Companies Doing Right by Their Employees

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve seen a lot of threads about how companies have screwed their employees, especially during the current crisis. Here’s a thread about companies doing right by their employees.

I don’t want to go into too many identifying details, but I work for a major diagnostic lab company. COVID-19 testing volume, of course, has gone through the roof. But overall testing volume went down enormously. People were deferring, delaying, or canceling routine and elective procedures left and right. My company’s overall testing volume was down 40% in March.

In response, they furloughed a lot of workers, cut back the hours of most hourly workers, and imposed pay cuts on salaried workers. They also suspended 401k matching contributions for all employees.

The furlough terms were pretty good, though. Furloughed employees kept their health benefits, with the company paying both the employer’s and the employee’s share of the premiums, for the duration of the furlough. Furloughed employees continued to accrue Paid Time Off as if they were working their previously schedule (they couldn’t use the PTO while on furlough, of course). Furloughed employees also retained their seniority, and while the company wouldn’t guarantee that they would eventually be hired back, they did guarantee that if they did, it would be in their previous position or a near equivalent, with no reduction in pay.

I personally had my hours cut by 2.5 hours a week. Others had deeper cuts.

But, our testing volumes are going back up. Locally, they were probably down by even more than the company’s overall volumes - I’d guestimate they were down at least 50%, maybe 60% a couple of weeks ago. But they’ve been dramatically increasing last week, and more and more practices are going back to normal schedules. We’re probably at 80% of our pre-crisis volumes locally, and growing every day.

I was informed this week that I’m back to a full 40 hours per week next week. Many furloughed workers will be coming back next week as well.

And my company has just announced that all “front-line” personnel - basically all hourly workers and low-level salaried workers - over 20,000 total - will be getting a $500 bonus next month.

So, at least some companies are doing right by their employees.

2

My company sent office workers to work from home at the end of February, before shutdowns were announced. Those folks who didn’t have a company-issued laptop were told to take their desktop computer, monitor, etc. Right now, we’re scheduled to go back in the middle of July. The warehouse workers haven’t had their hours cut, although business is down a bit (we distribute pharma). The company is providing (and requiring) masks, staggering schedules, doing what they can to insure the safety of the warehouse workers.

StG

3

My company is giving every employee a $2 “hazard pay” bonus for every hour worked during the crisis. That may not sound like much, but for a full time employee that’s over $320/month, and anyone who wants overtime can have it so it can be even more than that.

Testing costs, paid leave while in quarantine, and medical costs for covid-19 related issues is covered for everyone, even part-timers (who usually get no medical benefits) and newcomers from day one.

Unpaid leave is offered to anyone who either has a medical issue making working with a lot of public contact extremely hazardous, or for stress related causes, or just because they want some time off away from the stress of work. Many of my co-workers have taken these, some have returned, and the company seems to not hold any of it against anyone.

No lack of hand sanitizer, masks, gloves, sneezeguards, etc. All available upon request, most placed at “touch points” and convenient stations around the store.

Free meals to all employees at least once a week, sometimes more.

It’s not a perfect place to work, but not bad either. There’s no way to make working there as safe as staying at home, but I’m not sure what more they could be doing.

4

The roofer we had out to make an estimate on some roof repairs said that he was paying his guys an additional $5 an hour “hazard pay”, just to put up with the goggles/face mask/gloves rigamarole.

5

Eldest got sick while traveling (in Singapore). His company paid for all Dr visits, all hotel costs, and a first class pod to get him home and avoid close contact with other passengers. This was after Docs said he was safe to travel. In addition, any employee traveling to (or near) areas with substantial Covid exposure gets hazard pay of 1.5X normal pay. Also, all their meals are company-provided and catered so no need to leave hotel rooms at all.

Wife’s company agreed to WFH very early, and provided all employees with fancy workstations for home use (no need to use your own PC). Implemented new policy that any illness-related problems, including child care issues, would allow WFH from here forward. Return to work will be half-shift in offices to ensure distancing, while other half at home. Alternate which half each week (I hope this makes sense).

Some companies are trying to do the right thing, we just don’t hear about them in the news.

6

I just got called back to work. I work in an auto parts factory that belongs to a Large Independent Parts Supplier, and we’ve been laid off since March 20th. I applied for EI (Canadian unemployment insurance) in the usual way, then the next week the federal government announced the Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB), and my in-process application was automatically transferred to that. Then a few weeks later, the company announced that they were going to bring many employees back and start paying them 75% of their wages under the newly-announced Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), instead of being on EI/CERB. So I’ve been getting that for the last month. So in a way, it’s been a little like a two-month paid holiday… if you ignore the “can’t go anywhere” thing and the headlines every night.

Yesterday I got an email saying I was going back to work on Monday the 1st of June. So next EI report I fill out, I’ll be able to tick that happy box that says “returned to work”.

And we had an orientation today about all the elaborate safety precautions we have to take. We got our first week’s supply of masks, and we have to wear them when arriving or leaving or moving around the plant, anywhere except when we’re at a workstation that is sufficiently far away from the next worker on the assembly line. Or at lunch.

Before we arrive, we have to take our temperatures and fill in a screening questionnaire. Questions include: What is your temperature? (<38C = good. 38C or above = not so good.) Do you have a new or worsened fever? A new or worsened cough? The questionnaire is provided via an app, via a web page on the company-internal network, on the company’s outward-facing website, or via a paper form at the screening tent at the entrance. If you use the app, it goes green, yellow, or red depending on what the results were. Red? Do not go to work. Yellow: Go to work, but a temperature check is needed there. Green: Go to work, no problem.

