2019 Novel Coronavirus

[mudpuppy]

So my work just announced our COVID19 policy.  No business related international travel.  (We're a domestic company so this isn't really a big deal.)  If you or anyone in your household travels to any of the countries on the CDC list, you can't come to work for 14 days.  If you can't work remote, you get a paid vacation.

The countries on the list as of right now are China, Iran, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Hong Kong.

 

[jeb6294]

So my work just announced our COVID19 policy.  No business related international travel.  (We're a domestic company so this isn't really a big deal.)  If you or anyone in your household travels to any of the countries on the CDC list, you can't come to work for 14 days.  If you can't work remote, you get a paid vacation.

The countries on the list as of right now are China, Iran, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Hong Kong.

I guessing a lot of people are suddenly going to have family members just getting back from China....

 

[txjennah PE]

So my work just announced our COVID19 policy.  No business related international travel.  (We're a domestic company so this isn't really a big deal.)  If you or anyone in your household travels to any of the countries on the CDC list, you can't come to work for 14 days.  If you can't work remote, you get a paid vacation.

The countries on the list as of right now are China, Iran, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Hong Kong.

My company banned all non-essential travel...since we are global, it is for domestic travel too.  

 

[RBHeadge PE]

The Chinese are getting a handle on this virus and have been achieving good results with a non-drug, non-Chinese herbs protocol.

Not sure about that, but extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is doing a great job.

So my work just announced our COVID19 policy.  No business related international travel.  

Pretty similar here. International travel is restricted and there are controls on why happens after returning. I'm half expecting limits on domestic travel to come in few weeks.

 

[Road Guy]

I have a feeling we all got a similar memo that was blessed by the CDC, did everyone's come out around 4 PM yesterday?

Our is travel only in US and Canada, we have a lot of people that go to Vancouver from my office (one of them used to be me) which sees a ton of travel to Asia - hopefully Canada is limiting travel to China and other places in Asia.

 

[ulua808]

Not sure about that, but extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is doing a great job.

Looks promising, but would probably not be available for a low totem pole nobody like me.

 

[RBHeadge PE]

I have a feeling we all got a similar memo that was blessed by the CDC, did everyone's come out around 4 PM yesterday?

checks email

yep, 4PM exact.

Looks promising, but would probably not be available for a low totem pole nobody like me.

Yeah, unfortunately it's not widely available in the US, and its not clear that we can scale up quickly either.

 

[JayKay PE]

I have a feeling we all got a similar memo that was blessed by the CDC, did everyone's come out around 4 PM yesterday?

Our is travel only in US and Canada, we have a lot of people that go to Vancouver from my office (one of them used to be me) which sees a ton of travel to Asia - hopefully Canada is limiting travel to China and other places in Asia.

Did not get a CDC blessed memo, but I work in a medical facility, so we've been getting a ton of VA-specific stuff for the VAMCs.

We don't travel as much, I guess?

 

[Tiger15]

We're an international company with 3 facilities in China, so we've been getting emails for months now. Honestly the communication has been really good.. better than most media outlets.

The necessity of all travel needs to be evaluated and blessed by your manager. We're limiting non-essential travel, but we're allowed to travel as necessary. We have hundreds of account managers and application engineers who do nothing but visit customer sites. I'm pretty sure they are traveling as needed, but restricted/limited in specific countries.

 

[txjennah PE]

Travel is completely restricted for us if non-essential, even conferences (unless conferences are local).

 

[Road Guy]

maybe we should just treat this like the chicken pox and get it over with.. I dont like a long engagement!

 

[Dleg]

I've seen some good projections / forecasts, if you will, that show the value of stretching this thing out as much as possible. The purpose would be to prevent a sudden surge of cases that would overwhelm hospital capacity. That's what is turning out to be the main factor behind the mortality rate in Wuhan - the stadnard of care dropped because there wasn't enough hospital space or health care workers to deal with the influx. Outside Wuhan, the rate has been around 0.7%, according to a story I heard this morning.  So staying home, not traveling, etc. would assist with stretching out the peak of the outbreak, which would potentially save tens (hundreds?) of thousands of lives.

