Good morning,  happy President’s Day! Welcome to holiday edition of my Monday Morning Briefing.   Our office is closed for the President’s Day holiday (yes, law firms close for holidays like this), but I couldn’t leave you a Monday without some “brief” edition of our Briefing. 

California COVID Pay is Here Again – SPSL Makes its Official Return

Over this past weekend, specifically, February 19, California COVID Pay, better known as Supplemental Paid Sick Leave (SPSL) became effective.  Of course, as you all know, it is also retroactive to January 1 of this past year.   What you may have missed is that California issued its required poster late last week.  I have attached a copy here.  It should be posted where all your posters go, or distributed to all employees if your employees don’t regularly report to work.  If you distribute a copy of the poster with a brief cover letter, that will suffice as distributing the poster and notifying your employees of their SPSL rights. 

California also finally posted its FAQs to the 2022 SPSL, and I am copying them here for anyone who is interested. 

One important point to note – although the SPSL became effective last weekend,  employers have until the next payroll to start actually providing SPSL.   Also remember that in 2022, employers are supposed to show a running balance of the amount of SPSL that an employee has USED, rather than the amount available.  If an employee has used no SPSL hours to start (which will be most employees), the wages paid balance should be listed as 0. 

Beware of Uneven Surfaces, Errant Drivers and Generally Unstable Conditions Ahead

In the last few weeks, I have had multiple clients call with situations involving relatively new employees, all of whom had seemed really promising, but who had either suddenly needed an unexplained leave of absence, or who had gone rogue (engaged in some egregious act, like extreme bullying or theft), or who just mysteriously quit with no real explanation.   And this is happening, still, on top of employers having extremely hard times recruiting. 

As many of you know, at our webinar back in January, I spoke about the “Great Resignation of 2021,” which appears to be continuing into 2022.   But it should come as no surprise that employee behavior simply mirrors what’s happening in the world at large, and the world at large continues to be anything but stable.  We all sailed into the end of 2021 with the world starting to reopen, stores filling up, holiday parties bellowing.  And just as we finally felt comfortable again and ready to relax . . BAM!  We were hit between the eyes with Omicron.  And many parts of the country, LA County included, saw their highest COVID numbers to date in this pandemic.  Once again, businesses were forced to close.  I walked around the Beverly Center, the weekend before Christmas, and several stores were either completely closed or had security monitoring their capacity due to outbreaks. 

I have an analogy that Native Californians will understand.  I was not born here, but 2022 is my 40^th year here, and I very well remember the earlier earthquakes like Northridge of 1994.  What always stood out for me about earthquakes, compared to hurricanes and tornadoes, were the aftershocks.  Earthquakes were never gone after one day, like a tornado, fire, flood or hurricane.  Sure, you might have some lingering after effects after those disasters, power outages, or even emotional PTSD.  But the actual tornado does not come back around to hit you again.  Earthquakes DO.  Those aftershocks keep on coming, and you never know exactly when.  My nerves were SO frayed after Northridge, I couldn’t sleep.  It wasn’t even about the damage those aftershocks caused; it was about the fact that you couldn’t completely relax.  You didn’t know WHEN it would ever quite be done.  When would it EVER BE OVER??? 

And that, my friends, is how we are feeling.  We just want to know that we are finally, completely done with this pandemic.  WHEN can we finally go back to NORMAL??  The problem is, we don’t know.  The experts won’t tell us, because THEY don’t know.  Will there ever be the same normal?  Is there another variant, waiting in the wings, just around the corner?  Will we forever be getting these vaccines, wearing masks?  Our nerves are frayed; we can’t sleep.   People do not want to admit it, but there is a pressure looming over this entire world.  Add to that, of course, growing inflation, a supply chain issue, and, oh yeah, the great possibility of a war between Russia and the Ukraine. 

I was driving around Los Angeles Saturday afternoon and came behind a car on some side street that just stopped.  Stopped, for no reason.  In the middle of the street.  I waited a bit, tapped my horn, a few seconds passed, and the person finally drove on.  I don’t think they were texting.  It was a narrow side street, and there had been a lot of trucks pulling in and out, and I think this person got . . . overwhelmed. 

I have spoken to several people about this topic who have confessed that they have felt the pressure in ways they don’t care to admit.  Whether it is a lack of sleep, weight gain, depression, blood pressure (my nemesis), substance issues, anxiety, panic attacks, memory losses – I’m guessing many of us have felt the effects of these past two years.  I think this is what’s been happening with all these employees starting and stopping their jobs for no obvious reason, and people displaying such “odd” behavior in the workplace.  They are melting down.  

So I know this has been a long wind up on a President’s Day, and thank you for indulging me.  I’ve thought a lot about this topic over the last week.    By writing about it, I really wanted to bring people’s attention to this complicated issue.  So watch for people “melting down” around you, unexpectedly.  I suspect we will continue to see it happen, inside and outside the workplace.   It doesn’t change the fact that we still need to have employees working, focused, acting professional and doing their jobs.  There is no such thing as “unconditional love” as an employer.  We have legal duties to provide leaves, obligations to accommodate, and policies and the law to follow.   Depending on the situation, it may be appropriate to accommodate or provide a leave, for example.    There is always a balancing act.   As employers, we want to be compassionate, but we also have businesses to protect. 

However, to the extent we have friends and family that are hurting and need our support, that may be a different story.  They are the ones that may truly need our hugs (better them than your employees anyway)    And if you are getting this e-mail from me, you are more than just a client.  If you ever need to talk, I am here as more than a lawyer – and I promise I won’t bill. 

Happy President’s Day, and stay safe.  Look out for those errant drivers.