Covid-related mandates are falling. Some women entrepreneurs think it’s the wrong call.

The CDC, per its recently updated guidelines, does still encourage some measures – masking up when leaving Covid isolation or when knowingly exposed to Covid, for example. The agency also encourages vaccines and boosters for anyone eligible. 

But most of its more stringent recommendations have been reversed. Moreover, there are no longer statewide mask mandates anywhere in the U.S., and vaccine mandates are spotty at best, with several being contended in state courts – those not already struck down, that is. 

Amy Levy of Amy Levy Public Relations in Los Angeles, says she’s always been “far more restrictive” when it comes to her company’s Covid policies – and she won’t stop now, no matter what rulings are handed down. “I’m immunocompromised and need to self-protect,” she says. “I have embraced virtual meetings and continue to do so.”

“While mask mandates have [been] lifted across businesses, restaurants and schools … we all need to set boundaries that make us and our employees feel comfortable,” Levy adds.

Related

From Apps to Disinfectant, Here’s What Your Business Needs During Covid-19

JP’s Delights’ founder Tatianna Vassilopoulos, based in Davie, Florida, is also “still holding firm to masking and vaccine requirements” that extend far beyond what’s now required of her, given the amount of people she and her team encounter through her food manufacturing business.

“Especially here in Florida, where the standards are so lax, we’re trying to uphold what we have seen work best for other countries to try to do our part to prevent diseases from spreading,” she explains. “We want to be safe, and are trying our best not to spread any diseases to unsuspecting people.”

Staying the Masked Course

Official guidance on Covid has become scant and confusing.

The Story Exchange spoke recently with women entrepreneurs who are struggling to find some semblance of balance between safety and public sentiment. It’s tricky, because “there really isn’t any kind of push for masking up anymore,” Julie Algubani of clothing shop Modesty Marketplace in Amherst, New York, said. 

The lack of cohesive messaging, combined with national fatigue, makes the process of setting and enacting in-store Covid policies “just not clear” for herself and others, she adds.

That said, Americans continue to get infected by Covid by thousands, and die of Covid by hundreds, every day – rates we have now maintained for months. And according to the CDC, nearly one in every five Americans who have gotten Covid now suffer from “long Covid,” which is defined by symptoms that persist for 3 months or longer.

Related

Yes, It’s Been Over 2 Years. But We Still Need Covid Guidance, Say Business Owners

Masks – especially high-quality ones, like KN-95s – have been proven effective at reducing risk of infection by as much as 83%. And while currently available vaccines don’t fare as well against the dominant BA.5 strain of Covid’s omicron variant in terms of curbing transmission, they do still stave off severe illness, hospitalization and death from Covid.

Which is why Jeanine E. Yutani, owner of Via Pilates in Henderson, Nevada, is also keeping her mask mandates in place. “[W]e have members of our staff, including myself, who are in more vulnerable populations, as well as numerous clients who are at higher risk,” she says. It’s a valid concern – research shows that vulnerable populations, such as immunocompromised people, are at higher risk of being hospitalized with Covid, regardless of vaccination status.

But the pushback she’s received has been “significant,” from clients complaining about mask discomfort during classes, to outright denying the existence of Covid. “We’ve lost at least 50% of our post-pandemic potential clientele because of the policy,” she says. Current customers haven’t been much better. “Staff has been berated and yelled at about the policy, and are simply accustomed to what they hear at this point.”

Yutani is staying firm, though – still reeling from an outbreak in her studio in June that sickened 10 clients, some of them severely enough that they have not yet returned to classes. “[A]ll it takes is one person to come in with Covid and spread it to others.”

She asks: “When a simple face covering can directly protect and preserve the livelihoods … and lives – what’s really the big deal?”

Related

Her Pilates Studio Found A Way To Survive And Thrive Amidst The Pandemic

The post No Shirt, No Mask, No Service, Say These Business Owners appeared first on The Story Exchange.

When someone walks into Julie Algubani’s clothing store, the first thing she does is check for a mask. If the customer is wearing one, then she’ll put one on as well. 

And if a customer happened to ask, the owner of Modesty Marketplace in Amherst, New York, would be honest, and recommend that others take precautions to stop the spread. But “I can’t force anyone” to mask up or vaccinate themselves, she says. 

And besides, “there really isn’t any kind of push for masking up anymore.”

There isn’t much push for any sort of Covid mitigation measures these days. Indeed, the vast majority of states and major cities have eased whatever Covid-related restrictions they might have had in place previously – if they haven’t dropped them altogether. 

Algubani sets her in-store Covid policy using a mixture of remaining state-level mandates and CDC guidelines. Yet recommendations from the CDC have also become increasingly lax. Just this month, the center released new, looser guidelines that shorten suggested isolation periods for those with Covid infections and nix quarantine recommendations following known exposures.

Finding such information is a tougher prospect these days, too, as both research and anecdotal evidence point to decreases in Covid-related messages from governing bodies and media outlets. All the while, Covid continues to spread, thanks in large part to the now-dominant, highly transmissible BA.5 variant. On Monday, over 120,600 new cases were reported in the U.S. – not to mention those not recorded due to home testing – as well as nearly 600 deaths.

The result is a public that’s still at risk, but with far fewer protective policies in place, and information that’s harder than ever to access. We spoke with several business owners who are sticking to strict “no mask, no service” policies. But many others are of the same mind as Algubani – seeking to protect employees and clientele alike, but finding that the way forward is “just not clear anymore” at this stage of the pandemic.

Related

No Shirt, No Mask, No Service, Say These Business Owners

A Scattershot Approach to a Shared Problem

There’s nothing united about states’ responses to Covid. 

While some, like Vermont and Maine, have gotten more than 70% of their populations vaccinated and over 50% of residents boosted, less than 60% of folks in Alabama and Mississippi have gotten their first jabs, and fewer than 25% are boosted. And Americans are, individually, of many differing minds when it comes to the necessity of vaccines and masks in the first place, with over 25% doubting or outright denying the effectiveness of such measures.

