Covid-19 Employment Disaster
By: Margi Brownfield Swett
Tags: Conspiracy Theories, Employee Experience, Business Owner, Covid 19

My micro business had 5 full time and 1 part timer in March of 2020. I thought and often said that I had the absolute dream team at my back, my husband and former business partner has Alzheimer’s and besides running the business I and his sole care-giver, so my back needs a lot support.

We make awards so our busy season was upon us as the pandemic shut off the flow of orders. I was adamant that no one would lose their job and until the PPP came along paid everyone from my Line of Credit. My employees have been with me 17, 7, 6, 5 years and we hired a new production/design person in January. My husband and I bought the business in 1996.

Over the years it had become obvious that 3 of my staff hold what most of us would consider extreme views and believe in conspiracy theories. Mostly we all steered away from discussing such things.

It’s always been a very fun place, lots of hard work, making outstanding awards and laughing hard as well.

The first sign of trouble was in an early March staff meeting when the virus came up and one staffer said it was just the news media pedaling fear and another one said it came from a lab in China and was also a hoax (that was hard to figure). I mentioned the idea of exponential numbers but got no where.

When we got our State’s shutdown order, we tried to work from home and a few of use did some useful things — I do the website so after I upgraded my home broadband and computing system that was easy. One staffer our newest, is a skilled woodworker so he made some prototypes of new products. Others worked on data development, some did nothing but were thankful to get paid.

The trouble burst into awareness when we were given the go ahead to return to work without our showroom being open. We had just dropped quite a lot of work when we were told to close.

Everyone was delighted to be back to work until I mentioned the regulations: taking temperature at the door, wearing a mask, staying socially distant, cleaning surfaces. That’s when my part timer replied that she would do none of these things and when everyone saw (as she had) that there was no need for any of this, she’d be glad to return. She also spread the idea that masks are dangerous to health.

One staffer printed off a document saying he was exempt due to medical issues, another answered that by saying he could get one of those too but didn’t want to ‘play that card.’ Both insisted that they could just stay 6 feet away from others so masks weren’t needed.

On a day I was working from home, a staffer with an ill granddaughter, and thus every reason to want everyone masked, went in and two employees were there unmasked. She turned around, went home and emailed me.

I hit the roof and told everyone that if they couldn’t/wouldn’t comply, please start looking for other jobs so I could get their places filled before the world rights itself. That started a slew of links to very strange articles, books and websites. The part timer quit and the other two are furious at the one who “ratted them out” and at me for backing her up.

My “Dream Team” is a shambles because of this virus. Without it we could have worked happily together for many more years, but now we know too much and people have been deeply hurt. It’s very hard to think it will ever be the jovial workplace it was before.

We could use an organizational psychologist but I doubt those bills would pass muster as legitimate expenses for any small business grant money.