With the development of vaccines that have been determined to be effective against COVID-19, both employers and employees are asking one question: should – and could – the vaccine be mandatory for employees? The short answer is yes, you could require employees to be vaccinated to return to work. However, whether you should require employees to be vaccinated is a different calculus entirely.

There is much recent written guidance suggesting that the employer can require employees to be vaccinated.  However, employers who require the vaccine must also ensure they are compliant with federal and state workplace laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which protects employees with disabilities who may be vulnerable to the vaccine’s side effects, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), which protects any employees with sincerely held religious beliefs that prevent the employee from receiving the vaccination. Considerations for employers who mandate the vaccine include:

• The potential legal issues that could ensue when the requirement is enforced in the workplace, such as wrongful termination suits;
• The requirement to consider whether a reasonable accommodation can be made for the qualifying employees who pose a direct threat to the workplace if they don’t obtain a vaccine, such as allowing the employee to work remotely or take a leave of absence; and
  
• The potential liability for an employee’s injury resulting from a mandatory vaccine, which could be considered a workplace injury under state worker’s compensation laws.

Because of these considerations, many businesses may opt to encourage employees to be immunized rather than implement company-wide mandatory vaccination programs. Many employers may opt to encourage their workers to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine, including by offering the following: make the vaccine readily available to the employees, cover the cost of the vaccine, provide workplace incentives to those who receive the vaccine, and pay for time off to obtain the vaccine.

Employers that choose not to require employee vaccinations separately may find themselves liable to customers or vendors exposed to COVID-19 at a business that could have been prevented by a vaccination program. Depending on the business and the nature of interaction with the public, a vaccination program may be advisable.

What is clear is employers need to strike the proper balance when assessing the competing objectives of protecting employees’ rights under the ADA and Title VII, limiting their own exposure to legal liability, and protecting employees and customers from the COVID-19 virus. Employers that do choose to adopt mandatory vaccination policies and then face requests from individuals for accommodation or exemption are strongly advised to consult with legal counsel.

Courtney Mazzio is an attorney practicing in the firm’s Philadelphia and Cherry Hill offices. She handles a wide array of complex litigation matters with a particular focus on employment, professional liability, commercial litigation and data privacy and cyber claims.If you have any questions, or would like more information, please contact Courtney Mazzio at cmazzio@fmglaw.com.

To do well at anything we need to really pay attention. That simple sentence has ramifications for today as well as this week, month, year, and decade.

There is so much involved in that one sentence:

• Getting better at the skill of paying attention in order to really focus on one important thing at a time.
• Deciding what to pay attention to.
• Deciding how long to pay attention to it.
• Deciding what nuances within it we want to give special attention to.
• Deciding what not to pay attention to.

However, no matter how complicated this topic becomes as we peel back the layers of the onion, it still comes down to this: To do well at anything we need to really pay attention.

Practice Paying Attention
There are times in a given day when you really need to be able to focus. However, getting good at sustaining focus requires practice.

In a typical soccer game there about a dozen good shots on goal that have a chance of going in. That’s for both teams combined. The 20 field players touch the ball thousands of times in a game, but only a dozen of those touches result in good shots that might get past the two goalies.

To get ready to make a quality shot players will practice shooting hundreds and hundreds of times. When they practice they will do some things that never happen in a game like pointing their toes down, leaning over a ball that another player is holding on the ground, and striking the ball over and over without it going anywhere. Imagine practicing something hundreds of times that you might only do a few times in an actual game.

That’s the way it is with being able to pay attention during a work day. You will only be in a state of deep focus for a small part of the day, but you have to be ready to actually focus.

The practice of Mindfulness is a way to improve your skill at paying attention. This involves doing something that you won’t be doing during the work day, but it will help you sustain your focus in your work.

Try this exercise for three minutes. Put an object of any kind in front of you. Focus only on that item. Any time a thought or an emotion enters into your awareness just acknowledge it and calmly let it go. Don’t engage with that thought or emotion. Little by little you will develop the ability to calmly stay focused on one thing and to let go of any other thought or emotion.

When you put this skill into your work day, you can focus on doing something or thinking about something without letting other thoughts or emotions distract you from your activity. You can just acknowledge the thought or the emotion, choose not to engage with it, and watch it slide out of your awareness. As you stay focused, you can dig deeper and deeper into the topic at hand.

Decide on Where You’re Best as an Attention-Giver
Some people are very good at giving attention to creating something that has no immediate practical value. i.e. writing a chapter in a novel, working on a painting, creating a workbook for a seminar, or developing a part of a song.

Other people are very good at paying attention to practical details: a car’s gas tank, taxes that need to be paid, doctor visits that need to be scheduled, and travel plans that need to be executed.

