Boomer Opinion: How do we get back to business?
November 25, 2020 Boomer
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As we finally look toward the end of the coronavirus crisis, one
of the next critical problems our society will face is getting back to
business. That’s where entrepreneur Howard Tullman comes in. He is the former executive
director of the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech
Entrepreneurship at the Illinois Institute of Technology. And he’s been
thinking about the problems… and the answers we need before it happens.
According to Gallup, about 58% of Americans have indicated that they plan to get vaccinated when one or more of the vaccines becomes available. This percentage will likely increase over the next few months, especially after we have a new president who isn’t a liar and a denier.
But it’s fair to assume that 30% or more of the population won’t
be in any hurry to step up for the shot and that there’s zero likelihood that
the vaccination procedure will ever be made mandatory at any level. If you
think any kind of consistent state or national mask-wearing mandate is going to
be difficult if not impossible to enforce, you can’t begin to imagine how
challenging a mandatory vaccine would be.
Since first responders and many others (seniors, etc.) will be at
the head of the line, a realistic estimate for relatively easy access to the
necessary shot or shots is probably around May or June, which is roughly the
current target that many companies have suggested for bringing groups of
employees back to their offices. So, there’s going to be some time before the
crunch and obviously a substantial number of people who now work from home
don’t plan to ever be more than an occasional visitor again to their former
offices.
But that doesn’t really get them off the hook in terms of what
they need to do for both their own good and, more importantly, to help protect
the business. Which might mean, your business.
If it does, then now’s the time to start thinking about how you’re
going to insulate your business and your employees, vendors, essential service providers,
and customers from the active anti-vaxers and other
less overt refuseniks who may be in your midst. The one thing
you can be absolutely certain of is that you’re not going to get much help,
guidance or even direction from the government. I suppose in another life and
time there might be a government that would insist that if you want to travel
on a plane, you have to produce actual proof that you have been vaccinated in a
timely fashion. But it’s never gonna happen in the U.S.— at least not for
domestic trips.
And if it’s not going to happen for air travel, with the complete TSA infrastructure already in place, you can be sure that there won’t be any easy solution forthcoming for a place of business.
At best, it’s more likely that we may see some prohibitions about
what employers cannot do rather than anything instructive in the way of rules
and regulations to help deal with this utterly unforeseen and complicated
situation. It’s a real chicken-and-egg problem because it’s going to be very
difficult to assure employees that they’ll have a safe, clean, and secure work
environment without taking active and continuing steps to make sure that
unvaccinated and possibly contagious asymptomatic employees and visitors aren’t
walking around the place.
I’m not sure that there’s any substantial advice on these questions because the situation is going to be so fluid and the political environment is already so highly charged that in every city and state there will be pronouncements, orders, sporadic enforcement, and generally rampant confusion from struggling politicians trying to placate competing and contrary constituencies.
Sadly, nothing we have experienced to date during the pandemic has
led to any real consensus or understanding. At best we’ve learned that delay
and obfuscation won’t help. We’ve also learned that it’s far more important to
know all the questions and concerns than it is to pretend to have all the
answers. Ultimately, it will fall on the owners and managers of each business
to decide how best to approach the problems and to cope with the consequences.
So, what are some of the critical questions you might need to be
considering? I’d start with these:
1.
WFH (work from home) has extended the workday well into the
evening for so many workers because the whole team often can’t get together
during regular 9-to-5 hours due to other commitments. What do I do about comp
and overtime issues?
2.
If I’m running the business, can I require my employees to return
to the office as of a certain date and time? What are my remedies for those who
refuse? What if they claim that they are sick with the virus?
3.
Can I require my returning employees to be vaccinated before they
return, assuming that I am willing to cover any costs? What are my remedies for
those who refuse to be vaccinated, but state that they are willing to return to
work?
4.
Will my current sick leave and personal day policies need to be
changed or amended especially if there are third-party orders and directions
with respect to these policies. An analogy here might be the suspension of
evictions and of utility cutoffs that many cities have announced and adopted.
5.
What are my obligations and requirements regarding notification?
Do I need to publish and distribute our vaccination policy? Do I need to advise
all my returning employees of any other in-house employees who test positive,
and when? Does a single positive test mean I need to return to some WFH
formulation?
No easy questions. No simple answers. And we haven’t even
addressed the issues with customers, clients, vendors, and essential outside
providers.
We’re all in this together searching for a comprehensive solution
and yet, at the moment, we’re all on our own and it’s every entrepreneur for
themselves.
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Howard is author and co-author of several books, including his
newest, “You Can’t Win a Race With Your
Mouth: And 299 Other Expert Tips from a Lifelong Entrepreneur.”
