I don’t care if you think everyone should be wearing masks.
I don’t care if you think masks are useless.
I don’t care if you think the pandemic is going to kill us all.
I don’t care if you think it’s all a hoax.
You know what I care about?
The lowly retail employee who went from being vilified as a minimum wage drone to applauded as an essential worker in the space of a week. The cashier who got told they were putting their life on the line so that people could buy something. The sales floor employee who got told they were probably going to get sick so that people could buy something. The retail employee who spent 4 months getting a minimum “hazard bonus” for working double shifts to try to keep the store open while the rest of the world lost their collective brains.
The slightly simple greeter who gets assholes yelling at him because we dare to have signs up spelling out the states facial covering mandate.
The service desk worker who has assholes yelling at her because we don’t kick out someone who’s not wearing a mask.
The sales floor employee who’s getting yelled at multiple times a days because “why the fuck aren’t you carrying bird seed any more?!” (seriously, bird seed, I’ve had more pissed off people over the lack of bird seed than anything else this past week)
The specialty department supervisor who’s almost old enough to be MY mother who’s been doing this her whole life who walked off the sales floor in tears after dealing with that one last asshole on the sales floor last week.
It’s not the fault of anyone in the store that we’re out of what you want to buy. We’re stocking out onto the shelves every single god damned thing we can find that even kinda sorta fits. And the company is using every bit of their pretty massive buying power to try to get us stuff to put onto the shelves.
It’s not the fault of anyone in the store that the state not only wrote up a facial covering mandate but has started fining stores for each unmasked person they find in the store.
I suppose it might be our fault for not turning away people who aren’t wearing masks, but since we carry some pretty essential supplies the company has decided they’re not going to do that. And frankly if you want to come stand at our door and try to stop that big ass angry dude from coming in without a mask then feel free. Frankly I’m not paid enough, and neither is anyone else in the store.
If you want to bitch about something the company might actually be able to control feel free to take it up with the corporate office.
If you want to bitch about the politics of it feel free to take it up with your local politicians.
Don’t take it out on the people who’re way to massively overworked and underpaid and who don’t have any control over it anyway.
(and yes, all the described incidents of asshole customers have all happened, either to me personally, or where I could see them happen to a co-worker. I seriously have no idea how in hell this country made it through the last few months without some kid working their first retail job losing it completely and going postal on customers, I really don’t.)
Depends on how you see things I suppose. One could contend that “scabs” are working for corporations, which are deemed “essential” by the elected representatives of government. While the independently owned small businesses are shut down as “non-essential”. If the scabs were to quit or strike, show some type of solidarity with their fellow countrymen, we could establish that all businesses are essential for the well being of our families, our communities and our country.
With the closure of small businesses, limited travel and mandatory quarantines, the tax base has taken a beating. Government employees from top down should suffer the same monetary reduction as the rest of the citizenry. A decrease in salaries, proportional to the reduction in tax revenue on a state by state basis.
incentive our .gov employees to find alternate solutions.
I think most of us who are likely to be reading here agree the closure was BS.
But if all those people who’d been working those jobs HAD just up and quit or otherwise refused to work what do you REALLY think would have happened? Maybe the .GOV would have been convinced to reopen things sooner. Or maybe everyone who’d just refused to work would have been denied unemployment and been crucified by the media as lazy asses, and the companies would have found a way to bring in temp workers to fill the slots (cause there’s always someone who’ll do things for a paycheck). And really, its not like those closures are going to affect the high and mighty anyway, they can always find someone to sell them what they want. And at least here I know of several small businesses in the same general field (and other “essential” fields) as my employer who stayed open and made money hand over fist just like my store did while working their asses off just as hard. And dealing just as asshole-ish customers.
The asshole customers are not in anyway restricted to shopping at big mega corporations either. They’re here verbally, and even physically, assaulting the teenagers working walk up ice cream stands at small restaurants. Verbally and physically assaulting employees at locally owned hardware stores. And my comments apply to all such employees at all such stores, big and small.
Ruth,
As a person that always carries a firearm, I am the living example of “an armed society is a polite society.” I also never wear a mask, and if stopped at the door will just have a quiet discussion with a person at the door before walking in if necessary. Have your COVID belief, but don’t be assholes.
And thats really where I am. I don’t care where your beliefs on the subject are. I just want people stay polite and stop taking it out on the folks who’ve worked their asses off for the last 4 months trying to keep stores open.
I will say, here in Upstate NY, many many businesses aren’t hard core enforcing the mask requirement, and I know of several smaller businesses that are only doing so after they got slapped with several thousand dollars in fines for having customers in the store without masks. There are exceptions, but really, politeness counts.
I wear a mask, and have been wearing a mask, not because it’s mandated by government (it isn’t here – although highly encouraged and some stores now require it), but just because I’m doing my part to help protect those essential employees. And, I’m helping protect those health care workers that still have to go out and get their essentials and still return to work with those that are vulnerable (elderly, sick etc).
People are losing their minds because they don’t want to wear a mask for 20 minutes while in a store, while those essential employees have to wear a mask all day. I honestly believe if mask wearing was banned, those same people would piss and moan about losing their “freedom” to wear a mask.
I am still (believe it) on the fence about it all. Sometimes I feel a bit like a sheep in the herd of followers. I wear a mask, and LOVE taking it off. I sometimes put it on and sometimes don’t. I feel caught in the middle somehow with all the information out there. Want to be Loved your rant, it fired me up… but still doesn’t help me figure it out.
locked outin colorado~GT
I don’t have a good answer for you the mask vs no mask debate. I have serious doubts as to the effectiveness of most of the masks I see on a daily basis, even without taking into account how people wear them (noses out, touching them constantly, taking them off and on, and so on). If you’re wearing a proper mask, and wearing it properly, it may well make a difference. And if you’re in the at-risk category then I hope you’re seriously considering that. But I think that forcing the general public into them is only going to make things worse in the long run.
Personally, when I’m not on the clock, I do wear a mask when inside a store. NY is fining stores if they get caught with a customer without a mask (and from what I saw they aren’t asking the customer if they have a medical exemption issue either!), $1000 for each un-masked customer! That could break many of the smaller stores, and I won’t be party to that. But we had a small immediate family only birthday party for my nephew a couple weeks ago, and none of us were bothered to wear masks either.