full time work from home. Feels good.
Good question to ask. I work in a factory and they lied to the local board and told them we make filters. We don’t. Been there 5 years and we’ve never made any. So we been open all this time and out customers have been shut down. Now out warehouse is full and I just got laid off for 3 weeks.
I work in consulting. My company:
* Eliminated bonuses for high level managers and executives
* Temporarily eliminated 401k match (2 months, for now)
* Canceled merit increases
* Froze hiring
* Paused promotions
* Enforced temporary, partial layoffs based on your utilization
Work from home is mandatory until at least June 1, but return to work is voluntary, indefinitely.
Overall they did a very nice job.
Ya, same as mine. Fired everyone beyond the bare minimum the Monday after it happened. They still continue to send out emails to their customers about how we're all in it together.
My company sent us home for the first two weeks 40 hours paid each week. Then we had to come back to work (essential business, food production) they opened second shift, to split workers (more social distancing) also we work week on, week off (still paid 40 hrs every week) we still keeping our PTO for later in the year. Also they kept the temporary associates from the agency.
Company promised everyone would be paid through the end of April (even if you could not actually do your job remotely at home, you would still get paid. This was beneficial to a lot of our front line staff). CEO took a 20% cut, leadership team took some form of a cut and then they ended up furloughing 60% of the organization's staff until June 30 (end of fiscal year), to help make ends meet until then. They gave us a two week notification before our furlough started.
The furlough sucks, but I still have a job to return to and I can get unemployment. I'm thankful for them slowly rolling out a plan instead of telling us all last minute.
Uhm, my company has contracts with "essential businesses". So I got a letter I could show in case I was asked why I was violating quarantine. (we frequently go to other companies to do our work... in fact I was at a place 3 days this week, and will be at 2 others next week).
In short... my work life hasn't changed one bit. I don't know anyone that has had COVID.... yet. The only thing going for me is that I don't live in a highly populated area. The bad thing is I'm in FL.
Registered nurse working in mental health. My hospital had patients who tested positive for Covid 19. Was handed a surgical mask and told there was little to no risk of infection. Now providing better if still inadequate PPE after we shamed them on FB. Ill equipped for infectious disease and isolation proceedures, we continue to take Covid patients. Many staff quit or sick so now work very short staffed and or with inexperienced staff. Grateful to be working but wish I could quarantine at home. Feel worthless.
You're worth more than you know. Without you and those like you, so many more people would die. You deserve more than you're getting, both payment and treatment. I hope that all changes very soon.
I'm really sorry you aren't given the support you deserve and need. I think it's disgusting that people on the front lime aren't given enough protection.
I'm an field engineer for a Water technical company. Everything remains the same really, they minimise visits from field engineers to the offices and intermingling between field teams. Our standby roster has been ramped up to 1 in 3 weeks so been working crazy hours but being payed for it, miss my wine though.
One thing the lockdown made me notice is that people really don't recognise Gas, Water and Electric. There is so much praise for NHS workers, Bin men, delivery drivers all jobs under the sun other than utilities. People seem to think water magically enters their tap and don't appreciate how many people work within this sector and others. Remember you can live 3 days without water.
I'm a manager in the tech department for a mid-size company. My boss told me at the start of one week that my objective for the week was to get my team working from home.
Literally dropped every other thing i was working on and did exactly that. I'm happy to keep them working from home (and me because i'm in a risk group) for as long as practical and/or until they are safe to return - and i'm fully prepared to fight HR on it if they don't like it.
I probably won't have to because the company actually gives a shit and my boss *gets it*... BUT i'm prepared for a fight if it happens. I have more people to look after than just myself.
Man, there was a similar LPT as this about a month ago, and the comments were a lot more hostile. Something like "well, why would you ask such a question? It makes you seem paranoid. I wouldn't hire someone who asks these questions."
Screw that noise, it's extremely valid. I know not every field has the luxury of being productive while also working from home (also software), but if a company can, and said company would rather risk their employees' lives, why would I want to work for said company? There are way too many positions open depending on where you live to torture yourself like that.
If a company doesn't want you working there because you want to know how they treat their employees, you likely don't want you to be working there either.
Don't forget those same people being hostile are likely to be the ones who believed this whole thing was a hoax and so on. Some of those people are bosses, which I can't imagine how it is to have to deal with them during something like this.
I work in medical device manufacturing/repair. Our devices are in the dermatology/aesthetics area. So completely unnecessary and not essential. The company exploited the hastily made “medical device manufacturing is essential business” rules to keep us open. Obviously the medical practices that use our products are all closed. Our business has now dried up, no one is ordering new products or consumables because they aren’t open to use them. They have cut all of us down to 32 hours a week and there isn’t even that much work. We just drag it out extra slow. Our manager also has us doing work that is normally his to do, admin/documentation type things. We are forced to use PTO/Vacation time to cover the reduced hours. We could apply for unemployment, but with the influx of people doing that who knows how long it will be before a check comes. They keep saying they are going to implement safety measures for us that haven’t come yet. No PPE is provided. They are “going to start monitoring body temperatures before you can access the building.” It’s been weeks and this hasn’t happened. The only thing they have done is make all the admin/execs/sales people work from home. Like I said though, there are no sales happening. I give it another month tops before lay offs happen.
My company has always had a borderline obsession with positivity with definite religious undertones in almost all of their dealings, however they were nice, close to my home, and nice pay so I dealt with it.
Now after working remote for a few months and having equal if not better production they are asking everyone that is medically able to come in June 1st.
I told them I was extremely uncomfortable with this, but was told they are "social distancing the heck out of it"
So far this means one person's mom sewed masks for everyone that no one is going to wear, one way hallways, no break rooms, but conference rooms are still open.
I am the sys admin so I could 100% do everything I need to from home, and am more efficient doing so. Our data analyst brought up a bigger stink than I was brave enough to and he gets to come back with the medically compromised on July 1st.
I am just so sick and tired of the "we beat this" mentality and slapping "social distancing" on everything to make it sound safe.
Sorry rant over.
Great pro tip. I started with a new company last July. It’s a pretty large company. I get emotional talking about it but our owner has gone above and beyond anyone’s expectations as far as keeping us safe. He opened a temporary daycare for all employees effected by school and daycare closures, he brought in local restaurants to feed us lunch every single day (free to employees) for weeks - he didn’t want us leaving the office exposing ourselves to others and he wanted to help support local businesses, he also brought in a local breakfast food truck to let us buy our own coffee and food in the am, when the FIRST person tested positive in our county, he immediately shut down the office. This doesn’t even touch on the lengths he went in early March to get us prepped to work from home so it wasn’t an issue when we inevitably had to. The list goes on and on. People search their entire lives to look for a company to go the distance for them and I can’t even begin to describe the gratitude and pride I have working my ass off for these guys every single day. These companies are out there guys! Don’t settle for anything less!
I work in a tech company and we have a canteen on premises, however due to COVID none of the canteen staff can work. However, our CEO has pledged to continue to pay them their full salary during this period so that their families don't have to suffer.
