Day One Hundred Forty-Three

We've reached the point in the pandemic where I spend my days SUPER confused. For those who don't know, in my "real life," I'm a product manager for a company that makes workplace safety equipment. My role at the company is a bit more complicated than you can get from that sentence, but that sums it up. I spend my days working with companies to help them make their employees safer.

That means I spend a lot of time understanding the risk management, standard operating procedures, and general management of many Fortune 100 companies as well as many smaller companies. Since the nightmare that is COVID-19 began, I've been talking to people about what they're doing to safely return to work, what their priorities are, all sorts of things. There are some themes, but the biggest one?

"We need to keep our employees from getting sick because we can only be profitable if our employees are healthy and productive."

Basically, the majority of companies with a decent safety culture are very focused on making sure their employees wear masks, always. They are trying to strictly enforce social distancing guidelines. And, above all, they're asking people to stay home as much as possible. I've heard from dozens of people that they will be working from home until at least the end of the year. Many employers don't want everyone in their buildings or on their sites, not just because of the liability issues, but because it's the best way to mitigate the current risks and keep moving forward.

Now contrast that with what schools are trying to do right now. I'll admit, we're in a district that is particularly reactive - they do what they're told to do. For example, they sent out a parent survey about six weeks ago asking, "What instructional model do you prefer?"

We all prefer in-person full-time. That's pretty freakin' obvious. So was I supposed to say that in the survey or was I supposed to assess the risks and tell them what they should do? I actually still don't know the answer, but that's how they determined we would go back full-time. It's what parents want, you know.

To further complicate that line of thinking, I have heard from more than one parent, "Well, they wouldn't open the school if it wasn't safe."

Uh, they're opening it because you said they should. They don't know if it's safe.

It's all a mess. (The girls are not attending in-person school this fall. No worries, I did that whole business process thing, assessed the risks, and made a decision without the school board.)

It's a mess in a lot of districts, but still a mess.

Which brings me back to my source of confusion. Business are looking at COVID-19 as a risk they need mitigate. They're relying on their safety professionals such as industrial hygienistq to outline policies and implement plans. Schools are ... hoping it will just magically vanish one day? Maybe tomorrow? In the meantime, they're going ask teachers to put all sorts of half-baked plans into place and hope for the best?

It's so ... confusing. But I think that it's telling that when profits are on the line, a lot of leaders are choosing to far exceed safety guidelines, not minimally meet them.