I am certain that this post has already been written several times over, but I feel the need to write my own. I don’t know if I’ll post this as I write it, but I need to get the thoughts out of my head or I’ll never be able to get to sleep.
I’m angry. You should be too.
I work in non-essential retail. That is, not-pharmaceuticals and not-food. We sell books, CDs, DVDs, toys, and games. We, at best, provide entertainment for your quarantine, assuming that you don’t already have a large to-be-read pile, plentiful streaming services, and somehow don’t already own a few board games you could entertain yourselves with. It is becoming increasingly apparent that this virus is a Big Deal. Looking at Italy, we can see where we’re headed if something drastic doesn’t change soon. With all the advice pointing towards keeping your distance and/or staying home, my store (along with many others) should have closed for the good of the employees and the customers some time ago. As of this writing, it has not.
My store has reduced its hours of daily operation to nine to coincide with CDC guidelines (a bare-minimum), and further statements insist that they will follow further guidelines as they arise (again, the bare minimum of actions and taking no responsibility for themselves). We were recently informed that if any individual wished to self-quarantine, they would be allowed to do so, their job would be held for their return, and if they have sick or vacation time then they can take it (most of the employees in these stores are part-time and therefore do not qualify for these benefits). If they do not have such paid-time available, they can take unpaid leave. A luxury only available to few. That makes this gesture at best meaningless, and at worst insulting.
The right thing to do in this situation is to close the stores entirely for a time, as several have. We have remained open and we have had a disappointingly high turnout of customers. We have been doing good sales, all things considered. And that means that I and the rest of the staff have been exposed to a huge number of people, some who admit to having recently returned from travel, but are still eager to grab a book and a jigsaw puzzle. As well as the recommended extreme handwashing, several of the staff have taken to wearing gloves while handling cash, but that cannot be kept up regularly enough through an eight-hour shift to be fully effective. At the end of the day, you can’t disinfect a book, and if a customer asks us to help with their e-reader we feel obliged to help regardless of what might be on the device. If customers will not stay away, it is the companies’ civic duty to close the store to help stem the spread of disease.
However, the employees in my store are terrified that the store will close. The company is known to be on relatively hard times and attempting to turn itself around. The assumption among the staff is that if the stores were to close then, unlike stores such as Apple, Urban Outfitters, Patagonia, Sephora, and many others, the employees would receive no compensation and would be left staring at bills that they could not pay. The notion that a company that brings in millions a year cannot afford to support its staff to subsistence levels during a global crisis is bitter enough to swallow to begin with. Yet, it feels worse when the CEO’s internal memo reminds the employees that corporate cares about the customers (the caring about employees seems added as an afterthought), goes on to state that in this trying time routine maintenance will have to be let slide, but then moves to assure the reader that they intend to go ahead with opening new stores and “revitalizing” departments.
In this situation, employers should be closing and supporting the employees that do so much work for low pay to keep the doors open every other day of the year. Failing that, the government needs to step in to support the workers so that stores are not kept open to serve as giant petri dishes. This disease has become a global catastrophe. There have been cases in the US since January. But this pandemic was allowed to continue unchecked for too long. The administration is still doing too little, and for many, it is too late. When people advocated for universal healthcare, circumstances such as this are exactly why. The fact that this administration has yet to state that all costs associated with this virus will be covered is reprehensible.
I am not an at-risk member of society. I am relatively healthy. I am not particularly old. As I am regularly reminded, if I get this virus, I will probably be fine. The people who will not be fine are my relatives, some of my friends, my friend’s relatives, some of the staff at the store I work in, and a large portion of the customers that come into that store. New data suggests that those in my age range (20-40) are more likely to be asymptomatic while still being disease vectors. Today I helped several elderly individuals and a woman who informed me she was pregnant as she was leaving. If I later find out that I have been carrying the virus I will undoubtedly feel guilty. However, I have been put in a position where I have no reasonable choice. I bring in the majority of my household’s income. We have bills to pay. As a part of the management team in the store, I am full-time and have five vacation days to use before the end of May. I also have one of my five sick days left for the year. However, right now I can work. If the store closes or I become actively sick I will no longer be able to work and those six days of pay will be the only lifeline I will have. So I have to save them and keep going to work. I have to keep risking spreading the disease because otherwise, I will face bankruptcy.
It is possible that I may be able to reach out to friends and family to help support my household if I were to choose to stop going to work, or if the store were to close. But I am hesitant to do that for two reasons: 1) that will put an additional strain on those people who are already in similar circumstances, 2) while that option may be available to me, I am in a minority. To reach out for support where others cannot would be an act of privilege for myself. If I stop going to work, but others must continue, then the only person that I am helping is myself. The whole store would need to shut down, or I am only putting an additional strain on the other workers and those supporting me for very little net gain to society.
We need to call on corporations and the government to step up and do the right thing here. Our number one concern has to be the people and not the dollars. A calculation of how many people you can afford to let die should not be a calculation carried out in a developed country (although I am aware that it often is). I hope that this time might be a turning point for our civilization where we begin to value human lives more highly, and can move towards universal healthcare to support people, and away from the notion that people have to earn the right to be alive. I hope. But optimism has been hard to find these days.
I would ask that you take to the streets, but that would probably go against social distancing. Instead, I ask that you contact your representatives and the businesses that you see are unnecessarily open at this time, and urge them to do the right thing for the people they are putting in harm’s way. If nothing else, speak with your wallet, and do not patronize those places that are needlessly still open in the hopes that they can make a few more dollars. Going to these places incentivizes them to stay open, and exposes more employees to the virus when they have no other choice.
I’ve seen many people tout a low death toll rate of 2% as nothing to be concerned about and saying that we are overreacting. That rate was over 20 times that of the annual flu. The most recent data suggests that the rate may be slightly lower than that in the US, but it is still likely to kill over 2million people stateside alone.
I wish that I could end this post on a happier note. But it’s all doom and gloom and that is what has driven me to write this. So I can only reiterate my call-to-action. Ask people to do the right thing. Tell them that this matters to you. Tell them that how they respond to this issue will define how you vote and where you spend your money when this is over. I was depressed about this before. That depression has turned to anger. Get angry.
We can get through this if we can work together to stay apart.