You don’t have to tell that to Nicole Van Lun. She’s the founder of luxury skincare line Gorgeous Confidence, and runs her team of 4 remotely from her Las Vegas home. In 2021, while in the midst of her company’s product-testing phase, she and her family moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Nevada. “[J]ust that move alone was such a different energy around Covid,” with California having far more restrictions in place, she says. “It was different, seeing people so relaxed about it – almost as if it wasn’t happening.”

Messaging problems play a significant role in this lack of Covid-related cohesion, with 60% of Americans reporting confusion surrounding public health recommendations. News reporting is also scant, relatively speaking, which further exacerbates the problem. Coverage had already waned significantly by January 2021. Now, say founders who spoke with The Story Exchange, if you want Covid-related news, it’s up to you to find it. 

Van Lun says she heard about the latest wave not through media outlets – she says it’s almost nowhere to be found in the local broadcasts she watches – but rather, through a mix of social media posts, observed dwindling supplies of cold and flu medication in her local pharmacies, and her family’s own Covid infection in June. “We have to actively look for” updates, she adds.

Chamieka House-Osuya gets it. She’s the founder and CEO of The Snack Sack, a national social services nonprofit she launched to help families retain access to free lunches when schools shut down in March 2020. Her organization operates throughout the country, and per company policy, whenever staffers meet with families, “we make sure they are fully masked.” 

But House-Osuya lives in Texas, where “a lot of our Covid mandates fell off a long time ago. It’s been extremely frustrating.” Worse, she adds, is trying to keep track of what employees must or should do based on the mandates and case rates in their specific states. “You have to be intentional about finding the information you need” at this point, House-Osuya notes.

Even CDC director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky concedes that her organization has botched the matter so thoroughly that an overhaul is needed. “We are responsible for some pretty dramatic, pretty public mistakes, from testing to data to communications,” she said in a recent video distributed to CDC employees – a proclamation that came roughly 1 week after the CDC released its updated, far less stringent guidelines.

Related

She’s Making Knowledge About The Pandemic And Medicine Accessible

What Are Businesses to Do?

Shannon Briggs, founder of Memphis marketing agency Campfire Collective, has been erring on the side of caution when it comes to Covid from the start. “As a business owner who is also immunocompromised and a mother to a baby too young to get vaccinated until [recently], I have stayed on the ‘safer’ side longer than most,” she says.

Back in March 2020, she shifted all meetings online, canceled on-site gatherings, and began offering clients back-end services to keep revenue flowing. But as time went on, Briggs left an increasing number of Covid-related decisions up to individuals, with some on her team opting to drop protocols for themselves as early as Fall 2020. (She herself declined to do so until her child was vaccinated.)

Yes, some business owners are still holding firm to their mask-on, pro-vaccine policies. But from Briggs’ firm to Algubani’s clothing shop, and countless other establishments in the U.S., individualism has become a deciding factor in who masks up or gets vaccinated. 

This decidedly American trait has been negatively impacting Covid protection efforts from the beginning. All the same, many entrepreneurs feel they have little other choice, and even less information to work with when making these calls – and they’re not happy about it. 

“As far as individual decisions, versus state, versus federal … that’s the most frustrating piece of Covid, to me,” Van Lun says, feeling as though those in states like Florida, where many have proclaimed the pandemic finished, are “not in the same country. Or planet.” 

She adds, “How can the urgency of this be generally understood if the same precautions aren’t even taken from state to state?”

On that front, federal lawmakers seemed to communicate their own waning concern surrounding the pandemic when they tossed aside a potential cash infusion for Covid mitigation and relief supplies to pass a $1.5 trillion spending bill that gave aid to ongoing war efforts in Ukraine, among other things. As a result, White House officials said, Americans will have fewer tests, fewer treatments and fewer vaccines going forward.

But also, fewer people are even paying attention to such news on the matter. When lockdowns forever altered life in March 2020, 57% of Americans reported following news updates closely. Earlier this year, just 37% said they still keep track of the latest Covid news. Now, nearly 40% of people think the pandemic has been made into a “bigger deal” than it actually is.

All the same, Covid is still a reality – as the recent, high-profile infections of both President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden demonstrated. And the lack of unity around discussing or handling this ongoing pandemic is taking its toll on business owners who are trying to do right by workers and clients alike. “I’m at a burnout point, to be honest with you,” House-Osuya says. And a big part of that is because “there has never been a national plan as to how to tackle this. There are so many things, so many people, lost, or that have fallen through the cracks.”

She adds, “It does make my job harder – it makes my work harder.”

Related

‘If Not Now, When?’ – Women Entrepreneurs Launch Mid-Pandemic

The post Yes, It’s Been Over 2 Years. But We Still Need Covid Guidance, Say Business Owners appeared first on The Story Exchange.

At the height of the pandemic lockdown, I thought it would be great fun to use some of my newly acquired indoor time to re-watch HBO’s hit fantasy series “Game of Thrones.” About three episodes into my endeavor, I gave up entirely.

It’s not because of its widely panned ending. (GOT fans: I will simply say the show’s conclusion made narrative sense, but was told too poorly to bother justifying. If you’d like to discuss further, my email address can be found in my bio.) Rather, I found myself struggling to complete the task because the show is bloody, brutal, gory — in short, extremely depressing.

And when you’re living through the most painful period in recent history, the last thing you need is to feel (even more) miserable. Especially if it’s solely on behalf of fictional characters. And particularly if you’re “languishing,” a buzzword used at one point to describe our collective pandemic blahs.

So I forged ahead, and found that the right TV shows can be a perfect way to forget (albeit briefly) our world of chaos. Here’s my list, augmented by the staff at The Story Exchange. Each is available online ,and ranges from 30 to 60 minutes in length (which is great if you lack binge-watching time). And they’re all a blast.

Our Still-Must-Watch List: “Shrill” (we know), “Broad City” (we know), “Gilmore Girls” (we know).

Related

16 Songs to Fit Your Mellow Winter Mood

The post 11 Shows to Knock You Out of ‘Languishing’ appeared first on The Story Exchange.

When mask mandates were recently lifted in Sonoma County, California, business owner Tracy Mattson “was excited to flip my mask off.”

