Plague

Life during a pandemic teaches us all sorts of things. We learn which workers are considered essential (generally those who earn the lowest wages). We learn how far six feet really is (thanks to tape lines on the floor at the supermarket). We see how feeble an excuse people need to be racist (some of them don't even need an excuse). We learn how little some people know about health and medicine (somebody please get the Cheeto-in-chief away from microphones). We see which companies are willing to take care of their workers (CVS and Aldi are giving raises/bonuses to current employees and hiring more to keep supply lines open and stores sanitized) ...and which aren't.

The company I work for is one of the ones that isn't taking care of its employees. We're considered essential workers, so we still have to show up to work unless we or someone in our households is symptomatic. We're being forced to take a week of unpaid furlough each, on a rolling schedule. The company has stopped its contributions to our 401(k) retirement funds. Raises that had been in the works are on hold indefinitely. Our "community hire" (a disabled part-time porter) has been laid off.

All of this is being done in the name of keeping the company afloat during the economic downturn associated with the pandemic. But given that other "essential" companies are doing things like suspending executives' salaries to keep their front-line employees fully paid, or making other tweaks to their business models to adjust to the current market without forcing their lowest-paid employees to feel the pinch, it ends up looking like the company is trying to preserve its profits at our expense.

On top of that, we were informed of our first in-house confirmed case of COVID-19 on Friday. The person's name wasn't released, but we're a pretty small crew and only one person has been out sick, so it's obvious who it is. As soon as the announcement was made, operations were brought to a halt, old PPE thrown out, new PPE issued, and we all grabbed Clorox wipes and proceeded to clean every touch-point in the building. I had to get home to feed my animals, so I didn't stay late to finish the job, but I'm certain that operations started back up immediately following the cleaning session, and as far as I know I'll be back to work as usual on Monday.

My personal exposure to this thing is pretty limited, and my physical health is fairly robust, but because I have to be out in the world every day, I do worry about being a vector and spreading the disease to other, more vulnerable people. I would have appreciated some acknowledgement/explanation of the essential-ness of the work we do (we do supply some products that could be critical during an emergency, but for the most part I'm not sure why we're still open) and more effort on the part of upper management to show us what, if anything, they themselves are sacrificing in order to keep the company afloat. I would like to be able to say I work for one of the companies that cares about its workers.

It's a pity I can't.