Tag: benefits

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How to calculate PTO hours + accruals

Summary

  • Paid time off comes in many different types, including vacation, sick leave, personal leave, and bereavement time. – More

  • Your company can also choose to have workers accrue their time off, offer PTO up front, or even offer unlimited time off. – More

  • No matter your company’s specific time off policy, automatic PTO tracking software calculates leave for you and ensures proper coverage. – More

Workers are finally starting to take more time off for vacation and rest, a pretty significant shift in America’s always-hustling working culture. According to a Korn Ferry survey in 2021, 79% of workers said they planned to use more vacation days that year than in years past, and 82% said they would appreciate more vacation time in our post-pandemic world.

Paid time off (PTO) has always been valued by employees. 76% of American workers feel that it’s very important their company provides PTO. Paid sick time (74%) and paid holidays (74%) are also very important among workers. 

Also read: Paid Sick Leave Laws by State

Employers can retain more workers, lower stress levels, and improve productivity among their workforce by developing a clear and fair PTO policy. But there’s no “one size fits all” approach to adopting the perfect plan for your company — you’ll have to sort out the right policy based on your workforce needs, then make sure you’re calculating time off banks correctly to help each worker get the time they’re entitled to.

Breaking down the types of PTO

There are a few different reasons why an employee might use their PTO. Depending on your company policy, they might use any available PTO day for any of these reasons, or they might have an allotment of days for each category.

  • Vacation: This is your run-of-the-mill bank of time for employees to use for day trips, staycations, travel, weddings, or the like. If it’s something they’re planning for, they’ll likely use vacation days.
  • Sick time: If an employee isn’t feeling well enough to work, they can take a sick day to rest up. Well-being also includes mental health; according to a survey by Breeze, 63% of respondents said they had taken a mental health day in the last year.
  • Personal days: Personal time is for when things happen outside the worker’s control. Maybe they’re stuck in a blizzard coming home from their in-laws, or they have to say goodbye to the family pet. Personal leave is there for life’s curveballs.
  • Parental leave: Companies aren’t legally required to offer paid parental leave, but some still offer it as a benefit to their workers. More businesses than ever were paying maternity and paternity leave benefits after the pandemic, but that trend is curtailing again. According to SHRM, 35% of companies offered paid maternity leave in 2022, and 27% offered paid paternity leave.
  • Jury duty: If an employee gets called in for their civic duty, their employer may choose to offer them PTO for at least part of their service.
  • Bereavement: Bereavement time is meant for employees who lose a loved one. Some companies only allow bereavement leave for close relatives. Workers can use this time to attend the funeral or other memorial services, or just take time for themselves to grieve without thinking about work.

How does PTO work?

You can allocate time off to your employees using a few different systems. In a traditional PTO format, workers accrue time off based on their hours or days worked. But more employers these days are leaning towards more flexible time off policies.

Accruing Time Off

With this type of policy, your workers will accrue time off based on every hour or day they work. The accrued time off will be added to their PTO bank, and they can take time off when they have enough hours banked. You can choose to lump all types of PTO together or distinguish between vacation and other types of PTO.

Usually, employees accrue different types of PTO at different rates. For example, for the year, your policy might grant ten days of vacation, five sick days, five bereavement days, and three personal days. Then, for each 40-hour workweek, employees will accrue their vacation time faster than their sick time, bereavement leave, or personal time. Employees with more years of service might also accrue more paid days of leave per year.

With an accrued time off policy, employees have to wait until enough time is banked to use their PTO. That means that you can’t just look at scheduling needs when weighing PTO requests — you’ll also have to track each worker’s banked PTO to ensure they have enough balance.

Unlimited Time Off

In an unlimited time off system, there’s much more flexibility for employees to take days off as they wish. There is no set number of days in an unlimited PTO system. Instead, employees can take off as many days as they’d like, for any reason, as long as the time off is approved by the company and they’re still fulfilling their individual responsibilities.

