How has your employer or spouses employer helped during the pandemic

[JustEm]

My sister, who works for the same company my dh works for, was over today and we were discussing how amazed we were at the amount of help their company has offered to employees.  Back in March when things were starting to close down they gave every employee who needed it two weeks paid emergency leave in case they or someone they live with was vulnerable.  Because many people took them up on the 2 weeks they offered the people who continued to work the ability to work unlimited over time at double pay and every month they gave them an additional random amount of money in their paychecks. They announced that there will be no lay offs and they are still actively hiring people.

They have also been offering $100/day of childcare reimbursement for any employees who need it.  That was supposed to end in August but they just announced it is available through the rest of the year for anyone with kids 12 and under or special needs dependence over 12.  I believe they also have $100/day for anyone who needs elder care services.

It is absolutely amazing to me how much support they have been offering to employees.  And it got me wondering how other employers are supporting their employees.

[JustEm]

10 minutes ago, WendyAndMilo said:

Wow, that's incredible!  

One of my clients has continued to pay me even though I've only cleaned her house 3 out of the normal 20 times (due to lockdown, exposure, positives, etc)

 

That is great. I know a lot of people who were not hurt financially by covid that have continued to pay their regular activity bills to support the business while they couldn't run or couldn't run at full capacity.

[ScoutTN]

My employer (my job is very part time) has paid everyone full salary from the shutdown until this week, even though most of us are not actually working or not much.

Dh's employer, a large company, has financial help available for childcare, education, and counseling.

 

[SounderChick]

Paid the full salary of the non essential people.  Paid for all possibly covid  sick days without making him use any kind of leave..  Between DH, and the two kids being sick at various times it was a lot of days like 25.

[cjzimmer1]

Just as they were sending everyone home, DH's company gave everyone an extra week of pay so if people needed to buy anything to get settled in, they'd have available funds.  They added a paid COVID sick leave policy (normally sick leave is bundled with vacation time) for anyone who tests positive, or someone in their house tests positive. They've revamp their vacation/sick accrual, so now anyone with under 5 years of service automatically gets 4 weeks of vacation time, they've increased their 401K matching from 6% to 9%, they've added a sabbatical program for employee who've been there more than 8 years, they've sent fun "pick-me-up/thank you" packages to all the employee homes 2-3 times now since lockdown.  The managers (direct reports as well as another level up) regularly check in with the employees to see how they are doing mentally/emotionally and asking if they (the company) can do anything to help/direct them to resources etc. There's been some other stuff that I'm blanking on but honestly we have been absolutely blown away about the amount of care that the company has shown towards the employees.  DH had only been there for 5 months when lockdown happened and based on the stories we were hearing from his old company we are so so grateful about the job hop.

[Ottakee]

Wow.  I work for the schools and we got paid our normal wages.  We had about 2 weeks off and then went to virtual learning.   Our classroom is moving to a new building in a different city so we had to go in and pack up, etc....some of which was unpaid.   Now we have to unpack at the new building.... voluntary, but unpaid....but really needs to be done if we are to be ready for students on person.

So, I didn't gain or lose anything....except if they had not kept us on, we would have earned about twice as much on unemployment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JustEm]

2 minutes ago, cjzimmer1 said:

  DH had only been there for 5 months when lockdown happened and based on the stories we were hearing from his old company we are so so grateful about the job hop.

 

My dh had only been at his current company for 3 months prior to covid.  The place he was at prior to this job, which he had been at for 20 years, had to shut down when everything else shut down.  Everyone had to file for unemployment.  They still held online martial arts classes but I don't know how well attended they were.  My kids didn't attend since dh could just continue teaching them at home in person. They are open again now but at 30% capacity I think.  I can't imagine that they would be able to afford to continue to keep dh on if he was still there as he was the only full-time employee prior to him leaving.  So, we are truly blessed that he changed careers when he did.

[JustEm]

9 minutes ago, kdsuomi said:

My former employer gave everyone four weeks extra of leave. Many complained that it wasn't enough, though, so I doubt they would do it again.

 

That is unfortunate

[JustEm]

11 minutes ago, Ottakee said:

Wow.  I work for the schools and we got paid our normal wages.  We had about 2 weeks off and then went to virtual learning.   Our classroom is moving to a new building in a different city so we had to go in and pack up, etc....some of which was unpaid.   Now we have to unpack at the new building.... voluntary, but unpaid....but really needs to be done if we are to be ready for students on person.

So, I didn't gain or lose anything....except if they had not kept us on, we would have earned about twice as much on unemployment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

unpaid sucks. But ultimately I imagine having a secure job with pay is better in the long run than being let go and collecting more on unemployment for a few months.