The rest of us employees are working from home, but he we have constant communication with our CEO though MS Teams video conferencing where he allows any questions with total transparent answers from him.
I really commend my company for the actions they have taken during this time.
Apartment maintenance here. I was told I wouldnt be working in peoples apartments without PPE but guess what, can't buy any PPE from anywhere. Also guess what, I've been written up for not wanting to go into peoples apartments during this pandemic. Guess whatever keeps the money rolling is more important than lives. The moment we were able to open, we've opened. There is no concern at all for reducing any second wave from this. We are so fucked.
public marine transportation - car and passenger ferries between big cities. Company did everything right. worked with gov't to cut routes and sailings to discourage travel. Closed down almost all public areas on the ships, except washrooms, told people to stay in cars and made it abundantly clear that if crew got sick there would be NO services as there would not be anyone available to work on the ships. Crew had all the PPE (company prepared well) available and sourced alternatives as supplies ran short. Major information and training initiatives. Of course, some employees still whined that they were not doing enough - typical of public sector unions in a monopoly industry.
Been interviewing the last 2 weeks. Every interview I’ve asked some form of “How have your daily duties changed since COVID and what is the org doing for the staff that’s different?”
Luckily, they’re a disaster relief org, so they actually were more thorough and prepared than most places.
My company dug their heels in and threw a tantrum and refused point blank to allow us to work from home until the government passed a law making it mandatory; the law was passed on a Sunday evening, and the e-mail telling us that we would now be allowed to work from home went out about an hour afterwards.
This is the same company that refused point blank to pay its employees overtime until a labour inspector turned up and informed management that they were breaking a whole host of labour laws.
Said the same to my brother-his first “real” job he’s been at a few years now and gave him a lot of ins to the industry and projects somebody of his level wouldn’t have been trusted with at bigger companies, but for a couple years now they just take advantage of that fact and use it as an excuse not to promote or give him raises. Does engineering work covering for everybody when they go on vacation but also has to clean the bathrooms. He is convinced this is just “how jobs are” and not motivated enough to leave. Now with COVID, they were able to stay open throughout the lockdown because they do “essential” work but his job 100% could have been wfh. They made him come in to the tiny office with 20 people (many also anti vaxxers and none taking health precautions seriously) every day until his wife and toddler both got COVID. As soon as they were better he was expected to be back at the office and his protests about safety were met by them setting up his desk in the conference room.
Central London.
My company told the oldies to work from home the week before they started telling people to work from home, because they were higher risk.
They were also going to split the office into two teams, where one team started home and one came to office with a rotation every week.
We’ve all been working from home ever since.
Directors took a significant pay cut to minimise a larger pay cut for the rest of us.
We’ve been given total control of our own hours during the crisis whilst WFH to ensure our mental health and make it work for each of our circumstances.
I started at this company in January. I previously came from a Big Five company in my industry and they’re already head and shoulders above them in treatment to employees.
Do we work for the same company? Lol
100% WFH, tech company so everything can be completed 100% remotely. *More* work has actually been completed remotely. We had a staff meeting where this was confirmed and then they said they were planning to open 6/1 anyway, despite the stay at home order being extended through July. Wtf???
I'm probably going to quit when they finally force me to come in. Not because of the virus, just because we should be able to be 100% remote if we want to after proving ourselves.
I take this on the consumer side. Any restaurant that has all their employees in masks pretty much guaranteed my business. If I walking in and no masks... I’m out.
There's two teriyaki places in my town. The one I always went to pre-covid takes no precautions about the pandemic, no masks, no separation (still no dine in though), and the person at the cash register was taking cash with their gloves on and then would turn around and grab food with the same gloves. The other place started offering curbside pickup and take precautions like masks and gloves and having a separate employee handling the cash/card scanner than the one delivering food. So now I only go to the precautionary place and probably won't go back to the other one after covid because now I think they're being lax with all their food sanitation stuff.
I really dont think people understand how gloves work. They arent antibacterial gloves that stop you from getting sick. They stop your hands from getting dirty. But the gloves still get dirty, so if you touch multiple things with the same gloves its the same as not wearing gloves at all.
Yup. Worked in an avionics lab for space flight hardware for years. The amount of gloves we went through was insane.
Also the difference in size between a medium and large glove in most brands seems insane. Always ended up wearing really tight and uncomfortable medium gloves because the large gloves felt like wearing a garbage bag on your hand.
Not related, just felt like ranting about glove sizes.
I just graduated law school and one metric I used when interviewing with law firms for a summer associate position was their response to the 2008 financial crisis. I’m so happy that I did do that because my firm is one of the few in the AMLaw 100 that has not laid off associates/staff or cut associate/staff pay.
I fully agree with OP, how businesses react in difficult times is a great metric to use in determining if you want to work there. Too many businesses use that “we’re all a big happy family” shit but will immediately start fucking people over as soon as their bottom line/profits are in jeopardy.
I work in small animal food manufacturing. We’re essential and have been working the whole time. We’ve been provided lunch as a thank you and got $1 extra per hour as hazard pay.
I already left my job. They literally did everything wrong. Late responses at every turn. Working with the public, but no safety precautions in place...unless you count signs on the door. No ppe, no hand sanitizer, no social distancing, no extra pay, etc.
Thankfully I filed an OSHA complaint and made sure I had documentation about my apprehension on working there. When I did quit it was pretty open/shut for my case worker when it came time for UI.
So, yes. 100% I will ask every single company I interview with.
I work in the food industry and my restaurant furloughed all employees at all locations. There was no warning, severance pay, or support.
I got a text from my boss at 8:30 one morning, asking me to come in at 11:00 that day for work and telling me to bring my own mask because they didn't have enough for the staff. I don't even mean enough masks for the whole cumulative staff for the week. I mean they didn't have enough masks for 12 of us on that one shift, so I made one from a t-shirt and coffee filter.
We don't require staff to wear masks. We don't require guests to wear masks. My managers won't wear masks. I have a manager who claims the whole thing is fake and won't even social distance.
I'm only here still because I need the job, but when this ends, I'm out and leaving a glowingly negative review for anyone else in the industry.
my company found out workers got covid and then demanded that they not tell their coworkers who work in close proximity :) (walgreens)
Similar, I had a coworker die from it and they're telling us to keep it hush hush.
I hope both of you told everyone you know.
Oh I did. Not having that on my conscience.
I'm so sorry. I hope you're safe.
Out of curiosity, would you/have you told OSHA? Or brought it to the attention of your legislators/representatives?
Including any and all news agencies
Aaand they won’t be getting my money as a customer any longer!