This flexibility can be a benefit to employees. There’s usually a level of trust that workers will take the time they need to stay rested and attend to personal matters while remaining productive at work.

However, an unlimited PTO policy also comes with some severe drawbacks. Studies show that employees, on average, take less time off under an unlimited policy than those who operate under a traditional policy. This is most likely due to a sense of guilt and other unspoken, toxic workplace stigmas around taking leave. 

Just like in a traditional accrued time off structure, managers and company leadership still have to approve time off in an unlimited policy. If you opt for this type of format, the difference is you won’t be looking at the hours available in an employee’s time off bank. Before you approve any leave, you’ll still typically review factors like workforce coverage, scheduling needs, and productivity.

Under an unlimited PTO policy, you also don’t have to pay employees for the time off they’ve accrued when they exit your company. In a traditional PTO system, you do owe workers for any unused PTO time that they’ve banked during their tenure. When an employee leaves, they’re usually entitled to a payout of the days of PTO they accumulated.

How to calculate PTO

Small-business and startup consultancy Bizfluent notes that calculating PTO by pay period allows organizations to evenly distribute an employee’s time off accumulation throughout the year.  Organizations with hourly or part-time employees should consider providing PTO based on the number of hours worked. When an organization calculates PTO hourly, it allows employers to award less PTO for hourly employees who do not report to work (for whatever reason) or for part-time employees who do not always work the same number of hours in a pay period.

One metric employers can follow to calculate PTO is dividing the annual PTO hours by annual work hours. For example, if an hourly employee earns 80 hours of PTO each year and works 40 hours a week, or 2,080 hours per year, divide 80 by 2,080. That works out to an employee earning 0.038 hours of PTO for each hour worked.

The PTO formula is:

Hours of PTO / hours worked each year = hours of PTO earned per hour worked

So in our above example, the organization’s PTO formula for this employee would be:

80 hours / 2,080 hours = 0.038 hours of PTO earned per hour worked

How to navigate common PTO challenges

Even if you set a clear PTO policy, there are bound to be situations or employee requests that fall outside of the policy that you’ll still have to balance. The key is to treat all employees fairly and accurately track PTO balances so you know exactly where you stand.

A sick employee has already used all their days.

Combining sick leave and vacation into one PTO category can lead to unplanned consequences for employees. If a sick employee has used all their PTO days, they might feel compelled to show up ill and risk infecting co-workers.

Help employees plan for this by offering guidance during onboarding or in posts throughout the year via internal communications about the importance of banking some PTO for sick days. For example, advise employees to consider paid time off as five days of vacation, four sick days or an unplanned emergency, and one day for a special occasion.

A new employee needs to use PTO days before accruing them.

Companies often hire employees with previous personal commitments for which they need time off after being hired. Prospective candidates often are honest and upfront about this as the hiring process progresses. 

Since most policies establishing how to calculate PTO makes it hard for employees to take time off in the early months of their employment, many employers will allow employees to “borrow” their PTO. Allowing 40 hours of borrowed time gives an employee a full week off. To avoid lump accumulations and to calculate PTO more accurately, companies can implement earning PTO incrementally with each pay period.

If you allow your employees to borrow ahead on their PTO plan, you’ll need to track the borrowed hours accurately. You’ll also need visibility into the rest of your attendance and scheduling to quickly identify and resolve any coverage issues, especially for unplanned absences like a death in the family.

Tracking PTO doesn’t need to be difficult

Effective leave management is crucial for shift-based workforces. For one, it promotes employee well-being and reduces burnout. It also keeps you compliant with various wage and hour laws in your state. But most importantly, handling PTO properly keeps shifts organized and lowers the chance of scheduling mistakes. 

You could manually approve, calculate, and track PTO across your workforce – this is fine enough for a small business. But one slight misstep can wreak havoc on timesheets and schedules. To save yourself the headache, utilizing an automated PTO tracker is a good idea. For shift workers, it is important that something like this be mobile-first and optimized for self-service; this way, the admin work is as non-intrusive as possible.

