COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US) (3 Viewers)

[St. Widge]

"If you can work from home you should work from home . . . for the foreseeable future" is going to be the reality for many businesses and sectors in the economy.

I'll believe it when I see it for law firms.

 

[St. Widge]

I work on the admin side of a Colorado based national law firm that has strong political connections at the fed, state and local level (i.e. I expect that we have people as much "in the know" regarding government decision making as one could hope for). We had a management meeting today, and one of the big topics of course was the "Return to Office Strategy," with three phase approach announced -- I figured some people might find this informative from an anecdotal perspective as far as the steps we'll be taking.

Now keep in mind that the state and local (Denver) stay at home orders have expired in favor of "Safer at Home" directives, but despite that the firm is taking a slow approach to returning to the office. For at least the next month we'll be continuing to work remotely with only a handful of "essential" allowed in the office, just as we have for the last eight weeks, and no determination has been made of when we expect to begin Phase I

Phase I is "Office as a Resource." People aside from essential personnel will be allowed to go to the office, but must justify their reasons for being there (i.e. for purposes that can't be handled remotely) and must be asymptomatic. There will be limited office support, so people in the office will need to be self sufficient. Kitchens will be closed, conference room usage must allow 6 foot distancing, and employees will be required to wear masks at all times except when alone in a private office. To that end, the firm is attempting to acquire and stockpile masks, cleaning products, hand sanitizer, etc. and also reviewing what distancing and cleaning protocols will need to be in place (for example, our Denver building is only allowing two people on an elevator at a time, so they might need to stagger office hours so there's not a logjam in the lobby). Otherwise, business travel will still be prohibited.

Phase II is "Cautious Return," whereby once we're fully comfortable with Phase I maybe 25% of the firm will be allowed to return, likely under the same circumstances in Phase I.

Phase III is still under development, as it's "too soon to say."

So basically even without stay home orders things will be continuing status quo indefinitely.

This plan seems to make a lot of sense for places like law firms, but I can tell you that at least in New Orleans, I don't think that a careful plan like the above will be the norm. I've read a few of the plans for firms here and they more or less involve limiting how much staff is around for the first few weeks, closing the kitchen, cleaning more, and wearing masks in public places. There is no mention of sticking to even only 25% occupancy in the offices.

Which makes little to no sense because much of what lawyers do can be done remotely, especially when trials and hearings are continued, and most depositions can be done by phone or video conference. But, law firms tend to be run by Baby Boomers, or older folks, and they just can't grasp the concept of work from home even in an emergency situation.

 

[St. Geezy]

 

[St. Widge]

my wife started her education with tulane architecture. she lasted 2 semesters. literally was at school 7 days a week working on projects.

not an easy degree, by any means.

Luckily my daughter is much smarter than me.

 

[zeetes]

Luckily my daughter is much smarter than me.

um that goes without saying

 

[superchuck500]

I work on the admin side of a Colorado based national law firm that has strong political connections at the fed, state and local level (i.e. I expect that we have people as much "in the know" regarding government decision making as one could hope for). We had a management meeting today, and one of the big topics of course was the "Return to Office Strategy," with three phase approach announced -- I figured some people might find this informative from an anecdotal perspective as far as the steps we'll be taking.

Now keep in mind that the state and local (Denver) stay at home orders have expired in favor of "Safer at Home" directives, but despite that the firm is taking a slow approach to returning to the office. For at least the next month we'll be continuing to work remotely with only a handful of "essential" allowed in the office, just as we have for the last eight weeks, and no determination has been made of when we expect to begin Phase I

Phase I is "Office as a Resource." People aside from essential personnel will be allowed to go to the office, but must justify their reasons for being there (i.e. for purposes that can't be handled remotely) and must be asymptomatic. There will be limited office support, so people in the office will need to be self sufficient. Kitchens will be closed, conference room usage must allow 6 foot distancing, and employees will be required to wear masks at all times except when alone in a private office. To that end, the firm is attempting to acquire and stockpile masks, cleaning products, hand sanitizer, etc. and also reviewing what distancing and cleaning protocols will need to be in place (for example, our Denver building is only allowing two people on an elevator at a time, so they might need to stagger office hours so there's not a logjam in the lobby). Otherwise, business travel will still be prohibited.

Phase II is "Cautious Return," whereby once we're fully comfortable with Phase I maybe 25% of the firm will be allowed to return, likely under the same circumstances in Phase I.

Phase III is still under development, as it's "too soon to say."

So basically even without stay home orders things will be continuing status quo indefinitely.

I'll believe it when I see it for law firms.

 

[superchuck500]

I've added a couple of marks. If I'm reading correctly, the first yellow mark is the supposed introduction into the New Orleans area. The red mark is Mardi Gras Day and the 2nd yellow is 5 or 6 days after Mardi Gras. Does this look right? If so, that's crazy timing.

Not only does this show possible (though not convincing) introduction at Mardi Gras, it also shows that the virus wasn’t circulating before then - as many are so convinced was the case.

 

[St. Widge]

And so it goes:

 

[St. Widge]

I should have said, I'll believe it when I see it from New Orleans law firms.

 

[DaveXA]

And so it goes:

Yep, reopening is gonna be tricky, and in a lot of places, deadly.

 

[Charlie Brizzown]

And so it goes:

I wonder if there's anything to the repatriated citizens doing the spreading there or if that's just some sort of boogie man to blame.

 

[mattgdg]

most depositions can be done by phone or video conference.

I can assure you quite a few court reporters have no desire for this

 

[Loose Cannon]

Shutting down schools for fall four months out seems just as reactionary and agenda-driven as some of the "reopen everything ASAP" plans.

 

[St. Widge]

I can assure you quite a few court reporters have no desire for this

Yeah, but insurance companies love it because they don't have to pay for travel time or travel expenses. I think it's coming no matter what we might want to do and it will be hard for us to argue that it doesn't work as well because we did it for this.

 

[St. Widge]

Shutting down schools for fall four months out seems just as reactionary and agenda-driven as some of the "reopen everything ASAP" plans.

I agree. Now is too early to make those decisions. I do think opening schools will require some kinds of modified schedules, rotation of students on campuses to keep the numbers down, and likely more remote learning and less days on campus. But, it's too early to shut schools down or make final decisions on how to proceed if/when they do open. We need to see how the Phase plans work before we can know what is going to happen.