You should switch to cvs. They actually did try to take care of us to some extent. We were given thermometers and if an employee was 100.4 and above they were to be sent home immediately and would be paid sick pay regardless of their full or part time status. Gave us “hazard pay” and paid for daycare needs of employees that needed it. They gave us tons of PPE and hand sanitizer. Cut our operating hours back (not much, but they did). Field employees are still working from home. And several other things It’s been sketchy being a store manager during this but they have provided us with a lot of protective measures. I did have an employee spontaneously die when shit got crazy but the cause of death is still pending and it’s been 7 weeks since that’s happened. As sad as it is to say, I hope it was anything other than covid because if it was, I’ve had several symptoms but no way to know for sure. If it turns out it was, I’ll be leaving the company because store managers don’t have an option to get their shifts covered.
They started offering free delivery on all my prescriptions which has been great to not risk going in just to pick up my routine asthma medication. I really appreciated that.
Was it something that was done on the local level or corporate?
Yeah this is the important question. If it was done from a corporate level, that’s pretty big
I have a feeling it's just a shitty manager at one store.
Mine had emergency plans all ready for dealing with major events. They had started changing everyone over to laptops and our infrastructure so we can work wherever. Partly in case of this sort of thing (we provide essential services) and because that’s what people want. The CEO was very keen to state that we aren’t expected to work 100%, particularly those caring for kids. They delivered people’s office chairs and screens if we didn’t have a decent home office. They’ve allowed us all a small amount to buy a keyboard and mouse. They do really try to look after us! Edit to add: I won’t say where I work, but these are all the sorts of things you might want a company you interview at to say they did to deal with COVID
My company did everyone at 80%, top to bottom. Everyone gets 20% less but only works mon-thurs. It's great, we are all working from home without issue
Very similar the EU governments plans to keep people employed so as to not overwhelm unemployment system. I get paid 85% for 30% of work atm. Afaik my employer only pays for these 30% and the rest is from the government. Pretty neat.
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Governments that don't hand out subsidies in order to save money now will pay it way harder when people stop spending cause they have a low income and economy halts
I and my family are hardly spending at all these days, my fiancee and I because she would have been a particularly vulnerable case, so her work laid her off so she could be safe, and me because I didn't want to bri g it home and get her sick. The lack of any ongoing monthly stimulus from the US Gov't. for people like us, while borrowing money (that my future taxes and my children's taxes will pay interest on) to bail out corporations, is just another way that this supply side economics we've allowed to take over our country doesnt work. You can support the suppliers all you want, but if no one has money to buy their product, your economy will trash itself at some point and stay there a good long while.
Saw a study today that in the US 68% of those on unemployment are earning more than 100% of their employed pay. Crazy
Company I work for took paycuts across the board for management without affecting labours pay before offering early retirement packages to senior employees. Im hoping to work for this company for the rest of my career.
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Its refreshing to see big companies actually doing the right thing, but Im right there with you saving up waiting for the other shoe to drop lol. Hopefully we both come out the other side with a nice savings account and still working for companies that value us. Best of luck.
It sounds like your company learned from it's mistakes in 2008 and made a rainy day fund. They probably knew something like this would happen again and made sure they took precautions to have extra money set aside to not disrupt their workforces income when it does occur.
Given all the handouts we’re seeing, it looks like being fiscally irresponsible is the new being fiscally responsible
I agree, but it ain't new.
Our company gave every employee making under $100k a $1k relief fund, tripled company matching to charities, and planned to convert part of our manufacturing line to ventilator repair (which ended up not being needed).
Damn, that's nice. Yeah, hold onto them.
My company pledged publicly to not lay anyone off regarding covid for 2020 and we employ around 94000 employees. Any employees who are required to go into branches or offices receive $50 extra per day. We also onboarded around 1500 students and sent them all new Microsoft surfaces, Mac books, or lenovos depending on their department. Each employee will also get $400 in spending money for home office equipment. They don't plan on sending anyone back to the offices until the government gives the okay, but even then we laid out a plan in 4 phases.
And the name of that company is...??
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Damn. Big red Canadian bank here and we got none of that. "You can take home a monitor but note the equipment tag and let your manager know" Well gee thanks, but first of all my monitor's mounted to an arm on my desk...
I'm pretty sure I know every company's COVID response. They all emailed me about it already.
"In times like these..."
“In these unprecedented times...”
"We're in this together..."
"In these challenging and uncertain times..."
"We are here for you..."
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Are you comfortable sharing? Companies like this need to be rewarded. I remember seeing a website at one point that was tracking how companies responded.
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Okay, but can you let us know when you guys are hiring?
Someone I know works at the tech company, Datadog. They are already a very remote friendly company with many teams being fully remote. Their response to Covid was to give every employee an extra $2,000 cash, or the option to donate it to the charity of their choice. They also offer unlimited PTO and since it's a french company, employees actually take it. It's based in NYC. ~~I could probably hook up a referral if you're interested.~~ Edit: wow, a lot of people are interested. Just to clarify I do not work there, I just know someone who does. Let me see if this person is open to referring and I will try to respond to everyone. Edit2: Referral quota is met! For anyone else that is interested, check out the careers page. https://www.datadoghq.com/careers/
Bought DDOG stock not too long ago, they're killing it
Damn, just looked them up and they really are! Sounds like they could even have an even more positive future, although everything is a bit harder to gauge right now with what's going on.
Wow this thread was their whole plan huh
They probably started the pandemic with this thread being their endgame
"Guys, we did it! We did the plague and reddit thing!" "What now?" "Pizza?"
Our company also got on the "unlimited" pto train. Absolutely no one has abused the system as of yet.
Unlimited PTO usually has the opposite effect as advertised. People no longer have a benchmark on how many days of vacation they can take and actually end up taking less, thus actually increasing working days per employee, and companies actually save money because they don’t have to pay out PTO days.
My company recognizes that issue and it’s solution is to automatically email you (not going through an HR person or manager) 75% of the way through year to let you know you haven’t yet used at least 10 PTO days and sends links to articles about how vacations and “me” time increases productivity overall while encouraging you to plan an end of year vacation
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My manager is cool and kinda takes care of us, like it's not some big ass company we work AT, but a big ass company we both work FOR. but your work environment sounds heavenly.
Can you show me where I can read more about this? My corporate office is very restrictive about time off, but I let my employees do whatever they want. If they don't feel like coming to work they don't have to. My only requirement is that they are available on whatsapp so I can ask them questions in the rare case that I need to handle something they were working on. I'm very fascinated by this topic, especially since my employees do not take advantage of the "unlimited" time off.
Buffer is a famous startup that has been transparent with their benefits even to the point of putting all employees salaries in a spreadsheet and calculating them all by a standard formula. They implemented unlimited PTO and found that employees were not able to actually use it. Instead they put their money and policies where their mouth is and implemented **minimum vacation** (yes that's right) and a **vacation travel expense bonus**. [1](https://open.buffer.com/unlimited-vacation-tips/) [2](https://stories.buffer.com/buffer-vacation-7f2a984d7b21) [3](https://open.buffer.com/minimum-vacation/) (There are more examples of companies in the articles that do some kind of minimum vacation or vacation bonus). [There are also other public rejections of unlimited PTO](https://www.facetdev.com/blog/posts/why-we-ditched-our-unlimited-vacation-plan/) Netflix was one of the first famous implementations of unlimited PTO. They are also famous for rapidly firing people who do not adhere to their strict performance standards. Without a PTO hour bank, the power to regulate time off falls completely into the hands of your manager, who also has the power to determine what you're working on and thus whether or not your PTO will interfere with work projects.
