Virtual Breakfast Forum – Apr 08, 2021
Today’s Virtual Breakfast Forum was very well attended, with discussions revolving around vaccinations. None of the members on the call had been vaccinated at the time of the meeting, however, a few were scheduled for their first shots imminently.
In some organizations that primarily have salaried workers, members are sharing that for those who wish to get vaccinated, there are no issues with them taking paid time off and can use their sick time to do so. In organizations that have hourly-paid workers, it is a little more challenging. It isn’t easy to coordinate pulling people off their shifts, coordinating replacements, or figuring out how to incent them to go during their personal time.
Members shared that they all have employees who are hesitant to get the vaccination, or adamant that they will not get it for various reasons. One interesting twist that a member found was that some people are reluctant to report that they have been vaccinated because they do not want to return to the office and prefer to work from home. We expect to continue to see varying habits and attitudes emerging from employees as the pandemic continues.
Complacency among younger individuals remains an issue, both at work and during their personal time. In addition to this, there seems to be a very loose definition of “personal bubbles”, extending from your own home to a few others, and including kids who attend school. These situations appear to contribute greatly to the rising spread of the disease.
The questions remain: once people get vaccinated, what then? Are you not required to wear a mask? What about social distancing? We have not had any messaging from the government on protocol yet, and we will await instructions from Public Health.
George reminded the group that the Inaugural AGM for the Executive Health and Safety Council will be on April 22nd, followed by a general conversation breakfast forum. The AGM portion will be approximately 15-20 minutes and will begin at 8:00am.
On June 3rd, Dr. Joti Samra will be joining us talking about Mental Health, which continues to be a very hot topic for organizations. We hope to see you there.
