Thursday, October 29, 2020

Coronavirus Update 10-29-2020: The Dodgers might be World Series winners, but they’re COVID-19 losers


Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series. In the 8th inning of their clinching game 6, the Dodgers pulled third baseman Justin Turner from the game. No one knew why at the time. It was only after the game that it was announced that the team pulled Turner because he had tested positive for COVID-19. 

Why then was Turned allowed to join his team on the field (maskless no less) to celebrate their victory?!

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Coronavirus Update 10-28-2020: The 10th nominee for the “worst employer of 2020” is … the whistleblower whacker


SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, describes itself as "the foremost expert, convener, and thought leader on issues impacting today's evolving workplaces." Physician, heal thyself!

According to a recent lawsuit filed against SHRM (as reported by The New Yorker), SHRM may have a huge whistleblower retaliation problem on its hands.

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Time to make sure your business has an Election Day plan. #vote


Election Day is in seven days. By all predictions, this election will see a record number of voters. As long as Election Day remains a working day, employees will show up to work late, leave work early, or take long lunches, just so that they can vote.

Please make sure your employees have sufficient time to do so. For starters, it's important that employees are able to exercise their voting rights. Secondly, at least here in Ohio, it's the law.

Monday, October 26, 2020

Results—Would you boycott a business based on the candidate it supports? #vote


The results are. Thank you to the 244 of you took the time to answer my question: Would you boycott a business based on the candidate whom it (or, more accurately, its ownership) supports for President in this election?

The results:

Yes = 58.6%
No = 41.4%

Friday, October 23, 2020

Coronavirus Update 10-23-2020: Please stop telling me that we all just need to get on with living our lives


Earlier this week, I posed what I thought was a simple question on the private Facebook page of my community's homeowners' association: given the current rise of COVID-19 cases, should we, as a community, rethink our trick-or-treating plans. It was intended to start a generative discussion about whether we can host public trick-or-treating safely, but it quickly devolved into insults and name-calling.

The general theme of my pro-Halloween opponents was some combination of—if you don’t feel safe stay home in your basement; and we need to live our lives. People felt comfortable expressing this opinion even after others had commented about family members COVID-19 had killed. 

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Coronavirus Update 10-22-2020: New CDC guidance will result in A LOT more employee absences


Yesterday, the CDC made a key update to its COVID-19 guidance. It made a significant change to the definition of "close contact."

No longer does one qualify as a "close contact" by being within 6 feet of someone for 15 continuous minutes or more. 

The CDC now defines "close contact" as:
Someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period (individual exposures added together over a 24-hour period) starting from 2 days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to test specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated."

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Would you boycott a business based on the candidate it supports?


Over the weekend I got into an interesting discussion on Twitter with a couple of my favorite musicians, Brendon Benson and Caitlin Rose. Here's the question:

I'd like to expand this topic further and ask, Would you boycott a business based on the candidate whom it (or more accurately, its owner) supports for president in this election?