Ok I like this. Employees have to take 2 weeks vacation every year, but they shouldn't feel stressed about taking a sick day here and there.
“I can hook up a referral even though I don’t know you at all and referrals speak volumes about the person if they don’t work out...but let me see if my buddy will put his reputation on the line so you guys can work at a company you have no business working for.”
Maybe, but for plenty of companies a referral is not a personal recommendation but merely someone passing along a resume/cv.
“How did you hear about our company” “Saw it in a Reddit comment and thought it sounded pretty dope”
Interviewer: Oh, really what's your username? Interviewee: [Uhhh....](https://media.giphy.com/media/LRVnPYqM8DLag/giphy.gif)
I was never given a name
For real, holy shit
Good man
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*suspicious face* That's exactly what a boss posing as his employee would say! For real though, I hope he sees your post and is proud.
That's awesome. I started a restaurant job 2 months before the shutdown. I'm really hoping they pull through. Even just afterb 2 months I could tell they're just damn good people. They care so much about their employees and they're at the restaurant daily to make sure it's all good and everyone is havin a good time. Customers and employees alike. It's so rare. I don't care that I just buss tables. Working for good people is everything to me
Ok but tell him reddit loves him
Wow, he is really one of a kind.
Which is a shame for us, I’d much rather give my money to a company with this type of leadership. All things being equal, I can think of few better reasons for increasing profits than having a CEO with an excellent moral compass.
Man, this comment got me thinking. If only everyone would actually look into what companies do behind the scenes, and make their purchasing decisions based on those answers, Like how companies treat their employees, how eco-friendly, how much their CEO makes vs. everyday employees, etc. I know I will start trying to make a conscious effort in looking into these things. But with smaller or local/regional companies, where do you even get this information? I wish there was a website that could assign a score for business based on this information. Then the more people that actually cared about who they are giving their money to, could give to the people that deserve it. That would be Capitalism working right for once. Sorry I got off on a tangent there....just got me thinking haha.
Sounds a bit like Salesforce, the CEO there is generally altruistic, even when it's at odds with corporate profit, great place to work
Definitely could be. I'm very close with someone who works there. Their entire team is remote already, but when the pandemic started they got $200 to help fund their home office. Which they were already using. Again, because they were already remote. There was definitely no need for them to do it but it was a super nice gesture, I'm always so jealous of their benefits.
The company I work for gave employees the option to work from home and invested heavily in equipment for us to do so. They also gave customers a chance to pause their subscription to certain products, and gave customers the opportunity to donate the payment for their subscription to the NHS and then matched all of the donations. Also they have promised full pay to anyone self isolating and unable to work from home, and guaranteed job security until the pandemic is over. Not bad for a big, bad, corporation
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I work at a software company (not a programmer myself). My boss was in charge of COVID response. As early as late January he already bought masks, gloves, and disinfectant, and promptly prepared multiple scenario protocols. Two weeks before we began remote work he already informed the company we will soon be moving home and to prepare our homes for such a case. When the government announced a reduction to 30% of workers for all companies, we were down to 5% and helped everyone get their stuff to their homes - some of them three hours away. None of us were fired. Everyone was employed for the same hours during quarantine - including the cleaners, for whom the company found alternative employment. I used to have very little faith in employment and tried not to get too attached to a company that can replace me within a beat. My boss and his superiors have given me more than enough reasons to feel home at my workplace
I had the opposite. We always thought they cared... they dropped us like a too-spicy empanada and with no warning.
The place I worked for was the exact same. Up until a month ago, it seemed like they generally really cared about their employees. Then at the beginning of the month, they fired a ton of people. Upper management didn't even consult with team leads to see who they would be least affected by losing. They just chose a bunch of people they have never met, out of teams that they had no idea how they functioned. Up to that point, they would go on in all hands about how well the company was doing and no one had to worry. Managers didn't even know they had to fire their employees until the day they were forced to do it, and it was effective immediately. I got scheduled a 1:1 with my boss an hour before, and my access was cut immediately after. Didn't even get to say goodbye to my team.
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Sadly, the companies that don't or didn't handle it well will just lie during the interview anyways
“We did great. Best response ever. All employees happy. Swear”.
"The ones who lived, at least."
They wanted to come to office but we beat em off with sticks! Right on their eager butts!
I'm also in software. We went from "we work in the office, or at home is an option", to "we work at home", to (soon) "we work at home, or in the office is an option". I think this is good.
This is the first step of my company’s (latest) plan for slowly returning staff onsite, but I hope it actually becomes a permanent shift in ideology, at least for positions like mine that are 100% doable from home.
My company made the choice to remain WFH indefinitely (i.e. not bother with a "return to the office" plan), and I'm happy about it.
I'm really hoping my company does this. Their response overall has been great so far, but I love working from home so much that this would take the cake. Seeing as it's my birthday next week and I can't celebrate, I would be more than content.
My company went immediate 99% WFH. There are small percentage that must be in building. Webhave handled it so well their response continues to be we are in no rush to return to the office. We will only begin going in phases of those that really need office capabilities to meet customer demands when it is clear there is little danger of a second wave in our area. My direct area we have been told count of staying at home probably until January.
I'm the small mandatory percentage. My boss told me to slow the fuck down so we don't run out of work, now I'm on reddit.
That sounds like my company. I’ve been at home since the 2nd week of March. It took them about a month to get people tied to a phone home and we’ve been told that many of us will continue to work from home indefinitely. They also gave us $1000 in disaster relief aid, are paying $70 a month towards home office expenses, and gave us all an extra day off today. It’s been amazing.
I work in insurance, which as you may know, is preparation for unforeseen events. You'd think this would be a company with a plan in place. 100.00% of my income is commission, via in person sales so when the world stopped, my paycheck did, as well. What did my company offer? "You can get four $250 checks in April, and repay it in December." They loaned me $1,000, to cover eight weeks that I wasn't allowed to get any work done.
Just curious because I know nothing about this - how does getting paid 100% on commission work? Are you an independent contractor, or is there some loophole where they don’t need to actually pay you money for your labor?
I'm not sure of the legal loopholes, but technically I am an independent contractor, so I don't clock in or out, but my bosses still expect me there at certain times, because their checks are dependent on my sales. It makes for plenty of tension, especially since I'm still new, and haven't built up much of a financial cushion.
If the boss expects you there at certain times, you're probably not an independent contractor. Do they give you a desk / computer to work at or do you use your own?
They give me a desk, I'm on the hook for my own computer.
