HO HO HO, happy holidays, and welcome to my latest Monday Morning Briefing.   We are smack dab in the middle of the holidays, party season, gift buying, house decorating, cold and flu season, handbook update season, full on seasonal stress.  ALL of which we will discuss today. 

FIRST, THANK YOU TO ALL WHO TURNED UP LAST WEDNESDAY FOR OUR SEMINAR/WEBINAR

Huge thanks to all of you who made the effort to come out, whether live or on zoom, for our Annual Employment Law Update.  It’s the first time we did the “hybrid” part live, part zoom program, and a special thanks to the many of you who actually got in cars, drove MANY miles, parked, walked, came up elevators and risked in person contact to see our faces.  It sure was nice to see yours after all this time.   As some of you know, I’ve been doing a version of these “breakfast” seminars now for over 30 years, and there is nothing I like doing more than sharing what we know with you all.  We’ve come a long way since we used to xerox black and white power points onto a transparencies and put them on an overhead projector.  So glad you keep turning out over the years. 

THE RETURN OF THE NORMAL COLD AND FLU – IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT COVID ANYMORE

You’ve probably noticed, many of your employees are calling in sick, and perhaps your friends and family members, too.  And they may not be down with COVID this time.  Now that we are “back” out in society, mostly without our masks, we are passing around the good old fashioned cold and flu.  And of course, COVID numbers are slightly on the uptick as well, although thankfully, as of now, not nearly as much as last year. 

But I’m starting to get calls from clients who have panicked employees, nervous about coming into work.  They are either worried about getting sick themselves, or do not want to get others sick when they are.  And in some cases, they may not have enough available sick leave, or my clients want to send them to the doctor over these “colds,”  sometimes doubting the veracity of the illness.   But really, who goes to the doctor for a “cold?”  It’s not COVID, folks.  We can’t do that. 

So a few thoughts for you all during this cold and flu season. 

First of all, it’s understandable that we are all a bit skittish about getting sick and passing sickness to others.  We’ve just spent the better part of three years concentrating on our health and trying NOT to get sick.  Even though many of us spent most of our lives running around with sniffles, not thinking twice about it, maybe it’s okay that now we do. 

Second, we should be reminding our employees that they should not come to work with other illnesses, not just COVID.  We used to do that every flu season. 

But maybe this cold and flu season, we have a few more weapons in our arsenal to keep our employees healthy or working.  First of all, we have MASKS!  I know, everyone hates wearing those things, and we are thrilled that we are finally (hopefully) done with mask mandates.  But remember, masks are NOT just for COVID. They have been around for years, and they can be used voluntarily to allow our workforce to feel safer during cold and flu season as well.   They should be available upon request for any employee this season.  Personally, I’ve been throwing my mask on lately when I’ve been going into crowded shopping stores, just for this reason.  I also put my mask on when I was fighting my own cold and had to go buy some medicine (I had nothing in the house having not been sick in three years!)

But some of you can also allow employees to work remotely, on a case by case basis, to allow them to recuperate, or to even allow the workforce to keep more distance during flu season.  Now again, I can feel some of you getting tense about the thought of doing this.  But remember what I always say.  There are going to be some employees you trust just fine working remotely.  If there are some you do not, then deal with those situations specifically.  Do not make bad policies around bad performers.  We all know which functions can work remotely.  The pandemic taught us that. 

Finally, COVID is still a threat.  The new bivariant vaccines are a better defense to actually getting COVID than ever before.   If you’re not in a position to mandate the vaccine (after all, we are no longer in a pandemic), you may still want to encourage your employees to get this booster.  If your employees still have California COVID pay before it runs out at the end of 2022, that pay can be used for vaccination and recovery time.  It is a better use of their time off than getting COVID.

Stay healthy this season!

REMEMBER YOUR OUT OF STATE EMPLOYEES THIS HANDBOOK SEASON

It is mid-December, which means I am more than knee deep in handbook updates by now.  It also means I am starting to get into updates for other states.  And as I am reviewing the updates outside California, a few things strike me.  First, it is interesting how much other states and cities are enacting the same laws we are seeing here (pay transparency, expanding the list of persons who qualify as “family” for family leave, expanding paid leave, adding sick leave).  But it also reminds me that CALIFORNIA IS NO LONGER ALONE in its ever expanding employee rights laws – not even close.  In fact, there are many states and cities that have laws that go far beyond what we are seeing here.  SEVERAL locales have enacted predictive scheduling for fast and fast casual restaurants, and now a few have adopted restrictions on using biometric or AI technology in employment assessments. 

What this means is, you remember to create and update out of state handbooks for your out of state employees. 

Now all of this probably occurs to you when your company plans to open a new location or remote office.  But what about when one random employee just decides to move back to live with their mom and work remotely?  Or another’s wife is deployed and your employee is sent to North Carolina for six months?  Remote work has created a whole new set of complications regarding out of state employees.  And the law that governs these employees is the law where they perform the work – not where YOU are based, even if you have a contract to the contrary.

I know we have discussed this topic before, but seeing all these new out of state laws was another reminder.  Also remember that MANY of these jurisdictions are also raising their minimum wages.  In most cases, our own wage is still higher, but do not forget about the Bay Area in our own Golden State, who has wages still well above that here in Los Angeles. 

So hopefully I did not add to your holiday stress levels.    If I did, I am happy to help lead a holiday hike or yoga class where we can all try to breathe. 

Let’s get this F’n 2022 behind us, shall we?

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