The Ultimate Question?

I will assume you are referring to the pandemic. I am actually very proud of how we handled the situation over the past three years. We responded promptly and efficiently to the situation, and because of that we had zero cases of spread between employees at the office, and zero shutdowns. StockX is one of our neighbors in our complex, and they had to completely shut down multiple times because of outbreaks. Multiple businesses in our complex had to completely shut down multiple times because of outbreaks, actually. We did not. We got a bit of a head start on it compared to everyone, as we have multiple suppliers in Wuhan. One of those suppliers wrote me in December 2019 saying there was a new viral outbreak there, and that it was going to be bad. They said do not believe what our government says about it. That's a big deal, as saying things like that in China is risky for them. When they went dark as the Chinese government cut off phone and internet access to the entire Hubei province, I knew it was going to be bad. I later found out from them that they had been literally locked into their apartment for months by their government. However, because they alerted us, I was able to start preparing before it really hit here. We put a pandemic response plan in place quickly, and I had meetings with every department in my company to discuss the situation and how they could protect themselves, their coworkers, and their families. We didn't panic or let fear drive our decisions. We calmly and scientifically explained everything to every one of our employees, so they could feel informed and make good choices. We rapidly moved to enable work from home for everyone that it could be done for, and we got supplies and put in procedures to protect everyone that had to come into our facility. I was able to get a large shipment of N95 masks in before shit hit the fan, and we got rapid antigen test kits that we had available at our offices, and worked with a local physician that would come in and test employees if they felt sick. Anyone that did get sick was told to stay home, and we paid them their full salary while they did, so nobody felt pressured to come into work when sick because they had to pay bills. We made sure everyone was taken care of, and that we all got through it together. We even added employer matched 401Ks in the middle of the pandemic, to ensure people felt appreciated and planned for their future. We did mandate masks while inside of any of our facilities, as that was the best way to prevent spread. Nobody deserves to feel unsafe while at work, so it was also out of respect to their fellow employees. Most of our people in production already wore masks for cGMP reasons, and our production and lab facilities are all positively pressured and HEPA filtered. It worked, as we had no cases of employee-to-employee spread while at the office. We had some spread outside of the office, for a few employees that went to parties against our suggestion. However, then they stayed home and did not bring it back into the office. Because we were open and honest with people, gave them resources to help, and treated them like adults, everyone was very respectful of their colleagues. Looking back, I am not sure we could have done it any better. I think everyone on my team came together and got through it as best we all could. I regret nothing.

Regarding vaccines, I did not feel it was our place to try and mandate health decisions for our employees. We did go over the science with everyone, and tried to ensure everyone was as informed as they could be. I regularly posted updates to my team regarding what was going on, and things to watch out for. I answered any questions anyone had, and listened to people's opinions on the situation. I think many people appreciated that, as it's only natural to not want to be forced or told what to do. However, people do want to be heard and feel informed. Once everyone was educated and informed regarding their options, it was their choice what they did. I know many companies did it differently. However, I think freedom of choice for one's own body should be paramount. If people are treated with respect like human beings, talked to like grownups, and given the available scientific data, they generally make good choices. It should always be their choice, though. I think the end result for us was about as good as it could have been. That's all you can really ask of your people, that they respect their fellow employees and prevent their actions from harming others. You can't argue with the end result, either. No in-office spread and not a single shutdown of operations through the entire pandemic. If there is a way we could have done better, I am not sure what that would be.

Anyway, our job isn't to solve pandemics or make health decisions for people, nor is it to try and force any political or sociological ideals on either our employees or our customers. Our job is to focus on advancing the lab testing and quality control standards of the supplement industry. Everything else is a distraction, so we try to keep our focus on what matters to us as an organization. We have more than enough on our plate just focusing on our main mission, and I hope our customers would respect that stance.