Both types of focus are important, but not everyone is equally as good at both areas of focus.

Norman and Mary Rockwell were an example of this. Norman could sit in his studio and concentrate on creating a painting that told a meaningful story. Mary guided the details of their business and home life. Each person brought great value to their marriage by focusing within a specific realm.

Select Your Area of Focus
A rule of reality is you can’t focus on everything so choose carefully.

I had cataract surgery on both my eyes this summer. My doctor, Dr. Brent Davidson, did a magnificent job. For the first time since third grade I can see extremely well without glasses. To me, it’s a miracle.

And then I started thinking about the extraordinary amount of focus it must have taken Dr. Davidson to perfect his skills in order to do what he did for me. He had to choose which areas of medicine he was not going to focus on, and he had to choose which area he was going to focus on.

The same is true for you. You can’t do or be everything at a high level or a deep level. So what’s it going to be? Choose a topic that you really want to focus on.

In One Day Pay Attention for 1 – 4 Hours
My personal favorite psychologist, Dr. Anders Ericsson, used to say that world-class performers could sustain their focus for up to 4 hours a day while a novice performer could focus for about 1 hour a day.

Please don’t pressure yourself into thinking you need to be able to focus effectively for 8 – 10 hours a day. That is NOT realistic. However, what you can do in your 1 – 4 hours a day of really good concentration is pretty remarkable. Be sure to allow yourself to really pay attention for 1 – 4 hours a day on your particular subject. Rather than doing busy work for four days and concentrating for one day, I encourage you to consider carving out 1 – 4 hours each day to really focus on a particular topic or activity.

Pay Attention through the Duration of a Project
Losing focus is a real problem. And it can be a really, really costly problem.

So often people will start up a new project with a great deal of enthusiasm. It’s like sending a bowling ball down a lane. But before the ball knocks down any pins they send another project down the lane. And then another and another. None of the balls reach any of the pins because the focus keeps changing over and over.

It is crucially important that you sustain your focus all the way to the end of the project so the bowling ball actually knocks over the pins. If you choose to stop a project and focus on a different project, then that’s okay. But if all you do is keep adding more projects without ever ending any of the projects, then you are not being effective.

Live a Lifetime of Focus
If you truly want to make a remarkable impact in your lifetime, then sustain your focus year after year. This is much easier said than done. It’s tempting to focus, achieve success for a few years, and then just celebrate the rewards for the long haul. It’s much harder to sustain your focus day after day, week after week, and month after month for 25-30 years. But that’s where the really, really deep impact happens. And gosh it can be so worth it!

Dan Coughlin provides both individual Executive Coaching and Group Coaching Programs on management, leadership, and teamwork. To visit his Free Business Performance Idea Center, go to www.thecoughlincompany.com.

ASCA-member Senske Services, based in Kennewick, Wash., has increased its footprint and service offering through the acquisition of Aurora, Colo.-based ExperiGreen Lawn Care.

Current ExperiGreen employees and managers have joined the Senske team. Services will continue for customers uninterrupted with expanded offerings such as mosquito control and full-service pest control.

"I am impressed with the team members here in Aurora," said Senske President Chris Senske. "They have a lot to contribute to our success. I look forward to seeing them grow individually as they help Senske grow."

Chris Senske is a 2017 Leadership Award recipient. CLICK HERE to read his profile, Senske Service ranked No. 86 on Snow Magazine's 2020 Top 100.

Founded in 2016, ExperiGreen Lawn Care has offered lawn and tree care services to Aurora and the surrounding Denver area residents. After deciding to divest some of their operations on the west coast, ExperiGreen's first call to a potential acquirer was Senske.

"Senske's dedication to customer service, employees, and 100% satisfaction guarantee made them an attractive option to continue the great work ExperiGreen had started," said John Moehn, ExperiGreen president.

Mike Zawacki is editor of Snow Magazine.

“Where did all the salt go?”

This question is coming up increasingly in the market this week as buyers and end users are running into supply problems and lack of availability on deicers.

The last four to five years has seen a trend toward a “just-in-time” inventory management approach work for many snow contractors given the infrequent storms of previous winters. However, when we get into a pattern of snow every few days -- which is the situation now -- it is inevitable that the velocity of demand will overwhelm and choke the supply system.

The reasons behind the “where’s the salt?” answer are both simple and complex.

On the simple side, demand has exceeded supply in some regions and with some suppliers. On the more complex side, the answer has many layers and contributing factors.

Generally speaking, most suppliers of bulk salt will take their best guess estimate at what they will need in a given winter and then schedule ships, trains, and timing and build stockpiles accordingly. They use professional weather forecasting, historical sales data, and customer estimates to make a decision on how much salt to put into any stockpile location.   