That excitement was far less palpable among her employees and clientele at her bakery, COOKIE…take a bite!, she’d soon discover. “My staff is 100-percent vaccinated, and our county is 80-percent vaccinated, so I was surprised about the hesitancy of half my staff and many of our customers,” Mattson says.

To keep workers feeling safe, she opted to keep them masked up, while offering vaccinated customers the option of foregoing them. (Unvaccinated patrons must still wear theirs, she adds.) “It was important to respect the concerns of my staff that have stood by my business through this crazy time,” she adds.

Like Mattson, women entrepreneurs around the nation – and around the world – are grappling with how best to proceed with operations at this stage of the pandemic. And no one seems to have the same answer.

The recent surge in Covid-19 cases, caused by the virus’ more transmissible omicron variant, seems to be waning. And in light of this, both here and abroad, Covid-19 restrictions are easing. Numerous U.S. states have ditched indoor mask mandates in businesses, schools and more. The CDC itself may follow suit by amending its mask recommendations as early as this week. Countries like Italy and the United Kingdom are easing back their own federal-level safety measures. And this week, Australia reopened its borders to vaccinated tourists for the first time in almost 2 years.

But in other places, mandates remain in place. And the WHO is still advising folks to “make wearing a mask a normal part of being around other people.” This uneven, piecemeal approach to guidance and policy-setting makes it tough to know who’s right and what’s best, entrepreneurs note. Plus, there are varying levels of risk tolerance – and tolerance for risk mitigation – to contend with, from workers and customers alike.

So, do the masks stay on, even as mandates are rolled back? Should vaccination be required for patrons? For employees? Indeed, business owners now report finding themselves walking an especially precarious tightrope to simultaneously keep everyone safe and content. It remains to be seen if that’s possible.

Related

Women Entrepreneurs Are Scrambling, Once More, for Makeshift Solutions

‘It’s Truthfully Incredibly Exhausting’

Sameera Sullivan is the founder of dating service Sameera Sullivan Matchmakers, which has locations in New York City, Houston, Dallas and Portland. And she’s taken her cues on setting Covid-19 protocols in each of her branches from both scientific research and government regulations. As for her staff, “we’re all vaccinated and boostered.”

But while customers are told about the efforts her team is undertaking, and are “heavily encouraged” to mask up, plenty decline to do so, and she and her team must instead meet with them in areas where distancing is more easily achieved. “It’s truthfully incredibly exhausting arguing with those who do not share your point of view,” she says, explaining why she dropped mask requirements for clients. “I decided to spare myself and my employees from this daily hassle.”

Research backs Sullivan’s tendency toward masking. Since the beginning of the pandemic, masks have been touted as an effective way of stopping the spread. Studies show they can decrease the transmission of Covid-19 by at least 53 percent when worn properly. Vaccines have also, thus far, proven effective against Covid-19 – in terms of limiting infection by at least 76 percent, but even more so by keeping more serious symptoms and complications at bay. 

But in addition to a lack of unified messaging around them, these measures have also been highly politicized from the start, largely splintering support for and compliance with them along ideological lines. Misinformation campaigns have further hindered successful use of mitigation strategies. 

It’s an especially fraught matter because, even though the latest wave appears to have crested, Covid-19 continues to be a devastating disease. As of publication, there have been 78.6 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the United States, and 937,000 deaths. Globally, it’s 428 million cases, and 5.91 million deaths. And we’re still averaging roughly 7,000 deaths per day worldwide due to the virus.

Despite mandate rollbacks, experts – including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who serves as President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor – caution against getting too relaxed, too soon. “There’s a lot of… pent-up fatigue on the people’s part about the restrictions,” he acknowledged in an interview. But, he added, “we got to be careful, because it is a bit risky to do something prematurely.”

Expert commentary such as this ultimately becomes part of the din of Covid discourse, prompting confusion, anger and exhaustion among, well, everyone. In short, it’s a mess. And that’s likely why Jenny Ly, founder of international travel company Gowanderly, feels as though she’s “stumbling in the dark, the same as the rest of the world.” 

She requires masks for in-person meetings, and adopted a zero-tolerance vaccination policy for all employees – get the jab, or get a new job. Still, she struggles with mask noncompliance. “I have no idea about the number of emails that I have circulated among my team to take precautions and to always have masks on,” she says. “[Yet] even now, during some of our in-person meetings, I have to remind the same employees to wear masks every other time.”

Related

Women-Owned Restaurants Try to Plan for a Post-Pandemic Future. It’s Not Easy

No Set Answers, No Norms

Among women business owners, there’s no real consensus for how to handle the pandemic now. For example: A world away in Brisbane, Australia, the rules at Elice Max’s money-saving advice hub, EMUCoupon, are “pretty lax.”

“My employees have the option of working from home if they don’t feel comfortable in the workplace,” she notes. And vaccination is an absolute requirement for every member of her team. But while “there are still sanitizers everywhere and employees are asked to mask up … I am not that strict with the pandemic protocols nowadays.”

Simply put, she’s tired. “For me, it’s a matter of fatigue, as the whole 6-feet distance and constant hand-washing are wearing me out.” And she’s far from alone. Even in regions where most people take risk reduction efforts seriously, exhaustion over such measures has set in.

Over in Italy, Emily Cooper is also adopting a mix-and-match approach to implementing Covid protocols at her luxury menswear brand, Oliver Wicks. “Our company still follows a hybrid work model, and we still require employees who go to the office to wear masks and practice social distancing,” she says. But while vaccination is encouraged, “we do not force this upon anyone. At the end of the day, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.”

She describes it as staying safe but “learning to live with the virus at the same time.”

Yet there are populations that cannot quite relax – namely, parents of children under the age of 5, whose kids cannot yet be vaccinated, and the immunocompromised, for who are at greater risk of serious illness or death due to Covid-19. Also, relatively little is known about long Covid, which involves symptoms like fatigue and brain fog lingering for months after infection, and impacts an estimated 54 percent of Covid-19 patients – even those whose initial infections weren’t severe.