Mobile app that employees can use to request PTO

An app like this can do things like:

  • Automatically track leave balances
  • Calculate and apply PTO to timesheets
  • Prevent employees on leave from accidentally being scheduled
  • Allow employees to request leave and check their balances
  • Let managers review past and upcoming time off on a calendar
  • Allow managers to create custom accrual rates

Pretty sweet, right? If you want to learn more about how this all works, contact us today. 

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What is Earned Wage Access (EWA)? A Few Considerations

An astronaut husky holding an iiphone with money raining down

Summary

  • Earned wage access (EWA) programs are an increasingly popular way for employees to access their earned wages before their next scheduled payday.
  • Implementing an EWA program helps employers attract and retain top talent and reduces employee absenteeism. 
  • Before implementing an EWA program, ensure that any direct deposit arrangements are compliant with your state laws and consider the associated charges for using an EWA service.

In a bid to improve employee retention in the current landscape, employers are turning to advancements in payment technology and alternative payroll processes. One solution that is gaining momentum is earned wage access (EWA), also known as on-demand pay. 

Earned wage access programs allow employees early access to parts of their salaries before their scheduled pay period. Unlike payday loans and advances, EWA solutions only grant employees access to money that they have already earned.  

Initially a concept that gained popularity in the gig economy, EWA programs have now drawn the attention of employers and employees across all industries. Research shows that access to EWA has become a priority for job seekers around the country. 

From small businesses to large corporations, there are a number of things to consider before adding EWA as an employee benefit to your retention strategy. Employers must understand the different EWA models out there as well as the common features across EWA providers, integrating it into their payroll system and remaining in line with any regulatory requirements. 

The two types of EWA models

Earned wage access products generally require employees to download a mobile app that they will later use to gain on-demand access to their salaries. These advances are paid directly into the employees’ account or to a dedicated pay card. EWA products function in one of two ways.

  • Employer-sponsored – In these cases, the employer contracts an EWA service provider and integrates it directly into their own payroll system using an API. In these models, the employer pays a flat rate for the use of the service.
  • Direct-to-consumer – Here, an agreement is set up directly between the employee and the EWA provider. The employee receives funds directly into their account and is charged a transaction fee each time a withdrawal is made. 

The 4 main features of an EWA service 

Although there are differences between earned wage access services, there are four core features that are common in any solution out there.

  1. The funding of EWA – The capital for granting employees access to their funds usually comes directly from the EWA provider. The service provider pays through their own available funds or through a debt facility. The service provider verifies that the funds are, in fact, available through an integration with the employer’s payroll provider.
  2. Disbursement methods – There are various ways that funds are distributed to employees: Direct deposit, a pre-allocated bank account that the employee sets up through the EWA provider, or a prepaid card.
  3. Method of payment collection by EWA provider – The vendor is usually repaid directly from the upcoming pay cycle.
  4. The time it takes a payment to reach the employee – This varies depending on the method used:
    • Direct deposit – the next business day
    • Prepaid or debit cards – takes up to 48 hours
    • Bank transfers – instant but can carry a fee
    • EWA vendor-provided bank accounts – free and instant  

Benefits of earned wage access for employees

Earned wage access has gained popularity with employees over the last few years as a great way to ease the financial stress of trying to survive between paychecks. Rising inflation over the past few years continues to worsen as experts believe that we are hurtling toward a cost of living crisis. Forty-one percent of employees have received pay raises this year. Of these, only 28% claim to have received a raise higher than the current inflation rate. 

 

Webinar: How to Navigate the Inflation Crisis

 

One study found that the reasons for utilizing EWA varied between employees from different age groups. Gen Z workers tend to use it to pay for everyday expenses like groceries or make loan or rent payments. It reduces the stress of not having the cash flow available until the next payday. 

Millennials also used EWA to cover family-related expenses, bills, and unexpected expenses related to vehicle maintenance. Gen X and boomers rely on EWA for family expenses, bills, and groceries but also use it to cover any emergency medical expenses. Either way, EWA has broad appeal across all age groups. 

The COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty that followed meant that more people started to prioritize building up a financial safety net. Earned wage access makes this easier to do. Unlike payday loans and advances, employees are less likely to accumulate debt from high-interest rates and overdraft fees. 

Benefits of earned wage access for employers

Signing up for an EWA program means more work for your human resources team, but the benefits of offering your employees more flexible access to their paychecks could outweigh the effort required.

Employees continue to struggle with inflation and trying to keep up with the high costs of living. Research shows that 78% of employees are seeking alternative employment in hopes of achieving better financial well-being.

 

Webinar: How to Stop Employee Turnover

 

By offering your staff the option of EWA and contributing to their financial wellness, you are more likely to attract top talent. In fact, 76% of employees agree that it is important for employers to offer EWA. Besides attracting talent, looking out for your staff’s financial health through EWA helps you improve your employee retention. 

A lack of financial well-being is a major cause of stress for many employees. Furthermore, stress is the third-leading cause of long-term workplace absence and the fourth cause of short-term absence. Improving this situation means your employees will also be more present at work. 

What to consider before implementing an EWA program

When looking at integrating an EWA program into your company, there are two things to consider: the associated fees for you or your employees and the legal implications of doing so based on where you are based. 

It is important to understand your state’s direct deposit laws. Some states only allow employers to pay via direct deposit when the employee gives their consent through a written agreement. If the EWA program you have signed up for requires a separate bank account to be set up, this might not be applicable within that agreement. You may need to obtain additional written authorization to ensure compliance with laws and regulations.

The charges associated with EWA programs vary from one provider to another. Some involve charging employers a flat fee, while others charge employees per transaction. Before contracting an EWA service provider, you need to budget for any charges you will absorb or analyze whether or not your staff are willing to pay transaction fees themselves. 

A successful EWA program begins with accurate timekeeping 

If you are going to offer EWA, you need to ensure that the wages employees have access to are accurate as soon as they are recorded. After all, fixing pay errors is much harder when employees have already spent their money. With automated time and attendance software, you can record accurate timesheets in real-time before they even reach your payroll or EWA system. This way, you can give your employees immediate access to their funds with peace of mind.

Workforce.com’s time and attendance is also synced with an employee scheduling system, meaning you can see wage and hour variances in real-time and on timesheets. With this visibility, you’ll be able to immediately catch where and when an employee’s pay doesn’t match up to their scheduled hours.

To find out more about how to lock in accurate wages BEFORE employees get access to them, check out our whitepaper on timekeeping below, or get in touch with us today.

The Practical Guide to Time and Attendance

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We are in the midst of a public mental health crisis; how employers can help

employers mental health; Millennials and mental health

Consider these statistics, courtesy of the National Institute of Mental Health, which recently examined mental health issues one year into the COVID-19 pandemic:

  • 31 percent of people report symptoms of anxiety or depression​.
  • 13 percent report having started or increased substance use​.
  • 26 percent report stress-related symptoms​.
  • 11 percent report having serious thoughts of suicide in the past 30 days​.
These grim numbers tell me that COVID-19 has created a national mental health crisis. At least some of your employees are struggling. Your challenge is what to do about it.
Here are four suggestions.
1. Check the benefits available to your employees. Do you have an employee assistance plan and are its mental health and counseling services are up to date? Are your health insurance plan’s mental health benefits easy to access and affordable? Do your employees know about state-offered resources, such as Ohio’s CareLine, a 24/7 community administered emotional support call service (800-720-9616)?
2. Revisit paid time off policies and consider providing employees the time they need to take care of themselves and their families. And understand that everyone’s situation at home is different. Some only have themselves to worry about, while others have families, older parents, etc. None of this is ideal, but for some, it’s less ideal than for others, depending on how much non-work responsibilities are on one’s plate.
3. Consider holding town halls or all-employee meetings that focus on mental health awareness. If senior leadership encourages education and communication around mental health issues, your employees will be more likely to access care if and when they need it. Leadership always starts from the top, and it’s vital that leadership leads on this issue.
4. Small gestures of kindness can go a long way. An extra day paid day off, a gift certificate for takeout meals or grocery deliveries or a surprise delivery of a mid-day snack can help employees feel appreciated and connected instead of overwhelmed and stressed.
Also, do not forget about or ignore your ADA obligations. The statute covers mental impairments no differently than physical impairments. If an employee is suffering from a mental illness you have an affirmative obligation to reasonably accommodate that employee, which might involve, for example, unpaid time off for the employee to obtain needed treatment.
Finally, do not ignore these issues or your employees who are living with them. Mental health illnesses are no different than other illnesses from which we suffer.
Treating them differently only increases the stigma that surrounds them and pushes individuals deeper into their illnesses and further away from the treatment they need.

