The amount of change we’ve all been subjected to over the last few weeks has been vast. We’re presented with new information almost daily making this situation ever changing. Some days it’s easy, other days it’s frustrating to live with this short term “new normal” (who knew toilet paper would be such a hot commodity in 2020?).
The ray of light during all this uncertainty is that PCL remains fully operational and that everyone on our team continues to work full time – even if there is a little distance between us. Our daily morning meetings and internal meetings might look a little different but with the help of technology we’re able to stay in contact with each other.
While all staff that is non-essential to testing have been asked to work from home until further notice, we must service our current customers. This means our lab technicians are coming to work every day. Our lab techs are our front-line workers, without them we’re not able to continue to function. 24-hour lead times is one of PCL’s KPI’s. This is a goal of ours that we don’t plan to let falter even amid COVID-19. We’re keeping innovation alive during this unprecedented time when a lot of production has stopped, and for that, we are grateful to the lab techs and other staff that is essential to lab testing.
PCL follows the CDC guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to keep our staff safe. We’ve implemented some additional precautions and changed a few things up from our normal routine to help everyone effected by COVID-19:
- Adjusted our start time to 8:30 am to encourage healthy sleep schedules
- Supporting local Grand Rapids restaurants on Friday’s (Some of their favorites are Matchbox, Thornapple, and Buddies)
- “Social Distancing” testing and lunches
- New PPE policies for receiving/handling samples
- Implementing a new Lab Cleaning schedule due to our cleaning company shutting down
- Virtual training’s
- Employees must wear gloves in the lab
- Employees must read their temperatures when they enter the building to ensure they don’t have a fever
We can’t thank our team enough for all that they do. Let’s all hang in there a little bit longer and when the Executive Order is finished, we can “cheers” in person to making it through and not via Zoom video chat.
Stay home and stay safe!