From small restaurants to multinational corporations, the COVID-19 outbreak has delivered quite a blow to the economy. Companies are implementing massive organizational changes to at least try and stay afloat -- with many switching to full-scale working from home and others going all in on delivery.
"I've done a couple of webinars with groups of companies. As of about a week and a half ago, they weren't doing anything, there wasn't anything different," Peter Cappelli, a professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the director of Wharton's Center for Human Resources, told ABC News. The expert predicts, "The big test will come when it goes on for more than a couple of weeks."
When it comes to managing employees, Cappelli said there are good examples out there. So far, "We've seen more companies carrying employees for longer than expected if this had been a financial downturn versus a health-related one," he explained.
But there are rotten apples in the basket, too. Pressure is building on Amazon and other delivery companies to improve protection for workers worried about getting infected with coronavirus. Some workers at US food delivery firm Instacart as well as US and Italian workers at Amazon have walked out, complaining about the lack of protection.
Even US senators have been contacting Amazon boss Jeff Bezos to express concerns.
As a response, Amazon said it had adjusted its practices, including increased cleaning of its facilities and introducing staggered shift and break times. However, union representatives are saying this is far from the truth. "Several employees working at the site use face masks for days instead of having new ones each day," one of them told Reuters.
A group of workers at Whole Foods, which is also owned by Amazon, plan to walk out on Tuesday, regarding similar problems.
Let's hope that human decency prevails and employees won't be put at risk for another dollar.
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