“Discussing The Massachusetts Mask Mandate Ending” with Marc Zwetchkenbaum of Marc Z Legal Staffing

Nathan (1s):
Welcome back to Radio Entrepreneurs. I’m producer Nathan Gobes filling in for Jeffrey Davis this morning. I want to welcome back regular to our show. Marc Z of Marc Z Legal Staffing. Welcome Marc.

Marc (14s):
Thanks Nathan. Great to see you and great to be on the show. And we’ve got a lot of optimism in the year.

Nathan (21s):
Yes, there’s there’s new things happening towards reopening. And so it’s time for another Marc Z moment. So what’s what’s going on.

Marc (29s):
Well, thank you, Nathan. Great. Again, great to be on the show. It’s amazing how the world changes on a dime and how day to day has become moments. A moment. So what’s changed a lot is Charlie baker has said to the state of Massachusetts, as well as across the country in terms of what the center for disease control is saying in terms of mask use, not only outside, but inside, there’s going to be a quicker return to the markets, opening up to the economy, opening up to doing business in person again, to not wearing masks.

Marc (1m 10s):
And so when we talk most recently, we talked about a lot of firms and companies trying to carve out the right niche. Obviously we know that employers can require employees to come back, but it’s a challenge and they want motivated employees and employees can come back and say, I have a religious reason or a health reason. And that’s something that can be documented and discussed with the employer. But in the absence of that, you could win the battle, lose the war. And so a lot of employers are figuring ways out to incentivize, to encourage and to try to find a path where employees happily will return in some way to the office.

Marc (1m 60s):
And we were talking recently about the idea of a hybrid role. Not only I know Radio Entrepreneurs did a, a survey, but we did a survey with our immediate legal community and business community. And the percentages came out relatively the same in terms of that being concerned, the about 65% of the people wanted to return in a hybrid role, another 30% wanting to return in a full-time.

Marc (2m 40s):
And then there may be, was a small percentage in terms of being totally in the office. So now what happens as we’re talking to employers who are encouraged by the May 29th, a lot of employers are saying we really want people back full time. We might start out as having them back a few days a week. Now a lot of employers have been on a volunteer basis, but a lot of employers are talking about, okay, we’ll have a hybrid mode schedule and a mood in the fall, but then we really want to get back as quick as possible.

Marc (3m 21s):
Having people come in full time. Now what’s interesting is I was talking to a lot of the same firms, which had talked about attorneys, for example, and a lot of the firms most recently were saying, you know, we’re going to have a hybrid model. The attorneys are encouraged to work together to come in at least a full-time a few times a week, but overall, there’s going to be a hybrid model. Most recently firms are changing that in light of Charlie baker and saying, you know what? It’s really important for attorneys to come in and be here on a regular basis and a full-time basis. So, and then support staff, same thing, a lot of support staff that could work maybe one or two days a week, or totally remotely are being pulled back by firms to work full time.

Marc (4m 11s):
And a lot of the people have trepidation. A lot of the employees are saying, I really don’t want to come back. Full-time I want to be in a hybrid mode and, and model. And that’s where employers are being challenged. So what are we going to do about it as employers? What are we going to do about it? As employees for employees, you have to be a little bit more flexible. That’s something you can talk to your employer about in particularly if you’re a bigger company or department head or a bigger firm, the key people and see what kind of schedule you can work out voluntarily to come in certain days and make it work for the employer and make it work for you.

Marc (4m 53s):
Obviously nobody can forget the past year and a half. A lot of people are saying, well, I want to work totally remote well that you can’t do anymore. If that’s not what the employer wants. And it’s important to have your, your group integrated as far as executives and attorneys, obviously attorneys, you know, you build out, but it’s important to really collaborate with the partners and associates the on the same page. And even if it’s working out a partial schedule. So executives, a lot of executives will always be remote and are working remote, but maybe quarterly, they can get together or on some kind of schedule basis get together.