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EEOC commissioner wants industry-specific COVID-19 guidelines

COVID-19, vaccine, flu

Last week, the EEOC held a public meeting on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on civil rights in the workplace. Following up on the remarks at that meeting, EEOC Commissioner Keith Sonderling, speaking at a virtual summit held by the Institute for Workplace Equality, said that employers need guidance on whether their COVID-related decisions are legal, and that the EEOC should issue industry-specific guidance to clear up these ambiguities.

Law 360 quotes Commissioner Sonderling:

I stress that the commission must issue new, common-sense guidance on return-to-work and other timely issues. Moving forward, the EEOC must begin to issue industry-specific guidance to address the array of issues that are becoming prevalent as the pandemic enters its final stage. … It’s my belief that businesses must know they will not be penalized by the federal government or through litigation for taking bold steps to help their workers thrive amid COVID-19 and ultimately return to the workplace.

High on my list of topics that the EEOC must quickly address is the legality of vaccine incentives. Another issue that I’d love to see the agency address is whether certain industries (e.g., health care, education) can be more strict with vaccine requirements than others, even for employees who might otherwise require a legal exception.

With vaccine hesitancy a legitimate barrier to reaching herd immunity, we need rules that will permit employers to get as many individuals vaccinated as possible. We need to be breaking down barriers, not erecting them.

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Biden administration announces $15 minimum wage for all federal contractors

minimum wage

On April 27, the White House announced that effective Jan. 30, 2022, all federal contractors will be required to incorporate a $15 minimum wage in new contract solicitations, and by March 30, 2022, all federal agencies will need to implement the minimum wage into new contracts and into existing contracts with annual options to renew.

The Executive Order that implements these changes will also tie this new minimum wage to inflation and adjust accordingly annually, eliminate the tipped minimum wage for federal contractors by 2024, and extends the required $15 minimum wage to federal contract workers with disabilities.

“But Jon,” you ask, “I’m not a federal contractor; why should I care?”

You should care because this Executive Order will move the minimum wage needle. Other companies will have to begin voluntarily offering a $15 minimum wage to compete in the job market for new hires. As a result, eventually and over time a $15 minimum wage will spread to all employers nationwide. If Congress won’t act on this issue, President Biden will force employers to act on their own.

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It’s time to end pandemic PTO hesitancy

leave management, PTO, vacation, PTO

I haven’t taken a proper vacation in 25 months. We were supposed to go to Portugal last March, but then COVID-19 happened. In the 13 months since, there’s been little point in taking off from work for any length of time because I haven’t been able to go anywhere. “I can’t go anywhere, so I might as well work,” has been a popular pandemic refrain (me included).

Americans were bad at vacations before COVID. The pandemic certainly hasn’t helped our PTO hesitancy.

Consider the following from The Atlantic.

Americans are good at lots of different things, but going on vacation is not one of them.… Guess which industrialized country is the only one that doesn’t guarantee time off to its workers? Guess which country left 768 million vacation days on the table in 2018?

The pandemic has not been great for America’s vacation malaise. When there are few new places to go and few new things to do, what’s the point of asking for time off? Yes, many Americans who have made it through without losing their jobs have taken a break to discover nature or their apartment balconies, but largely, we do not seem to be PTO-ing our way through this god-awful year. In February, time-off requests on the HR platform Zenefits were down 26 percent from the year before, a spokesperson told me, in line with what the company has seen since July.

