Further Updates

As an update from yesterday's post.
Apparently the reason why we're now possibly permanently needing to quarantine our hamsters for two weeks is because there have been complaints about hamsters getting sick with a respiratory illness around 6-7 days after coming into other stores, which has been causing issues with customers who purchase them and then have the hamster come down sick a few days after they bring their new pet home.

However....my work hasn't really seen like...any of this? Usually our major concern with hamsters is Wet Tail. It's rare that we see respiratory issues with them....

But it seems like some stores in other parts of the country have had this issue. Which points to one vendor (as corporate goes through multiple different vendors to get animals into their store depending on where in country the store is located) being the main culprit of this respiratory issue.

But instead of just like...investigating that one vendor and maybe only having stores getting animals from that vendor isolating animals for the two week period....

Corporate decided to make it a store wide thing.
So even though we aren't seeing any issues with respiratory issues here...because somewhere else someone is....we now have to isolate our hamsters for two weeks. Gah.

This...this is gonna get annoying. So annoying. 
I really hope it's a temporary change and it will go away...especially when the Christmas Season approaches because there's no way I'll be able to keep christmas stock in that backroom if I have to hold the hamsters for two weeks. It will be a nightmare.

In any case.
Change of subject.
We also have updated like...measures that are being taken to make sure that my coworkers and I can stay safe at work.

One was that work provided us our own masks. So woot! They're rather comfy too so that's nice though the masks still have their irritating moments. It's definitely not fun to wear it for 8 hours straight. It gets all hot. 

But we also installed...I think they're called 'sneeze guards' ??? on our registers. 
Basically clear plastic barriers with holes cut out of the bottom so that customers can place their stuff on the counter, but they can't breathe directly on the cashier because the clear plastic above prevents that from happening.

I have to say...that's rather weird the one time I jumped on register to back up. 
Though the cashiers did mention that they're less stressed having the barriers up which makes sense as it keeps customers from getting too close. So yah...health and safety all around.

But another change is one that I don't...quite get?
Apparently this weekend we have to start 'self checking' ourselves at home to see if we have any symptoms of the Virus.
Aka before we come to work we basically have to run down a check list of symptoms and see if we have any combination of them.
And if we don't. We can come to work.
If we do we need to contact a manager to let them know and then can't come into work until we see a doctor??? *shakes head*
And when we do come into work after doing this 'self check' the manager has to ask us "Are you okay?" and we basically have to say "Yes I'm healthy" or "Well I had a fever and chills today but I'm good otherwise." And like...if we show symptoms...we get sent back home.
And if we develop symptoms...we get sent back home.

...Honestly I think it may be a bit more...productive if work just provided us with thermometers so we can just take everyone's temperature when they come in and if they have a fever they go home. 

But yah....I'm told the next couple of weeks is gonna be the 'low point' for us. 
But after that point we should have things improve. We should be able to get more hours into the store.
Which will hopefully first allow us to be able to get back to full time hours.
But then will allow us to hire back more of my coworkers so that we can have more coverage on the floor because I am rather tired of working on a skeleton crew. 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi