The California-based burger chain plans to ban face masks on employees in five of the seven states in which it operates, citing the importance of staff "smiles" for customers.
  • Odelay42@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 year ago

    This is an absolutely ludicrous policy.

    Imagine a company banning their employees from washing their hands or wearing hair nets?

    The only possible reason they could have to do this is an attempt to appeal to moronic conservatives.

    Do they realize that workers in food factories have been wearing masks for decades?

  • Ashyr@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    This policy is obviously insane and, I hope, legally challengeable. That everyone is acting like this will cause all the customers to die is alao absurd. I live in a pretty liberal area of the country and basically no one is wearing masks anywhere.

    I went to in-n-out yesterday and literally no one there had masks, customers or employees.

    My wife and I ate in the car as per usual, but I know full well that we’re some of the last holdouts.

    • DonnieNarco@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 year ago

      Curious, why are you still a holdout? Seems nearly everyone has accepted this isn’t as bad as it once was and will never go away…

      • Ashyr@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        1 year ago

        A variety of reasons really:

        I got it very early, back in March 2020 and had severe long covid from it. I had trouble just breathing for the following year and moderate aphasia for nearly three years. I still have mild aphasia and, as a professional communicator, it’s been emotionally devastating.

        I know the current strains don’t cross the blood brain barrier as easily as the earliest strains, but the idea of going back down that road doesn’t sound terribly appealing.

        My wife was recently diagnosed with a congenital condition and covid could give her a permanent disability or even kill her. We’re consulting with doctors, but we’re still very much in the uncertainty phase.

        Finally, a friend of ours, who’s been nearly as cautious as we are, recently got pressured into unmasking at a corporate retreat, got covid and now has (permanent?) heart damage. We all know it’s a fluke and just very bad luck, but it’s no less traumatizing for her or her family.

        There will almost certainly be a time in the near future where we no longer mask for basic activities. We watch things like excess deaths, wastewater analysis and hospitalizations as closely as possible and the situation is clearly improving.

        That said, every war has a final victim, and we have no intention of being that person. For now, masking is physically easy, we have a social circle that we trust and honestly don’t miss a lot of the excesses we’ve stepped away from.

        • BagelEmbezzler@lemmy.world
          0·
          1 year ago

          Where do you find those metrics you’re following? I’m also hesitant to drop all precautions as I don’t think my mental health could take an extended bout of brain fog. I’m a bit of a hermit anyway, and like you said, masking is easy.

          I hardly see masks in public at all anymore, though, so I’m feeling unsure about how to tell if everybody’s just acting like it’s over when it isn’t, or if I’m holding out way longer than necessary.