I’m ending my vacation moratorium this summer with a week in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I suggest that you strongly encourage your employees to do the same, lest you risk the burnout I warned about last week.

Here are four tips to help push your employees to use their PTO and take a vacation.

1. Teach your employees the benefits of taking a vacation. Make it a part of your wellness education. Communicate the health and wellness benefits of taking a vacation. If employees understand that vacations lead to improvements in performance productivity, they will be more likely to leave work behind for a few days.

2. Take your own time off. If the boss never takes a vacation, employees won’t either. If you want your employees to take time away from work, do so yourself. Leadership and messaging start at the top. If you make vacations a priority, your employees will, too.

3. Ease employee back to work. When asked why they don’t take time off, most employees historically cite the fear of returning to a backlog of work and thousands of emails to which to respond. COVID hasn’t helped, as fewer are away from work. Plan for coverage when employees are out, and provide a day upon their return for them to catch-up, so that they won’t fear the return-to-work ambush or avalanche.

4. Prohibit vacation shaming. No one should be permitted to discourage or tease employees who take a vacation. If you send or permit negative messages about vacations, your employees won’t take them. They will fear letting the team down, or the time-off impacting their employment. This form of bullying cannot and should not be tolerated.
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What employers can expect from Biden’s presidency: A temporary emergency OSHA standard for COVID-19

VF Corp., COVID-19, mask, education

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the identification of the first COVID-19 case in the United States.

On Jan. 20, 2020, the state of Washington and the CDC confirmed that someone in Washington State had contracted the virus. Since then, 24,809,840 additional Americans have contracted COVID, and 411,520 have died from it.

All the while, OSHA, the federal agency charged with protecting health and safety in the workplace, has done very little to address the pandemic, and we still lack a national safety standard on keeping COVID-safe at work.

President Biden’s OSHA will fix this glaring omission. He has called on Congress “to authorize the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue a COVID-19 Protection Standard that covers a broad set of workers.”

What issues should we expect this OSHA standard to address?

  • Mandatory masking.
  • Mandatory physical distancing.
  • Required sanitization and housekeeping.
  • Standards for engineering and airflow.
  • Required employee training.
  • Increased reporting requirements.

Some of these, like masking and distancing, should be second-nature at this point, but sadly have become overly politicized and ignored by too many. I applaud anything President Biden does in an attempt to get his pandemic under control and save lives so that we all can get back to living ours.

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Biden calls for extension and expansion of FFCRA

COVID-19, coronavirus, public health crisis

As you should hopefully be aware, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), the federal law that provided paid leave to employees for COVID-related absences, expired on Dec. 31, 2020, with an option for employers to voluntarily expand leave through March 31, 2021. The problem, however, is that while this leave has expired or will soon expire, COVID-19 is not expiring any time soon.

Help, however, may soon be on the way, as part of President-elect Biden’s America Rescue Plan. A key part of that plan is a significant expansion of the FFCRA.

What would change?
  • The FFCRA would be reinstated and extended through Sept. 30, 2021.
  • The 500-employee cap on coverage would be lifted and all employers, regardless of size, would be required to provide paid leave for covered COVID-related absences.
  • The exemptions for health care workers, first responders and small employers would be eliminated.
  • The total leave entitlement would be expanded to 14 weeks.
  • Employers with less than 500 employees would be reimbursed for this paid leave through an extension of the already existing payroll tax credit. Employers with 500 or more employees would not receive the tax credit.
I applaud this expansion, which is sorely needed as we navigate this virus until we reach a vaccination critical mass. I also hope it is a step toward more broad-based paid sick and family leave for employees, an issue on which this country sadly lags behind every other industrialized nation in the world.
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Coronavirus update: Congress must extend the FFCRA

Capitol Building, joint session of Congress

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the federal law that provides paid sick and family leave to employees for COVID-19-related absences, ends in 29 days. By its terms, the law sunsets on Dec. 31.