[mommyoffive]

36 minutes ago, cjzimmer1 said:

Just as they were sending everyone home, DH's company gave everyone an extra week of pay so if people needed to buy anything to get settled in, they'd have available funds.  They added a paid COVID sick leave policy (normally sick leave is bundled with vacation time) for anyone who tests positive, or someone in their house tests positive. They've revamp their vacation/sick accrual, so now anyone with under 5 years of service automatically gets 4 weeks of vacation time, they've increased their 401K matching from 6% to 9%, they've added a sabbatical program for employee who've been there more than 8 years, they've sent fun "pick-me-up/thank you" packages to all the employee homes 2-3 times now since lockdown.  The managers (direct reports as well as another level up) regularly check in with the employees to see how they are doing mentally/emotionally and asking if they (the company) can do anything to help/direct them to resources etc. There's been some other stuff that I'm blanking on but honestly we have been absolutely blown away about the amount of care that the company has shown towards the employees.  DH had only been there for 5 months when lockdown happened and based on the stories we were hearing from his old company we are so so grateful about the job hop.

Wow, what a great employer. 

[JustEm]

8 minutes ago, kdsuomi said:

 

It was a huge financial pit for the company, too, when it already knew that the summer (when the company makes most of its money) was going to be terrible financially. The only thing that would have made many people happy would have been to close the entire company for the entire pandemic and continue to pay every a full salary (not happening). 

That is just unreasonable. Companies can only do so much.

[Lawyer&Mom]

My goodness, so much.  Dh’s employer has been amazing.  A childcare per diem, which we haven’t used since we are both working from home and don’t want anyone in the house.  Periodic swag gifts for “morale.”  Up to three months paid pandemic leave.  The best gift is just job security.  Dh was at a start-up before this job and I can’t even imagine what has happened there.  Thank goodness he switched to big corporate tech.  

[Tap]

They have done nothing.

I was off work for 3 months when school closed, due to having a special needs daughter. She is 13, so she is too old for the emergency day cares...but can't stay alone all day.  I was off for all 3 months unpaid (company is exempt from the Family First Act) and while they did pay for my health insurance during that time, I have to pay it back. My health insurance is over $600 a month, so I am repaying it over 3 months of time. It drops my pay by 25% for 3 months. 😞 So 3 months of no pay, followed by 3 months of a 25% reducation. If the employee or family member get Covid (or we need time to care for someone related to closures) we can get paid leave, but it is a max of 10x8hr days and is a one-time deal for the length of the virus. Not once for each person, one total. My first 2 weeks off, I used sick pay and vacation, but I was on FMLA  hours. I can't go on another FMLA leave for 12 months or I will be fired. There is no option for my company to be off work without pay.. You have to have accrued leave to use or be on FMLA. Outside of that, other people can donate leave to a person so they have that leave to use, but I won't ask others to give me leave to be home with my healthy daughter. I think that should be for people who are in the hospital or for people who are out of state getting health care.  

My boss was nice about me being gone, but that is all the control he had. 

 

My husbands company will expect him to make up any time he uses to care for her. Preferably the same week. 

(Just because people always ask..I don't qualify for unemployment because my job still existed and my employer wanted me to work. It is considered to be an optional leave. )

 

Edited August 16, 2020 by Tap

[JustEm]

@Tap  I am sorry it has been difficult.  

[Carrie12345]

Compared to some of these posts, dh’s company hasn’t done a whole lot. But dh is upper level, so I’ve heard lots of the phone calls, especially in the beginning, and know how rough it was to make sure payroll kept going at all, then without pay cuts, and without employee cuts. They’ve also been doing a decent job with spreading travel across the people who are most willing to travel, which isn’t what I’d call good for the pandemic, but it’s keeping the business going while giving some measure of respect to the people who don’t like that risk.

The did write a COVID policy and I don’t remember the details, but they basically promise not to penalize people. Most employees are salaried and there’s remote work to be done, so it hasn’t been an issue so far with the only person actually testing positive to date being an owner. All other exposures have just worked from home.

[historically accurate]

When it first started DH's employer paid workers who had to be physically in the building 8 hours, but dropped work requirement to 7 1/2 hour shifts in order to spread shift change out. They resumed 8 hour shifts at the beginning of June. They gave a onetime $150 bonus to on-site workers and $100 to remote workers; that was end of June. They set up an in-house medical clinic for employees- I think it's still available. It's about $5-$10 to be seen instead of the $20-$200 copays for the company insurance. They had a Covid-19 fund for medical expenses for treatment for employees and immediate family members; that was discontinued the end of July. 

 

[Wheres Toto]

Dh's employer had everyone who could working from home.  Then since they have lab workers who can't really do that much remote, they did split shifts where only half were in at any given time.  They allowed them to pick their shifts based on what worked for them, including working weekends if they preferred.  Those with childcare issues could continue working from home.  They are small enough that this worked well.   They are paying sick pay for anyone who gets sick (but nobody has), everyone got a small bonus a few weeks ago in thanks for everyone working together.  