Ivory Coats of More Marketing Firm in Atlanta is viewing the situation as a person who goes home to two of those too-young-to-be-vaccinated children every night. “I don’t want to expose them to anything I may have encountered throughout my work day,” she says.

So at her firm, the masks are staying on, for the sake of her kids, and her staff. “We care about them and their household so it’s best to continue to proceed with preventative measures.” Because for Coats, normality – even the “new normal” that business owners, and all of us, are trying to establish – is not the endgame. 

She adds, “I don’t believe there is a ‘normal’ anymore.”

Related

3 Best Practices for Hiring Remote Workers During Covid-19

The post To Mask, or Not to Mask… appeared first on The Story Exchange.

I can’t imagine anyone will look back on the pandemic as a positive time in their lives. 

Sure, there have been sparks of joy and silver linings amid the fear and loss — but conversely, there have been moments where optimism felt like an unreachable goal.

For me, one of the roughest patches came toward the beginning of everything — last April, when lockdowns were our new life, with no end in sight. I remember one especially late night when I allowed the fear and isolation to consume me. So much of what I’ve enjoyed about life — laughing with loved ones, harmonizing with others, long walks outdoors — had been ripped away.  It was now forbidden, and dangerous. I didn’t know how to make peace with that loss, or with any of the loss we were experiencing.

Related

16 Songs to Fit Your Mellow Winter Mood

With my family asleep in bed, I found myself having a cry while shuffling through the entirety of my music library, in search of solace and distraction. For a long while, I tapped “next” repeatedly — until something soft and simple broke through: a tune called “Old Familiar Song” by a thoughtful, lovely singer-songwriter named Dan Mills. I didn’t realize, until it came on, that what I was actually looking for was a reminder that all of those things I love, that felt so far away … I’d have them once again. This sweet little song and its mellow, flirty happiness grounded me in a way nothing else could.

After that point, of course, I’d find those aforementioned flashes of light. I’d adjust to our new reality as best I could, the way we all did. I’d figure out how to find connection through distance. I’d work — with renewed purpose, and sing, and play the ukulele, and play with my son, and cook more than I ever have in my life. The time would pass, as it continues to now.

But I’d also listen to “Old Familiar Song,” as well as the EP it came from, until it became, well, old and familiar to me, the way genuinely comforting things do.

All of this to say, music can pull us away from everything that’s going on and into a brighter, lighter space — and we wanted to offer that to you. So below are 10 songs that feel, at least to me, as though they were engineered in a lab to provoke big smiles and hip wiggles. And yes, some are what one could call “guilty pleasures.” (I’m formally petitioning for the eradication of that phrase from our shared lexicon, however — no one should feel shame over anything that brings them harmless happiness in these times.) 

This playlist should  make you feel a little better, at least for a little while. And who doesn’t want that?

1. “The Remedy” – Jason Mraz

“I won’t worry my life away!” Okay, the chorus of this song is perhaps a pipe dream, at this point. But it’s impossible to resist grinning while listening to this early 2000s jam — especially during its steadily building bridge.

2. “Walking on Sunshine” – Katrina and the Waves

When it comes to mood-boosting music, the 1980s might be an unrivaled resource, as proven by this little bop. Fun fact: this uptempo new-love song was originally written as a ballad — which is pretty hard to imagine when you’re dancing around to it.

3. “September” – Earth, Wind and Fire

Sadly, coming together for a dance party isn’t advisable right now. But if ever a song embodied the feeling that comes with gathering to groove, this one’s it. Almost everyone has fond memories of enjoying this hit with people they love — allow yourself to dive back into those fun times now, at least in your heart.

4. “Finesse (Remix)” – Bruno Mars (feat. Cardi B)

Who says you can’t strut at home? Pop this one on whenever you’re feeling yourself — or trying to, at least — and work the runway (aka your hall or kitchen) like you never have before.

5. “Happy” – Pharrell Williams

This song first came out in 2013 as a single from the “Despicable Me 2” soundtrack. To be sure, the movie franchise is extremely popular — but this song was positively inescapable. When you press “play” on it now, you’ll remember why. 

6. “You Can Call Me Al” – Paul Simon

The downright masterful use of brass here makes this song instantly recognizable from note one. Despite it’s peppy feel, Simon’s song is actually a meandering contemplation of life at its middle. So if you’re looking for something to think and tap your foot to simultaneously, look no further.

7. “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” – Whitney Houston

Houston’s voice is an effervescent delight all its own — it’s impossible to feel nothing when she sings. But this, another 1980s hit, combines her soaring vocals with an infectious beat that makes laying down and listening an impossibility.

8. “We Found Love” – Rihanna (feat. Calvin Harris)

Speaking of pop princesses, this Rihanna hit will have you jumping — especially when the beat drops at last. Fun and satisfying from start to finish, this one’s perfect for your morning distanced run.

9. “Your Smiling Face” – James Taylor

And now, for something completely different. Whether this tune reminds you of someone with an especially great grin or not, its optimism, paired with Taylor’s lilting voice, make it a joy to dive into.

10. “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” – The Beatles

Try not to clap along to this peppy Beatles tune. We dare you. Yes, it’s one of the Fab Four’s earlier hits — making it nearly 60 years old — but its fun vibe and simple-yet-sweet lyrics make it a great listen decades after its debut.

Related

A Fun Feminist Playlist to Cure Your Political and Patriarchal Blues

The post 10 Happy Songs For Feeling Positive appeared first on The Story Exchange.

“It’s a nightmare.”

Until recently, Annie Pace Scranton was singing a far happier tune as she eagerly anticipated a return to the firm’s New York City office for herself and her staff — albeit a modified one. The plan, says the founder of Pace Public Relations, was to have each of her 12 employees in-office two days per week to provide everyone with a bit of normalcy along with the safety of social distancing. 

It’s a hope that was shared by many non-essential businesses (including The Story Exchange) that shut down during the first chapters of the pandemic and had yet to reopen: a homecoming to the office this September to work face-to-face again, at least part of the time. 

But now, with the more contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 to consider, and cases surging once more — at alarming rates — many businesses are shifting plans. Again. Big businesses like Uber, Google, Amazon, Apple and Starbucks have announced plans to postpone return dates until next year. Smaller companies are following suit.