There was instruction on how to put on and remove gloves and masks.

There are markings on the floor showing how far apart we must be in lineup areas (like at the time clocks). Half the seats in the lunchrooms have been removed, and there are plastic barriers between the ones that remain. We have to go in one door and out another. And the back half of the plant has two other doors to do through. Truckers are no longer allowed to enter the plant; their washrooms and cleanup facilities have been moved outside.

All the timeclocks are going to facial recognition so we don’t have to touch them. Internal doors are propped open so we don’t have to touch them. (Must ask about fire safety… in my old job, the internal doors were on maglocks so that they would fall closed when the fire alarm went off.)

I have to give credit to the company for the incredible job they have been doing in communicating all this to us. People at Corporate have been working overtime figuring out what to do, implementing it, and telling us. (Apparently there has been a lot of coordination about this across the automotive industry.)

And they have been going through adventures doing it. We heard a story during the orientation today about when they went to get hand sanitizer to stock the production floor. They could get the sanitizer no problem, but only in large containers. Small pump-squirt bottles were nowhere to be found. So they bought small pump-squirt bottles of liquid soap, removed the soap, and replaced it with sanitizer. (I do not know what they did with the soap.)

7

My employer gave everyone a $600 bonus and the front-line people who have to work at a company location (eg: tellers, network operations, etc.) is getting another $1000. For people who could start working from home, there was a huge technology initiative to get people set up with laptops and remote access. Not 100% sure, but it was a huge number of laptops imaged and distributed along with remote access tokens in about one week. Pretty sure I saw it was over 50,000 laptops. At the same time, they doubled the capacity of the remote access servers to accommodate all the new users.

AFAIK, nobody out of 280,000 people has been let go. There were also some tweaks to health insurance and PTO - recall that if an employee actually got Covid19, they’d get a “bonus” two weeks PTO so they could rest and recover. No idea how many, if any, people have needed that.

8

$2.00 extra an hour that has been extended twice, now to the end of August.

$500.00 bonus if I make it to the end of the month without missing work.

If you do get covid or need to self-quarantine, 2 weeks company paid, plus another 2 weeks paid under another program if needed.

Plus giving away product on orders that got cancelled/reduced that have expiration dates.

We do need to put up with face masks, multiple temperature checks during the day, social distancing at work that makes work sometimes much more difficult.

9

We just got a $1000 bonus for sticking with and through the reduced hours and having really good attitudes about everything.

10

Public school teacher - our district is including a bonus in our July 1 paychecks to pay for the high-speed internet we needed to switch to Distance Learning.

11

I had just started a new salaried job on March 1 when all this started. It is in a new office that opened the same day so all of us were brand new (except the manager who transferred from another office) working on a dedicated account for a client that shut its doors in late March. The client was entirely closed for several weeks with no need for our service.

The new company has gone above and beyond. They have kept the office staff on a full salary even while reducing hours and days worked. We used the opportunity to work on procedures and do some training to be ready when things came back online. Other workers were offered reassignment to assist other offices or furlough with full health benefits.

We are slowly coming back as the client has resumed limited operations and is ramping up production. We have used the interim period to move from a temporary site to out new permanent location. We are ready to go as night shifts resume next week.

The home office sent everyone home to WFH. They have started bring back to the office only those who have individual offices and have delayed others as they want to be sure they handle the return to the office carefully.

12

We got Tuesday after Memorial Day as “the situation sucks, have an extra vacation day” bonus.

Brian

13

Almost all of our office staff shifted to work from home. Other than that, nothing much has changed. Before all of this, I spent almost no time at the office. I work out of a service truck and all of my calls are scheduled electronically. There are client sites that require a mask and gloves, and a few sites that just do not allow access at all. For the most part though, my job has not changed al all.

112 days and a wake up, and it won’t matter anymore. Retirement is looking great.

14

We also have 10 “crisis leave” days. I’m going to struggle with taking my normal vacation days (it is use it or lose it*) so no help for me. So far I have take 1.5 days off this year – and my planned vacation events are cancelled. I just requested my birthday off.

Brian
*I’m hoping that gets modified, if not there will be nobody at work in December

15

This week my company announced that it is modifying its “use it or lose it” stance on paid time off, allowing some carry-over this year.

16

Just got an all-hands email that mentioned 80,000 new remote users. :eek: Just in practical terms, I’m amazed that there were 80,000 new remote access tokens and laptops available to deploy in about a week’s time.

17

I feel my old company “did right by their employees” to the extent that they could. Basically everyone got to work remotely starting in early March (although we already had a strong work from home culture). Now unfortunately we also had massive layoffs earlier this month. But even only being there not quite a year, I received three months salary as severance, they accelerated the vesting of my stock grants (worth about another three months salary), and they are paying for six months of COBRA health coverage. Although I think I would have preferred to not have to find a new job.

18

I’m retired from the federal government, and my old boss told me that the whole division was working from home. My daughter’s retail outlet shut down in mid-March and sent everyone home on full pay (health insurance not an issue for Canada). She only went back to work this week with the loosening of restrictions on retail.

19

I have continued to receive my full pay and even some bonus money twice. The most I have actually worked since March 27 is about 10 hours per week. One two week period I only worked 6 hours total. I don’t think I will return to work for at least another month.

20

I have auto and homeowners insurance through Nationwide. A month ago Nationwide announced a $50 rebate to all paid-up policy holders, across the board. I received my check a week or so ago. A refund from an insurance company!!? It’s nice to see some in corporate America are doing a good thing.

P.S. I am not affiliated with Nationwide, other than as a policyholder.