WHEN IS BEING AT THE OFFICE ESSENTIAL?
Some employees at companies deemed vital say they should be able to work from home
STAMFORD — Gov. Ned Lamont’s stay-at-home order, which told many Connecticut businesses to close up shop in order to help halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, came with a long list of “essential” workplaces that should stay open.
What was less than clear in the order was whether those operations still should allow or require employees to work from home, or whether the “essential” tag authorized an employer to mandate that workers report to the office every day.
Even before the order was issued, employees at several workplaces in the city were at odds with their management over rules that required them to use vacation, sick or personal days in order to work from home and distance themselves from colleagues during the pandemic.
The majority of Stamford businesses have gone to “skeleton crews,” according to Arthur Augustyn, a spokesman for Mayor David Martin.
But the city has received
“a handful of concerns and addressed them with the employers,” Augustyn said. He declined to name those employers.
“We’re working with businesses to ensure they’re compliant, and every business has been very responsive to recommendations,” Augustyn said. “We have not seen an instance of unsafe working conditions. But if we did, we would pursue taking action to ensure the public’s health.”
Employee exposure
Perhaps the most vocal outcry in the city has come from employees of telecommunications giant Charter Communications.
Charter staff who spoke with Hearst Connecticut Media said they were angered by CEO and Chairman Tom Rutledge’s March 14 email that said the company’s approximately 95,000 employees across the country would be expected to keep reporting to work unless they were sick or caring for someone who was ill. It was a week before the governor’s order went out, but many other employers already had sent employees home or were in the process of doing so.
The company’s workforce includes more than 80,000 “frontline” staff nationwide — including maintenance and construction technicians, customer-service specialists and sales professionals. They deliver Spectrum-branded internet, cable and phone services to approximately 29 million customers across 41 states.
But the directive also applied to the company’s office workers, including those based in the city. One of Stamford’s largest employers and a Fortune 100 company, Charter employs more than 1,300 who work across 10 floors at 400 Atlantic St. and in offices in the adjacent building at 201 Tresser Blvd.
“We provide critical communications services, and we believe our approach to supporting frontline employees is the right way for us to operate at this time to continue to deliver those important services to our customers,” Rutledge said in the email.
“While some back office and management functions can be performed remotely, they are more effective from the office,” Rutledge also said in the email.
Employees said their ire grew as time went on and they still were told to report to the office, even, at times, after some employees appeared to be sick. On March 20, three Stamford-based workers called out sick after they indicated they had some COVID-19 symptoms, according to a March 22 company email to employees. Remaining workers on the seventh floor of 400 Atlantic were asked to leave so that the floor could undergo a cleaning.
Later that day, another employee came forward with information related to possible COVID-19 exposure, the March 22 email said.
The affected floors at 400 Atlantic and 201 Tresser then underwent “full and thorough” cleanings, while common areas were also cleaned in accordance with CDC guidelines, according to Charter officials.
Some employees were asked to self-quarantine — but others were told to plan to report to work in their offices the following Monday unless their supervisors
directed them otherwise, the March 22 email said. A separate email, on March 21, also told employees that they should keep coming to work and that they should show their Charter identification badges if they were stopped by authorities on their way.
As the March 20 incidents unfolded, “the atmosphere in the office took a turn, from frustrated and angry employees to scared ones,” said an employee.
That employee and other workers who spoke with Hearst Connecticut Media for this article asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly about their companies’ policies.
In response to employee complaints, Charter has made concessions. On March 19, it offered an additional three weeks of paid time off this year and pledged to allow some remote working.
Charter said in a statement to Hearst Connecticut Media that it would “provide the option for remote work to employees whose jobs allow them to work outside the office without endangering our obligation to provide critical services.”
Its recent changes “will help our employees manage through this difficult time while maintaining our vital broadband internet services to our customers, including hospitals, emergency first responders, government facilities and media,” the statement also said.
An email that was sent Monday to at least one group of employees outlined conditions under which certain positions could work remotely.
Senior management would continue to work on-site, the email said. That group includes supervisors of at least 20 employees, anyone with a title of vice president or above or a director who is a regional or operational function leader.