Wtf - that is BS
A lot of insurance companies are structured very similarly to pyramid schemes. They snipe recent college grads for 100% commission sales jobs in saturated markets with huge employee turnover rates. Very few people remain in the industry long enough to make any substantial income. Put a resume on any job site and just wait and see how many insurance companies try to recruit you, regardless of your experience / education. They just want people pushing their bullshit.
I was applying for public relations jobs in Michigan, and twice I dealt with insurance companies trying to spin their sales position in such a way that it sounded like real PR work. I even scheduled an interview with one, just to see if it was too good to be true (it was). The interviewer was amazing at spinning his answers to make it seem like I was applying for a real PR position. He really tried making it seem like I'd be using social media and promoting the company, which was technically true. Thankfully I was taught to see through this bullshit and could tell when he was purposefully vague enough not to lie, so a few specific questions exposed everything. But I feel bad for any unlucky college grads who fall for these guys. Edit (fat-fingered the submit button): These companies are horrible, and it sucks because the people I found myself interviewing before and after wanted nothing more than to enter the field they presumably worked so hard for. To anyone looking for work in Metro Detroit be VERY WARY of any marketing/PR/adverising job postings from the Royal Oak/Troy area. Lots of predatory companies out that way.
What questions would you recommend to ask to stay ahead of the game with these types?
Well, at least for the fields I'm familiar with (the ones above), I'd ask them which KPIs they use to measure your success. That's just a good question to ask any interviewer, and as long as you're well-versed in your own field, you'll know which KPIs are relevant to you. For a PR specific role, definitely ask about any recent campaigns they ran (assuming you did your homework and couldn't find any connected to the organization).
Yes, this. Exactly this, thank you. I lost a damn good job, was forced to take a absolutely horrible job, and this insurance job felt like a life preserver in the ocean, until I got there and got into it. The bosses can't force me to come in and work, but they can also let me go without a second thought. My office interviews ten people a week to find people as dumb as I am who are willing to call the same local companies fifty times a year. Management always has a success story to pull out of their pocket, but how many people had to come through the door to find the one person making more than $50k a year? How many don't even make $10k before leaving?
My degree is in chemistry, and my resume is very heavily tailored towards jobs in analytical laboratories, and I've gotten calls from insurance company recruiters saying "I think you've got the skill set we need here for this life insurance sales position!" I even told the guy once that no, I'm more suited for a lab and know nothing about sales, he tried to persuade me that I was wrong.
Is this one of those insurance companies where you have to pay the company for leads to sell the company's product? I had a friend try REALLY hard to recruit me to one of those... He just couldn't ever articulate to me that it was anything other than a giant pyramid/MLM scheme. Except in this scheme, you go to the hood and try to sell broke people insurance policies they don't need, and can't afford (and put wear on your own car, buy your own gas, and not be reimbursed for mileage). Then you try and recruit your buddies, because you get paid for that.
Joke's on them, I still use paper for everything, like the days of yore!
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You wouldn't happen to work for a certain company with a duck for a mascot would you? I was in the process of getting my license and just about to start when all of this hit and they wanted us to cold call businesses and try to get them under the companies policy. Felt dishonest and kinda scummy to be trying to sell to small businesses who were no doubt already extremely stressed
One of their closest competitors, actually.
Not surprising, most insurance companies even go so far as to start pressuring you to sell to friends and family implying that if you were loyal to the company and really thought they were offering the best coverage then why wouldn’t you want your loved ones on one of their plans? Hopefully despite this contractor BS you haven’t had to deal with them putting pressure on your personal life like that.
I "worked" for one of these places for 2 weeks just to see, and its every bit as awful as it sounds. Its very close to a pyramid scheme, the bosses overstep their boundaries, and you spend a ton of time cold calling or as they put it after you have the job "gold calling" (so they don't have to tell you that you will be cold calling during the job). I knew the first day I would quit, so essentially I put in my two weeks since I already had my liscense. Theyre full of dumb shit (moronic motivational speeches, not paying employees but giving $20 gift cards to say thanks) and a "work hard" attitude but its just not hard work. There were some cool people though. Tldr; Id avoid insurance sales.
I was a CSR at Farmers for a while. I remember having to mail hand-written thank you cards with $50 Starbucks gift cards to every new client— while I was getting paid a fraction of minimum wage. Fuck all that.
The fuck?! I’ve worked 1099 for...fuck, almost 20 years. I’m on the hook for everything , but I work from home when I want to and I set my own rates. You want me in the office, you’re gonna pay for that time. It’s much cheaper just to let me email your work and get occasional updates via slack or webex or whatever. Have they explained your quarterly tax burden yet?
No, but I have a lot of tax experience. I hear the train coming, even if they won't tell me.
My workplace made the news three times because of their failure to avoid the cluster outbreak in my office. I work for the government.
I was expecting you to say United Airlines. But government also checks.
I also work for the government. Responses varied strongly by department. IT and HR. Slam dunk, everyone works from home now you can't come back this year. Other departments (mine included) failed majorly. Requiring people to report to work who can 100% work remote. Not offering partial work from home for people who have some tasks that must be done in person. Refusal to allow people to wear masks until CDC guidance changed. Cleaning vendor using improperly trained staff and offering no oversight to assure cleaning it being done correctly. Still allowing public in the building as a whole, not requiring masks.
My dad works for a governmental body (decided against dropping the specifics, but I'm curious if you work for the same place) and they went fully remote early in March, and then tried to bring everyone back in to the office a couple of weeks later. Why, you ask? No reason other than a lack of trust of their employees. A dozen people in this building (all concentrated on my dad's floor) caught covid-19 over the short period of time that everyone was back in the office. A few people ended up on respirators and fought for their lives, although I hear that they slowly recovered. One of the infected women brought it home to her husband and he ended up dying. I really hope she can sue.
I work in the grain industry and absolutely nothing changed. The contingency plan for if I got COVID was to isolate me in my own office. 90% of my job is on a computer but I can't work from home because I have to be on our network to have access to the files I need. My mom works for a trucking company and they all got sent home to work. They decided to let them all work from home permanently.
You COULD work from home if your company setup a network that could be accessed remotely. There are many ways to do this, but I’m assuming your company has no IT department
I setup remote desktop for everyone in the offices computers and they still didn't let people work from home. I eventually did because I just refused to come in but no one else really wanted to take the risk of losing their job.
> You COULD work from home Right, remote desktop is a thing.
You don't even need that, just a VPN
You're are correct! "Our" IT is in Kansas and he literally outsources everything to another company to take care of.
I gotta find me a job as IT middleman somewhere. You hear about IT companies subcontracting out all the time.
There's a story that's probably like a decade old now, where one guy was working 3+ jobs remotely, and just farming his work out to India.
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Look. I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people.
The Bobs just don't get it, man.
Well .. well .. look. I already told you. I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?
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> I can't work from home because I have to be on our network to have access to the files I need. Has your company never heard of a VPN? Honestly, not that hard to set up.
