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.
So, this decision is really bad for reasons that go beyond sick workers. It’s really unpopular to mention but COVID isn’t over, it’s not gone. We just normalized the suffering and shunted the most vulnerable into its path. As one of those vulnerables still trying to survive, masking has been an exhausting situation. I mask, I have to, and antimask sentiment makes it hard to operate in a world that already wishes I wouldn’t. Decisions like this cause harm in wider ways. I wrote an email to In-N-Out Owner/President Lynsi Snyder about this in response to this policy. I don’t think she cares what this policy does, but I’m sharing here for others who may want to understand.
I’m writing to ask you to please reverse your recent decision to ban employees from wearing a mask unless medically exempt. This decision shows not only a complete disregard for the health and safety of your employees and customers, as everyone is affected by disease spread, but is also profoundly ableist and lacking an understanding of current (and historic) context. Requiring employees to not only divulge their medical information to their employers but also openly to the public is a mindset rooted in othering people who are disabled or otherwise medically vulnerable. In general, it’s bad when a marginalized group must publicly declare their status as such, but especially now when people are already struggling to survive an ongoing pandemic amidst the hostility of antimask sentiment. This decision furthers that othering and hostility, making those employees into targets. But this decision doesn’t just impact your employees directly, it feeds into that larger cultural antimask sentiment and perpetuates ableism. This lack of understanding of the impact of your decision is a clear message that it’s not just those employees your company does not value, but all disabled and vulnerable people. Please show your abity to learn and understand the impacts of your decision, as well as your disapproval of ableism, and reverse this decision. Further, I urge you to demonstrate actual value for your employees and customers by adapting to our reality and implementing measures to reduce the spread of covid and other pathogens in your restaurants and other workplaces. This can be achieved through simple measures like improving the ventilation and filtration in buildings, improving sick leave policies, and other actions including, yes, masking by employees.
Thank you Xxx
PS This company push to ignore our current reality and new cultural understanding of disease spread is not just callous, it’s boring. Be better.
We just normalized the suffering and shunted the most vulnerable into its path.
That isn’t what happened. We developed highly effective vaccines that keep you from dying and reduce your chance of serious illness and/or long covid. Hospitalizations for COVID have absolutely cratered faster than cases have. Like, the rule they made is fucking stupid, they deserve to eat shit over it, but you don’t have to completely mischaracterize what we did as a society in pushing back against employers being shitty to their employees.
COVID isn’t the only disease passed by aerosolized droplets. The availability of a COVID vaccine is irrelevant.
My feelings are this: if anyone feels like they should wear a mask, I absolutely want them to wear one. Whether that is for their risk from the public, or their risk to the public, if they think it’s needed, it is needed. Err on the side of caution.
Agreed, particularly on the point of want to wear mask, do so. Let’s take back what freedom means. Also, I work in vaccine development, primarily focused on respiratory diseases for oh these short 20 years. We all get all the recommended vaccines because we understand what that means. About 30% of us still wear masks, and are always allowed to join meetings online instead of in person.
I’m not mischaracterizing I’m illuminating an issue many have overlooked.
Yes, the vaccines are effective against most variants at reducing serious illness and death for many. But they aren’t preventing infection or long term impacts from infection, have waning effectiveness, and there are many for whom they aren’t effective enough or at all (those vulnerables I mentioned). Many are still dying every week and last info we had showed in the US about half of those dying were vaccinated.
This part is mostly a rant-
Covid (and others diseases) disrupts lives and can cause serious medical complications for many, yes even now. Those people’s needs have largely been ignored, now and before covid. We have a better understanding of how disease spread impacts everyone and how we can prevent it. We learned these lessons at the expense of millions of lives and instead of honoring that and implementing changes to better all our lives we’re squabbling over inefficient vaccines that many won’t take. I’m pro vaccines, but they’re currently not a solution to covid.
