Looking back over the past few years, we reflect on how the COVID-19 virus has affected all of us at work and in our personal lives. Here at Western Allied, our company has endured through the pandemic as a top tier safety focused company to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in both our office and in the field. With the protocols that were set in place to prevent a potential outbreak, we still must consider the toll it has taken on all of us mentally. With having close contact cases, the potential for self-isolation, and the thought of lost wages, this pandemic has put a burden on us all. All parties from the president of the company down to the pre-apprentices have had to survive both physically and mentally over the past two years. As we have progressed beyond the first round of vaccinations and multiple variants, the stresses our employees have been subjected to have put a strain on the entire WAM team. The Safety Team fields questions about when the pandemic will be over on a weekly basis because of the stress we are all affected by. This has been labeled “COVID FATIGUE” where at this point it’s no longer just the physical symptoms that we deal with but has now become more mentally taxing on our workforce.
Unfortunately, we are still seeing many positive cases as we move past the summer months. Part of being an employer is that we must follow all County, State, and Federal laws concerning the Pandemic. This will be the case until the current Emergency Temporary Standard is scheduled to end on December 31, 2022. Until then, we must hold fast to the following requirements:
- (1) If a member of your household tests positive, the WAM employee must isolate away (different dwelling) from work until the positive case tests negative. A minimum period of quarantine is 5 days, until a negative test is achieved, or it has been 10 days of quarantine. Most positive cases have remained testing positive for 7-9 days.
- (2) If isolation is not possible, then the employee will isolate away from work for the same period and must test negative to return.
We have overcome many challenges over the years here at Western Allied and the pandemic is just another stumbling block that in the end will show us all why we work at this company! Let’s continue to work as a team to keep each other safe and get past this bump in the road we call life. Western Allied is a family that we all care about so let’s have another 60 years with this great company as we move into the future.
