As cases surge, return to in-office work slows
DALLAS — Now surging in Texas, COVID-19 is interrupting our plans again, prompting many businesses to slow their return to a new normal.
A month after Texas announced Phase 2 of reopening the economy and a few weeks after starting Phase 3, the state’s number of COVID-19 cases has climbed steadily to over 100,000. Hospitalizations are hitting new highs, too, and that metric can’t be attributed to simply doing more tests.
These trends, combined with other risks, have many employers reworking their timelines for bringing workers back to the office.
“One (executive) says they’re staying home longer because their younger employees have been going out to bars,” said Angela Farley, chief operating officer for the Dallas Regional Chamber. That executive “didn’t want her older workers interacting with them so they’re staying home until the case count comes down.”
Recent protests over police violence became another reason to hesitate.
“All this has caused folks to hit pause if they can — and push back to a later date,” said Farley, adding that chamber members have been sharing their best practices for a responsible return to work.
Proceeding cautiously is the prudent course, in part because millions of employees are especially vulnerable to the coronavirus.
Nationwide, nearly 1 in 4 workers face a higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19 because of their advanced age or certain health conditions, according to a study released last week by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
About 10 million U.S. workers are over age 65, which makes them more vulnerable. Nearly 28 million workers have conditions associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes, including diabetes, heart disease, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and limitations due to cancer, the study said.
An additional 12 million are at risk because they live with workers who could potentially bring the disease home.
With so many vulnerable, “there will be a continuing tension between the economic pressures facing families and businesses and the health and safety of millions of people,” wrote Gary
Claxton, a senior vice president at Kaiser, and several others from the foundation.
Just over 7 million Texans are in the high-risk categories, according to an earlier Kaiser report. They’re almost evenly divided between those over 65 and younger workers with health conditions.
Because of privacy laws, companies generally have limited insight into the health of people on their payrolls. But many workers have come forward and raised concerns about their COVID-19 risks, Farley said.
“Employers have been made keenly aware that their employee populations are more compromised than they expected,” she said.
Companies also are worried about the costs of retrofitting facilities. And if they lease space in a multi-tenant office building, they must deal with varying rules on safety, hygiene and wearing masks.
Harry D. Jones, a longtime employment lawyer for Littler Mendelson in Dallas, said employers are split over their approach to reopening — often mirroring the divide over politics.
Some companies are exceeding government guidelines and creating task forces to execute returnto-work plans. He knows executives who are personally monitoring infection rates and have committed to not reopen until a region’s key metrics improve.
But there are businesses, including nonprofits and churches, he said, that are opening without mandating masks or social distancing.
“It’s kinda flabbergasting,”
Jones said.
As employers work on their return plans, many are focusing on whom to bring back first, not whom to exclude. The first question is, which workers have to come into the office to do their jobs? Next is, which ones have healthy profiles?
Further down the road, Jones said, executives and managers will have to decide how to handle employees who are more vulnerable. Some will want to keep working from home; others will want to return despite the health risks because they believe it’s important to their careers.
“That’ll be the big subject in August, September and October, when the last groups of people start migrating in,” Jones said. “Both employers and employees will need to have some serious conversations.”