9to5Mac has learned that Apple hourly employees, including Apple Retail Store workers, are getting unlimited sick leave if they experience COVID-19 symptoms. Apple has also offered many of its employees the ability to work from home this week.
Apple retail workers are not required to submit a doctor’s note for this time off. This means that if they’re experiencing the COVID-19 symptoms, they can take the time that they need without having to worry about running out of sick days or providing a note to management.
As of right now, Apple retail stores are staying open during the coronavirus outbreak. Apple, however, is implementing crowd control measures to reduce density, such as limiting Genius Bar openings and canceling many Today at Apple sessions.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple offering unlimited sick leave — no questions asked, no proof required — is obviously ripe for abuse, but this policy will also help to squelch the spread of COVID-19, at least in Apple Retail Stores. Find out more about COVID-19 symptoms via the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here.
This is exactly the right way to go about this. It is all about reducing the vector for spreading an infectious disease. Limiting the spread is the best and fastest way to stop the epidemic (aside from a vaccine).
Sure some staff may abuse this but most likely employees will respect the policy.
This is what I expect from Apple and I hope other retailers can afford to offer the same options to their retail staff.
Dear God, please let my job do the same. I’ll become infected the next day.
“This business will get out of control! It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it!”
No, we will get through it… if we take reasonable steps like this. If we minimize the threat and do not take those steps, more of us will not live through it.
That was a quote from Hunt For Red October.
I’m not so worried about the deaths (hopefully there will be few) as I am the over-reaction, knee-jerking and even worse politicizing from the left.
As you know from Austin’s mayor’s action, this affect people’s livelihood. A reasonable amount of precaution without fear mongering should be in order. Odd that he asked for people to go out and help support local businesses after calling off the conference, but I know it was a tough position to be in.
The major concern for SXSW was the number of out-of-town visitors, as many as 400,000 over two weeks, some from foreign or US hotspots. There were no diagnosed cases within 60 miles of Austin. Until that changes, local customers in local businesses isn’t a problem.
I watched the announcement live on local TV. This was not a political decision. The Mayor and County Judge made more voters angry than happy. Austin is liberal, but the state officials who concurred with the decision are all Republicans. It was certainly not a decision by the SXSW executives themselves; they stand to lose a boatload of money. It was a science-based decision by public health experts, based on the best evidence available.
If you asked a food truck operator in Austin whether he would prefer to lose two weeks revenue or put his elderly relatives at risk of dying, I suspect most of them would vote to save Granny.
Yes, I know all of this.
Which is why I was not at all surprised about the decision.
And what’s with the science shit?
The political stuff is going on in D.C.
” as I am the over-reaction, knee-jerking and even worse politicizing from the left.”
beats the flippant, aloof , self serving lies on the right.
Why even bother posting such disgustingly transparent lies?
Obama acted before pandemic declared
Obama’s acting director of health and human services declared H1N1 a public health emergency on April 26, 2009.
That was when only 20 cases of H1N1 — and no deaths — around the country had been confirmed.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/04/facebook-posts/president-obama-declared-h1n1-public-health-emerge/
https://www.phe.gov/emergency/news/healthactions/lists/public%20health%20emergency%20declarations/allitems.aspx
(This was in reply to an inflammatory anti-Obama tweet. Please delete as it’s no longer relevant)
‘Sick leave’ doesn’t get my attention quite the same way that ‘paid sick leave’ doesn’t.
Uhhh… Does*. It doesn’t get my attention the same way that ‘paid sick leave’ does.
The Family and Medical Leave Act already requires employers to provide unpaid leave. Apple additionally provides a more limited number of paid sick days. This lifts that limit for Covid-19 related leave. Besides being compassionate, that also encourages employees who might be infectious to stay away from work.