Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston: hospice, exemptions, professionals)

[msRB311]

Yeah i mean i get it...but as for kids who walk (or dont walk) maybe their parents work and now don't know what they'll do with kids home from school again. But yes then there are the parents who complain their kid had to wait outside for 5 min for the bus.

The other question is why can't BPS go remote rather than closing...staffing issues? Or not everyone has a computer?

[justyouraveragetenant]

Originally Posted by msRB311

BPS to close tomorrow because of the cold.

We really are conditioning kids to be wussies with covid and the cold weather .The mask mandate might psychologically mess kids up and create some Timothy McVeighs.

They never cancelled school because of the cold.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by justyouraveragetenant

We really are conditioning kids to be wussies with covid and the cold weather .The mask mandate might psychologically mess kids up and create some Timothy McVeighs

Not necessarily just creating wussies but giving them the impression that it's ok to stop doing something when it gets a bit inconvenient. To me that's the worst message of all. No one ever froze waiting for a bus or walking to school. But our society seems to have a mindset to want to coddle people. The problem is that this day off is probably creating more problems for families. Not everyone has a WFH job...and working with kids home isn't particularly easy.

Most places won't be closing tomorrow because of the cold....if Boston is closing for reasons beyond it being cold they should just say that.

[justyouraveragetenant]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

What's up with that? We've had plenty of winters where temps drop to single digits and never cancelled school?

It's the communist mayor. We are conditioning kids to be wussies afraid of each other thinking we are carrying deadly viruses all the time .


It's definitely psychological conditioning with the masks for a society that does not believe freedom is necessary .

[justyouraveragetenant]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Not necessarily just creating wussies but giving them the impression that it's ok to stop doing something when it gets a bit inconvenient. To me that's the worst message of all. No one ever froze waiting for a bus or walking to school. But our society seems to have a mindset to want to coddle people. The problem is that this day off is probably creating more problems for families. Not everyone has a WFH job...and working with kids home isn't particularly easy.

Most places won't be closing tomorrow because of the cold....if Boston is closing for reasons beyond it being cold they should just say that.

Some parts of the united states and Canada get alot more colder than Massachusetts for more consecutive days . The actual temps in some places are -20 not even counting the wind cHill.

[lrfox]

I just got out of a meeting on the subject of returning to the office. Over the next two weeks, remote staff are going to be notified that they are expected to return to the office for a minimum of 3 days per week starting the week of January 31st. There will be no exceptions and this is regardless of where we are with the Omicron surge.

I'm a little surprised. I had expected that it would be up to me to determine whether or not my staff needed to return and how often, but leadership is opting for a universal approach. Apparently some managers have said they feel "pressured" to allow staff to continue remote work and will be vilified if they don't while other managers do. Company wide feedback also seems to indicate that there has been a decline in performance among remote workers, particularly over the last 6 months or so. While there have been some obstacles in terms of having my staff remote, I haven't personally noticed a drastic decline.

The interesting thing is that "transitioning to an endemic COVID management approach" was mentioned repeatedly. I work in healthcare tech, so that's a pretty bold official position to take right now, even if most of us feel like that's the way things are headed. But leadership feels that these tentative and partial "return to the office" plans that have been continuously pushed back are harmful and they want to be more decisive.

I'm actually on board with a lot of this. I'm in the office 3+ days per week already, and I don't mind not having the responsibility of determining whether or not staff can continue remotely. I'm skeptical of the timeline (I personally think March or even April would have been a better bet), but it's not my call. I know different employers and different fields will have different approaches, but I just thought I'd share. This is far and away the most decisive approach I've seen since the start of the pandemic.

[BostonMike7]

Right now, we have about 20% of our MA staff on WFH. Those are mostly procurement folks, documentation folks, and other roles that do not need to be in lab. Their return to office is postponed, but mostly due to lack of space. Their offices all got turned into labs, so we are trying to secure additional office space for them.

The rest of us have been 5 days a week with WFH "as needed". We originally were on a 3/2 hybrid rotation, but that unofficially ended last summer as cases dropped off, and there's been no urgency to reimplement it. 100% masking is back. There is no Vaccine mandate.

I am OK with working in office. I prefer it personally. Office density here was never really that high too begin with so it's pretty easy to distance oneself.

------------


Traffic was light again today. I usually stop at this one particular dunkin donuts which is always a zoo prior to Xmas. I would mobile order 15 mins ahead of time and still have to wait. Now it's empty. I haven't bothered with Mobile ordering the last few days because I've found I can park my car right up front and walk in and be first in line. It's eerie how much of a change i've seen after the holidays. My commute time to work is almost to where it was in March '20

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by lrfox

I just got out of a meeting on the subject of returning to the office. Over the next two weeks, remote staff are going to be notified that they are expected to return to the office for a minimum of 3 days per week starting the week of January 31st. There will be no exceptions and this is regardless of where we are with the Omicron surge.

I'm a little surprised. I had expected that it would be up to me to determine whether or not my staff needed to return and how often, but leadership is opting for a universal approach. Apparently some managers have said they feel "pressured" to allow staff to continue remote work and will be vilified if they don't while other managers do. Company wide feedback also seems to indicate that there has been a decline in performance among remote workers, particularly over the last 6 months or so. While there have been some obstacles in terms of having my staff remote, I haven't personally noticed a drastic decline.

The interesting thing is that "transitioning to an endemic COVID management approach" was mentioned repeatedly. I work in healthcare tech, so that's a pretty bold official position to take right now, even if most of us feel like that's the way things are headed. But leadership feels that these tentative and partial "return to the office" plans that have been continuously pushed back are harmful and they want to be more decisive.

I'm actually on board with a lot of this. I'm in the office 3+ days per week already, and I don't mind not having the responsibility of determining whether or not staff can continue remotely. I'm skeptical of the timeline (I personally think March or even April would have been a better bet), but it's not my call. I know different employers and different fields will have different approaches, but I just thought I'd share. This is far and away the most decisive approach I've seen since the start of the pandemic.

I'm guessing you could lose some employees. That's good you're on board with it since you don't have a choice.

[thebruiser500]

Just got kicked out of a grocery store for not wearing a mask. Government could tell these people to murder kittens and they would do it no questions asked.

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by thebruiser500

Just got kicked out of a grocery store for not wearing a mask. Government could tell these people to murder kittens and they would do it no questions asked.

Murdering a kitten = Taking a life
Wearing a mask = Saving a life