And? People get sick from other airborne illnesses too, no person or company should ever be able to prevent someone from doing something that protects their body from injury. Banning masks, bathroom breaks, water breaks, etc, it’s all the same shit fucking sandwhich
Weird how nobody gave a shit about that before… hell nobody gives a shit about that now. I can count the number of people ive seen this month wearing a mask with 1 hand. I see hundreds of people a day and the only people that ive seen wearing masks wear it under their chin anyways. Tired of all this virtue signaling, nobody fucking cares
Yes, nobody cares about disabled and vulnerables lives. So much that the only people that care are internet kids who say to boycott a place they probably dont even go to.
Im bothered that this is such a stupid thing to get your dick caught in a blender for. Its as stupid as boycotting a beer company for lgbt support or boycotting Twitter for having Elon as a CEO. Its all childish fugazi anger directed at pointless bullshit
So wait, are you telling me when the government made you wear a mask in public spaces that was infringing on your freedoms and it was okay for you to get your dick in a blender, but when in and out tells people they can’t wear masks, it’s childish fugazin anger directed at pointless bullshit? Why don’t you mushroom heads ever stop to think how stupid you sound crying about your freedoms and crying about other people having normal discussions about their freedoms. Go free yourself.
Your being downvoted… but if we were actually worried about everyone’s health, we’d shut down all fast food and ban sugary sodas. Health only matters when it doesn’t affect the $$$ flow of the rich.
They’re being downvoted because it’s not a good comparison that’s relevant to this topic, it’s a distraction and a tired, oft repeated one to boot. Poor diet is not a communicable airborne disease.
Everyone here is getting their panties in a bunch about protecting people from covid when i could die just as easily from the flu. Nobody is making a case about wearing a mask because of the flu though, its about covid. Why are you guys trying to force this.
I don’t think you, or anyone regardless of perceived health, should die to flu either. Again, why do you want a society in which your life has no value?
Posting what I said on this in another thread-
So, this decision is really bad for reasons that go beyond sick workers. It’s really unpopular to mention but COVID isn’t over, it’s not gone. We just normalized the suffering and shunted the most vulnerable into its path. As one of those vulnerables still trying to survive, masking has been an exhausting situation. I mask, I have to, and antimask sentiment makes it hard to operate in a world that already wishes I wouldn’t. Decisions like this cause harm in wider ways. I wrote an email to In-N-Out Owner/President Lynsi Snyder about this in response to this policy. I don’t think she cares what this policy does, but I’m sharing here for others who may want to understand.
I’m writing to ask you to please reverse your recent decision to ban employees from wearing a mask unless medically exempt. This decision shows not only a complete disregard for the health and safety of your employees and customers, as everyone is affected by disease spread, but is also profoundly ableist and lacking an understanding of current (and historic) context. Requiring employees to not only divulge their medical information to their employers but also openly to the public is a mindset rooted in othering people who are disabled or otherwise medically vulnerable. In general, it’s bad when a marginalized group must publicly declare their status as such, but especially now when people are already struggling to survive an ongoing pandemic amidst the hostility of antimask sentiment. This decision furthers that othering and hostility, making those employees into targets. But this decision doesn’t just impact your employees directly, it feeds into that larger cultural antimask sentiment and perpetuates ableism. This lack of understanding of the impact of your decision is a clear message that it’s not just those employees your company does not value, but all disabled and vulnerable people. Please show your abity to learn and understand the impacts of your decision, as well as your disapproval of ableism, and reverse this decision. Further, I urge you to demonstrate actual value for your employees and customers by adapting to our reality and implementing measures to reduce the spread of covid and other pathogens in your restaurants and other workplaces. This can be achieved through simple measures like improving the ventilation and filtration in buildings, improving sick leave policies, and other actions including, yes, masking by employees.
Thank you Xxx
PS This company push to ignore our current reality and new cultural understanding of disease spread is not just callous, it’s boring. Be better.
That isn’t what happened. We developed highly effective vaccines that keep you from dying and reduce your chance of serious illness and/or long covid. Hospitalizations for COVID have absolutely cratered faster than cases have. Like, the rule they made is fucking stupid, they deserve to eat shit over it, but you don’t have to completely mischaracterize what we did as a society in pushing back against employers being shitty to their employees.
COVID isn’t the only disease passed by aerosolized droplets. The availability of a COVID vaccine is irrelevant.
