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.
Wearing a mask in the construction industry, especially on sweltering summer days, is akin to water-boarding. How fukking stupid. A crisis actor or two passing out and having the paramedics arrive, would end their reckless endangerment. This by the way is a law that should be pressed, in a civil lawsuit.
I recently helped a friend move. He had some heavy machinery that had to be trucked to his new location. To save some money, he hired College Movers. This company required their movers to be masked. I personally told the one mover to remove his mask, but he said he couldn't because of company policy. As he was working, I could see the sweat dripping off his mask. It was saturated in sweat. Again, I told him to remove it. This time he ignored me. After exerting a lot of effort to move a piece of machinery, I witnessed him waver and stumble. I stopped him right there. And explained to him, he needed to either remove himself from the job, or remove the fukking mask. This time I yelled at him and explained the damage he was causing to his heart and brain from the mask. A lack of air and breathing in his own exhale is damning. He finally took the mask off. I told him his company's policy was wrong and no better than Gitmo water-boarding torture.
Thanks for sharing your story!
I just want to say what a wonderful thing you’ve done.
If he was college-age is probably doing as he’s told and didn’t know any better.
They really do need adult to look after them I think it’s really good that you cared about him to protect his health. This is the kindness and love we need in this world. 🥰
You probably started the whole read pilling process by doing this too!
Thanks. I saw it in his eyes.... and it wasn't good. I've been spurned and ignored so many times, just being able to help someone makes all the other failures less biting.
Keep doing this. So kind