Scranton admits that “it’s not looking good” for her previous plan. She intends to wait until just before Sept. 15, the date she’d set for the big return, to make a final call. But with the variant to worry about, plus recommendations to put mask and rapid-testing mandates in place ahead of in-office work days, a smooth transition back “just doesn’t seem like a reality.”

And that’s not all she’s concerned about. “I’m a mom, and many on our team are … bracing ourselves for the all-but-certain near future of Covid outbreaks, quarantining” and more. 

When the Delta variant became the dominant strain of Covid-19 in the United States over the summer, a meme took hold of the internet — one that attempted to make light of the variant’s significant negative effects on everyone’s fall plans. Here’s one example of it:

Its actual impact is no laughing matter, however. With just over 50 percent of the nation’s adult population fully vaccinated — and children under 12 still unable to receive a vaccine at all — the variant has been able to spread rapidly throughout the nation, infecting younger portions of the population than the original strain and resulting in more severe illness. 

It’s a massive problem — Covid-19 case rates were 316 percent higher this year than they were last Labor Day weekend. And if vaccination rates and mask-wearing habits don’t improve, experts predict that 100,000 more people could die of Covid-19 between now and Dec. 1.

For the women entrepreneurs who envisioned welcoming employees back this fall — when concepts such as “gathering in offices” and “sending children back to school” were significantly less fraught — all of this has resulted in a mad dash to figure out what’s best and safest for all, in a return to “if,” and “should I even,” instead of “when.”

Tension, Uncertainty and an Air of ‘F*ck It’

Susan Johnston, founder of the New Media Film Festival, is one of scores of women business owners living this reality. 

She and her team continue to mostly meet online, for safety’s sake, though they do gather on occasion at restaurants with outdoor seating or in parks. But in more optimistic times, they had planned to return to hosting their namesake Los Angeles event in person this year. When Johnston recently asked attendees what they would be more comfortable with, though, all but two — out of several hundred — wanted the event to be virtual.

Related

3 Snapshots of Getting Back to Work Mid-Pandemic

Johnston attributes a healthy portion of their hesitance to uncertainty around how best to avoid contracting or spreading Covid-19 as vaccinated individuals living amid a variant strain of the virus — as well as a lack of trust in others across the board. “Who is vaccinated? Who is not? Is the vaccination card legit? We could ask them to sign an attestation that their card is legit, but at the end of the day, we do not want to risk lives.”

Plus, “it seems people have individual definitions of what 6 feet is, what wearing a mask is, etc.,” Johnston adds. “Tensions are high … all around.”

Her observation speaks to one unique new hurdle in gathering others together: Americans’ overall waning ability to rely upon one another as the pandemic drags on. A Pew Research Center poll conducted earlier this year finds that the majority of people in the U.S. think individuals are looking out for themselves first, before others. Nearly half of those surveyed also admitted that they feel most other people cannot be trusted.

It’s yet another layer of complexity to navigate as women business owners consider what to do with their employees, in a situation rife with them. Linda Chavez, founder of Seniors Life Insurance Finder, also feels that “uncertainty is back.” Her plans for a full return-to-office have, like others, been put off — instead, her 10-person staff will work in a hybrid model that keeps the Los Angeles office at 50-percent capacity at all times. And, she adds, “Only employees who are vaccinated are allowed to continue working [on premises], with the exception of those who can not get vaccinated due to having severe health problems.”

Also exacerbating the problem for these business owners? The growing reluctance among America’s workforce to return to the office at all, and a groundswell against the very concept of a 40-hour work week. And then, of course, there’s the precarious nature of sending children back to schools and daycares as, around the country, districts are already shutting down due to Covid-19 exposures just days after starting up in-person school years. 

Beyond obvious, understandable concerns for the well-being of their children, if students get sent back home to learn, women entrepreneurs will be impacted the most, a recent Kauffman Foundation report says. “Self-employed women report spending more time, on average, on childcare activities and less time in paid work compared not only to self-employed men, but also to employed women and men,” researchers found. But their women employees will feel a significant additional burden, too — especially if they are women of color.

Related

‘Mom Guilt’ Was Already a Thing. Then the Pandemic Made it Hell for Caregivers

And as business owner Beret Loncar has discovered, finding reliable, in-home childcare — if you can afford it, which many cannot — is near-impossible, too. “There are apparently none in all of New York City. And if you find one, your neighbor will steal them.”

Childcare is just one of several major problems Loncar is now facing. She, too, mandated vaccines at her business, Body Mechanics Orthopedic Massage — and anticipates losing several of her 11 employees over it. Indeed, “Covid certainly has thrown a wrench [into things] — the giant kind, possibly for some farming equipment,” she says.

She adds that she’s essentially thrown her hands up in response to the mounting problems brought on by the Delta variant. Already, she’s lost a small fortune, paying salaries in 2020 despite being closed (to the tune of about $70,000) and investing in new, costly marketing campaigns this year to bring customers back through her doors. 

“It is reckless, it is impulsive and I do not care,” she says. “F*ck it — it’s my company and I can do what I want.”

Trying to Make it Work: a Sisyphean Task

The cost of Covid-19 for small businesses was significant to begin with — massive, even, as one study found. Federal relief options are available, but the financial toll was too great for many. In all, a third of American small businesses have closed, either temporarily or permanently, because of the pandemic.

Now, as women entrepreneurs dash to reconfigure things in light of the Delta variant’s ongoing spread, plenty are finding, like Loncar, that money (as well as creativity) will figure big in making it work.

Ashley Baptiste, founder of Wayne, Pennsylvania-based Utility Events, which coordinates trade conferences around the country, has been in business for over 15 years. She admits that 2020 gave her company a chance to grow its virtual offerings in ways she’d never imagined. But now, “the recent rise in cases and the Delta variant have made ‘getting back to normal’ impossible.”

In addition to changing up how she gathers her own 5-person team, she’s also had to add virtual components to many upcoming events to accommodate those who are no longer comfortable attending in person — which is much easier said than done. “The equipment we need to rent [to make that possible] is at an almost insurmountable expense.” 

