At first, the company was doing the right thing. We started working remotely in March if our job allowed it. Employees have been overwhelmingly agile in juggling full-time remote work, homeschooling, and quarantining, all while not missing a deliverable or letting a deadline slip.
In the midst of skyrocketing covid cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, Edwards issued a memo in mid June mandating that all employees return to the office no later than July 1. All of the loyalty, hard work, and dedication to the company, many times at a sacrifice to an already stressed home life, was rewarded with an arbitrary and unrealistic return to office directive that left employees in disbelief. “They can’t be serious” echoed everywhere.
The new office schedule unfairly disadvantages working parents. It’s not deemed safe to fully reopen the campus, so they announced a rotating split schedule that requires employees to report to the office on Tuesday and Thursday one week and Mon-Wed-Fri the next. It’s a hardship to arrange part-time childcare on an inconsistent weekly schedule, especially in the middle of a raging pandemic when full-time childcare options are limited or non-existent.
The office does not feel safe. The campus has about 4,500 employees. I would guess 90% work in cubicles. The facilities were over-capacity prior to covid with multiple managers sharing offices with employees and many people sharing cubes. Cubes are tiny with only room for a chair and are packed into every available inch of space.
Even with a split schedule, you can’t maintain 6 feet of social distance from the people near you. There is no traffic control. People walk down every aisle and loiter, sometimes right next to your desk.
In your workstation and around campus (except these new mask-free tent zones situated next to major walkways outside, which are absurd), you are required to wear a mask at all times. That’s 8+ hours of wearing a mask (while on conference calls) with maybe a 30 minute break to eat lunch outside or in your car. Managers in offices can take off their masks while alone, with their doors closed.
Non-compliance is rampant. Employees are taking their masks off in common areas and in cubes. People are congregating in offices. We are being told to report violations to HR or confront the violator ourselves. This doesn’t feel like a solid way to foster an environment of collaboration. It also doesn’t feel like it should be our job to police adults around us who aren’t willing to follow rules.
There is no contact tracing mechanism in place. You have to self report if you test positive or have been exposed and wait for HR to call you. They then ask you to recall anyone you may have been in contact with in the past 2 weeks. I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday so this could be a stretch for some.
Leadership has been clear they will not issue a report on number of positive cases on campus. You will only know if someone has tested positive if you were named by them as someone they specifically remember interacting with.
I shower when I get home from the office, before I greet my wife and kids. I leave the clothes I wore in the office in the laundry. That’s not normal protocol for having an office job that can be done anywhere on my laptop with an internet connection, but that’s where we’re at.
Flexibility is non-existent. If you have an issue with the new plan you are sent to HR. Not comfortable returning to a campus of thousands after quarantining for 3+ months? Worried for your health or that of those you live with? No problem, use your vacation days when you are scheduled to be in the office. Seems counterintuitive to fueling collaboration, because it is.
Can’t secure safe childcare because of the fluctuating work schedule and limited capacity at your camps and daycares? Maybe you should invite a stranger into your home using the partially subsidized emergency child care benefit (a great benefit in ordinary times but not now). You can use up to 10 days of emergency on call childcare. You’ll only need to ignore two facts: that it’s not safe to bring outsiders into your home right now, and that your kids are already sensitive and confused because their worlds were also turned upside down in March and they don’t get why. Once that benefit runs out, return to option A, use your vacation. Out of vacation? Then you need to choose between the health and well-being of your kids or keeping your job.
Edwards is considered an essential business and you are an essential worker regardless of role. Even though the real essential workers are in our hospitals and we could easily do our work from our home offices until the virus is under control, management continues to use this designation as leverage to enforce the return to office policy.