In response to a follow-up inquiry from Hearst Connecticut Media about how many Stamfordbased employees had been allowed to work outside their offices, Charter declined to elaborate on the details of its remote-work options.
The employee who spoke of the office atmosphere has since been allowed to work from home and plans to do so until Lamont’s stayat-home order is lifted. But the new arrangement has not quelled all discontent.
“I do not believe that the company has taken the concerns of the employees seriously,” the employee said. “I believe if Charter was
taking employee concerns in mind, working from home would have not started only after (Lamont’s) executive order went into effect, and the email sent on (March 21) ... would not have been sent.”
Another Stamford-based employee who spoke with Hearst, and had been allowed to work from home from this past week until early April, said some employees still object to directors and vice presidents being asked to come to the office.
“It truly is not fair to them or their families,” the employee said.
On Thursday, an employee who works at 400 Atlantic, told the company that they had tested positive for COVID-19, the company said in an email the same day to employees that was obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media. The employee was last in the office on March 18, according to the email.
Discontent at Harvest Hill
Charter is not the only firm whose employees expressed frustration with their employers inoffice work requirements. Harvest Hill Beverage Co. is another employer considered “essential” that kept its workplaces open.
In total, the company employs nearly 900 people across the U.S., including 60 at its main offices at 1 High Ridge Park in Stamford.
Owned by Greenwich-based private equity firm Brynwood Partners, Harvest Hill brands include SunnyD, Juicy Juice and Veryfine.
Some local staff said that they were dismayed about being expected to keep reporting to their offices.
“They have handled it as poorly as possible,” one Stamford-based employee told Hearst. “I believe there is a high level of concern (among employees) with the office continuing being open that chances increase of individuals getting the virus.”
In a statement, Harvest Hill said that all employees could use sick time, vacation days or unpaid “job-protected” leave, “if they encounter coronavirus-related health or family difficulties.” It also said that the company was complying with CDC guidelines.
A message left for Brynwood Partners was not returned.
In a March 17 letter to employees, Harvest CEO and President Robert Mortati said that the company “does not have a work-fromhome policy.”
He added that “in this environment, it is understandable that some employees will feel the need to stay home, either to care for themselves or a family member or out of an abundance of caution.”
The Stamford-based Harvest
Hill employee who spoke with Hearst said that the company had not subsequently changed its policy. The company did not comment further in response to several requests from Hearst this week.
Mixed message?
Employees at Charter and Harvest Hill don’t contest their employers’ functions are “essential,” but unlike Charter’s technicians or Harvest Hill’s manufacturing workers, several told Hearst Connecticut Media that they do not see why their office-based work could not be done as effectively from home, or why in some cases decisions that it could be were not made much earlier.
“No one is asking to shut down the business, only asking to work from home to feel safe,” said the Harvest Hill employee who spoke with Hearst Connecticut Media.
For now, the state’s guidance for office staff at essential-services companies is ambiguous.
When asked by Hearst Connecticut Media how the state Department of Public Health would oversee workplaces that are staying open, DPH spokesman Av Harris cited guidelines for dealing with confirmed and potential COVID-19 cases.
“If you have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, the guidance is to stay home for 14 days and self-monitor,” he said. “If you have been exposed to someone with symptoms similar to COVID-19 but undiagnosed, the guidance is to stay home for 14 days and self-monitor. Anyone exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 or who tests positive for COVID-19 needs to go home to recover immediately. And call your physician for specific advice related to your case.”
The state Department of Labor would handle related complaints, Harris said.
New regulatory proposals could come from legislators such as state Sen. Julie Kushner, co-chairwoman of the state Legislature’s Labor and Public Employees Committee. She is dissatisfied with the lack of government direction for essential businesses’ office workers.
“It’s not safe to be in offices,” said Kushner, D-Danbury. “There are hallways you have to walk through where you’re exposing people. It’s nearly impossible to maintain the necessary social distancing. There’s travel to and from work. There’s the anxiety that people feel that they have to be at work . ... I hope we will see stricter guidelines for all business operations, really for all of us. I strongly believe the best way to fight this pandemic is to keep as many people home as possible.”