The Navy CANNOT force you to take leave to ROM or quarantine. That is against their official policy. My comments are solely about the Navy. It varies by command, but “close contact” with a confirmed positive results in a 7-14 day period where you are told to not come to work and stay away from the people with whom you work.
Also, if you think most of the sailors onboard a ship, or in a squadron, can telework, I’d encourage you to do your FY21 AT embarked on a ship or attached to a squadron in order to gain some fleet exposure. Not a lot of working from home to be done by the people using, maintaining, and operating ships, boats, and planes out in the fleet.
You’re missing my point. My point is, as social norms and fundamental realities change, so do Navy policies and private sector policies.
At some point, if the situation changes dramatically, the Navy or private company is going to say, “keep working anyway; we can’t have you on ROM for 39 weeks a year just because you keep running into people who tested positive.” This could happen, for example, if the tests start to give off lots of false positives and/or testing frequency increases. They’ll change the marker from “near someone who tested positive” to “came into physical contact” or some other, higher threshhold.
And lastly, when I say telework, I mean death by GMT or bs administrivia. I didn’t assume it would be productive for the sailor or the command. If the circumstances change and the Navy is suddenly facing an unlikely disaster scenario, say, where 25% of its workforce is on ROM at any given time because of viral spread and testing, you can bet someone will find a way to use that untapped manpower - even if it’s the telework equivalent of scrubbing the head with a toothbrush. Or, they’ll just say to hell with telework, we’re going to make you do X task today instead of just watch Netflix. Again, policies can change as realities change.
