A few weeks ago, my county got slapped with a "high rate of transmission" notice, and my job (Walmart) reinstated masks for everyone, regardless of status.
My team lead went on vacation pretty soon after this. Very upset that the vaxx'd had to remask, since that was her entire reason for it.
While she was gone, you could tell people were fed up. Masks were always below the chin on the floor, and no one wore masks in the back, with many ripping them off as soon as they walked through the associate doors.
Being with a medical exemption, I was provided with a face shield. I wore it once, realized it gave me horrible migraines (a condition I suffer from chronically already), and never wore it on the floor again.
I would keep it near my workstation, but never on me.
With this, I was only ever asked once to put it on, by one of the higher ranking members of management, but even he didnt care subsequent times he saw me.
Anyway. I had 4 days off, starting the day she got back.
When I went in this morning, it was a changed store.
I work the 4am shift, so its a couple hours before the store opened.
No one would wear their mask on the floor while we weren't open.
Yet as soon as I walked in, I saw masks hanging off of many chins. People wearing masks in the back.
At 6am my manager announced over the intercom that we were open, and everyone better "mask up". No one did this while she was gone.
I heard several people loudly complain about the new announcements.
3 times she came up to me, told me I have to wear my dunce gear or I have to go home. I told her the headgear causes migraines and she simply said "its policy." And walked away.
By the third she said she was done "asking" and sending me home, saying that I cant work here if I'm not going to wear a mask, and that if it puts me over points (for automatic termination) than so be it.
So yeah.
Ill be the third person gone this week, with 2 others putting in their notices.
People are tired of this. They aren't taking it anymore.
TL;DR: Mask Nazi comes back from vacation and tanks the entire store's moral, by micromanaging everyones mask wearing, since shes pissy that shes vaxx'd and has to re-wear one.
Massive quitting and firing all over the store ensue.
Edit: Thanks for all the support Pedes.
It's a definite firing as my medical issues have ironically caused me to either miss or go home early a few times, so I was already pretty close to my point limit for automatic firing, and I'm pretty sure she knew, since she just fired another one of my teammates.
I'm happy I stood my ground though, because I've been hearing that many of the ancient employees, who have been there for 20-30+ years, are getting fed up about it, and are planning to quit.
Side note about suing and such, my mother is actually a secretary for a law firm, that specializes in workers comp and other worker related issues, so her boss has already offered to take a look.
Hopefully it all goes well. At the very least, like most places, everywhere has a "Help Wanted" sign. I won't be without a job for long, and God seems to always guide me to where I need to go.
Every single business around me is desperate for workers, plastering help wanted signs everywhere.
On top of that there is a plethora of work from home jobs still.
Walmart is on the road to forcing vaccines on their employees, they've already started on the higher ups.
I refuse to play this game and submit.
And most masks have "something" in them, that cause me to cough horrifically. The plastic makes me sick.
I have savings and options, we shouldnt submit.
OP, right? Good. Sorry to hear fren.
I also suffer migraines, I was given something called Cambia, a powder you put in water when you have the migraine flashers and by the time the pain would start... nothing. I mean, you might feel shaky and like your brain is running wild but no pain. In the meantime, advil extra strength + tylenol extra strength at the first sign actually does a good help.
Now to your OP point, no matter what (legal exceptions excluded, like retirement) make them fire you without cause. Layoff means they can't replace you for some months (6,iirc).
I WOULD have done the same in similar circumstances and similar justifications, BUT I had already taken on a battle with management beforehand and if I took the mask stand as well, they would probably figure it was worth it to cut the fuck off check.
On the factory area, we have had 20+ quit over masking and other silliness, and they have other factories that I'm not aware.
I'm thankful that to date they are not enforcing testing or vaccination, when they do, I'll be gone.
Stay strong, fren.
I've never heard of Cambia, I'll have to check it out, thanks.
I actually already take Naproxin (Advil), and use medical weed, and it actually keeps my migraines in check pretty well. I dont have many flare ups these days, at least, not like before.
Which is why I was so adament against the shield honestly. The fact that it was causing such severe symptoms from something I've managed to calm down from times past, made me really upset.
I tried to explain to her, she didn't care. Told me I cant work there then. Lol okay.
So yes, seems I'll be automatically terminated. I'm looking into my options, but either way, similar to your circumstances, people around there were quitting everyday because of the bullshit.
Its going to crush these companies.
Advil works good, the combination of both, I never expected to work as good as it does, and that Cambia stuff, I've heard the claims before but this was the first one that simply stopped the migraine.
People that don't know just can't know.