The Wall Street Journal - USA (2020-12-07)

© 2020 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Monday, December 7, 2020 |A

ILLUSTRATION BY DAN PAGE

As the holiday season gets

under way amid a Covid-

surge across the country,

employers are taking mea-

sures to encourage employ-

ees to limit their potential

virus exposure and to safe-

guard workplaces. What is

your boss is entitled to know

about your holiday plans?

The Bottom Line

Employers have wide latitude dur-

ing a pandemic in what they can

ask regarding your holiday plans.

That includes asking workers to

take a pledge to refrain from any

risky behavior—as some companies

did right before Thanksgiving—and

cautioning employees against any

conduct that would violate federal

or local health guidelines. It varies

by state, but if it is a matter of

protecting the safety of the work-

place, employers can also discipline

workers for what they do during

off hours. That could include if

workers don’t disclose potential ex-

posure to the virus and return to

the workplace without quarantin-

ing after personal travel or after

attending large celebrations.

HOLIDAYPLANNING

ERIN HOOLEY/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/ZUMA PRESS

The Details

Limitations on what

employers can re-

strict in your off-

time vary by state,

but companies gen-

erally have leeway

when it comes to

protecting workplace

safety.

Employers are re-

quired under Occupa-

tional Safety and

Health Administra-

tion rules to provide

a safe workplace,

says Jennifer Merri-

gan Fay, an employ-

ment-law partner in

Boston at Goodwin

Procter LLP. While

companies can’t un-

reasonably invade an

employee’s privacy

and make requests

such as not to go outside, they can

take other unusual, but not illegal,

steps during a health crisis aimed at

preventing the spread of Covid-19.

Companies can, for example, re-

quire workers to disclose any travel

plans or recent trips, and can en-

force recommendations from the

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention or local health mandates

for post-travel quarantine periods.

Some firms also ask or require em-

ployees to sign pledges stating

they’ll keep celebrations small, wear

a mask or limit contact with people

outside of their household, she said.

“It does feel unnatural, but be-

havior outside of the workplace

causes such a risk to workplace

health and safety,” says Ms. Fay.

“Employers are able to encroach

more into employees’ personal lives

than they otherwise would.”

Ms. Fay said it is key that what-

ever rules employers adopt are ap-

plied consistently to all employees.

Vacation time also isn’t guaran-

teed under federal law, and most

employers are within their rights to

cancel a vacation and require work-

erstoreturntothejobtoprevent

unnecessary travel.

“They are asking employees to

change how they act outside of the

workplace, and it isn’t a normal re-

quest for employers,” Ms. Fay said.

health mandates, such as

being at a large party or

traveling to a Covid hot

spot and refusing to quar-

antine after.

“If an employer sees

someone doing something

on social media that is not

in line with state or local

orders, depending on em-

ployer policy, they could

discipline that person or

require them to quaran-

tine,” Ms. Conn said.

Companies in some

states that ask workers to

stay away from the work-

place as a preventive mea-

sure aren’t required to of-

fer paid time off, said Ms.

Fay. The Families First

Coronavirus Response Act,

enacted in March, requires

private companies with

500 employees or fewer

to provide up to 10 days of paid sick

leave to workers in states that have

quarantine mandates. The policy is

set to expire Dec. 31.

Enforcement of policies regarding

travel or large celebrations, how-

ever, can be difficult and in most

cases falls on the employee to be

honest about their plans.

“Employees should know what

your employer’s travel policy is and

what would be required of you if

you make travel plans,” Ms. Conn

said. “Employees should educate

themselves on if there are adviso-

ries or guidance on travel before

they make their plans.”

—Patrick Thomas

“But in this time, we have to act

differently than we normally would.”

Some states, such as California

and New York, have off-duty con-

duct laws that prevent employers

from restricting activities that em-

ployees may do lawfully outside the

workplace, including personal travel,

says Rachel Conn, an employment

attorney in San Francisco at Nixon

Peabody LLP. Some union contracts

could also include an off-duty con-

duct rule potentially preventing an

employer from taking action against

an employee.

Companies can also discipline

employees if they are caught on so-

cial media violating state or local

Companies can require employees to disclose any travel plans or recent trips, experts say.

PERSONAL JOURNAL.

CAREERS&LEADERSHIP

ing—and evaluating—the em-

ployee as a whole person and not

just a worker bee.

“Empathy, caring, supporting

people is really the theme,” says

Josh Bersin, a human resources

analyst and consultant. Perfor-

mance reviews—once reckonings

that could lead to a swift depar-

ture, or, in a thriving

job market, devel-

opmental tools

meant to coach

youtogreat-

ness—are now

turning into health

checks, he says. Bosses

are mostly using the time to

make sure their people are OK and

to inject some energy into flag-

ging teams.

Mr. Bersin estimates you proba-

bly have two years of leniency be-

fore the performance reviews that

kept you up at night return. When

“the pandemic is history and we’re

back to go, go, go, we’ll probably

go back to the way things were,”

he says.

