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Even as the omicron variant has put many return-to-office plans on hold (again), employers now must go at it alone when deciding on vaccine rules for workers. The Supreme Court shot down Biden’s vaccine mandate for larger employers. The mandate would have called for companies with more than 100 employees to be vaccinated or to submit weekly Covid tests. However, the court did allow the mandate to be upheld for health care workers.
Since it cannot be enforced by the federal government, decisions regarding vaccine mandates must be made at the state and local levels or by the businesses themselves. Some companies strongly recommend employees get vaccinated but are not making it a requirement. Not only because of the ongoing labor shortage, but there are also 14 states that do not allow businesses to mandate Covid-19 vaccines.
Despite there being no federal mandate, many private companies, including American Express, Google and United Airlines, already require vaccines for employees that come into the office. However, the guidelines vary business to business. Some companies, like Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, have enacted policies to terminate employees that refuse to get vaccinated. Meanwhile, other businesses do not enforce it and allow unvaccinated employees to continue working remotely.
Although a federal vaccine mandate would have cleared up some confusion, this pandemic has never been a one-size-fits-all situation. With return-to-office delays caused by omicron, companies will have some more time to decide what is best for its employees going forward.
For more on the world of work, check out our Key Stories roundup below.
Until the next time, stay safe, stay healthy and stay in touch.
There is certainly a bias favoring those who are in the office compared to those who are not, which can keep remote workers from getting promotions and leadership positions, said Elora Voyles, people scientist at human resources software company Tinypulse. She has coined it the “Zoom ceiling” and believes it has become the new glass ceiling.
For Delta Air Lines, the Covid situation isn’t as grim as it could be. Its outlook on Thursday, issued along with its fourth-quarter 2021 earnings report, called for a profit of roughly $400 million for the second half of this year, and its CEO Ed Bastian noted that would make delta “the only major U.S. airline to achieve second-half profitability.”
In 2021, three words shaped the world of work: “The Great Resignation.” Anthony Klotz, an organizational psychologist and professor at Texas A&M University, coined the phrase during an interview with Bloomberg last May to describe the wave of people quitting their jobs due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which led many to rethink where, how and why we work.
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