One of our employees went to France for a vacation a week ago, is now in the UK and plans to be back at work tomorrow or Monday.  I just had a talk with the boss vetoing this idea and feel she should in the first place never have left the country, but should not be allowed back on the job until she's either tested or quarantined at home for 14 days.

What would you think in this situation?  I have no problem with being the bad guy here.  China "was" the epicenter for coronavirus, now it's Europe.  They simply didn't get in gear to control the disease like we're trying to do here.

Can the employee do some of their work from home? 

Most companies are allowing paid leave for any individuals that may require quaranine whether imposed or self-quarantine. This is what our small bank is planning on setting up should it be necessary. We are also not allowing anyone to come to work sick. We would rather pay them than spread anything and we are not even in a state with any cases.

Totally set up to work at home.  It's just whether or not anyone will pay any attention to me as far as taking the steps to require her to do this.  

I think it's a reasonable request considering all that is going on.  Especially since the employee can work from home.

Ease up threre Mrs. Kravitz

If they are set up to work from home, they should stay at home. 

This is a fast-spreading highly contagious sometimes deadly disease .  Ease up why?

I feel like someone who's been on a plane or a cruise should quarantine themselves, especially if they're travelling in Europe.   Reports from various parts of Europe are very bad.  

Do you work with the public, or in health care? If this person, can and will work from that would be ideal. 

I have a co-worker who was in Italy last week at Disney. 

I had no idea he'd been out of the country. I don't think it would of got around except another guy here is freaking the flip out. .Like not showing up to work, and refusing to go on a work trip to Alaska next week flipping out.

My boss ask the VP of finance, who is in California, what he thought about it. All he said was the company hadn't implemented policy about it and is trying not to buy into the panic. 

While I think the guy who was in Italy should of had the decency to send an email to our local GM and ask him how he wanted it handled, instead he just came back to work like no big deal.

Me, I've been looking at prices on a 4 day trip to Cancun next month. . . I'm seriously considering it.

We're an aircraft parts distributor with quite a few employees.  Wow, Italy is a total hot spot.  The whole country is locked down.  

I talked to my family in Europe every single day, sometimes 4 times a day ( so thankful for modern technology!) All what I can say is that at first everyone was like... what's the big deal!? now the concern is a bit more serious.  I have a niece going to school in Scotland  and her school cancelled classes AND the hotel where she works cancelled all the scheduled conventions SO..... I would say better safe than sorry!

because it's the flu

people get sick and sometimes old, infirm people die. 


The mass hysteria, of which you are buying into, will be far more damageing to society than a few folks with the flu

I'm not seeing mass hysteria as much as simple precautions.

Surely by now our government has managed to establish some protocol to test and/or quarantine everyone arriving from our of the country.  They now claim to finally have millions of tests  available, so it should be relatively simple.

that's the funniest thing I have read on here in months. 

Liberals are easily entertained. 

No TP, water or hand sanitizer in stores and shutting down the Houston Rodeo is not bordering on mass hysteria? As far as I know there are no known cases of covid in Houston or surrounding areas. Most of the visitors are from the state of Texas and most of those are from the Houston area.  Those were the stats they put out right before the rodeo was shut down. Washington state is a different story, but most of the country is covid free. 

There's only 4 covid-19 "free" states at the moment actually. With TX being the 6th or 7th highest in number of cases right now. I'd consider the shopping situation mass hysteria/stupidity. Although I still have no idea what toilet paper has to do with anything regarding a respiratory illnes & nobody is worrying about buying kleenex. Maybe its for those who tend to accidents when they cough or sneeze. But I wouldn't consider shutting down eventa as mass hysteria, thats just them trying to temporarily reduce the spread so we don't end up like China or Italy where it's far worse. It's not just about wether we're worried about if we'll get it, for most people its who they might give it to if they get it. And lets be honest, 90% of those that do aren't going to quarantine themselves. I wouldn't get paid to stay home, so if I get it I'm going to be at my desk Mon-Fri sharing it with everyone in my office. I cannot work from home and I cannot afford even 2 days off unpaid. If my work decides to change the current policy and pay me to stay home I will. I am also payroll, the only payroll person, so if I'm not there then nobody gets paid each week which upsets the whole company. That would be up to my employer. Not everyone has the same thoughts & opinions on it either, some think we're all going to die and some think its just a little cold going through. Everyone's opinion is justified so if they don't feel threatened by a coworker who traveled then they're entitled to feel that way. Then you just have to do the best you can at prevention for yourself just in case. 

For me, if I get it then it is what it is, I'm not worried about myself. But if I got it & gave it to my 87 year old grandma that I help take care of then thats another story. And if she died because I gave it to her, thats not a weight I'd want anyone to have to carry.  I'd prefer we cancel/postpone things now, contain it the best we can & then move on if they consider that to be the best thing. I'd prefer they do it like Nascar, who is continuing but eliminating the spectators. We can still watch on tv, whereas the rodeo thats not the case. If we did just let things stay and not try to contain a spread we could find ourselves all forced to stay in our homes which would suck. 

If you are going to require them to stay home for 14 day then the company will have to give them "paid time off" so they don't have to use sick/vacation time.  I have a lot of people I work with that plan and pay for vacations well over a year in advance.  They had no way of knowing this was going to get so out of hand.  JMHO