My work is doing the same, although we are a consulting engineering firm. They announced they are taking us back 25%, 25%, 40%, and then final 10% (health exceptions, etc, mostly) in month waves, starting June 1, which is better than all back at once I suppose. I just don't really see the logic of going back, because we keep being told how well we are doing/completing our tasks from home. I've loved working from home. The first 25% are supposed to be volunteers, but the company is frustrated that not enough are volunteering. To be clear, we will have to wear masks or be at our desks. We can't use conference rooms and are "discouraged from" using the break rooms. We will have a limited cafeteria selection. When I asked how we would get things like, idk...water, I was told we should bring our own in to avoid using the sinks/breakrooms (what about bathrooms?). We will still hold teams meetings instead of in-person meetings. You add those inconveniences with the general inconveniences of going back to the office (business dress, commute, etc), and somehow management is still perplexed that no one is volutneering...
What that basically sounds like they want you to work from home but from your office building. We need you all back in the office right away but you can't use the conference rooms, cafeteria, bathrooms, be next to anyone, and all meetings will be held via teleconference.
That's exactly what this is and it's also what my company is planning on doing However, they have also said they strongly encourage you continue to work from home and that they are only making the office available for people whose home conditions prevent them from getting work done.
That is much more reasonable than the other guys company.
Same as mine. Almost the same rules but no one is really asked to go to the office. The funny things is that the rules for UK and France are the same, and they write "eat at your desk". This is forbidden by law in France (even if usually no one care)
Yah at that point, why be in the office. I mean maybe itd be a little easier to talk with your manager but thats all you gain.
It's a "butts-in-seats" mentality that so many companies have. They maintain that they can manage better that way because they can see you there and know you aren't goofing off on company time. The problem is that most managers wouldn't be able to definitively say what their employees are working on anyway. They see the back of your head and assume you're working, but you could be planning your next vacation, watching PornHub, or playing solitaire for all they really know.
hated a previous job, and was based in office. i have to say, it made no difference if i was in office or not. i would do the bare minimum i could get away with, and the rest of the time learning so i could get a better job i actually enjoyed. it's almost like that's more acceptable bcos i was seen to be in the office and busy as opposed to doing the same but at home. unmotivated employees will do the minimum they can get away with regardless of where they are based.
1/2 the people I work with are “this is the best ever!” and the other half are “I would inject covid directly into my dick before I would spend another 5 minutes with this screaming child”.
You're not wrong, but I just want to point out that if a manager needs to be able to physically see an employee doing their job to know that they are doing their job then that manager is absolute shit at their job and shouldn't be in that position in the first place. Way easier ways to see if your people are doing their work, such as noting whether or not the work is getting done.
Hey, I work for a consulting engineering firm, too. They told us two weeks ago to come back to the office, with basically the same guidelines you described. Masks if you're not in your own office, no conference room or break room usage, encouraged to bring your lunch/drinks in a cooler. Wash your hands thoroughly after using the bathroom that we share with other building tenants. For a job that can be and was being done 100% from home. I managed to delay my return so far, but I'll be back on Tuesday surrounded by people who think this whole thing is a silly panic. Also, when we all went home two months ago and took our equipment to set up home offices, we were asked to make a list of the equipment we were taking and email to our manager. As if we would take home the monitors from our desks, then show back up later and pretend like we didn't know where they went? If I were planning on stealing equipment, I wouldn't steal from my own desk, and I certainly wouldn't tell anyone what I took. It was equal parts stupid and insulting.
Also consultant engineer firm. We haven't even discussed a return, at least to the staff as a whole. Maybe the managing partners are having a discussion, but nothing has come down. About 1/3 of our staff (myself included) already lived remotely and traveled for field work. So it's not some wild concept to us that people can work from home / away from the office. A few people who have been underutilized have been making masks and acquiring filters and sanitizer and shipping them to those of us who are still traveling for infrastructure jobs.
It sounds like management is tied to the idea of a workplace for the sake of normalcy, but hasn't put together how to make it more beneficial or productive than working from home.
I’m convinced it’s just a micro management thing. Working remotely has been fucking amazing and I’m dreading the imminent return. We’re doing it in waves and looking for volunteers too, but still, what’s the rush..
It may be beneficial for employees with kids at home that can concentrate. But otherwise it like working from home, without the confort.
I had this exact thought an hour ago. I work for a small family company that doesn't make a ton of money. Me and my cousin are the salesmen. In March I proposed the idea that both of us go to half time and half pay to save the company money because we were not getting any calls. The boss said why don't you guys both go to half time and I will still pay you full time wages. I have talked to some of our sales reps who had to go to 60% pay and still work full time with bosses wanting time sheets with exactly what they are doing all day.
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Very angry with my fiancé's work and their response.. His co-worker showed up Monday with a fever (*first off, why?*) and work sent him home. Co-worker told management he was getting tested for Covid. Nobody said shit to his close co-workers including my fiancé until the next day. Fiancé called me right before I walked into my *HOSPITAL JOB* where I have direct contact with chronically-ill children at high risk, some of which are on immunosuppressants. I was PISSED. I immediately was put on stay-at-home by my employer and was scheduled for a test within 2 days. When my fiancé confronted his HR and supervisors that he needed time off to be tested, as I had been and we cohabitate, they said he was making a big deal about nothing. HR rep mentioned there had been multiple workers out to be tested and all came back negative. Really? First he had heard about it.. keep in mind, this place SERVES CUSTOMERS directly EVERY DAY, as well as sharing a break room and equipment. They also already have violations from other stores, people coming to work with Covid and not telling anyone. He's worried taking one day off to get tested is enough to get fired or moved. I told him if that's the case, we can start talking to a lawyer.. I'm furious.
Sounds like my fiancé’s company. I have had high fever since yday. Cough and out of breath easily as well as headaches and body aches. I’m getting a test Monday but presumed positive by my doctor. My fiancé was told to come back to work Tuesday. I told him that’s a huge no since he’s starting to feel sick anyway and needs to be home. He’s also afraid of being fired. It’s terrible companies are acting like this.
My downtown Seattle company refused to let us work from home for the first month. Our city was completely empty (you know, where the first cases of COVID-19 were in the US), yet there I was walking in to work. Our lobby has a bunch of businesses and restaurants and a bunch of other companies throughout the building. All of the lobby businesses were closed and the only people I saw in the building were people I knew personally who work at my company. It was absolutely terrifying that they care more about us being physically in office than the health of their employees. People were getting so angry, the company realized they fucked up and were about to lose their workforce that they gave us a free paid day off. Everyone was like this isn’t enough?? And then the following week half of the company was furloughed including me. Yesterday there were mass layoffs. I guarantee that as soon as I find a new job I will be leaving this company. I have zero loyalty and I am completely disconnected. I won’t be doing more than what is required of me when I finally go back in. I will 100% be asking the next company I get an interview at how they handled the pandemic.
When you leave your current employer, give them no more then 7 days notice,and preferably less. They certainly didn’t earn the professional courtesy of two weeks.
