Originally Posted by
Yohimbe
Man that's a tough decision. In my opinion, business is business especially when it comes to owning your own business. I look at it this way, I know a lot of people that are now out of a job and in a panic about how they are going to make ends meet and would love for the opportunity to still be employed somewhere that would work with them around the Covid concerns. It sounds like you've presented her multiple options to work around her concerns by limiting her exposure to people and allowing her to work off hours. In doing that, if she still refuses to work I'd probably consider hiring the other person. None of us knows how long this is going to last (hopefully not long) and you certainly don't want to put yourself further in a bind stressing out about how you're going operate if she refuses to work for the next couple months.
There are probably going to be a lot of people that will make the employer the bad guy in this type of situation and I'm sure it's happening quite a bit as people's fear grows. I'm similar to you and not a hard ass at work to those who work for me. I like being a leader vs. a "boss". This is just what I would do... I'd approach her and be very up front. I'd let her know that I'm willing to make every effort for her safety and let her work around her concerns while limiting her exposure to people by coming in when no one is around. Sanitize and clean regularly to avoid any potential contact. I'd help her understand that she is a valuable asset to the company and I'd hate to see her go, but the business will not make it without employees. I'd let her know as a friend I completely understand and respect her concerns, but as a business owner I will have to back fill her position to keep things going. Could be on a temporary part time basis, or possibly permanent full time going forward.
That's just the approach I would probably take. I don't want you to take that advice and then regret it lol. It's definitely a really tough decision with what the world is going through. There really isn't a way not to look like the bad guy while doing what's best for the business in this current situation. If you do decide to go with someone else, I would certainly exhaust all avenues of legality to ensure she cannot come back and sue you later. This is an unprecedented event we're going through and while it sucks to have to think ahead like that, we unfortunately do.