No easy answers here. Only a large scale roll out of antibody testing will prove that someone asymptomatic got the virus in the past, and is now safe from it. To reduce the abuse, the benefit eligibility can be fine tuned based on the incidence rate within the neighborhood of a particular worker, and incidence of the virus in the immediate family.

Additionally, guaranteeing that someone can come back to work at least for the same duration that they took unpaid sick leave — giving the workers an opportunity to earn back the lost dollars — would alleviate some of the concerns.

Pre-pandemic many retailers had pretty draconian sick leave policies that assumed the employee was faking it. Those policies were based on a history of abuse and the need to have a one-size-fits-all approach. Better to be a bit more lenient to serve the majority of workers, and weed out the abusers. It takes more time for management, but will create a stronger team with fewer problems long-term.

In today’s connected world, events that drive retail sales also drive retail politics. COVID-19 is an event, a serious and scary event. But it will most likely prove to be a controllable virus to the same extent that others have been in the past, which is to say that we won’t ever eliminate it entirely and it will continue to affect public health in the same way “common flu” does every year. The question is how we are reacting with policies that will likely become permanent. Should retailers and other businesses provide a more generous sick leave policy? Should we try something completely different than our current system? Those questions are valid and I certainly don’t have the answer. But is the current flurry of legislation and protest a knee-jerk reaction to an election year and a classic example of the “never let a good crisis go to waste” philosophy? The answer to that one is clear. Action driven by fear, emotion and opportunism seldom makes for good strategy, policy or government.

Retailers need to not only define specific, reasonable benefits during this temporary crisis, but this also reminds us that we need to be agile enough to manage through the emergencies of the future. Look around at several retailers around the world, and don’t be too proud to borrow the best ideas you see working worldwide. Expand your views so you can find the real innovation.

I opted for the “somewhat strict,” but there’s no obvious answer. Certainly we don’t want sick people at work, or even people who might reasonably seem to be sick. But “reasonably” is the key word here: the dishonest, or just neurotic may be few in number, but there are still enough of them that a policy of unlimited PAID sick leave would bankrupt most any company.