I recently asked operators to tell me about true employee losses they suffered from the mass employee exits that industry leaders predicted would occur when staff mandate deadlines kicked in.
Once again, I was reminded how dedication runs true and providers take advantage of every opportunity they can to stay in business, whether it means granting plenty of vaccination exemptions or doing just the opposite.
Take, for example, the small North Carolina operator who wrote to me that if it had not been for the opportunity to offer religious exemptions, his small facility would have had to close. An eye-popping 40%-plus received an exemption, he said.
A human resources manager from Wisconsin vented in a 1,000-word email. She masks in public, shops at low-traffic times, has not traveled during the pandemic and has stayed COVID-free throughout. But she still balks at shots.
“I do not qualify under a medical exemption and I will not lie and say I have a fake religious exemption. These are all fake as the claims they base this on are not scientifically valid anyway,” she asserted.
Faced with either leaving the profession she’s passionate about or getting a shot, however, she wound up doing the latter. But she says she will not get a booster.
A Virginia operator painted a recurring theme: “Only 1 or 2” employees were lost due to the vaccine mandate, but 25 — 36% of staff — had been granted exemptions. Most would have left without them, he feels.
An Iowa administrator gave a clearly bullish view of the staff mandate. Some 57 of 59 employees were vaccinated.
“The mandate may have saved some staff,” he told me. “If we didn’t have such a great response, some would have quit because of the danger non-vaccinated employees present.”
There were 100% vaccinated and no departures as the vaccine mandate deadlines arrived for a secluded, small Massachusetts facility.
“Well-run facilities with healthy management-staff relationships can get through this without a crisis,” the building’s executive wrote.
“Those staff unwilling to do what’s best for their residents probably shouldn’t be in this industry to begin with,” the exec added. “And management that doesn’t have the trust of their staff probably have turnover anyway.”
Ages-old truth that reminds: The basics still rule.
