You commute to work listening to updates on
the spread of the new coronavirus. More people quarantined, more schools shut
down, more deaths recorded, and more areas impacted.
You’re trying to keep a level head and not
panic, doing as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advises by practicing good hygiene:
washing your hands, not touching your face, frequently cleaning surfaces you come
into contact with, and coughing or sneezing into a tissue and immediately
throwing it away (followed by washing your hands again).
But then you enter your shared office to find
your officemate in the midst of a coughing fit. You go to use the restroom and
watch another one of your coworkers lightly rinse their hands under the water,
no soap, before exiting. You come back to an email about a mandatory meeting in
the cramped conference room for all employees, which you read as your
officemate coughs once more.
How do you react? What can you do?
While you might already have a pretty good
sense of best practices around prevention, you may be struggling with the
logistics and interpersonal concerns (read: awkward situations) associated with
working in the midst of a near-pandemic.
That’s why we’re here to answer your pressing
questions about navigating work during this global health emergency.
What If My Company Hasn’t Shared a Policy or Plan?
Sara Axelbaum is the global head of inclusion
and diversity at MiQ, a marketing intelligence corporation with
offices around the world. Part of her role is ensuring people feel safe at
work. A formal corporate policy—like the one Axelbaum recently helped develop
for her company—is the most important way to protect employees at this time,
she says.
“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. It won’t be good for anyone if an entire company
is quarantined,” she explains.
If your company hasn’t yet
started sharing information about how they plan to address coronavirus
concerns, Axelbaum says it’s time to ask. “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.”
Don’t be afraid of rocking the boat. Asking
for more information is as simple as sending a brief email to HR (or in a very
small company, your boss or office manager) that says: “I’ve been watching the
news and I know some companies are coming up with plans for how to prevent the
spread of coronavirus—policies for handwashing, staying home when ill, and even
working from home if it comes to that. Are we creating similar policies and
plans? And if so, when will those be communicated to employees?”
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.
“Your coworkers will be grateful that you
stepped up to ask for what they all benefit from,” Axelbaum says. “Just don’t
assume someone else will do it. They are probably assuming the same thing.”
What If My Coworker Appears to Be Sick?
A sick coworker is a concern no matter what,
but this is especially true if you’re working in tight quarters while a highly
contagious virus is spreading around the world.
“The best way a company can support their
employees during this time is to remind everyone about keeping their fellow
coworkers healthy,” Axelbaum says. To that end, MiQ has provided employees with
the guidelines for hygiene and hand washing, stocked up on hand sanitizer,
stepped up their efforts to keep the offices clean, and emphasized that any
employee who feels sick should stay home.
But what if your company hasn’t communicated
the same commitment? Or what if they have and your colleagues don’t seem to be
following the recommendations? How do you deal with a coworker coughing all
over the office?
If you’re close to this coworker, it’s
possible you could approach them yourself and suggest they head home until they
feel better. But if that’s not an option, it’s perfectly acceptable to express
your concerns to your supervisor or HR team. You could simply say, “I know John
is working hard, but it seems like he’s not feeling very well. Is it possible
to ask him to work from home until he’s no longer running a fever or coughing?
I’m concerned about him infecting others in the office.”
These can feel like awkward conversations to
have. But it’s the job of leadership and HR teams to provide a safe work
environment to all employees—and they’re trained to address thorny issues like
these.
What If My Coworkers Aren’t Washing Their Hands Properly?
It’s never fun to realize someone you interact
with on the regular tends to be a little lax with handwashing, but it’s even
more concerning with coronavirus on the run. So how should you respond if you
catch a coworker skipping out on the soap?
“Once a company has set forth the policy for
expectations, everyone should be expected to follow the policy as one would any
company-wide protocol,” Axelbaum says. “Should anyone have a concern about an
employee not following any code of conduct, it should be reported to a manager
or HR.”
Which again means your first step should be
asking HR about a policy if one hasn’t already been established. But you can
also bring up your specific concerns.
Don’t embarrass your coworker by gossiping
about their lack of handwashing with anyone outside of HR, and there’s no need
to start a paper trail by sending an email. Instead, bring the issue directly
to the attention of your human resources rep by knocking on their door and
asking if they have a minute to talk (or, if you’re all in an open office, by asking
if they have a minute to step into a conference room).
