SunSentinel Mention

April 10, 2020

Peter Moore, P.E., F.ASCE, ENV SP, LEED AP

President, Chen Moore and Associates

Last week: This past week, my firm was able to submit an application for a loan authorized under CARES. While I had a week full of anxiety, I read the opinions of my friends on social media, saying Federal monies should be given to individuals and not to “bail out businesses”. 75% of the money in the program we applied for is required to be utilized on payroll. Once those individual checks run out, people will need businesses to come back to for jobs. Let’s make sure that they survive long enough to recover and get America back to being employed!

Looking ahead: No one wants to learn about a positive test result for COVID-19. Not the person who was tested, not their families/friends and certainly not the people they were recently around, including co-workers as applicable. I’ll attest that employers also don’t want to learn about an employee getting a positive test, because of the complexities of Federal Law. One law requires that you inform other potentially impacted employees, while another protects the privacy of the individual, potentially leading to misunderstanding. Employees need to know the limits on what employers can divulge and not let that lead to mistrust.