Other events, meanwhile, have been shifted so that they will only take place online — a costly move in cancellation fees alone. “It’s frustrating,” she concedes.

Related

1 Year Later, Concerns About Employees’ Mental Health Are on the Rise

In addition to the financial cost, there’s also the mental and emotional toll of having to revert back to mostly online meetings — even for solopreneurs. Tara Dupuis, founder of a styling consultation business in Palm Springs, California, that bears her name, has “chosen to divert most of my work to virtual services” in light of the Delta variant.

She’s also masking up for the few occasions she does see clients offline. “I really look forward to when it is safe to work in person with no restrictions again,” Dupuis says. “I think we are all experiencing a bit of ‘video-call fatigue.’”

Research bears this out. Simply put, staring at one another is unnatural, and online meetings force us to do precisely that. Still, say women business owners, it’s far better than any alternative that endangers workers.

Maria Del Mar Gomez, co-founder of adaptive-wear company Mighty Well in Newport, Rhode Island, certainly prefers working face-to-face. “I find that is how I get my best work done. And more than anything, I was looking forward to the return to ‘normalcy,’” she says. “However, more importantly, I want to ensure the safety of our community, both for our customers and employees.”

So they, too, are limiting the amount of people allowed in the office at a given time, while also putting mask mandates and other restrictions in place to ensure everyone’s well-being. But plenty of plans — from the products they anticipated improving, to the healthcare conferences they were set to attend — have been put on hold. For now, they’re churning out masks to meet rising demand, “to make sure we support our community [of disabled and immunocompromised customers] and provide them with the best possible products to keep them safe and healthy.”

But while these women business owners are dedicated to everyone’s wellness above all else, the deep frustration of having to, once more, create emergency pandemic plans weighs heavy. Heavier than before, even, as something akin to the familiar had actually felt within grasp — only for it to be ripped away by wholly avoidable circumstances.

As Loncar laments: “Essentially any time we recover a little, we get hit again with something new.”

Related

What to Wear? A Small, But Significant, Pandemic Question

The post Women Entrepreneurs Are Scrambling, Once More, for Makeshift Solutions appeared first on The Story Exchange.

When she envisions her future, Tori Mistick doesn’t see kids.

“I’ve been single by choice for several years. I’m also childfree by choice, and do not plan to have kids in the future,” the 34-year-old founder of pet media site Wear Wag Repeat says. “Climate change and our society are big reasons why I would not want to bring additional people into this world.” 

Jenny Joslin, co-founder and CEO of High Herstory, a women’s-focused cannabis media company, is on the same page. She’s currently in a relationship, but she’s also very much focused on the growth of her company, which she refers to as her “baby.” 

“I was never the kind of woman to dream about getting married and having a family. I sometimes barely have the time to take care of myself — how could I take care of children?” she says. And “climate change definitely has confirmed my decision to not have children. It seems irresponsible to bring more humans into this world.”

Few could blame them for their hesitance, especially in the wake of the United Nations’ bleakest climate report to date — which concludes that the deady and irreversible effects of global warming are already here. “We can expect a significant jump in extreme weather over the next 20 or 30 years,” Piers Forster, a climate scientist at the University of Leeds who contributed to the August 2021 report, told The New York Times. “Things are unfortunately likely to get worse than they are today.”

Related

How Greta Thunberg, AOC and 10 Women Entrepreneurs Are Battling Climate Change

For younger women, the devastating environmental news is merely part of what could best be described as a parade of crises — one that also includes the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, complete with worrying case surges sparked by the more transmissible Delta variant, significant societal unrest, and the recent, disastrous end to a decades-long war in Afghanistan.

Amid this chaotic backdrop — and with a continued lack of social safety nets for women and parents in particular — a growing number of women like Mistick and Joslin are making personal decisions that are contributing to rapidly declining marriage and birth rates in the United States. 

In fact, according to the CDC, birth rates are at their lowest point in 35 years.

Grim Realities

It’s not just about climate change. The pandemic has also highlighted challenges that are largely unique to mothers — and none of which are new. 

Prior to the spread of Covid-19, women already shouldered the bulk of caregiving and housekeeping responsibilities. When schools and daycares were shuttered in light of the coronavirus crisis, the situation simply became even less balanced. It’s a problem experts expect will persist even when we start to recover from the pandemic — especially since childcare continues to be unaffordable for the majority of Americans.

Related

1 Year Later, Concerns About Employees’ Mental Health Are on the Rise

The obstacles faced by moms, especially those who work, are on the minds of women like Alexis Bowen, the 33-year-old co-founder of Elsewhere, a Savannah, Georgia, travel company.

“Despite the fact that societal standards have changed and it is acceptable for women to balance a career and children, I still believe the greatest sacrifice lies with women,” she says. “I’m at the age where I should be thinking of having kids, but balancing a work schedule that’s all-encompassing with kids — also all-encompassing — sounds impossible to handle at the moment.”

Policy prescriptions like the Marshall Plan for Moms would help some who feel hamstrung by financial circumstances and systemic imbalances, but until something is actually enacted — or until political, economic and ecological chaos wanes overall — the situation doesn’t seem likely to change. 

The drain of working motherhood, especially in 2021, is part of why Eva Keller, founder of food and travel resource Discovering Hidden Gems, won’t be having kids. “Growing up, I always knew I never wanted to have my own children — not just because of what it would do to my body, but just the daily exhaustion that comes with raising children,” she says. “I don’t have the energy for it, especially now running my own business and maintaining my marriage.”

Keller adores children, she clarifies — “I just value my sleep and free time too much to make the commitment to being a mom.”

Finding Power in Chaos

Women’s decisions to shy away from family living don’t necessarily go over well with their families, friends or religious communities. The widely held societal view that women should have children may be less prevalent, but it certainly hasn’t disappeared. 

Related

‘Mom Guilt’ Was Already a Thing. Then the Pandemic Made it Hell for Caregivers

Mitali Saxena, founder of clothing subscription service Fashom, has even had to hear it in pitch meetings from VCs. “Men don’t generally get the questions of ‘When do you have a chance to spend with your partner?’ or ‘When are you going to set aside some time to start a family?’” she says. “The list goes on and on but, despite it being 2021, the line of questioning women seem to receive first and foremost is always so heavily family-centric.”