On Dec. 1, news broke of a new coronavirus relief bill that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will put forward. It will include important measures such as the extension of unemployment insurance expansions for another month, another round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) small business assistance, and additional funding for the USPS, schools, testing, and vaccine distribution.

What doesn’t it include? Any extension of the FFCRA.

COVID-19 isn’t going to magically disappear on Dec. 31. If anything, we’ll be in the midst of the virus’s current surge and the situation will be worse and more dire come January 2021 than it is now. You will have more employees needing time away from work because of their own illnesses, the illnesses of family members, and the closure of their children’s schools. Yet, they will lack any federal protections for this time off.

Congress needs to extend the FFCRA now. Otherwise, millions of employees will be left without leave and without job protection as they and their families battle this virus.

Employers, you need to assume that the FFCRA is going away to start 2021 and spend some time over the next few weeks figuring out your own plan for your employees.

  • Will you grant your own paid sick and family leave in lieu of the federal benefit?
  • Will you merely rely on your existing PTO/vacation/sick leave benefits?
  • Will you grant unpaid leaves of absence but not offer any additional paid leave to employees?
  • Will you do nothing and force these employees out of your business?
These are difficult choices to make during difficult economic times. But you need to make them and you need a plan, as it appears that Congress will not provide one for you for 2021.
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If your employees are scared to come to work you are doing something very, very wrong

Super Bowl Monday, football, NFL

According to Deadspin, NFL players are terrified of COVID but are afraid to speak up for fear of angering the NFL.

“I looked at my son. I looked at my family, and I just didn’t think it was worth it,” Jaguars player Lerentee McCray, a seven-year veteran, told me this summer after opting out. “I could catch it and bring it home to them. Or I can get it and even if it doesn’t kill me, it could destroy my career long-term. I feel really weird not playing football right now, but can’t. I can’t risk doing something so dangerous and maybe hurting the people I love.”

In the end, most players decided the money was worth the risk. So, they play.

Yet there’s been a definite shift in that attitude over the past few months and even weeks, several told me in various interviews, as the virus spreads through locker rooms. Most requested anonymity for fear of angering NFL owners and the league office.

Players add that they feel that the safety measures the league and their union promised pre-season were meaningless.

One of the things players tell me that’s changed their thinking from the summer is the ballistic pace of the infections. One moment the virus isn’t there, the next it’s calling plays in the huddle. As a virus spreads through a locker room there’s a sense of helplessness. Players now think of football during the pandemic era not as a calculated risk, but Russian roulette.

All of the outbreaks have left a player base more scared than ever before. That’s the word I’m hearing the most: scared.

This is awful. Yes, they make a lot of money to play a game, and yes, they all had the ability to opt out before the season started (as 67 players chose to do). But they also should have an expectation that their employer is doing everything within reason to keep them safe and the ability to air their grievances if they perceive that their employer is failing in that mission. The fact that players believe that the NFL is failing on both counts is galling.

Employers, you have one primary obligation to your employees during this pandemic — keep them safe. If your employees are terrified to come to work, you are failing, period. It’s time to look inward. Are you doing your part?

  • Are you mandating masks?
  • Do you require a minimum of six feet of physical distance at all times?
  • Are you promoting hand washing and other good personal hygiene habits?
  • Are you regularly cleaning and sanitizing work and common areas?
  • Have you eliminated gatherings of employees?
  • Are you mandating self-screening for COVID-19 symptoms and sending home anyone with symptoms until cleared by a doctor?
  • Are you enforcing the CDC’s isolation and quarantine rules?
  • Do you have an open door through which employees can walk, without retaliation or fear of retaliation, if they feel you are not meeting these obligations or their coworkers aren’t following the rules?

Unless you can answer yes to each of these questions, it’s time to take a long, hard look at your pandemic protocols and decide what you should be doing differently. Your employees, their families and friends, and the general public are counting on you.