VUCA in reality is here! Staying Safe, Staying Healthy!

We’re all just humans, doing what we believe is the best, in need of blessings as we traverse these unknown waters.

Let’s support each other to be safe by following suggestions given by the government, encouraging our corporations to put guidelines in place that help us avert illness, and taking the safety measures needed to stay healthy while doing our jobs. As worrying and anxiety-provoking as things may get, let’s keep treating one another kindly and respectfully, too.

When we travel to work, we listen to apprises on the spread of the corona-virus. More people quarantined, more schools shut down, more deaths recorded, and more areas impacted.

What can you do? How do you react?

First and foremost is to NOT panic!

You already may have a pretty good sense of best practices around prevention, you may be grappling with the logistics and interpersonal fears correlated with working in the midst of a pandemic.

We are attempting herewith to answer some questions about navigating work during this global health emergency. While this is by no means a comprehensive resource guide, it is a set of actions that might help initiate the right actions at this sensitive juncture.

No policy or plan?

Part of our role as HR is ensuring people feel safe at work. A formal corporate policy is the most important way to protect employees at times like these.

I believe it is up to companies to do everything they can to protect their workers, not just for obvious health reasons but also for the health of their business. I think it is absolutely fair to go to HR or management and say that other companies are disseminating their policies for this pandemic and you would like to know what they are planning to communicate, in case your organization has not shared any information as yet.

You are well within your rights to ask for this information—as well as for periodic updates—and your HR team will hopefully tell you they are working on it and will be releasing more information shortly. If not, you might help spur them to start formulating those plans or to reassess and send out an update.

Formal greeting at work?

A handshake has long been a customary greeting especially in business settings. But given how frequently people touch their noses and mouths, even when they know they shouldn’t, and considering how inadequately they may be washing their hands, even if they’re trying to be better—the potential for disease transmission probably isn’t worth the risk right now.

In fact, many companies have made their offices officially no-handshake zones.

Travel for work?

Many corporations are suspending non-essential business travel to international and even domestic locations for the time being, and most are working to address employee concerns about travel where they can. If you’re worried about the safety of upcoming work travel, bring those concerns to your Supervisor / HR and see what they say.

If you / your colleague might be going ahead with a trip, you can inquire about safety measures being taken and what the plan is if you are all of a sudden quarantined or contract the virus while traveling on business.

Co-worker appears to be sick.

A sick co-worker is a concern no matter what, but this is especially true today while a highly contagious virus is spreading around the world.

Organizations can support their employees during this time by reminding everyone about keeping their colleagues healthy. Reporting about your colleague to your Supervisor / HR would be the right thing to do. Provide employees with the guidelines for hygiene and hand washing, stock-up on hand sanitizer, step up efforts to keep the offices clean, and emphasize that any employee who feels sick should stay home.

I think I’ve been exposed and am concerned – how do I tell this at work?

While no one wants to get sick right now, the good news is the symptoms of COVID-19 (the illness caused by the corona-virus) are relatively minor for the vast majority of people. Some may not even get sick at all.

But that’s also why it’s important to take exposure into consideration, not just symptoms. If you’ve been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, your doctor or local health department may recommend self-quarantine and monitoring depending on your level of risk.

That means you might end up needing to stay home from work for two weeks—information you obviously need to communicate to your management team. If your company has set out instructions around who to reach out to and how, follow those guidelines. But in general, this is an issue you should address both over the phone and in writing. to inform them of your exposure and agree on next steps.

I may need to / want to start working from home at some point.

While working remotely simply isn’t an option in every line of businesses, companies (and employees) that can make it work should be seriously considering and embracing the opportunity to do so now.

You can reach out to your supervisor and request to work remotely even if your company hasn’t set a policy. Once you’ve had a conversation about possibly working remotely, set up the tools you’d need to work from home effectively.

If you and many of your colleagues do end up working from home, there are a few things you can do to stay on top of things and be as productive as possible. It would be advised that employees do video check-ins daily to stay current, leverage company communication tools to support one another in completing tasks and respond to clients with the same level of commitment as we do when we are physically in the office.

Working from home may become a necessity not even just because of illness, or the avoidance of illness, but because more schools are closing their doors due to outbreak risks every day. We should be aware that if schools get shut down, parents might need to take calls with some little voices in the background.

Let’s give everyone a little extra grace during this time for being humans as well as co-workers.

Stay safe, stay healthy and pray for speedy return to normalcy!

Best Wishes from @HeRitAGE People Practices.