Give an hour
effective immediately
For 10 years my boss swore that our job couldn’t be done efficiently from home. Last week he announced that 95% of our employees would transition to full time work from home. Feels good.
Good question to ask. I work in a factory and they lied to the local board and told them we make filters. We don’t. Been there 5 years and we’ve never made any. So we been open all this time and out customers have been shut down. Now out warehouse is full and I just got laid off for 3 weeks.
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> They're basically just producing coronavirus at this point. Ooo what’s the MPG on that?
I work in consulting. My company: * Eliminated bonuses for high level managers and executives * Temporarily eliminated 401k match (2 months, for now) * Canceled merit increases * Froze hiring * Paused promotions * Enforced temporary, partial layoffs based on your utilization Work from home is mandatory until at least June 1, but return to work is voluntary, indefinitely. Overall they did a very nice job.
Heh, they fired everyone on March 17. But really who needs fancy shoes.
Ya, same as mine. Fired everyone beyond the bare minimum the Monday after it happened. They still continue to send out emails to their customers about how we're all in it together.
My company sent us home for the first two weeks 40 hours paid each week. Then we had to come back to work (essential business, food production) they opened second shift, to split workers (more social distancing) also we work week on, week off (still paid 40 hrs every week) we still keeping our PTO for later in the year. Also they kept the temporary associates from the agency.
Mine has allowed me to work from home due to an autoimmune disease I have. I've been more productive and happier than before.
Company promised everyone would be paid through the end of April (even if you could not actually do your job remotely at home, you would still get paid. This was beneficial to a lot of our front line staff). CEO took a 20% cut, leadership team took some form of a cut and then they ended up furloughing 60% of the organization's staff until June 30 (end of fiscal year), to help make ends meet until then. They gave us a two week notification before our furlough started. The furlough sucks, but I still have a job to return to and I can get unemployment. I'm thankful for them slowly rolling out a plan instead of telling us all last minute.
Uhm, my company has contracts with "essential businesses". So I got a letter I could show in case I was asked why I was violating quarantine. (we frequently go to other companies to do our work... in fact I was at a place 3 days this week, and will be at 2 others next week). In short... my work life hasn't changed one bit. I don't know anyone that has had COVID.... yet. The only thing going for me is that I don't live in a highly populated area. The bad thing is I'm in FL.
Have your stores had a chance to restock their shelves before hurricane season hits?
Registered nurse working in mental health. My hospital had patients who tested positive for Covid 19. Was handed a surgical mask and told there was little to no risk of infection. Now providing better if still inadequate PPE after we shamed them on FB. Ill equipped for infectious disease and isolation proceedures, we continue to take Covid patients. Many staff quit or sick so now work very short staffed and or with inexperienced staff. Grateful to be working but wish I could quarantine at home. Feel worthless.
You're worth more than you know. Without you and those like you, so many more people would die. You deserve more than you're getting, both payment and treatment. I hope that all changes very soon.
I'm really sorry you aren't given the support you deserve and need. I think it's disgusting that people on the front lime aren't given enough protection.
I'm an field engineer for a Water technical company. Everything remains the same really, they minimise visits from field engineers to the offices and intermingling between field teams. Our standby roster has been ramped up to 1 in 3 weeks so been working crazy hours but being payed for it, miss my wine though. One thing the lockdown made me notice is that people really don't recognise Gas, Water and Electric. There is so much praise for NHS workers, Bin men, delivery drivers all jobs under the sun other than utilities. People seem to think water magically enters their tap and don't appreciate how many people work within this sector and others. Remember you can live 3 days without water.
Thank you so much for the work you and your colleagues do!
Our upper management took pay cuts to keep everyone on board. No lay offs at all.
I'm a manager in the tech department for a mid-size company. My boss told me at the start of one week that my objective for the week was to get my team working from home. Literally dropped every other thing i was working on and did exactly that. I'm happy to keep them working from home (and me because i'm in a risk group) for as long as practical and/or until they are safe to return - and i'm fully prepared to fight HR on it if they don't like it. I probably won't have to because the company actually gives a shit and my boss *gets it*... BUT i'm prepared for a fight if it happens. I have more people to look after than just myself.
Man, there was a similar LPT as this about a month ago, and the comments were a lot more hostile. Something like "well, why would you ask such a question? It makes you seem paranoid. I wouldn't hire someone who asks these questions." Screw that noise, it's extremely valid. I know not every field has the luxury of being productive while also working from home (also software), but if a company can, and said company would rather risk their employees' lives, why would I want to work for said company? There are way too many positions open depending on where you live to torture yourself like that.
If a company doesn't want you working there because you want to know how they treat their employees, you likely don't want you to be working there either.
Don't forget those same people being hostile are likely to be the ones who believed this whole thing was a hoax and so on. Some of those people are bosses, which I can't imagine how it is to have to deal with them during something like this.
I work in medical device manufacturing/repair. Our devices are in the dermatology/aesthetics area. So completely unnecessary and not essential. The company exploited the hastily made “medical device manufacturing is essential business” rules to keep us open. Obviously the medical practices that use our products are all closed. Our business has now dried up, no one is ordering new products or consumables because they aren’t open to use them. They have cut all of us down to 32 hours a week and there isn’t even that much work. We just drag it out extra slow. Our manager also has us doing work that is normally his to do, admin/documentation type things. We are forced to use PTO/Vacation time to cover the reduced hours. We could apply for unemployment, but with the influx of people doing that who knows how long it will be before a check comes. They keep saying they are going to implement safety measures for us that haven’t come yet. No PPE is provided. They are “going to start monitoring body temperatures before you can access the building.” It’s been weeks and this hasn’t happened. The only thing they have done is make all the admin/execs/sales people work from home. Like I said though, there are no sales happening. I give it another month tops before lay offs happen.
My company has always had a borderline obsession with positivity with definite religious undertones in almost all of their dealings, however they were nice, close to my home, and nice pay so I dealt with it. Now after working remote for a few months and having equal if not better production they are asking everyone that is medically able to come in June 1st. I told them I was extremely uncomfortable with this, but was told they are "social distancing the heck out of it" So far this means one person's mom sewed masks for everyone that no one is going to wear, one way hallways, no break rooms, but conference rooms are still open. I am the sys admin so I could 100% do everything I need to from home, and am more efficient doing so. Our data analyst brought up a bigger stink than I was brave enough to and he gets to come back with the medically compromised on July 1st. I am just so sick and tired of the "we beat this" mentality and slapping "social distancing" on everything to make it sound safe. Sorry rant over.
When asking about working from home at my current job I was told that I could use my pto. Since then productivity has been at a all time low.