The other thing we can hope for is the effectiveness of the ebola drug remdesivir (sp?). It's being tested now, including a mission underway now with US personnel treating patients in Japan.

 

[csb]

"My internet-friend said I should go home."

 

[Road Guy]

For anyone who ever went to spring break at Panama City

 

[Dleg]

I've got to wonder if this COVID-19 pandemic will be the end of the whole "paid time off" scam.  I hope it is.  I always thought that the whole PTO thing was a stupid idea, at least from a public health perspective. I'm sure it seemed like the greatest invention ever to the HR people who thought it up, though. "Hey, I've got a great idea to end the abuse of sick leave: let's not give them any, and require them to use their vacation time!"

My first experience with PTO was at my last workplace, which was a Native Health Care organization. These were employees who should absolutely have never come in to work while sick, but they did all the time because they didn't want to "waste" their PTO, or they had vacation plans, etc. etc.  

Need to just go back to sick leave and annual leave as two separate things.

 

[JayKay PE]

I've got to wonder if this COVID-19 pandemic will be the end of the whole "paid time off" scam.  I hope it is.  I always thought that the whole PTO thing was a stupid idea, at least from a public health perspective. I'm sure it seemed like the greatest invention ever to the HR people who thought it up, though. "Hey, I've got a great idea to end the abuse of sick leave: let's not give them any, and require them to use their vacation time!"

My first experience with PTO was at my last workplace, which was a Native Health Care organization. These were employees who should absolutely have never come in to work while sick, but they did all the time because they didn't want to "waste" their PTO, or they had vacation plans, etc. etc.  

Need to just go back to sick leave and annual leave as two separate things.

As someone who recently went from private (where PTO was a single bucket) to public (where sick and vacation are split), there are still people who will do exactly what you said.  I've seen people come in who are like, dying, but have no sick time because they kept using it for 'hangover Mondays', so they technically have to come in.  Idk.  I really think something like unlimited sick time should be a standard, or some kinda of ridiculous amount per year (like 3 or 4 weeks), that DOESN'T roll over.  When it rolls over I've found people tend to..hoard hours?  Unless there is a financial reason to have the hours, they shouldn't be allowed to roll over.

 

[Orchid PE]

At my last company, people could save up to 1040 hours of sick leave. Yes, 6 months of sick leave. We only got 2 weeks a year, but if you didn't use it you could save it. Most people didn't use sick leave until they built this up, which took 13 years.

Here at my current company, I only have PTO (combined vacation and sick). I'm trying to save as much as possible since I'll have to use this when the baby comes in July. It's not like my old company that gave 2 weeks of parental leave to new fathers (that's in addition to the normal vacation and sick leave given).

Previous company was private, current company is public.

 

[jeb6294]

As someone who recently went from private (where PTO was a single bucket) to public (where sick and vacation are split), there are still people who will do exactly what you said.  I've seen people come in who are like, dying, but have no sick time because they kept using it for 'hangover Mondays', so they technically have to come in.  Idk.  I really think something like unlimited sick time should be a standard, or some kinda of ridiculous amount per year (like 3 or 4 weeks), that DOESN'T roll over.  When it rolls over I've found people tend to..hoard hours?  Unless there is a financial reason to have the hours, they shouldn't be allowed to roll over.

I'll have to check and see if it's still the case, but I know hoarding sick time was the norm for Gov't people once upon a time because it could be used towards your retirement while regular time off could not.  Ironically, we just got the email today about procedures for donating use-or-lose time and the list of people in our department who are eligible.

 

[jeb6294]

Article by Chelsea Clinton: https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/24/opinions/trump-us-coronavirus-prepared-clinton-sridhar/index.html

In the meantime, more people in America have died trying to testify against her mom than the Coronavirus has killed.

 

[csb]

We get separate sick and vacation. There's a limit to how many vacation you can roll over each year, but no limit to sick leave. I'll hit 600 hours of sick leave next month if I stay healthy this month. I have more than a few guys with 1000+ hours. I view it as "If/When I get cancer, I'll need a lot of time." We also can get paid for half that amount when we retire, though I think that max is viewed as 1000 hours (so you get paid for 500). We accrue sick at one day a month. Vacation is a sliding scale based on years of experience; I earn two days a month.