For some, pushing past those pressures to create lives that feel “right” to them, regardless of the reason, can be liberating. Entrepreneur Jennifer Estevez certainly feels that exercising her autonomy has given her a sense of freedom — even if she’s taking a different direction than some of the other women we spoke with. 

As the founder of marketing firm OMvino, and co-founder of online wine club Palate Club, the San Francisco serial entrepreneur had previously been content with a work-centric life. But her views are evolving as professional burnout sets in. “I recently decided that I want kids. But I’m not in a hurry. I’ll freeze some eggs if I need, or I’ll adopt if I need more time than nature allows me,” she says. 

Estevez adds, “It’s great to live in the modern world, where I have choices.”

Indeed, some women say they’re even embracing the uncertainty of it all, and the ability to not have to make up their minds — which, of course, comes thanks in no small part to women from previous generations who fought for such opportunities. 

Michelle Halpern, the 34-year-old CEO and owner of online travel publication Live Like It’s the Weekend, proudly describes herself as “not a 5-year-plan woman,” and is unapologetic about not yearning for family life. She isn’t altogether opposed to the idea — but when it comes to getting married and having kids, “I will do it on my time, and nobody else’s.”

Related

Mom or Entrepreneur? A New Report Says Women Need New Policies in Order to Be Both

The post ‘It Seems Irresponsible to Bring More Humans Into This World’ appeared first on The Story Exchange.

It’s official: If you want to dine, deadlift or dance indoors in New York City, you’ll have to be — or get — vaccinated.

New York City mayor Bill deBlasio recently handed down the order, which states that both patrons and workers at restaurants, bars, gyms and performance venues must demonstrate proof of full vaccination against Covid-19. This applies to both visitors and residents — 55 percent of whom have received their doses, among those eligible.

“It’s time for people to see vaccination as literally necessary to living a good and full and healthy life,” de Blasio said at a press conference. “[F]or so many people, this is going to be a lifesaving act, that we are putting a mandate in place that is going to guarantee a much higher level of vaccination in this city.”

He added, “And that is the key to protecting people, and the key to our recovery.”

Related

3 Snapshots of Getting Back to Work Mid-Pandemic

This comes days after issuing a requirement that all city employees be vaccinated.

New York City is the first major city — and possibly the first American municipality in general — to require proof of vaccination from both customers and employees for indoor activities. Plenty of firms were already playing it safe, it should be noted — prior to this mandate, scores of local businesses had been keeping mask and social distancing mandates in place anyway, despite lack of city, state or federal guidance on the matter.

But this new measure is part of a slew of suggestions and modifications being introduced in cities across the country, as well as at a federal level, to stem the surge of Covid-19 cases occurring due in large part to the more transmittable Delta variant. 

For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently rolled back its previous, more bullish (some would say premature) guidance that vaccinated individuals can resume living mask-free, regardless of their circumstances. Now, the CDC is instead recommending that everyone, including those who are vaccinated, resume wearing masks indoors in counties with either substantial or high infection rates. (This applies to all five boroughs of New York City, though its mask mandate, lifted in May, has not been reinstated.)

Across the country in California, indoor mask mandates were put back into place in both Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Los Angeles’ order was the first of its kind when it was enacted earlier this month. Louisiana and Washington, D.C. have done the same. This stands in stark contrast to states like Texas, where businesses can be fined for pushing mask or vaccine mandates, and Florida, where similar discouragement of such measures is contributing to a record-breaking surge in Covid-19 cases.

Related

3 Techniques to Help Ease That Anxiety About Returning to the Office

But businesses across the country, from Walmart and Disney to Google and Facebook, are taking matters into their own hands by requiring vaccination of employees throughout their companies — which they can legally do. Colleges and universities, as well as hospitals, are doing the same.

Embattled New York governor Andrew Cuomo recently encouraged more businesses to follow suit, though his suggestion was not met with enthusiasm from the whole of the business community. Randy Peers, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, told The City that small firms in particular “don’t have the financial means to offer incentives to encourage vaccination and really don’t want to be in a position to require vaccinations.” 

Also, vaccine hesitancy is, itself, a fraught issue. A recent survey reveals that the majority of unvaccinated individuals live in households earning less than $50,000 annually, which implies that work schedules and childcare needs may be more of a barrier than some realize. Access to information and healthcare services is an ongoing problem for some communities, too, experts additionally note.

All the same, in New York City, a proof-of-vaccination mandate will go into effect August 16, with full enforcement expected by September 13. In the interim, business education and outreach efforts will be made, deBlasio said.

Individuals may use state-sanctioned apps or their physical vaccination ID cards to gain entry.

Related

1 Year Later, Concerns About Employees’ Mental Health Are on the Rise

The post NYC to Require Vaccination for Entry to Restaurants, Gyms, Indoor Venues appeared first on The Story Exchange.

We’ve known it for months — that women have been bearing the brunt of the world’s job losses and income cuts throughout the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Unfortunately, that trend doesn’t seem set to change anytime soon. According to the International Labour Organization, a United Nations agency, women’s employment prospects will take longer to rebound than men’s. 

In fact, men’s employment levels are expected to rebound to 2019 levels this year, while 13 million more women will be unemployed this year than were before Covid-19 took hold. To put it another way, “only 43.2 percent of the world’s working-age women will be employed in 2021, compared to 68.6 percent of working-age men,” the ILO’s release says.

Related

‘If Not Now, When?’ – Women Entrepreneurs Launch Mid-Pandemic

A significant reason for the disparity — beyond women being saddled more frequently with childcare and caregiving duties — is that the industries most impacted by Covid-19 are ones that more often employ women. (Think food services and hospitality.) The United States ranked the lowest in this regard, with a 9.4-percent reduction in employment observed in American women. 

