It is recommended that kids two and under not wear masks (underdeveloped lungs, risk of suffocation). That isn't an invitation to expose kids to the virus. Nor does it mean that they're immune. But turn a corner and there goes a baby, exposed. I explained to one woman, who was shopping with two kids too young to wear masks and another adult, that she might want to come up with a plan that doesn't involve exposing them. (One adult, such as the one standing next to you, could watch the kids while the other shops?) She walked away before I'd finished, saying: "No worries!" I called after her: "It is a worry, though." Global pandemic is a worry. The absence of leadership is a worry. You are the worry.
Every day, people refuse to do this correctly. And to engage those who refuse to do this correctly is to come face to face with, to use a word I try not to reach for hastily, stupidity. Pure numbing stupidity.
A man in his 60s went by wearing his mask half down, only covering his mouth. I walked after him and said: "Excuse me, you need to have your mask over your nose too." He kept moving, gesturing near his face. I continued after him and repeated myself. He said: "What? You're going to follow me all over the store? Get the fuck away from me." If I had the authority, I would have ordered his crotchety ass out right there, where he'd be safe from being followed and we'd be safe from him. Unfortunately I don't and management only steps in if someone is practically flaunting his or her maskless face.
Technically, one could lie and claim a respiratory ailment to avoid wearing a mask at all. We're not allowed to verify it. Study the text of the government order and one can find other holes. For instance, we're not allowed to turn customers away because we are essential. We provide alternatives for shopping in the store but nothing says the customer has to make use of them. With little enforcement, we're supposed to rely on the general public following the order on good faith. It's a hazardous job not just because we have more contact with people. It's hazardous because we're forced into contact with those who can't be bothered to follow the order and won't be stopped.
A woman had her mask down. I told her to put it fully on. She complied. Later, I noticed she had her mask down again. I told her again: put it fully on. Later still, I noticed she had her mask down again. A woman with her asked me a question. I answered and told the other woman again to put her mask fully on. As I turned my back on them, the woman asked me another question. I turned around. Her companion HAD HER MASK DOWN.
Directional arrows, large stickers for guiding foot traffic and minimizing the instances in which people are walking in tight spaces toward each other, have been placed through the store. It almost goes without saying that no one follows them. Except maybe by coincidence.
Coworkers, who one would expect should care the most, are no better about exercising caution and obeying the rules, even when receiving something called "hazard pay." [Editor's note: though the job is no less hazardous, we've arbitrarily ceased to receive hazard pay.] I asked one manager about how to deal with a couple who brings a baby in and, with a shrug, he said, hey, if they want their kid to catch the virus.... As if to catch the virus is a problem for the individual only. In other words, months into the crisis, a man in charge of the day-to-day operations of the store doesn't seem to understand how a virus works. But every manager lets people get away with taking off the mask basically whenever they feel like it. And people gather for long stretches of time in our narrow breakroom without masks on. At the bottom of the stairs, in front of our sign-in keypad and the door, three people were chatting without masks on. I remained standing at the top of the stairs, waiting. Noticing me, they laughed to themselves as if to say: Here comes the killjoy, who takes this seriously. Another time I stopped and asked a coworker in the receiving area directly why he had his mask off. As coworkers passed back and forth next to us, he explained that he likes to have it off when he's by himself. I blinked. My bin and I moved on. I thought: Let's go, bin. You don't need to see this. Mask still off, he turned to speak to a manager, who also had her mask off and said: "He's the worst." A coworker, a kid, basically, his mask off, as usual, huddled in a group of three or four, wiped his nose on his hand as he speculated aloud about whether I'm an asshole or a retard. A prerecorded message intoned throughout the store, thanking all our team members.
The emergency arrives, the moment demands good sense, and a common sight is a shrug or what amounts to a shrug.
So I lasted a week trying to enforce the rules on my own. My arm wasn't broken, nor was I murdered for my trouble. I'm sorry to say I relied more on sharpness of tone, even rudeness (I don't ask, I don't say please, I don't say thank you because why should I?) than on a good cutting remark. (And again: I can't choose the best option, the most sensible and satisfying, booting someone into another dimension.) In my defense: Because they tend to go berserk when told to obey a life-saving government order, I can hardly get a sentence out. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't care less about angering anyone. With any luck, I angered them enough that they'll never come back. But facts and clever lines are wasted on blockheads who defend themselves with fiery nonsense and fatuities. And there isn't enough energy to deal with them all, every hour of every day, and do my job.
Now I only silently, though pointedly, observe the rules. Customers and coworkers give me strange or affronted looks as I stand what I estimate to be six feet apart, as a prerecorded message intones throughout the store asking everyone to stay six feet apart.
A fat man, mask pulled down, in keeping with our theme, yaks on his cell phone: "Ha! New Jersey will kill you before the coronavirus does!" Well, the state can take pride in recognizing the danger relatively early and attempting to respond adequately. As for the US as a whole, number one in infections, number one in deaths. The polls claim that most people in our country know this and what it means. As I take several steps back from yet another customer who stops a foot away from me and takes off his mask to ask me a question, I think: Do they?
