Are your team members "on" or "off" the bus?

Many clients in The Regeneration Programme are telling me that 20% of their team are still working from home during lockdown, that 60% are furloughed and quietly observing and that 20% are furloughed and don’t give a toss.

The Top 20% are getting stuck into patient and team communication, to ordering, to reviewing and improving existing systems and to the growing preparation for the Return to Work (RTW).

The Middle 60% are taking part in some dialogue and training but are balancing that with the demands of domestic life, be they homeschooling, simply living with a spouse/partner or supporting one who works, dealing with all that lockdown stuff that few of us imagined before this started.

The Bottom 20% are "BMWing" - bitching, moaning and whining about the RTW - about flexible hours, about alterations in the T's & C's of their employment, about PPE, about possibly having to pick up a mop and bucket when they get back, about how the job isn't going to be as easy as it was.

To those who are redeployed - I stood on my doorstep last night and applauded you.

I started to get very upset this week listening to distraught owners who had picked up negative comments in which The Bottom 20% were contaminating the rest of the team with their moaning and lack of appreciation for having sat at home for weeks on furlough pay that had sometimes been made up to 100%.

How many times over the years have I heard of such comments on WhatsApp and Facebook, the author of the comments having forgotten (or did they?) that the owner was a "friend" or member of a channel?

Add to that the small but increasingly belligerent community of self-employed clinicians who might be stirring in their own discontent to the team conversation.

Before I bring the walls of some temples down - let me repeat this is The Bottom 20%. It's a minority who, inevitably, create 80% of the problems.

The attitude of team members and clinicians during lockdown will simply identify those who get back to work first and those who are laid off during the phased return (or let go).

It still staggers me that The Bottom 20% don’t see that they are writing employment suicide notes.

My tolerance meter is set at zero.

My advice to owners is to follow my lead.

My response to The Top 20% is to applaud their efforts every Thursday evening at 20:00.

My advice to The Middle 60% is to be proud that they are about to go back in to healthcare.

My advice to The Bottom 20% (not that they give a damn) is to suggest that they get off the healthcare bus now and look for something less demanding.