I thought I would repost this. My request was granted. Perhaps the suggestion at the end would be useful for others to communicate to their HR departments, and it could actually do some pre-emptive good. I have removed company specific information here.
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Hi xxxxxxx,
As my manager, I wish to negotiate a temporary telecommuting agreement with you as part of my employment. Although I am very happy to contribute to company culture during normal circumstances and times by being present in the office building and enjoying the company of my coworkers, and we may wish for normal circumstances, the present times are not normal.
A coronavirus similar to SARS is currently circulating, mostly in Asia, but with some detected confirmations in the USA and other countries. This virus has transmissibility approaching or exceeding Spanish Influenza and is considerably more lethal, with lethality increasing with the age of the person infected if it is following the SARS model. As I have mentioned before, although it is being cited as 2-3% fatality rate, it is in fact much higher. 13% of all confirmed cases are in critical condition, and yesterday the doctor who blew the whistle on it died of it.
Doctor who blew whistle over coronavirus has died, hospital says
What are the odds of that? Considerably higher than 2-3% I expect. He was 34. If it was SARS his odds of dying would have been roughly 9%. I'm not certain if this is the same as or worse than SARS yet, but it does seem to be at least as bad.
I have already stated that because coronaviruses like this one weigh their fatalities with increasing severity as the age of a person increases, I feel my own personal vulnerability is approximately 25% IF I was exposed to it. But, a virus is only dangerous if exposure occurs. If I reduce my exposure chance to 10% or less, then my vulnerability is reduced to .25 x .1 = 2.5% 2.5% is acceptable to me, whereas 25% is not.
Unfortunately, I can not determine my exposure risk at the office at this time. I believe that it is very low. However, this virus has a mean time between infection and symptoms showing of about 6 days, meaning it could take as long as 2 weeks. I have also seen several articles stating that it may be contagious prior to showing symptoms, which is especially dangerous if these are confirmed.
Based on this:
- I suspect that if it were to enter the office, we would not know until transmission to one or more office mates had already occurred
- I suspect that if it were to enter the office, the likely vector would be through exposure of one or more office mates who became exposed on the xxxx metro or other form of public transportation.
- We have office mates who use the xxxx metro and other forms of public transportation every day to get to work
- I do not know if transmission is occurring on the xxxx metro, no one does at this time. And when we know, it will probably be on the order of 7 days after it has started and another 7 days until confirmed.
- If it has not started already, it probably will be soon. xxxx metro is a hub of activity, domestic and foreign. It could easily enter and take root naturally there.
- (other reason removed from this re-post)
To put it another way, although I realize most confirmed cases are abroad and the CDC is doing everything they can,
(redacted, related to other reason), when the excrement hits the fan in our area, people won't know. It may have already hit the fan, and we don't know. And once it starts hitting the fan, it will
keep hitting the fan at a growing rate for probably about 7-14 days. Only
then will people begin to smell the excrement.
But at that point it will be everywhere, and possibly in our office.
So in light of this, and my personal estimated vulnerability to it, I am requesting permission to optionally telecommute for a portion of my workweek, keeping my current shift. When I first contacted you regarding this on Feb 4, the number of confirmed cases was 20000. As it rises and hits 40000, I would like the
option to exercise 1 day of telecommuting (Monday), 60000 (Tuesday), 80000 (Wednesday), 100000 (Thursday) and 120000+ (Friday). As the number of cases resolve and drop, and the threat subsides, I will cease using my option to telecommute.
I am open to negotiation as necessary and being at the office on an as-needed basis (within reason to let maintenance into the server room for example), or to make other concessions, but this is the agreement I would like to negotiate with you personally. Of course, I will be as flexible as I possibly can within the bounds of reason.
On a business level, telecommuting policy was recently re-stated along these lines:
(removed direct quote of company policy on telecommuting from this re-post, but essentially they had decided to start discouraging it as of this Feb lol. Extremely bad timing!)
This is a fine policy that I could and would have supported during normal times; however a pandemic with a contagion and mortality rate exceeding Spanish Influenza and approaching that of a bioweapon at loose in the wild qualifies as extenuating circumstances.
With a pandemic of this sort, it is important to stay a few steps ahead, and not behind. I would suggest to senior management that they may keep this policy for the time being, but
amend it (slightly) as follows:
"Recognizing the potential threat of the new coronavirus circulating globally and acknowledging CDC guidance that the threat is proportional to exposure - we will support and encourage telecommuting for employees that use crowded public transportation such as metro and rail daily to get to work to reduce their risk of exposure"
This has a few advantages -
1) Employees most likely to be suddenly exposed will not be
2) Other employees most likely to be suddenly exposed by them will not be
3) As an Organization, we will be a few steps ahead of the problem, instead of a few steps behind it.
4) It's a calm, safe and rational approach to conducting business at the initial stages of what it about to be a pandemic, which no one is used to doing, but I think it's going to be important to get very good at doing it
So this is my recommendation and my request, I hope you consider both of them
Thank you for your time