Are any other HR people feeling a bit lonely in all this :(

Not self indulgent. Personally, I feel worried about it all. Its natural when we get so much news coverage about what is going on and we don't know when this will all end. I am dealing with queries about this for the majority of the day. and it's worrying for us in HR too, on a personal level.

It's challenging on a professional level because things change all the time.

I am pleased that we have this forum to help us share thoughts like this.

I'm pretty scared now, especially as my son coughed a few times before and I thought "this is it".......but now hes not coughed once in 30 mins, hes currently shut away in his bedroom for another hour and if he doesnt cough again I'll relax :D

We're all set up to WFH now and it seems to be going ok. Still struggling to bite my tongue at times but so far I'm doing very well if I say so myself. One of our senior managers had the brass danglies to ask me if he'd be able to claim money back for phone calls, hes lucky to have a job at the best of times IMO but that just takes the biscuit!! (I didnt even reply I just raised my eyebrow). Luckily most of everyone else is very much a team player and appreciating we might all have to take a hit on different things and we just want to get our little lovely company - I do moan about it on here sometimes but it is a genuinely lovely place to work - and Directors through this together and come out stronger and even more united :)

If nothing else I've noticed a very strong sense of togetherness in my community which is lovely given usually as soon as I say where I live I get sarcastic comments about Jeremy Kyle and wide-screen TVs <eye roll>

Stay safe everyone.

So with you on this. I am finding so many people are being extremely selfish and my HR team are feeling the brunt of the anger and frustration.

I genuinely believe a lot of people are naive in how serious this is going to be long term (economy wise).

I’ve had people say ‘it’s not my fault and the company should send us all home on full pay’ I’ve had a manager challenge current policy by saying ‘your policy doesn’t appreciate my operational challenges’ to which I point out ‘it’s a saving life policy!’.

I had to take the whole team out for a drink just to vent and let off steam. It’s tough!

It’s been a hard week, starting off with various employees showing up on Monday despite showing obvious symptoms (and one father and son who had a confirmed case in their family show up), I’ve had directors disagreeing with each other about what to do, angry phone calls, loads of emails and I have done no other HR work this week.

It’s been helpful reading through all these discussions, and thankfully the H&S manager and I have been having daily catch ups to vent (over the phone of course!)

It’s a difficult time, but we all will get through this...somehow :)

We have to cultivate a different mindset now. People aren't heroic for battling on and coming into work when they shouldn't, they are anti-social at best and at worst putting lives at risk.

I wish I could have been as articulate as this when speaking to those certain employees line manager...

My version had a few swear words, I must admit!

Hi, yes its difficult being in HR right now!! Wanting to balance the needs of employees against everything else we are hearing.

We are all set up to work from home now but have a couple of employees who are struggling as they have young children. We are trying to offer as much flexibility as we can with working hours but not sure what else we can do as well as offering unpaid leave/holiday etc. Money is an issue for one of the employees so they don'r want to take unpaid leave. The government have announced help for those who might be laid off but is anyone aware of any other help someone working from home having to take unpaid leave might get??

Thanks

Hi Sienna, my employer is offering a special 3 months sabbatical for a limited time, where the employee will get half pay for six months so they still have money coming in but can focus on caring/staying well. Partly it's to push costs into later on this year when hopefully we will have more revenue coming in. Partly it's because we have so many facing the remainder of the school year juggling work and childcare. It won't work for all, and we can't let some people go, so we'll see. But some are seeing it as a way to manage through the next few months.

I had a major meltdown last week, when my printer cartridge exploded all over me leaving me looking like a Smurf, no one helped and it was the final straw. I did feel remarkably better for a cry though. Good news is that the printer is working again! and I am no longer blue.