Covid-19 Shutdown – Do I Layoff Now or Wait?
I would like to provide some advice to business owners who are struggling with the difficult decision to layoff and let employees collect unemployment, or keep paying them as long as you can. My advice is to think long term. What is best for the employees and the company in the long term. The best thing you can do for your employees is to make sure they have a healthy company to come back to, for that matter, a company to come back to at all. Our hearts may want to keep their compensation at current levels and try to pay them as long as we possibly can, but that could drain our resources so low that we don’t survive a prolonged shut down due to this virus. The unemployment system is there for a reason, you have paid into it for years, let it do what it was intended to do. If there is no work for your staff, I would suggest you layoff as quickly as possible so they they can begin the process of filing for unemployment. This will reserve your cash flow so you can keep other essentials paid for and increase the likelihood that you come out of the shutdown with a company intact. Employers guilt is a real thing in this environment, and there may be circumstances where you have the means to pay non-working employees and still have remain healthy as a company, but make sure you are thinking long term, do what will be best for everyone in the long haul.
Please know that I am praying for you and your business in this trying time. Be creative, innovative, and decisive. We’ve got this.