For now, most companies

aren’t completely canceling re-

views, according to surveys by re-

search firm Gartner Inc. in the

spring and summer, but many are

adjusting the process. For the first

half of the year, Facebook be-

stowed the same “exceeds expec-

tations” rating on all 45,000 full-

time staffers, ensuring they

received their bonuses. Google

skipped mid-year appraisals and

then, in the fall, promoted twice

says. Flashing red rings

typically pop up on workers’

computer screens if they don’t re-

spond within 10 minutes to a cus-

tomer call.

Mustapha Allanah, a 27-year-

old employee at the 200-person

company, had tried to not let the

alert frazzle him during his time

on the service desk. But working

by himself at his home in Elmont,

N.Y., during the pandemic, with

the team short-staffed, he was

sometimes bombarded by 40 red

circles at once. He couldn’t shout

to a colleague for help or an-

nounce he was taking a minute to

grab a snack. “I felt like I couldn’t

take a break. I felt like I couldn’t

be human. Nobody wants to feel

like that,” he says.

When Electric got rid of the

alerts in August and began to limit

the number of customer tickets

staff could take at

one time, it was a

huge relief, Mr. Alla-

nah says. He still

braced for negative

feedback about

some of his stats

during his Septem-

ber performance re-

view, even prepar-

ing a spreadsheet to

advocate for him-

self. But his man-

ager never men-

tioned them, giving him high

marks across the board.

“It just felt good to get a win,”

he says. While he didn’t get a

raise tied to the September per-

formance review, he scored a pro-

motion to associate product man-

ager in November, which came

with a higher salary.

Some managers say they

worry employees will burn out or

leave if they feel they’re be-

ing held to unattainable

standards during the

crisis.

“We need to

get people

through this

with us,” says Ka-

rin McGrath Dunn, presi-

dent of PRD Management, a Colling-

swood, N.J., company that manages

properties. Sheremoved everything

related to last year’s goals from

her firm’s process, replacing them

with pandemic-specific measures

such as demonstrating compassion

and being dependable while work-

ing remotely.

Other leaders are realizing that

no one has time for endless forms

and tedious meetings these days.

At Hilton, employees have been

tasked with new responsibilities as

the hotel company deals with chal-

lenges pummeling the industry.

Some workers are returning from

three- or six-month furloughs to

new bosses and teams transformed

by layoffs.

The message to employees is of-

ten, “Take on this. I know you don’t

know what it is, but just do it for us

now,” chief administrative officer

Matt Schuyler says. If workers are

preoccupied with hitting old goals

or worried about ratings, they

won’t be able to pivot.

So Hilton simplified its perfor-

mance-review template, Mr. Schuy-

ler says, whittling a “spiderweb

matrix” of competencies and ob-

jectives down to three questions.

Eliminating formal mid-year re-

views saved managers 20 hours,

he estimates. For year-end assess-

ments, bosses are urged to con-

sider effort, not just outcomes.

“You’re balancing all this stuff

in your life. You’re watching the

news every night. It’s depressing.

And yet you’re putting forward a

heroic effort in this crisis,” Mr.

Schuyler says. “In my view, that

warrants better ratings.”

as many people as it normally

does to make up for the lapse, ac-

cording to a spokeswoman.

Some companies, of course,

aren’t as generous as tech giants

and won’t be handing out bonuses

or raises at all this year, as they

weather economic turmoil. In those

situations, a glowing review might

help soften the blow of a stagnant

salary, or so executives wager.

At Electric, a New York-based in-

formation-technology soft-

ware and services company,

workers won’t be getting

cost-of-living or merit in-

creases for the second half

of 2020, but they will be

getting positive feed-

back. The human re-

sources team is checking

all performance reviews

during a new audit pro-

cess intended to make

sure numeric ratings are

generous.

“The audit period

was really instituted to

say, ‘Who’s being too

harsh? Who’s really

coming down on our

team?’ You should just

be giving a pat on the back to your

employees for showing up,” says

Jamie Coakley, the company’s vice

president of people.

Executives also reduced sales-

people’s quotas by 15% for the

year. And for 30 days they elimi-

nated an alert for customer service

staff that had become a “blinking

red beacon of stress,” Ms. Coakley

D

reading your end-of-year

performance review? It

might not be the sweat-

inducing conversation of

years past.

Many corporate lead-

ers say they are taking a gentler

approach to evaluations as the

pandemic wears on and employ-

ees face trials on the job and at

home. For much of the labor

force, the idea of checking off

goals set during the compara-

tively rosy close of 2019 now

seems quaint. Many markets have

shifted dramatically, teams have

been redeployed, and workers are

often doing the jobs of departed

colleagues in addition to trying

on the role of teacher or caregiver

for a chunk of the workday.

In response, some companies

are scrapping parts of their perfor-

mance-management systems, like

mid-year reviews and numeric rat-

ings. Others are lowering sales

quotas and instituting a sort of

performance-score inflation, urg-

ing bosses to avoid doling out that

dreaded “does not meet expecta-

tions” label.

It’s all part of a pandemic-

driven management style called

empathetic leadership. To be sure,

some bosses remain unmoved, ex-

pecting things to march on as if

nothing has changed. But many

say these days they are recogniz-

WORK

& LIFE

RACHEL

FEINTZEIG

The pandemic gives rise to

‘empathetic leadership,’

which has some companies

easing up on evaluations

The Kinder,

Gentler

Performance

Review

‘You should

just be giving

a pat on the

back to your

employees for

showing up.’