On may 4th, the state of Missouri began to ease stay-at-home restrictions. Along with this, many businesses opened their doors back up, and many of their employees got to go back to work. I was one such employee.
I worked for a major retailer in Missouri. When the state shut down, I was put on furlough. Since I only worked part-time, I thought I would not be called back to work until mid-June at the earliest.
Instead, I got a call, from my employer, on April 30th saying that I would start working again on opening day. At first, I was concerned because I live in an immunocompromised household and can't risk bringing the common cold or the flu back, let alone COVID-19. Ultimately, however, I decided I would go and see if I could work safely.
When I went to work on the 4th, I actually felt ok with going back. The store posted suggested social distancing guidelines throughout the store, and even though the majority of the customers did not follow those guidelines, the store had at least put in some regulations to keep us employees safe.
The store meticulously counted how many people were in the building and made sure to have a limited number of customers and employees in the building. The store also required employees to wear facemasks, and even provided some for those that didn't bring their own. To top it all off, the store put plexiglass shields up at the cash registers, which I personally liked as a cashier.
All in all, I was actually quite pleased with the precautions the store was taking to protect its employees. But as it turned out, Governor Parson had showed up to the store that day and my employer just wanted to make a good impression of the store because things changed the next day.
On the second day, the store encouraged facemasks, but no longer required them. The store also did not provide hand sanitizer for its employees, which was rather infuriating considering it did have sanitizer available for customers. The store also had so few employees on duty, that we became overwhelmed with the large number of customers we had.
At the end of the day, I no longer felt that the store was trying to keep its employees safe, and was only trying to take advantage of a customer base that was desperate to leave their houses. To make matters worse, the store was not requiring customers to do their part in social distancing, although to the store's credit, most of the customers I interacted with over the course of two days though COVID-19 either didn't exist or as a government conspiracy of some sort.
On what would have been my third day back, I made the decision to quit my job. The health and safety of myself and my family is more important to me than having a job. It is especially more important to me than working for an employer that does not consider the health and safety of its employees.
