is the pandemic over – Page 2

The Future Is Disability

With multiple pandemics
on the go
and several new ones
on the horizon
paired with very few mitigations
being in place,
a prudent business builder
plans for disability.

Ours.
Our employees’.
Our customers’.

What does this mean?

It means giving customers
a shop from home option.

It means providing masks
and hand sanitizer
to employees and customers
to decrease the odds
of being sued
when those employees and customers
become permanently ill.

It means installing systems
that make our businesses
easier to run
if we become permanently ill.

It means researching
the needs and requirements
of permanently ill people
and doing all we can
now
to ensure our businesses serve them
as customers, employees, owners
as best as possible.

(I’m not part of this group…yet.
I don’t have any insider tips
on how to do this.
I’m doing my research like you are.)

Don’t wait
until it is a requirement
to do this.

Plan for a world
of disabled people now.

Measles In The Mix

In the past,
I’ve advised you
and other business builders
to make
masks and hand sanitizer
freely available to employees.

It is simply the right thing
to do
for you,
your employees
and your business.

If you’re looking at it
from a purely financial perspective,
one benefit of
providing masks and hand sanitizer
is
it will greatly decrease
the odds of your business
getting sued into the ground
because someone became seriously ill
while on your premises.

And providing masks and hand sanitizer
is fairly inexpensive to do.

But, but employees won’t wear the masks,
you say.

If employees don’t wear the masks,
hey, the price of supplying them with masks
decreases even more.

But make them available
and be visible about this.

Post signs
in employee areas.

Place the masks and disinfectant
in plain view.

Because,
with measles spreading today
like…well…measles,
in addition to COVID
and Monkeypox and Candida Auris
and other sh*t
continuing to circulate,
providing masks and disinfectant
has gone from a recommendation
to a MUST-DO
if you want your business to survive
long term.

This infectious sh*t
isn’t going away.

Protect your employees
and protect your business.

Supply masks
and hand sanitizer.

Make It Easier For Partners

Getting any tasks done
right now,
with the multiple pandemics
happening,
is challenging.

People are taking time off
for illness.
Or, often worse,
they’re working while ill.

There’s low energy
and brains are fuzzy.

So if I want something done
and I’m feeling great,
I make it as easy
as possible
for the other person
to complete the task.

I clear the working space,
for example.
I provide all the information
they’d need
in one easy document.
I list the tasks
that need to be completed.
I do as much as possible
myself.

And that increases
the probability
tasks will be completed.

Make assigned tasks
as easy as possible
for your partners
to complete.

Advice Is Early

When I talk here
about things like
the pandemic
or climate change
or shifts in the workforce,
I am almost always
early
with any advice
I give.

This is intentional.

Because making changes
in our businesses
takes time,
especially if we want
to make them
in the most resource efficient way.

There is no point
advising you
to prepare
for something
and giving you
no time to prepare.

The best advice
is advice
given early.

Don’t expect
events
to immediately occur.

COVID, Brain Damage And Business Building

COVID causes brain damage.
EVERY bout, no symptoms, mild, severe,
damages our brain.

If you haven’t noticed it,
well…that’s not great.

I HAVE noticed it.
I’ve had COVID
at least twice
and I suffered brain damage
after each bout.

The brain damage
was, thankfully, slight.
My writing ‘voice’ had changed.
My tempo, choice of words,
pace had shifted.

I added a couple steps
to my process after that.
I read a before-COVID-written story
and then the about-to-be-edited story
and I ensure the writing is consistent.

Consider putting processes
in place
to deal with your hopefully slight
after COVID
brain damage
also.

And if you’re saying to yourself
that you don’t need this,
that you won’t or don’t
suffer from brain damage,
then I suspect you REALLY need it.

That’s not a happy realization
but accepting that will help you
to not only cope
but also achieve the success
you want for yourself.

Is It Working For You?

A buddy was telling me
she has been constantly sick
for the past six months or so.

I asked her
if that was working well for her.

She looked at me
as though I’d lost my mind
and said
no, it wasn’t working well
for her
at all.

I then asked her
what she’s changing.

She said she wasn’t changing
anything.

I shrugged
and told her
she will continue
being ill
until something changes.
And the only something
she is in control of
is herself.

We might think
that’s obvious.

But I know
there’s at least one business situation
I’ve been tolerating
that I haven’t tried to change.
And I should try something,
anything to do that.

We all have one
of those.

If a situation isn’t working
for you,
change something.

The issue won’t fix itself.

Ill Employees Finding New Jobs

When I told my business building buddy
his employees
were likely truly ill
and not faking it,
he pointed out
how one of his employees
found another job
while she was supposedly ill.

I asked him
if that new job
was remote.
Was she working from home?

Yep,
it WAS a remote job.

Because, of course, it was.
The employee likely
HAD to get a new job.
She likely couldn’t return
to her old job
and the office
and the daily commute.

Happy healthy employees
don’t find new jobs
while they’re off work
and ill.

If your employees
are finding new jobs
while they’re off work,
they likely can’t do
their old jobs.

Either communicate
that you’re open
to changing existing jobs
to accommodate changes in circumstances
or wish ill employees the best
when they land new jobs elsewhere.

If People Say They’re Sick, They’re VERY Sick

A business building buddy
grumbled
that he thought
one of his employees
was faking illness,
trying to get out of working.

Confessing to being ill
at this point of the pandemic
is, for some,
a confession of weakness.

It also brings
social isolation
and social condemnation.

The sick person
is viewed as an unsafe person,
a risky person
to be near.

People are more likely
to fake being well
than fake being ill.

So when they tell you
they’re ill,
they’re likely VERY ill
as in
vomiting
and having the sh*ts
without any warning
level of illness.
(This is happening
with one of the dominant
COVID variants.)

No one wants
a person ill like that
at the office.

If someone says
they’re ill,
believe them.

Don’t Insist People Work Sick

Okay.
I get it.
Due to COVID,
people’s immune systems are sh*t
and
that means they’re sick
much more often.

You are trying
to run a business.
You need employees.

So you’re considering
insisting
employees come into work
while they’re sick.

Don’t insist on that.
That’s cruel
and it is a lawsuit
waiting to happen.

If that employee dies
or suffers extreme harm
while working ill,
their families will
sue your a$$.

No one has the time
or the money
for that.

A better solution
is having extra staff
on call.

Train and ‘hire’ more people
than you need.

The constant illness
is our new normal.
Plan for it.

CES And Superspreader Events

I attended this year’s
CES
(Consumer Electronics Show)
in Vegas.

A lot of people attending
this mega conference
were ill.
It was definitely
a superspreader event.

The CES organizers
must have anticipated this possibility.

They had signs erected
everywhere,
telling participants to wear masks,
social distance, test,
and stay away if they were ill.

They gave away
black KN95 masks.

They gave away
test kits.

They had hand sanitizer stations
positioned everywhere.

Ventilation systems in the buildings
were blasting.

There were displays outside.

The CES covered their a$$es.
They did their part
to stop illnesses.

They can truthfully say to the media
and others
it wasn’t their fault
if
only 5% or fewer participants
wore masks.
(Which meant, of course,
the CES didn’t have to supply
many free masks.)

They took precautions.
Participants chose
to spread illness.

When organizing an event
or, f@ck,
when running a business,
cover your a$$ also.

Illness is circulating.
Lawsuits and bad media coverage
will happen
due to it.

Supply masks, tests
and hand sanitizer
and improve ventilation.

The cost of this is less
than you likely believe
and the benefits
will be enormous.