Got Plans for Thanksgiving? Your Boss Wants to Know.
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Here's your Money Briefing for Thursday, November 19th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. Thanksgiving is just a week away, and with coronavirus cases surging, it's not just the CDC advising people to avoid large gatherings. Companies concerned about their employees' health are also weighing in, sometimes asking workers to promise to use caution over the holiday.
We've seen companies roll out various pledges. Employers and bosses have asked employees to sign kind of these voluntary safety promises where they say that we'll do our part to kind of be safe, to protect those around us, protect the community.
But what are the legal limits on companies that want to keep tabs on their employees? Chip Cutter covers workplace issues at The Wall Street Journal. He'll join us to discuss after the break.
How are employers responding to Thanksgiving COVID-19 risks?
Pretty much every aspect of life has been upended by the pandemic, and this year you can add the holidays to that list as well. Health officials are strongly advising people not to travel over the river and through the woods to visit with family this year, and now so are some employers. But are companies allowed to restrict what their employees do over Thanksgiving? Our workplace reporter Chip Cutter is here to explain. Chip, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me. So companies often look after the well-being of their employees, but is this new territory for them?
The COVID crisis has really thrust companies into places where they haven't been before. Many were used to sending out bland notes on Thanksgiving, telling people how much they appreciated their service and leaving it at that. So many companies are now in the position where they're really having to distill information and kind of make sure that they are reaching employees in all sorts of ways, wanting to get this critical health information to them. I've had a number of HR executives tell me that they've had to tell their employees at some point, we are not doctors. We cannot answer all of these questions. Employees have increasingly looked to their companies as a source of truth in the pandemic, turning to them for guidance on what to do and how to stay safe.
And that's put many executives in a difficult position.
So how far can companies go in encouraging their employees to do the right thing at Thanksgiving?
Well, companies are really going all out to encourage employees to stay safe, releasing a flurry of memos and videos and guidance just telling people to largely stay in their homes, to not gather with other people if possible. But they really can only do so much. Employers can't really dictate how people spend their personal time. And so while employers can put guidance and recommendations out there, they really can't force people to do anything. And some employment lawyers we've talked to also said that there are legal liabilities raised if employers monitor people's social media activity, for example, or are punitive in their actions based on what people might do on the Thanksgiving holiday.
Okay, so there are legal restrictions on companies monitoring employees, but are they allowed to ask employees in advance what their plans are?
Companies are within their rights to informally ask people how they plan to spend the holidays, as you would in a casual conversation. But some companies are actually putting guidance out there, saying that they would like employees to let their managers know if they plan to spend Thanksgiving in a way that might go against CDC guidance. So the broadcaster Tegna, which operates local stations across the country, for example, has said that it would like its employees to note to managers if for some reason, for example, they spend Thanksgiving with people outside of their household, or if they're, for some reason, not following CDC guidance. The company said it's doing that because it wants to keep its stations safe.
and that it wants employees who maybe go against CDC guidance to kind of do their work at home for a bit until it's deemed safe that they can return to an office setting.
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