Well, here's my story about a clueless employer. I was supposed to fly to Seattle on Monday, but canceled the trip a couple of weeks ago. Today is Wednesday. Last Friday, my supervisor at work asked me if I have internet at home. Yes, well then we need to explore what options there are to work from home. Splashtop would not allow me to use two monitors, so we opted for me bringing my computer setup home. I did that near the end of the workday. Got it set up, but could not access Data Collection to log out for the day. Everything else was operational. (I was amazed!)
Monday came, and I called said supervisor to ask about just keeping track of time for projects on paper until IT could fix the problem. He said that the intention was to be ready to work from home if we closed, but, we were still open, so I should pack up the computer and bring it back and work there. So, since this is the exact opposite of what he was saying on Friday, and it was completely illogical, I figured it came from higher up. He knew that my plan was to cancel my PTO request and work this week from home.
I said that on Friday, I was just about to go talk to his boss (co-owner) to say I would be staying home, taking my PTO, and was not sure I'd be back the following Monday if the COVID-19 was still spreading, because we were not practicing social distancing at work. (Hard to do at my desk location) He knew that I had thought I could not work from home because I didn't have the software needed to do so. I said that I could go ahead and work from home, or use the PTO already approved. He said to use the PTO then. I asked him to let me know if anything changed.
Later that day (Monday) it was announced that our governor would have a detailed announcement about closing all but essential businesses on Tuesday. So, that was yesterday, and the announcement said this would go into effect at 8AM today. Also, our mayor issued a similar "stay at home" advisory before the governor effective at midnight - 8 hours earlier. So, here I sit at home, using my PTO, checking e-mail on their computer for any company-wide message, and waiting for a call.
I don't think our company meets the criteria as an essential business, but they might be trying to wiggle through a crack to claim that. In the meantime, I think some people are still going to work. Maybe I'll try to find out if that's the case, 'cause there's no communication from them whatsoever. I did talk to a co-worker who said that another person was already working from home yesterday. (Tuesday) That was apparently authorized by the other co-owner. The two owners are related, and don't get along.
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To me it seems there's no middle of the road. I know people who are like it's the end of the world and then the conspiracy theorists. The former are why we need more enforced limits in grocery stores, and the latter are the reason we need more strict lockdown.
Our grocery store has signs posted about limitations. The cash registers are programmed to flag violations, and items are confiscated.