Marc (5m 37s):
So there’s room to get together there’s room to come to a solution, but both parties, employees, and employers have to find a solution to make it work because everybody wants to move forward and society is reopening and the

Nathan (5m 53s):
Economy. Do you think the fact that the reopening got moved up to May 29th may have caught some business owners off guard that thought they had a few more months to figure things out and, and employees as well that, you know, maybe they thought they had a little more time before they’d have to, you know, launch right back into that office.

Marc (6m 13s):
I think that employees caught them off guard because they were going with the idea of like we had a year ago in March, 2020, it was originally starting to be two to four weeks where we’re going remote. Then it was going to be another month. Then it was going to be two months. Now, here we are almost a year over. I was going to say almost a year and a half later. So a lot of employees thought, okay, they’re talking about the fall, but that’s not going to happen as quickly then the vaccine being available. And, and about 70% of the, the us population taking the vaccine, it changed the circumstances.

Marc (6m 57s):
And that’s what led to the governor. Baker monitors, the science to say, we can move up. The schedule. Employers have been working on a plan for while they have been talking about right at the end of the summer, because they wanted to give employees time to transition, get their kids in a routine, get themselves in a routine, figuring out a way to have a transportation plan, work out a schedule with their teams, their supervisor, that’s where they’re, they’ve been ahead of the schedule in terms of the employers.

Marc (7m 37s):
And so they had built that in it’s the employees that really didn’t think it was going to happen this quickly.

Nathan (7m 44s):
It is interesting. You mentioned kids working parents that now, whereas before the, the time to move back into the office was at the end of the summer, when you know, kids would be going back into school and, and assuming, you know, this fall would be full-time in school, you know, versus, you know, half virtual, whatever. But now it’s at the beginning of the summer and kids are going to be getting out of school very soon. So that is an interesting dynamic there too.

Marc (8m 9s):
Correct? No, in terms of, in terms of it’s, it’s a two, it’s a two-edged sword on one hand for parents, you have now back to school learning school schedules a bit extended a little bit, but at least that’s giving the parents the ability to not only be productive at home when they’re balancing, having kids at home, having to do a little homeschooling to now having their kids go back to school. So the parents can at least work from home and try to figure out a schedule where if they are able to, or want to go into the office, they now can before they really couldn’t because they had their kids at home and you couldn’t have during COVID people come into your house.

Marc (8m 52s):
So we’re not vaccine or your facility. So they were caught between a rock and a hard place. So that’s helped a lot of employees, but at the same time, in terms of, and also in terms of S camps, summer camps, in terms of summer school, those options are now open where parents can send their kids and be productive at work too.

Nathan (9m 21s):
Hmm. That’s interesting. Do you have any other closing advice for employers or employees as we move towards this reopening date of May 29th? My advice

Marc (9m 31s):
Is be realistic work together for employers. You know, your employees, especially employees, you’re looking long-term in terms of them really developing, being part of your team. They’ve got a lot of anxiety. They’re still working out issues at home. They’re still figuring out how they can be productive and balanced between their families and interests in coming through for their employer. For employees, you have to be realistic and a positive side. The world is reopening again, which is a good thing at the same time. It’s everybody, particularly your employers understand.

Marc (10m 12s):
And they do understand because I’ve talked to a lot of them that you haven’t transitioned to make that you have to work out these details. But at the end of the day, you have to work out a schedule that is productive for not only you, but your employer, so everybody can move ahead. So it’s being realistic to understand everybody’s needs in the short term, if there’s going to be a little bit of anxiety and pain, but in the long term, I’m confident that especially employers who care about their employees and employees that are passionate about their employers will work everything out.

Nathan (10m 49s):
Great. Well, thank you, Marc. This has been another Marc scene moment with Marc Z of Moxie, illegal staffing. Marc. If people want to get in touch with you, get more advice on staffing and what their businesses should be doing or any other advice. Well, how can they reach you? Well,

Marc (11m 3s):
First of all, Nathan, they can Google Marc Z M a R C Z M a R C and the letter Z and or go to is illegal.com, MarcZLegal.com or six one seven three three eight one 300.

Nathan (11m 21s):
Thanks. I want to thank you again for, for being on radio entrepreneurs. I’m sure we’ll talk to you more as reopening continues to roll out and remind everyone, this has been radio entrepreneurs, right? That’s good.