COVID questions about being forced to attend place of employment

Question

There have been a few questions lately from people that are being forced to go into the office, where they feel it is unsafe, or they have a moral obligation to stay at home.

In almost every instance, there is one, or a few answers or comments, that simply say "You should stay at home".

What these answers discount is the very real chance that such advice can lead to somebody losing their job. As many countries are teetering on the edge of recession, this potentially would have a significant impact on someone in the long term.

I do want to identify that there is, of course risk to a person's health. And that maybe users cannot in good conscious recommend a course of action that they feel is unsafe. However, even when things are going well, taking a step outside the door carries an inherent risk. How we evaluate this risk will depend on our own personal circumstance. What you consider a no-brainer may be a tough decision in a different economic and personal situation.

I do want to also identify that there is a certain moral obligation to stay at home. However, there are quite a few questions where an employee is asked to do something immoral. In those circumstances, saying: "Don't do it", is really a non-answer. The question is usually asking how they can avoid doing the immoral behaviour without jeopardising their job.

Someone being concerned about their health and concerned about keeping their job do not have to be conflicting. It is possible for people to have two concerns at the same time.

I believe we should make an assumption that those that ask such questions are looking for answers that would allow them to keep their job.

There are places in there world were travelling to work is now illegal. It would make sense to provide answers that take this into consideration, but it's worth noting where the OP is located.

There are even more places where there are government recommendations not to travel to work. It's worth noting that government recommendations generally do not trump obligations under law.

An example of this is in the UK, where currently (27th March) the government is recommending that people work from home where possible. Advice from employment law experts state (www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus):

Some people might feel they do not want to go to work if they're afraid of catching coronavirus. This could particularly be the case for those who are at higher risk.

...

If an employee still does not want to go in, they may be able to arrange with their employer to take the time off as holiday or unpaid leave. The employer does not have to agree to this.

If an employee refuses to attend work without a valid reason, it could result in disciplinary action.

Last reviewed 25 March 2020

(Valid reasons are supplied by the same website).

There is almost certainly the option to go to court to fight for unfair dismissal. It's really a question for legal experts to predict what the potential outcome would be, but I do want to point out that not many people would like to go through that process.

Answer 1

In almost every instance, there is one, or a few answers or comments, that simply say "You should stay at home".

There are often stupid answers to questions, which is why we have the voting system. Feel free to downvote any and all answers you disagree with.

Morality and social responsibility etc, are locale and even individual relative.

In such a fluid environment, I don't see much more that we could or should do beyond what we already do.

Answer 2

If the question is not fine

If the question asks "what should I do" or "how should I handle this", I'm inclined to say it's a problem with the question more than the answers.

Such questions are difficult to answer objectively and are rarely useful for anyone else (or they need more focus, since they often lack the specific goal the asker is trying to achieve) and should generally be closed.

In some cases you may be able to edit the question to make it on topic, but it may not be entirely clear what the OP wants to know (in terms of on topic questions, that is). It may also be too late to make such a significant edit, which would be when it already has a few answers addressing the original question. In such cases, closing this question and creating a new one would be a better option (although it's up to the original author to decide to ask a new one, or you can create the new one yourself).

Instead of asking which decision to make, questions with more objective answers would be asking:

• how to make the decision, for example:

  What risks are there to [going to work / staying at home]?

  Although in this case both of those would be obvious, or maybe something like:

  Is it legal to force me to go to work?

  This would be a legal question, but I would expect someone in HR to know the answer (although I'm not 100% sure about this).

• for more specific details about one element of the decision

• after making the decision, how to best go forth to get the best possible results, for example:

  How can I insist on working from home while minimising the risk to my career?

  How can I raise concerns about going in to work?

(I personally think the best type of questions start with "How can I", although not all on-topic questions can be phrased in this way, and it doesn't guarantee that it's on topic)

If the question is fine

If the question asks for one of the above, in general the answers that recommend a different decision are non-answers and should be deleted. However, these answers could be useful if they address the possible factors that would go into the decision, and especially the factors that might've led OP to the decision they already made. If, for example, there's a question asks how to raise concerns with going to work, while still going to work, one possible risk to simply staying at home would be losing one's job. An answer wanting to recommend staying at home should explain why losing one's job is not likely, or how to evaluate how likely it is, or for who it might be a worse option to go in to work.

The best such answers generally present a different decision as an alternative (potentially while still answering the question as asked) instead of insisting the question asker do what they recommend. The slight phrasing difference between "Don't go to work" and "You might want to consider not going to work" might seem minor, but often these answers are phrased a lot more objectively: they don't give an opinion, but they present a possible alternative and give the factual pros and cons of this option. Presenting the pros and cons allows the asker to weigh these up themselves and make an informed decision. Trying to make the decision for the asker implies you know how the asker weights each pro and con, which you don't.

Answer 3

Have to agree - I've seen more than one instance of lazy "well just stay at home" or "just burn PTO" type of answer that sweeps under the rug the very real prospect that approaching it in the cavalier manner suggested in the answer will have significant and lasting negative ramifications for the OP.

While there's a very reasonable and strong argument that people need to be as considerate of others well-being and safety as possible (and I don't disagree with the sentiment) there has to be a balance - keeping others warm by setting yourself on fire is never a good idea.

Taken to it's most extreme extrapolation if everyone "just stayed at home" we'd all starve!

This is an unprecedented situation on a global scale, people are scared, not just of the virus itself but of losing their livelihoods, of not being able to keep a roof over their heads and food on their plates. There's a great deal of confusion about what people can and should do, and the situation is changing rapidly. This makes it all the more important to give solid, actionable answers that give a real breakdown of the options, as much as is possible in this chaos.