Click on the beach picture below for a new VLOG from your friendly, neighborhood employment law attorney. Exciting commentary follows (below)!

Where my next “home office” will be (in the picture) compared to where it actually is (in the video).

In the last month, there have been a lot of great articles, blogs, vlogs, and online training sessions provided by top-notch professionals, and I won’t rehash what they’ve said. I will simply note that there have been some, let’s call them “snags,” in the roll out of government assistance necessary to support individuals and businesses during this time.

For example, Governor DeSantis has officially removed the requirement that individuals seeking to obtain reemployment assistance “actively seek” work to receive those benefits. This is good news. But….it’s hard for people to actually file for reemployment assistance because the DEO’s website is down, the phones are jammed, and paper applications are being shuffled around slowly. So not having to actively seek employment is fairly low on the list of issues people are having with obtaining financial assistance right now.

Likewise, small businesses are frequently being shut out of receiving the funds necessary to support their operations. PPP loans were made available ostensibly to help small businesses, but then large banks seemed to selectively advance the PPP application packages of somewhat larger employers while truly small businesses were pushed to the back burner. This only went on for about a week…but by then, the funds allocated by Congress were accounted for.

I’m hoping that the state and federal government can get themselves together and truly provide the support that is needed in this crazy time. That remains to be seen. But I believe that we, as a nation, have the capacity to both keep people safe from a deadly virus and safe from financial ruin.

As of now, the “safer-at-home” Executive Order in Florida expires some time on April 30, 2020. Let’s see what happens. Until then, stay home, stay safe.