Employment and new work practices in China

WOW this is an interesting topic and I could probably write a book.  We have been closed as a company to having in-house classes since Feb. 2020.  The government rules keep changing as often as a fickle woman changes her mind.  (sorry if anyone is offended by that idiom, just saying).  The rules???  Well that can depend on the day or time or whim.  Here is ONLY one example.

After months of not being able to teach at all, we were finally given permission to have classes on-line in May, then around the 1st of July we were told to prepare to open again.  Our target date: July 20.  However, to open isn't easy it requires a mountain of paperwork.  My job (foreign teacher manager) means I had to oversee the paperwork for my teachers (28 of them).  The first document every single teacher had to do was a Daily Health Check form which requires you take your temperature twice a day and log it, then you must also log if you have gone by any means of transportation anywhere, but it's required now that everyone have the health app on their phones so I found this paperwork to be useless. 

Next, all of the teachers had to take a COVID test before we could go back into classrooms.  Next, every branch (and we have 10 of them) had to be hospital clean and post government approved signage throughout the place.  We must now take temps of everyone who comes in and they must mask and wash their hands.  Parents may not come into the school, ONLY students.  The students can't touch anyone, must stay in their chairs and wear a mask, and of course social distancing is observed.

We opened on Monday July 20 and over this past weekend 4 new cases entered our city from Dalian.  Now we are facing another closure and no one can tell us anything for sure.  The only reason we have not been closed yet, the government is holding the Zhong Kao exams this week, but everyone is pretty sure we will close by this weekend.  It's insane. 

We have to come to a place where we can manage better because let's face it COVID isn't going away and while China has done a very good job at containing it, they can't get rid of it.  No one can yet.  This begs the question, what is reasonable?  What should we be doing to keep our business going, and keep over 130 people employed and deliver quality education to our clients?  I don't think anyone has the right answer yet.

China is very concerned and makes us jump through hoops to be able to teach these students, yet, they have taken away ANY rules when it comes to the "newly" restored morning and evening markets.  Rules don't apply.  No license required, no fees to pay and anyone can open shop on the street.  I am seriously toying with the concept of "open" education if they decide to close us again.   

These are crazy times and to be honest I don't believe there is any single answer to this mess.  China has tried a "one size fits all" approach, but that isn't working for some of us.