Nearly every big company in America does business with the government. The ground shifted suddenly under all of them when the president ordered federal contractors to impose workplace vaccine passports. They’re scrambling now to outsource this new tracking of employees. (The OSHA mandate is presently stopped in the courts, but the federal-contractor mandate is still in effect.)
Big companies act slowly. Why didn’t they drag their feet on this?
Reasons Big Companies Jumped onto the Mandate
Reason #1
They won’t risk losing government income. The government is their favorite kind of customer, maybe a bit late to pay, but easy to overcharge, prodigal in its spending, and unlimited in how much money it can print. Once a federal software contract is signed, it effectively renews forever, whether that software remains useful or not.
That’s the only reason I can find.
It’s true that the employees demanding an antiseptic workplace are brash and insistent, but I’m not seeing such a groundswell that executives would actually take notice. I’ve also heard the argument that big companies are actually plotting to gain control over the biology of their employees. Perhaps proof-of-birth-control really will become a condition of employment one day—children are disruptive—but I doubt companies actually plan so far ahead. It’s just about keeping the contracts.
So what are the costs of kowtowing so hastily to the feds?
Please feel free to share or re-post any of these articles. Let people know vaccine passports aren’t the answer!
Companies are seeing one cost clearly: they will lose employees like me who won’t sign on to a proof-of-vaccination scheme. They are counting us now, measuring how many will refuse. Companies anticipating layoffs are no doubt pleased to shed a few people early, but other businesses worry about losing staff, especially when hiring is difficult.
They’re overlooking some other costs, however, starting with the morale of their remaining employees. Many employees who are opposed are going along with the passport only for convenience. Others are claiming religious exemptions, but it’s hard to imagine that people whose employers suddenly demanded they proclaim (or lie about) their private beliefs will feel much corporate loyalty. When I announced my own refusal to comply, some colleagues said outright that they were looking for other jobs even as they appeared to participate.
Of course some employees actually want a proof-of-vaccination database. By enforcing the president’s policy, the company made real what had been just a difference of opinion, another way that corporate endorsement of politics is riving professional camaraderie. Here are some responses to my letter telling more than a hundred colleagues I wouldn’t abide by the vaccination-tracking policy. These are not the words of people united in harmonious pursuit of company goals:
The only socially acceptable stance in Slack [a company-sponsored texting app] is pro-vaccination and thank-goodness-our-company-is-requiring-this.
You are very brave, but watch out.
I also feel very uneasy to hear that some of my colleagues will take this issue lightly, putting my life and my dear ones' life in danger.
Is there a way to register our discontent without labeling ourselves as "troublemakers"? The whole thing is sickening to me.
I feel this division myself. If my letter made me a bit of a hero to some, it made me a monster to others. I’m convinced that some who used to talk with me warmly have grown distant and terse. After I’m gone, that chasm between those who resent and those who crave the vaccine passports will persist.
To my amazement, the company also seems blind to the cost of announcing—two months in advance!—its intent to fire people. When a company decides to fire someone, it ordinarily tries to surprise him, and for good reason. Even if he doesn’t intentionally sabotage his work, that soon-to-be-terminated employee is going to be disgruntled and increasingly unproductive. He will be looking for other jobs instead of focusing on this one. His talk with co-workers will not be motivational.
Indeed I’m already putting in fewer hours, paying less attention to long-term plans, and ignoring some personnel-management problems instead of confronting them. And some of my colleagues, knowing I won’t be around next year, are treating me differently now. For example, some have stopped running their plans past me, and a man who has long sought my job has started working around me as if I were already gone.
Big companies have many blind spots, so naturally they are overlooking some problems. Consider my company’s response to my letter to co-workers. I expected management to demand a retraction or an apology. I would have refused to send it.
Instead they offered that I could stay until January 4 if I sent a follow-up letter to the same people with these three lines. (They provided the wording for #3.)
I was not and am not recommending that anyone else avoid complying with this requirement.
I was not writing in a managerial capacity. No one should interpret my words as being representative of [company’s] official position (which is documented here and will be enforced).
In retrospect, the use of [company] email (or equipment) is not an appropriate medium for advocation of personal beliefs.
Of course these disclaimers were ridiculous: anyone could see my note wasn’t an official memo telling people what to do. The third point was obviously scripted. Who could have guessed that American Heritage would even accept “advocation” as a word?
Still, the company thought this follow-up would help sell their employees on the passport plan.
I sent it, reasoning that I want health coverage for an extra month and that their note only proves we are becoming totalitarian and intolerant. Sure enough, many people derided the second note. This was my favorite reaction:
Your second email reads like a hostage confession tape, or a Maoist struggle session, not sure which exactly. I've seen this movie before and I don't care for it.
There is trouble ahead, but the big companies can’t see it. I guess they don’t watch many movies.