There is only so much space on the ground for storage. In a perfect world, suppliers might pile up a year or more of inventory in their stockpile. But understanding the costs associated with that approach will help readers to understand why that never works.   

The first and most important issue from the supply side viewpoint is the customer estimate. These estimates must be accurate because all of the economics are based on it. For example; if someone estimates they will require 2500 tons of bulk salt for the winter, and then it doesn’t snow, the supplier is left holding all the tons that were not delivered and paying storage on them and loss of revenue from not selling those tons. The carrying costs continue to fall on the supplier.

On the other hand, if the customer burns through those 2500 tons with six weeks of winter left, then the supplier is tapped out because they based their stockpiles on the estimates. This is why most salt suppliers use contracts; to avoid over-selling.

Those who follow my State of the Salt Address newsletters and articles will know that I’ve called for the end users and the market to accept more risk to avoid being caught in a shortage.

To that point, every buyer should have at least five storms of inventory on the ground when the season starts, and then continue to reload that to the five storm minimum as product is used maintaining five storms of inventory throughout the winter.

Only municipalities practice this approach, which is largely why municipalities are the last to experience shortages. But they too are not immune.

From the supply side, there are a lot of factors that enter into the decision tree with regards to scheduling delivery of salt for the stockpiles.

• Which regions are expected to be hardest hit?
• What did they take last year?
• How many events last year?
• What is predicted for this winter?
• What can determine based on historical averages?
• What are the economics of bulk vessels and rail in-season versus off-season?
  

It is more expensive to move bulk in winter in nearly all cases, so many will pile to the maximum in the spring and summer when costs are generally lower and try to push those tons into their customer base so they can reload to the maximum.   

The fleet of bulk ocean vessels shrunk significantly with the implementation of IMO2020: the law demanding ultra-low sulfur fuel and scrubbers for the ship’s emissions.    Most couldn’t comply. Some newer ships that couldn’t comply at their regular cruising speeds, found that they could comply by reducing speed by thirty plus percent.   Now the voyage from point A to point B will take longer, and therefore cost more making even the perceived inexpensive vessels now expensive.

The weather pattern that we are in currently is going to hang on for at least another 10-14 days. Forty five percent of the US is covered with snow as I write this, and another arctic blast that will reach to the Gulf of Mexico is coming, further stressing already low stockpiles.

Shopping around is futile as the suppliers that have carefully balanced the demand and contract estimates from their customers will not “rob Peter to pay Paul” -- so no luck there.

What you can expect for the balance of this winter? It will get worse and could get a lot worse. On the plus side, we are very late into the winter and when this final cold does pull out, it will be very unlikely for its return. Had this all happened in December and January, we would be in deep trouble as an industry on a broad scale.

I need to also talk about packaged deicers, as they too are pretty stressed right now.

The problem in packaged deicers, interestingly enough, is not lack of inventory so much as it is managing the demand velocity. While we have plenty of packaged product inventory, nationwide trucking shortages caused by reduced over-the-road driver availability coupled with winter driving conditions nearly half of the nation have caused delays on the few available trucks on roads making deliveries DOT rule changes also have put additional pressure on the over-the-road drivers because of new DOT regulations on driving hours.

Hours waiting line to load are counted as driving hours now, so a driver that is in a five hour loading cue (which we are seeing right now) finally gets on the road to their destination and then have to layup for required rest time. Now, an expected a same delivery stretches into multiple days.

Lastly, there is a major problem in ocean shipping by container.

The entire system is out of balance. It’s complex and hard to grasp all the factors involved but 20,000 TEU vessels obsoleted smaller container ships and actually created shortages in vessel space availability. This has led to astronomical price increases and problems.   

You can search the Internet for information on this problem, but it will continue to plague the global ocean transportation and drive prices through the roof where they are already. Realize that a significant amount of packaged deicers have used ocean container shipping and this will further pinch an already challenging condition.  

DHL published an informative article in their February 2021 update that is worth reading if you want to understand this and future impact on costs of ALL goods: CLICK HERE to check it out.

Snow Magazine readers can hopefully begin to see how all of these issues have combined into a perfect storm of conditions to put some suppliers – not all by any means - into the current shortages.  I should also mention that we are fine with supply of all products, however, we are not able to take on new customers at this time and are focused only on our existing customer base.

Contributing Editor Robert S. English is president of Chemical Solutions Inc., based out of Franklin, Mass. He writes often about issues pertaining to the salt and deicing industry including his regular State of Salt columns. You can reach him at rob@meltsnow.com