I co-run a startup radio station. We have a half-time contractor that we were hoping to gently let go in April, after a big event next week. The event is now cancelled due to C0VlD-19 concerns (and ban on gatherings over 250). This contractor is great, we like her, but she no longer has the skillset we need to grow.
BUT We now we have ethical concerns about letting someone go when the city is on lockdown, and the space we're in which has revenue revolving around events, advertising for events, and music performances, is suffering major blows due to C0VlD-19.
We can pivot our income streams (providing livestreams for events without an audience, emergency funding from arts foundations, etc) but this person doesn't have the skillset to serve us now. Other people on staff do, if we had the income to support greater hours for them. But we're down over $30K in projected revenue in just the next month, and we only have ~3 months runway and we still need to keep (several) radio signals on air 24/7 or we get massive fines from the FCC.
Advice for how to handle this situation? Do we just try to get her to do the work we need to do to pivot? Is it wildly unethical to cut someone's main source of income when literally no one is hiring? I wasn't a business owner, or even a manager, in the last recession, so I didn't have to make these ethical calls. This feels unprecedented beyond just "the economy is contracting". Help.
BUT We now we have ethical concerns about letting someone go when the city is on lockdown, and the space we're in which has revenue revolving around events, advertising for events, and music performances, is suffering major blows due to C0VlD-19.
We can pivot our income streams (providing livestreams for events without an audience, emergency funding from arts foundations, etc) but this person doesn't have the skillset to serve us now. Other people on staff do, if we had the income to support greater hours for them. But we're down over $30K in projected revenue in just the next month, and we only have ~3 months runway and we still need to keep (several) radio signals on air 24/7 or we get massive fines from the FCC.
Advice for how to handle this situation? Do we just try to get her to do the work we need to do to pivot? Is it wildly unethical to cut someone's main source of income when literally no one is hiring? I wasn't a business owner, or even a manager, in the last recession, so I didn't have to make these ethical calls. This feels unprecedented beyond just "the economy is contracting". Help.
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