The great resignation—where is the hired help?

[AMS417]

We identified a new problem...

Government COVID relief funding is drying up but people are still getting sick (it's really spiked in my area). Employees aren't allowed to show up to work with COVID. So they can either use PTO or just take the days off work unpaid.

Employees get 2 weeks PTO per year, and no sick days (basically sick days can be used as PTO so there's no incentive to being sick or lying about it). There has always been more than fair wages and bonuses — there's no reason why somebody couldn't pay their living expenses and have a savings account. Some employees use their PTO as soon as they earn it, but now that they're getting sick with COVID (no cases have spread because of work) and taking off 10-14 days on average they aren't able to get paid for. The people getting sick so far are those who are eating out regularly, going to social gatherings, and traveling to visit family. There are some trying to avoid getting sick and have highly altered their lives since covid started. We'd like to be fair to everyone regardless of their personal choices.

This is causing issues where these employees getting sick can't afford to pay their everyday bills.

So what's a company to do?

1) Withhold pay to create a "savings account" for each employee? (and don't let them manage their own money)
2) Pay employees who get sick so they can cover their bills? (and incentivize getting sick)
3) Let the employees not make ends meet and possibly quit their jobs because it doesn't matter anyway? (and then the company won't have jobs to offer to anyone)

Back when there was COVID relief funding, employees still got paid for being sick and the government reimbursed the company.

Fortunate to work for a company that funds all employees short / long term disability. We also grandfathered all accrued sick time when we moved to a PTO system. When I had Covid I was off work for 6 weeks. I used zero PTO and continued to get paid at 60% of my base salary.

In this era, something like this should be standard.

 

[toximus]

Fortunate to work for a company that funds all employees short / long term disability. We also grandfathered all accrued sick time when we moved to a PTO system. When I had Covid I was off work for 6 weeks. I used zero PTO and continued to get paid at 60% of my base salary.

In this era, something like this should be standard.

This is a type of insurance or something the company is doing on the side?

How do you stop the people who get "sick" twice a month from abusing it when they'd rather sleep in that week?

 

[AMS417]

This is a type of insurance or something the company is doing on the side?

How do you stop the people who get "sick" twice a month from abusing it when they'd rather sleep in that week?

Short / long term disability is insurance that the company pays for each employee. You cannot use it unless you have a justified medical necessity. When you make a claim they evaluate it and cut you a check for the time you are expected to be away from work. Mine ran over that time and they cut an additional check to pay me out when I returned to work. It does not come from company payroll.

If you have grandfathered sick time (tenured employees who accrued it prior to the PTO change over) you can only access it if you qualify for short / long term disability. I had the max banked when they made the change, 30 days of accrued sick time.

Any normal "sick" days you have to burn PTO. People still call out, but they are burning what could be vacation days to do it.

I think its a good balance. They paid me grandfathered sick time to cover the week prior to my short term kicking in, and paid me two days of grandfathered sick time per week I was off to cover my benefits withholdings including healthcare, HSA account, 401k etc.

They also have an employee grant program for anyone with medial needs, car accidents, house fires, losing a family member, storm damages etc. I applied when I was in the hospital and they sent a grant via Venmo in under 24 hours. It was a large enough sum to carry most families for a couple weeks.

They seem to really be working on living up to the "we care about our employees" statement. I have seen a lot of positive changes in 21 years. The work is still hard, but they don't beat people to the breaking point like they did when I was just starting out.

This business is primarily warehouse and distribution focused on B2B sales.

 

[AndyG]

I spent many years waving cash to the bank manager Friday afternoon from my personnel account so my employees online ahead of me would have their paychecks cash. My record was 26 straight weeks of no paycheck written to myself - never rewritten. I know the saying is pay yourself first, but I can't live like that, the employees did their job...they get paid.

That is the truth. Pay yourself first is good for a savings philosophy, but it will make you hated or get you killed in small business. You sir are a winner. What you did says it all.