*Exhales*
Soo....I got threatened and called a communist today at work.
Which is a first. Considering the entire pandemic....I'm honestly surprised I wasn't threatened earlier.
I mean...I've had people threaten lawsuits.
But this was like an actually physical threat. ...In a way. "You better watch out or---" was what I heard...though didn't hear the end of whatever that sentence was supposed to be. Nor did I actively hear these customers call me and my coworkers communists....guess I blocked that particular one out in the stress of the moment of trying to hold firm on our 'wear a mask' stance.
It started when we had a family approach the fish wall. The parents and their two young kids.
None of them wearing masks.
And per usual I asked if the adults had masks that they could wear since masks are required in the store.
-Which honestly, it would be nice if the customers could Follow. Directions. For. Once. and READ the SIX signs we have on our doors and at the front of the store saying that MASKS ARE REQUIRED to be worn in the store.
But you know...cusotmers can't read.
So these anti-maskers walk in and ignore all those nice pretty signs and then proceed to get offended over us asking them to wear masks.
Like...it's a simple thing. Just like the "No Shirts No Shoes No Service" ideology, it's not that hard to also include Masks in that. No Mask. No Service.
Honestly...I do believe that if the mask stance hadn't become such a politicized issue then we wouldn't be having this problem with customers.
It would be nice if people would actually listen to the medical experts.....
In any case.
The man's response to "Do you have a mask, as they are required to be worn in the store." was to say "Not today!"
It was said in such a way to mean 'Oh you have a policy to require masks? Well that policy doesn't apply today. To us."
Ha. No. That's not how policies work. No exceptions.
So I do the usual spiel. "If you cannot wear a mask we do offer curbside service for you, but you are required per policy to wear a mask within the store."
And as expected the customers did not like that.
They used the typical excuses. "We don't have to wear masks where we're from! The United States doesn't have a mask law!"
Which...I don't know what rock you people have been living under the past couple of months, but my state has had a mask mandate in effect since November. Which means that all individuals need to be wearing masks within public buildings or risk being fined.
Which is why we've gone more hardcore on enforcing people wearing masks in the store, because we do not want our business to be fined for anti-maskers refusing to wear masks inside.
Beyond that...corporate has required all it's customers and workers to wear masks on the premises since like...August? Soooo unless you haven't been to our store recently...this isn't a new policy.
And of course the customers were like "We don't have to wear masks anywhere else!"
Which...again what rock have you been living under? Because the ENTIRE STATE should be enforcing the wearing of masks in public areas.
Though I am aware that the more rural places tend to be more lax in such regards as they don't think it's that big of an issue in smaller populated areas.
But like...my county has the 2nd highest rate of transmission. Last I checked 1 in 76 people have tested positive. And like my state just was ranked #4 in having a high transmission rate where 30% of the people getting tested are testing positive.
So yah...when you're entering like the 2nd most populous county in the state....you better be wearing your mask.
Of course...a coworker of mine pointed out later on that apparently my store is the only store to actively approach customers about wearing masks? So, if that's true, maybe that's why the customers think they can get away with not wearing masks anywhere? Who knows.
In any case, I informed the customers of the State Mask Mandate. And then also went a step further and informed them that as a privately owned business we can set and enforce policies for the safety of our workers and our customers.
Which the woman was like "If a woman can't have a say on whether or not she can have an abortion then you can't control whether or not we wear masks!"
......seriously?
Those are like...two completely different fields of discourse. They shouldn't equal each other or even apply to each other in any way.
But yah. The customers in their mock outrage were like "We're never spending another dime in your stores again!"
Which fine. Whatever. Do you honestly think us workers care? No. We would much rather have your prissy self get far far away from us than have to deal with you potentially being a carrier of the virus and infecting us all.
And my coworker who was next to me was like "We just work here." Like we have no say over policies and what we can and can't enforce.
The customers seemed to think otherwise though. They think us workers should take more proactive action and stand up against the mask mandate and such.
Like...lady...sir....you do realize that we want to KEEP our jobs right? If we were looking to get fired or let go then yah sure we could refuse to enforce the mandate.
but we kinda want to keep our jobs. And after a year of having to deal with the crap the anti-maskers have put us through along with the overall stress of the pandemic and wondering when we'll end up catching the virus because of how many people we have to interact with....our stance is a bit more "Wear the Mask" then not.
You aren't making friends anywhere in the retail world by refusing to wear a mask. No. You're making enemies. Because you're publicly stating that you do not care about the health and welfare of anyone else but yourself. If you don't care about our safety? Why should we help you? If you don't care about our safety? Why would we want to deal with you?
So yah.
None of us at my job care if you never enter our stores again. We're perfectly happy to have one less customer to deal with. Especially if they're an anti-masker.
In any case. The customers decided to take their business elsewhere after insulting us a bit more -calling us communits because of our mask policy- and then leaving with the parting shot of 'you better watch out'
*exhales* Like...how pathetic do you have to be to threaten a RETAIL worker? Again. We don't control policy. We just work in the building.
Yah.
It wasn't a fun day.
Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
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