Basically, they are being as flexible as possible so people can choose how to do their jobs and balance it with family needs. 

[Joker]

Dh’s employers has had everyone working from home since March and has stated they won’t be returning to the office until sometime next year. There have been no pay cuts or layoffs and dh has actually hired two people in the last few weeks. 

[brehon]

I’ve read the replies a couple of times and just shook my head.

My employer, a government, has done almost nothing to really help us. As front line HCWs (paramedics), we have been slapped in the face almost every chance the county court and my bosses had a chance to help us. Below are only two examples.

We were allowed to accumulate more vacation and holiday time over our maximums because all time off, except sick time, was suspended for several months. Unfortunately, the court decided that we had to use the extra time before certain dates or we would lose it. (Our vacation, sick, and holiday banks usually roll over each year. We just have maximum hours we can have in each bank.) The kicker is that only a small number of people are allowed off on vacation/holiday time on any given day. This means most of us will simply lose the time we accumulated due to lack of opportunities to take off. Most of us are desperate to take time off and relax. We are mentally and physically exhausted. And the calls and hits keep coming...

The county commissioners also decided that all county employees could earn up to a 2% “merit bonus”. Also sounds great and is for most employees. Except it’s paid on a 40 hour week and paramedics never work a 40 hour week. So, the employees who worked from home during the SIP orders will actually end up with larger bonus relative to actual hours worked.  Now, I certainly realize that my colleagues and I can’t be paid on actual hours worked since most of us worked close to 96 hours per week during the worst of the initial peak. We should, however, be paid commensurate with our actual schedule which averages 56 hours per week. Nope. Not happening.

I’m just beyond tired. 

Edited August 16, 2020 by brehon

[JustEm]

@brehon That all sounds really shitty. I'm sorry. Thank you for the hard work you are doing in your community.  

[Tap]

1 hour ago, brehon said:

I’ve read the replies a couple of times and just shook my head.

My employer, a government, has done almost nothing to really help us. As front line HCWs (paramedics), we have been slapped in the face almost every chance (rest of posted edited out for brevity)

I agree about health care workers being treated poorly. I have so many friends who stayed home or are still currently off work, who are being treated stellar by their companies. While those of us in healthcare are exhausted and being beat down at almost every turn. There are so many programs in place to help those who are not working, but very, very little is being done for those who continue to work each day. Those who have the greatest risk to catching the virus and bringing it home to the family. I work for 2 companies. The one I talked about up-thread has done little-to-nothing for us healthcare workers. But my other company, a retail chain pharmacy, at least gave us $2hr hazard pay  for 2 months, and I can chose to not work for up to 1 year, and still keep my job and keep my seniority. I think it is odd that the larger healthcare company, with very, very deep pockets is treating us worse than the grocery store with a pharmacy inside it. LOL If you didn't read my post up-thread, I was off for 3 months unpaid and my full time job is exempt from providing paid FMLA. If I worked full time for the smaller company, they would have been required to provide paid FMLA by law. Oy!

[73349]

DH's department has been working remotely since March and will continue to be until at least the end of the year.

They have been understanding when he has needed to actually stop working at 5 PM our time (which is 2 PM HQ time) and make dinner, since I've been sick.

[brehon]

1 hour ago, Tap said:

I agree about health care workers being treated poorly. I have so many friends who stayed home or are still currently off work, who are being treated stellar by their companies. While those of us in healthcare are exhausted and being beat down at almost every turn. There are so many programs in place to help those who are not working, but very, very little is being done for those who continue to work each day. Those who have the greatest risk to catching the virus and bringing it home to the family. I work for 2 companies. The one I talked about up-thread has done little-to-nothing for us healthcare workers. But my other company, a retail chain pharmacy, at least gave us $2hr hazard pay  for 2 months, and I can chose to not work for up to 1 year, and still keep my job and keep my seniority. I think it is odd that the larger healthcare company, with very, very deep pockets is treating us worse than the grocery store with a pharmacy inside it. LOL If you didn't read my post up-thread, I was off for 3 months unpaid and my full time job is exempt from providing paid FMLA. If I worked full time for the smaller company, they would have been required to provide paid FMLA by law. Oy!

I’ve noticed the same as you. There is a very sharp contrast between the laudatory words used to describe HCWs and the shitty ways we’re actually treated. Based on what some of my medic friends in other areas of the country have said this is endemic.

I’m sorry you’ve been put in such a horrible predicament. There’s no excuse to treat the people who risk their health, and in some cases their lives, and that of their families to help others the way we seem to be almost universally treated. 

[mom2scouts]

Wow, that's amazing, OP. DH works for a very small company. They've continued working as before with almost no changes. The employees are all salaried with no benefits, but the job is flexible and home based. The owner got one of the PPE loans so we're just happy dh is still employed.

Edited August 16, 2020 by mom2scouts

[JustEm]

all of my likes are to acknowledge I've read the post not necessarily that I actually like what you wrote.

[Tap]

1 hour ago, happysmileylady said:

Wait, I am confused, and perhaps this might be a state by state thing leading to my confusion.

Federal FMLA is always unpaid?  At least that's my understanding.  FMLA only guarentees the job....not the pay.  I am still working though DH's FMLA and STD issue even though he's now back at work, but have haven't actually ever heard of *PAID* FMLA.  Is this something specific to your state, or have I missed out on some paperwork?

FFCRA temporarily changed that.

portion that applies to this situation:

Up to an additional 10 weeks of paid expanded family and medical leave at two-thirds the employee’s regular rate of pay where an employee, who has been employed for at least 30 calendar days, is unable to work due to a bona fide need for leave to care for a child whose school or child care provider is closed or unavailable for reasons related to COVID-19.

 

Edited August 16, 2020 by Tap

[HS Mom in NC]

My husband is a software programmer who owns his own consulting company. He has one sub-contractor employee. Both have always worked from home, one in state, one out of state (my husband.) Both have had billable hours cut 50% by the client (industrial laser company) who had to furlough 80% of their regular employees to stay afloat. We're glad to have always had the work at home option and we're glad to get any hours at all. We don't expect the client to do anything for us.  What can they do? 

[JustEm]

9 minutes ago, Homeschool Mom in AZ said:

My husband is a software programmer who owns his own consulting company. He has one sub-contractor employee. Both have always worked from home, one in state, one out of state (my husband.) Both have had billable hours cut 50% by the client (industrial laser company) who had to furlough 80% of their regular employees to stay afloat. We're glad to have always had the work at home option and we're glad to get any hours at all. We don't expect the client to do anything for us.  What can they do? 

 

Well I wouldn't expect a client to do anything for you since you are not their employee.  But I do think that large companies that have been prosperous during good economical times should be prepare to support their employees at least in some way during bad economical times.  I can understand many companies can't support employees long-term but I have countless numbers of friend who's large companies weren't even prepared or willing to support their employees at all the second they were forced to shut down.  That has made me appreciate those companies that are willing and able to take on large financial burdens in order to continue to support their employees a bit.

During the last recession, dh's work situation was very different.  He worked for a small business that bled money for a long time during recovery.  The owners would likely have been better off financially had they fired everyone and either ran the business just the two of them or closed up shop all together.  Instead, the owner got a full time job elsewhere in order to keep dh on full-time.  Dh's pay didn't go down at all, although his hours increased since he was basically running things on his own. We didn't expect that from his bosses but we sure were thankful that they took the hit for us.

[Fritz]

Required me to reuse PPE and suggested that I and coworkers should eat outside (in the heat and possible rain storm) so as not to remove face mask & shield inside the faciity are the main things that come to mind...but that's what healthcare workers get for being "essential" !

[JustEm]

13 minutes ago, Fritz said:

Required me to reuse PPE and suggested that I and coworkers should eat outside (in the heat and possible rain storm) so as not to remove face mask & shield inside the faciity are the main things that come to mind...but that's what healthcare workers get for being "essential" !

 

I am sorry. Here's a question you may not be able to answer but maybe someone can.  How do we as a society advocate for essential workers being treated better?  Not just in this pandemic but going forward?  And is this an issue across the board or is it dependent on particular employers?  

[Laura Corin]

Laptop to bring home; two days of extra leave; sick pay is already covered but quarantine pay also covered; the right to carry over unused leave to next year because we were locked down and couldn't go anywhere; flexibility  for those  with caring responsibilities- just told to do what they could.

[Bootsie]

My employer made a commitment to avoid layoffs and pay cuts if at all possible.  We have had some people leave due to retirement or other reasons who are not being replaced ATM. Many at the top took a voluntary pay reduction.  We had our retirement benefits significantly reduced. I have heard rumors that hour reductions and furloughs are beginning to happen in some departments, however; and there is talk of possible pay cuts.  When they first began the process of work-from-home, those who were still on site were provided lunch.  They have tried to work with employees regarding leave issues--I don't know how well that has gone as, thankfully, I haven't needed that.  

The situation has led to a wide inequity in workload.  Some have been working almost around the clock since March to address issues. Others are "working from home" but their work doesn't exist at the moment (you can't manage a non-existent event from home, for example) and still getting paid.  

[JustEm]

On 8/17/2020 at 10:58 AM, Bootsie said:

 

The situation has led to a wide inequity in workload.  Some have been working almost around the clock since March to address issues. Others are "working from home" but their work doesn't exist at the moment (you can't manage a non-existent event from home, for example) and still getting paid.  

 

That is very frustrating I'm sure.