Employees showing up for work?????

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For those of you that work for "the man" :) I pose the following question/scenario. Are you going to go to your place of employment if there is a power problem, a water problem, a telecommunications problem, a line at the grocery store, etc. etc.???

I ask this because I sat in a meeting today at a Fortune 30 company talking about staffing requirements for the year end. Not one manager in that room had asked their staff, yet, if they were worried about not coming into work!! Each and every one of them just "assumed" that their staff would show up! Nobody had even considered the fact that their staff might decide to watch out for themselves and their families instead of coming into work. It took a brave soul in the meeting to put this concern on the table. They asked what would happen, i.e. fired?, reprimanded? layed off?, etc. if the employee failed to show up.

You never saw such a bunch of silent upper management types in your life. :) They just figured that everyone would show up out of loyalty, fear, who knows what and everything would be "normal". Are they really going to fire 7,000 people, yell at them, shake their finger at them, what? So have you asked what your employers attitude or policy is going to be for the Y2K time frame?

The idea that you would have to take vacation to cope with events beyond your control is ludicrious at best. Yet I expect that will be the policy adopted by the company of which I speak. (Spoken in a deep announcers voice) "Yes we at Acme Widgets will be open and operating as normal. The fact that water systems, 911 centers, power distribution, etc. are experiencing problems is not a valid reason for our employees not to report to work at their regularly scheduled shifts and work stations. We will continue to build the best widget made today and will work with local officals to insure our employees familys are provided with food and water during the course of the unpleasentness."

Think I'm kidding? You should have been in that meeting. These folks had not thought of this possibility at all!!!!!!

So what are you going to do??????????

just my .02 worth....

-- Freelancer (mercenary2000@yahoo.com), August 09, 1999

Answers

Hmmm.. maybe this is one reason people are not being urged to prepare? Because those who are prepared can afford to stay home, we won't need that paycheck.

-- biker (y2kbiker@worldnet.att.net), August 10, 1999.

Well, I'm going to have the Flu. But yes, work doesn't get the FULL picture. They think we are going to come in and fix the computers if they starting corrupting databases, shutting down, etc. Yeah right...I'm a consultant, a hired gun...I have no loyalty to the company, they have no loyalty to me...I do the work and get a check each week. As for work, I tell the DGI that Y2K is a bunch of huppla to fit in, but I'm ready(for my upcoming Flu...yeah that's it...)

-- justme (not@real.email.com), August 10, 1999.

To justme...Please do not take this as a slam but notice...

"As for work, I tell the DGI that Y2K is a bunch of huppla to fit in, but I'm ready(for my upcoming Flu...yeah that's it...) "

If THIS remediator is telling the DGI what they want to hear, how many others are? I think that as one begins to peel away the layers of Y2K compliance, there is naught but a shell beneath.

-- Copycat (dobbie@coastalnet.com), August 10, 1999.


I must agree with the premise on employees. Many employers are looking into vendor Y2K compliance forms to see if their company will be disrupted. Oddly, no one seems to notice that their employees are their main and most important "vendor." Going it to work will be the last priority if one is attempting to secure food, heat, water or shelter. During the LA riots I didn't see many people going to work in that area of town.

-- smfdoc (smfdoc@aol.com), August 10, 1999.

Today this is not such a hard question, I am the boss....

But in 1989 when the SF earthquake "moved" the company I worked for I was suppose to leave on a 2 week vacation with a very important lady (now wife for 9 years). But the SF airport was closed. So I answered the machine and my employer was livid! I had to come to work and fix the equipment. I thought, I thought and thought.....

I decided I would need a job when I got back.

When I got there it was pretty bad. All of the ceiling tiles were "down". The machine I had to fix was transverse to the major shaking, I replaced a few parts, turned on the power, tuned the machine. Then turned it over to other staff.

The plane left one day late, I had a wonderful time.

The point. When you Boss says "your job depends on you comming in here TODAY" I took the job, I need to eat. But I got out as soon as the situation was stablaized. How long will it take to stablaize Y2K??????

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), August 10, 1999.



It seems if bosses are just "assuming" everyone will come in they haven't done a thoroughly detailed contingency plan. If the lights, phones, water are off, does anyone NEED to be there? If there is social disruption can the boss guarantee the workers safety - i.e. assume the liability for forcing them into a dangerous situation? In considering their workers as "vendors" they need to assess which ones NEED to come in under which circumstances. And they need to consider what factors might interfere with those workers coming in. And what is the contingency plan if any or all workers will not or cannot make it into the office? Who are the "mission critical" workers, and are there "work-arounds"? That is.. what steps can you take now to make sure that essential knowledge or functions do not rest solely with the quiet loyal guy/gal in the corner who has been pretending to be a DGI all this time, but secretly plans to head to the hills about zero hours zulu?

Just assuming workers will come in is like just assuming the lights will be on and all the vendors deliveries will arrive on time.

Plan for the worst.. hope for the best.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), August 11, 1999.


You can hardly expect a loyal work force in today's world. Big business has made it abundantly clear how expendable all their employees are.

In any event it is a pretty moot point because I doubt any of the Head Honchos will be showing up for work either.

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), August 12, 1999.


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