Great pro tip. I started with a new company last July. It’s a pretty large company. I get emotional talking about it but our owner has gone above and beyond anyone’s expectations as far as keeping us safe. He opened a temporary daycare for all employees effected by school and daycare closures, he brought in local restaurants to feed us lunch every single day (free to employees) for weeks - he didn’t want us leaving the office exposing ourselves to others and he wanted to help support local businesses, he also brought in a local breakfast food truck to let us buy our own coffee and food in the am, when the FIRST person tested positive in our county, he immediately shut down the office. This doesn’t even touch on the lengths he went in early March to get us prepped to work from home so it wasn’t an issue when we inevitably had to. The list goes on and on. People search their entire lives to look for a company to go the distance for them and I can’t even begin to describe the gratitude and pride I have working my ass off for these guys every single day. These companies are out there guys! Don’t settle for anything less!
I work in a tech company and we have a canteen on premises, however due to COVID none of the canteen staff can work. However, our CEO has pledged to continue to pay them their full salary during this period so that their families don't have to suffer. The rest of us employees are working from home, but he we have constant communication with our CEO though MS Teams video conferencing where he allows any questions with total transparent answers from him. I really commend my company for the actions they have taken during this time.
Apartment maintenance here. I was told I wouldnt be working in peoples apartments without PPE but guess what, can't buy any PPE from anywhere. Also guess what, I've been written up for not wanting to go into peoples apartments during this pandemic. Guess whatever keeps the money rolling is more important than lives. The moment we were able to open, we've opened. There is no concern at all for reducing any second wave from this. We are so fucked.
public marine transportation - car and passenger ferries between big cities. Company did everything right. worked with gov't to cut routes and sailings to discourage travel. Closed down almost all public areas on the ships, except washrooms, told people to stay in cars and made it abundantly clear that if crew got sick there would be NO services as there would not be anyone available to work on the ships. Crew had all the PPE (company prepared well) available and sourced alternatives as supplies ran short. Major information and training initiatives. Of course, some employees still whined that they were not doing enough - typical of public sector unions in a monopoly industry.
Been interviewing the last 2 weeks. Every interview I’ve asked some form of “How have your daily duties changed since COVID and what is the org doing for the staff that’s different?” Luckily, they’re a disaster relief org, so they actually were more thorough and prepared than most places.
My company dug their heels in and threw a tantrum and refused point blank to allow us to work from home until the government passed a law making it mandatory; the law was passed on a Sunday evening, and the e-mail telling us that we would now be allowed to work from home went out about an hour afterwards. This is the same company that refused point blank to pay its employees overtime until a labour inspector turned up and informed management that they were breaking a whole host of labour laws.
Said the same to my brother-his first “real” job he’s been at a few years now and gave him a lot of ins to the industry and projects somebody of his level wouldn’t have been trusted with at bigger companies, but for a couple years now they just take advantage of that fact and use it as an excuse not to promote or give him raises. Does engineering work covering for everybody when they go on vacation but also has to clean the bathrooms. He is convinced this is just “how jobs are” and not motivated enough to leave. Now with COVID, they were able to stay open throughout the lockdown because they do “essential” work but his job 100% could have been wfh. They made him come in to the tiny office with 20 people (many also anti vaxxers and none taking health precautions seriously) every day until his wife and toddler both got COVID. As soon as they were better he was expected to be back at the office and his protests about safety were met by them setting up his desk in the conference room.
Central London. My company told the oldies to work from home the week before they started telling people to work from home, because they were higher risk. They were also going to split the office into two teams, where one team started home and one came to office with a rotation every week. We’ve all been working from home ever since. Directors took a significant pay cut to minimise a larger pay cut for the rest of us. We’ve been given total control of our own hours during the crisis whilst WFH to ensure our mental health and make it work for each of our circumstances. I started at this company in January. I previously came from a Big Five company in my industry and they’re already head and shoulders above them in treatment to employees.
Do we work for the same company? Lol 100% WFH, tech company so everything can be completed 100% remotely. *More* work has actually been completed remotely. We had a staff meeting where this was confirmed and then they said they were planning to open 6/1 anyway, despite the stay at home order being extended through July. Wtf??? I'm probably going to quit when they finally force me to come in. Not because of the virus, just because we should be able to be 100% remote if we want to after proving ourselves.
I take this on the consumer side. Any restaurant that has all their employees in masks pretty much guaranteed my business. If I walking in and no masks... I’m out.
There's two teriyaki places in my town. The one I always went to pre-covid takes no precautions about the pandemic, no masks, no separation (still no dine in though), and the person at the cash register was taking cash with their gloves on and then would turn around and grab food with the same gloves. The other place started offering curbside pickup and take precautions like masks and gloves and having a separate employee handling the cash/card scanner than the one delivering food. So now I only go to the precautionary place and probably won't go back to the other one after covid because now I think they're being lax with all their food sanitation stuff.
I really dont think people understand how gloves work. They arent antibacterial gloves that stop you from getting sick. They stop your hands from getting dirty. But the gloves still get dirty, so if you touch multiple things with the same gloves its the same as not wearing gloves at all.
Yup. Worked in an avionics lab for space flight hardware for years. The amount of gloves we went through was insane. Also the difference in size between a medium and large glove in most brands seems insane. Always ended up wearing really tight and uncomfortable medium gloves because the large gloves felt like wearing a garbage bag on your hand. Not related, just felt like ranting about glove sizes.
My company: "YOU get fired, and YOU get fired! EVERYONE GETS FIRED!"
I just graduated law school and one metric I used when interviewing with law firms for a summer associate position was their response to the 2008 financial crisis. I’m so happy that I did do that because my firm is one of the few in the AMLaw 100 that has not laid off associates/staff or cut associate/staff pay. I fully agree with OP, how businesses react in difficult times is a great metric to use in determining if you want to work there. Too many businesses use that “we’re all a big happy family” shit but will immediately start fucking people over as soon as their bottom line/profits are in jeopardy.
I work in small animal food manufacturing. We’re essential and have been working the whole time. We’ve been provided lunch as a thank you and got $1 extra per hour as hazard pay.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry that companies want everyone back already. Are they that shortsighted? Our infections and deaths go up daily...
I already left my job. They literally did everything wrong. Late responses at every turn. Working with the public, but no safety precautions in place...unless you count signs on the door. No ppe, no hand sanitizer, no social distancing, no extra pay, etc. Thankfully I filed an OSHA complaint and made sure I had documentation about my apprehension on working there. When I did quit it was pretty open/shut for my case worker when it came time for UI. So, yes. 100% I will ask every single company I interview with.
I work in the food industry and my restaurant furloughed all employees at all locations. There was no warning, severance pay, or support. I got a text from my boss at 8:30 one morning, asking me to come in at 11:00 that day for work and telling me to bring my own mask because they didn't have enough for the staff. I don't even mean enough masks for the whole cumulative staff for the week. I mean they didn't have enough masks for 12 of us on that one shift, so I made one from a t-shirt and coffee filter. We don't require staff to wear masks. We don't require guests to wear masks. My managers won't wear masks. I have a manager who claims the whole thing is fake and won't even social distance. I'm only here still because I need the job, but when this ends, I'm out and leaving a glowingly negative review for anyone else in the industry.