Meanwhile, in some encouraging news, women are faring better in nations that enacted policies specifically to protect women workers. “In Chile and Colombia, for example, wage subsidies were applied to new hires, with higher subsidy rates for women,” the report says. “In other cases, such as Mexico or Kenya, quotas were established to guarantee that women benefited from public employment programs.”

Going forward, the ILO suggests more of these women-focused initiatives, to ensure that one half of the world’s population is as able to economically recover from the pandemic as the other half. Suggestions include investing in industries that more frequently employ women, promoting international equal pay, and addressing ongoing harassment and violence issues for women in workplaces the world over.

“‘Building forward fairer’ means placing gender equality at the core of the recovery effort and putting in place gender-responsive strategies,” the ILO says.

Related

1 Year Later, Concerns About Employees’ Mental Health Are on the Rise

The post We Know the Pandemic Hurt Women. Recovery Won’t Be Much Better appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Jane Neo is done with the standard work week.

Instead, the co-founder of California-based baby essentials seller KeaBabies says she’s going to pay her staff based on the work they complete, effective immediately. “Employees who are able to achieve their tasks in 30 hours will work only 30 hours a week,” she explains. “For those employees who prefer to take an extra day off while still achieving their weekly tasks, they can.”

Neo is part of a growing number of people, employers included, who find themselves increasingly at odds with the very concept of a 40-hour work week. Considering the idea first came about well over a century ago — it was conceived during the Industrial Revolution, and implemented broadly in the early 1900s throughout the U.S. — a revisit and reevaluation is long overdue.

But it’s pandemic living that’s forced the conversation to the foreground. Essential workers were strained like never before. But those who are able to work from home have done so for well over a year, and it’s shone a light on the myriad problems with how long and how much we normally work. To be clear, working from home didn’t provide the oasis of flexibility folks might assume. In fact, many reported feeling overworked during extended lockdowns, with the lines between work hours and personal time blurring almost to the point of nonexistence for some. So, shifting locations alone wasn’t the answer.

Now, as offices continue to slowly reopen, scores of business owners find themselves rethinking their companies’ old structures and schedules, usually mandates of being in-office 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. And while there doesn’t seem to be a consensus as to how to move forward — some are creating hybrid schedules involving some remotely worked hours and days, while others are trying a 4-day work week of 32 hours or offering wiggle room on the total number of hours or days worked per week — the tide is definitely turning away from that 40-hour standard.

Related

3 Snapshots of Getting Back to Work Mid-Pandemic

Making Work ‘Work’ for All

This change is part of a decided, societal-level shift that appears to be taking us further away from “workaholism” — the practice of valuing or celebrating work-related burnout, rather than attempting to avoid it. 

Research certainly supports such a shift, with upticks in productivity and overall happiness seen in workers who work less. Even the nebulous nature of proposed solutions is a good thing, studies show, with workers valuing flexibility and autonomy over any particular alternative work-week structure. (Bonus: Such policies are more inclusive of workers of all identities and abilities, too.)

But today, 58 percent of Americans report working at least 50 hours a week, despite earning salaries based on the standard 40 hours (either because they are working overtime, or because they have to take on second jobs to make ends meet). This is all despite studies also showing that overworking negatively impacts employees’ physical and mental health. And as previously noted, the pandemic has only exacerbated the issue.

Professor Diane Burton, chair of human resource studies at Cornell University’s labor-focused IRL School, noted to The Story Exchange that “firms have been experimenting with alternatives to the 40-hour work week for a long time,” with many attempting to implement a ROWE, or “results-only work environment.”

“We have learned from the pandemic that many people are able to manage their own time and productivity,” Burton adds. “But we need managers to catch up and adjust their management styles.”

Some are already there. Lindsey Allard has always run a remote operation, and says that since launching her online user-experience firm, PlaybookUX, in 2018, “work has stretched to be something that is more fluid and interchangeable than ever.”

When it comes to the 40-hour work week, Allard believes “each company and employee needs to read the room.” She explains that “for me and my company, there are weeks where things are going well and I probably work less than 40 hours. Then, there are weeks where we might need to make some progress and we work 50 hours a week. Just like our world changes so quickly, so does business.”

Related

What to Wear? A Small, But Significant, Pandemic Question

At SoStocked, a St. Louis Park, Minnesota, inventory management software company co-founded by Chelsea Cohen, the work week was once more traditional. But, Cohen says, it will take on a new appearance going forward. Specifically, rather than it being a minimum, she is viewing 40 hours as a maximum, “so as to not overwork [employees]. But if all the work can be done in 30 or 35 hours, then that should be a complete work week” for that staffer.

She adds, “The last year has shown us that we can be more fluid with our workplaces, which leads to [being] accommodating to people’s needs — whether it’s different work hours, or different days. We’ve seen that it can be done.”

Benefiting Everyone, Especially Women

When we researched the subject, an overwhelming majority of women entrepreneurs told us they supported changing up the work week. Some also shared their plans to make such shifts in their own businesses, while noting the tapestry of trust, open communication and mutual accountability such arrangements require.

Linn Atiyeh, the founder and CEO of Bemana, an industrial recruitment firm based in Metairie, Louisiana, is one such business owner presently rethinking the 40-hour work week. While forced, like many, to become more flexible during the pandemic, she’s since witnessed employees feeling more engaged and fulfilled with less rigid schedules. The change has been a win for retention, too. 

“I have especially been thinking about how working parents and people with difficult circumstances in their personal lives are particularly disadvantaged by the traditional structure that has dominated U.S. workplaces,” she says. “Far too many mothers, for instance, have had to leave the workforce in order to juggle the needs of their family. I believe that offering a flexible schedule would better allow us to retain these valued members of our team.”

She’s right — both anecdotally and statistically speaking, the 40-hour work week is especially untenable for parents, with women bearing the brunt of that particular fallout.

KeaBabies’ Neo agrees with Atiyeh. She adds that “as a parent myself, I experienced firsthand the difficulties the pandemic brought to working families. Flexibility is so important, and it is definitely something that we are carrying on.”

Related

‘Mom Guilt’ Was Already a Thing. Then the Pandemic Made it Hell for Caregivers

The post Rethinking the 40-Hour Work Week appeared first on The Story Exchange.