Explain that you don’t want to get anyone in
trouble or cause anyone embarrassment, but that you’ve noticed your coworker
demonstrating a concerning lack of hygiene and you’re worried about the safety
of others in the office as a result. You can request to have your complaint
kept anonymous so that your coworker never knows who brought the concern to HR.
Is It OK to Avoid Shaking Hands? How Do I Do That Politely?
Handshaking has long been a customary greeting
in the United States, 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—The Muse included!—have made their
offices officially no-handshake zones.)
“There will be moments of awkwardness, but I
believe it is important to start a trend of alternatives,” Axelbaum says.
“There are many options such as fist bumps, elbow taps, foot shakes, and, my
favorite and safest method, the jazz hands greeting.”
Introducing these substitutes for hand shaking
is as easy as approaching someone a little more slowly and saying, “Can we [do
your favorite greeting] instead of shaking hands?” And, Axelbaum says, “Chances
are the person on the other side of the would-be handshake will be happy you
opted for an alternative.”
What About Work Travel?
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. So if you’re worried about the safety of upcoming work travel, bring
those concerns to your boss or management team and see what they say.
If, for example, you’d prefer to cancel or
postpone an upcoming trip, do some prep work so that you can bring suggestions
for how to accomplish the same objectives from afar or adjust timelines and
expectations.
You may find your organization has left the
decision of whether or not to travel in your hands. Whether it’s up to you or
someone else, if you might be going ahead with a trip, you can inquire about
safety measures being taken and what the plan is if you are unexpectedly
quarantined or contract the virus yourself while traveling on business. For
instance, will your company pay for your extended accommodations? Or cover your
medical costs if you fall ill while traveling? These are fair questions to ask.
How Do I Tell My Company if I Think I’ve Been Exposed?
While no one wants to get sick right now, the
good news is the symptoms of COVID-19 (the illness caused by the new
coronavirus) 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. Start
by reaching out to your direct supervisor—give them a call or send them a message
first asking them to hop on a call if you feel more comfortable that way—to
inform them of your exposure and agree on next steps. Then follow up with an
email to your supervisor and HR team reiterating what you discussed on the
phone.
What If I Have to—or Want to—Start Working Remotely 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.
“At MiQ, we reminded employees not to come in
if they are sick and reinforced that we are able to work remotely for any
reason,” Axelbaum explains. But not all employers have communicated such a
blanket work-from-home policy. If you don’t know where your organization stands
on this option, it’s time to ask. That’s especially important if you are in
a high-risk group—you’re
an older adult, you have a serious chronic health condition, or you’re
immunosuppressed—or even if you live with someone in a high-risk group.
Remember that you can reach out to your
supervisor and request to work remotely even if your company hasn’t set a
policy encouraging or requiring everyone to do so. Try saying something like:
“While the company hasn’t decided to have us all work remotely as of yet, I
would feel more comfortable doing so. Can we discuss what that could look
like?”
When you broach the possibility, establish
what you’d need to be successful working from home. For instance, is IT able to
plug you into shared office drives remotely? Do you need a VPN? Could you
participate in meetings via video conferencing?
Once you’ve had a conversation about
potentially working remotely and set up the tools you’d need to work from home
effectively, Axelbaum suggests bringing your work laptop (if you have one) to
and from work every day. “It’s easier to leave your computer at the office when
you don’t have work to do at home, but you never know when there might be a
quarantine or you might start to feel ill, so it’s important to be prepared.”
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. “We suggested to
our employees that they do video check-ins daily to stay current, leverage
company communication tools to support one another in completing tasks, and
respond to our clients with the same level of commitment as we do when we are
physically in the office,” Axelbaum says.
Of course, working from home may become more
of 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 need to be aware that if schools get shut down, parents might need to
take calls with some little voices in the background,” Axelbaum says. “Let’s
give everyone a little extra grace during this time for being humans as well as
coworkers.”
That’s a good reminder across the board: We’re
all just humans, doing the best we can, in need of a little grace as we
navigate these uncharted waters. Let’s help keep each other safe by following
government recommendations, encouraging our companies to put policies in place
that help us avoid illness, and taking the precautions we each need to stay
healthy while doing our jobs. And as stressful and anxiety-provoking as things
may get, let’s keep treating one another kindly and respectfully, too.