Bloomberg Industry journalists concerned after positive cases

Bloomberg Industry Group journalists are concerned about the company’s return to office policy after at least six positive cases of COVID have been reported, reports Jeremy Barr of The Washington Post.

Barr reports, “Since the mandate to return to the office two or three times per week began on July 26, Bloomberg Industry Group has reported internally that six employees have tested positive for the virus, according to an internal resource viewed by The Post. Three cases were reported on Tuesday alone. Employees who spoke to The Post said they believe that the actual number of positive cases is higher because the company’s count excludes external test results, done outside the company’s process.

“Staffers ‘are very, very concerned about their children, about their family, about the delta variant, all of those things,’ said a Bloomberg Industry Group journalist who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retribution. Some wore black clothing on their first day back in the office as a form of protest.

“Particularly concerning to some is the company’s decision not to mandate vaccination for office workers, though a Bloomberg Industry Group spokesperson, David Peikin, said that 95 percent of employees are vaccinated. Employees in D.C. are required to wear masks due to the city’s recently reinstituted mandate, while employees at Bloomberg’s Virginia offices must wear masks when walking around, but not when sitting at their desks.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.