My feelings are this: if anyone feels like they should wear a mask, I absolutely want them to wear one. Whether that is for their risk from the public, or their risk to the public, if they think it’s needed, it is needed. Err on the side of caution.
Agreed, particularly on the point of want to wear mask, do so. Let’s take back what freedom means. Also, I work in vaccine development, primarily focused on respiratory diseases for oh these short 20 years. We all get all the recommended vaccines because we understand what that means. About 30% of us still wear masks, and are always allowed to join meetings online instead of in person.
I’m not mischaracterizing I’m illuminating an issue many have overlooked. Yes, the vaccines are effective against most variants at reducing serious illness and death for many. But they aren’t preventing infection or long term impacts from infection, have waning effectiveness, and there are many for whom they aren’t effective enough or at all (those vulnerables I mentioned). Many are still dying every week and last info we had showed in the US about half of those dying were vaccinated.
This part is mostly a rant- Covid (and others diseases) disrupts lives and can cause serious medical complications for many, yes even now. Those people’s needs have largely been ignored, now and before covid. We have a better understanding of how disease spread impacts everyone and how we can prevent it. We learned these lessons at the expense of millions of lives and instead of honoring that and implementing changes to better all our lives we’re squabbling over inefficient vaccines that many won’t take. I’m pro vaccines, but they’re currently not a solution to covid.
What if the vaccine isn’t effective with your body? You’re not allowed to protect yourself?
Of course you are.
CDC stopped reporting on covid in May. More people are dying from clogged arteries than covid right now.
And? People get sick from other airborne illnesses too, no person or company should ever be able to prevent someone from doing something that protects their body from injury. Banning masks, bathroom breaks, water breaks, etc, it’s all the same shit fucking sandwhich
Weird how nobody gave a shit about that before… hell nobody gives a shit about that now. I can count the number of people ive seen this month wearing a mask with 1 hand. I see hundreds of people a day and the only people that ive seen wearing masks wear it under their chin anyways. Tired of all this virtue signaling, nobody fucking cares
Yea, no one cares about disabled and vulnerable lives. That’s the point, that’s what we’re trying to convey. Thanks for clarifying for yourself.
Yes, nobody cares about disabled and vulnerables lives. So much that the only people that care are internet kids who say to boycott a place they probably dont even go to.
Why are you pro an environment in which your life isn’t valued, and so bothered by people who aren’t?
Im bothered that this is such a stupid thing to get your dick caught in a blender for. Its as stupid as boycotting a beer company for lgbt support or boycotting Twitter for having Elon as a CEO. Its all childish fugazi anger directed at pointless bullshit
So wait, are you telling me when the government made you wear a mask in public spaces that was infringing on your freedoms and it was okay for you to get your dick in a blender, but when in and out tells people they can’t wear masks, it’s childish fugazin anger directed at pointless bullshit? Why don’t you mushroom heads ever stop to think how stupid you sound crying about your freedoms and crying about other people having normal discussions about their freedoms. Go free yourself.
Why do you feel this isn’t a worthy issue to care about?
Everyone should stop feeding this troll. Just add him to your block list and move on. He’s not worth your time or anger.
User banned and entire chain removed by mods…
So don’t bother banning, because the moral police will show up and do it for you. Can’t be having any wrongthink here.
Not a good sign… Is there some other place for displaced redditors that doesn’t include censorship?
(I’m not implying jack shit about the actual topic, I’m commenting strictly on the grooming of content)
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Your being downvoted… but if we were actually worried about everyone’s health, we’d shut down all fast food and ban sugary sodas. Health only matters when it doesn’t affect the $$$ flow of the rich.
They’re being downvoted because it’s not a good comparison that’s relevant to this topic, it’s a distraction and a tired, oft repeated one to boot. Poor diet is not a communicable airborne disease.
Everyone here is getting their panties in a bunch about protecting people from covid when i could die just as easily from the flu. Nobody is making a case about wearing a mask because of the flu though, its about covid. Why are you guys trying to force this.
I don’t think you, or anyone regardless of perceived health, should die to flu either. Again, why do you want a society in which your life has no value?