We'd started hearing reports from our office in China about a month before mainstream media started tickling the fears of US citizens. People were getting sick. Masks were running out. We were actually shipping masks from our corporate office, to our China location, because they couldn't buy them anywhere. It was clear that a highly contagious virus was spreading and that until they dropped, people were working through it, amongst their co-workers. We heard more from people in medical communities, warning of the dangers and the need to distance ourselves from others, to make sure that we not touch our faces, and clean our hands often. Our feds were downplaying the severity of the situation in the beginning. Our executives were traveling, ignoring warnings, and returning to work without concern for the possibility that even if they never exhibit symptoms, they could be hosting the virus that could potentially kill employees that are high-risk, or the family members that the healthier employees would eventually spread it to. Illnesses and deaths were being shunned as media hype by upper management, even though one executive stopped coming to the office. And then it happened... The governor ordered citizens to shelter in place. SNAP. Our CEO flippantly announced that we had no choice but to comply at our corporate office, as we are not an essential business. His opinions, he said, would be kept to himself, but it was clear that while the cases in our county were on the rise, he took personal offense to someone else saying that his employees lives were at risk, and that working wasn't safe. Fast forward 2 weeks, and the same orders were issued in the state where we ship all of our inventory from. Half of our staff has been furloughed, and the product we sell is not only non-essential, but borderline luxury. Yet somehow, merchandise still continues to flow from our warehouse, on to shipping trucks, daily. I predict that if an employee loses their life, or a loved one, because of the decision to put business before safety, whatever is left of our organization after this will be consumed by a wrongful death lawsuit.
I still have a job. More importantly, I have not come into contact (to date) with the virus. Either of those facts can change in a second. I know that those who've lost their jobs are scared, stressed and in for a level of struggle that millions of our citizens are going to have in common for potentially a very long time. I would rather be jobless than to be able to relate to someone trying to navigate burying a spouse, parent or child when the whole country has been ordered to press pause. I would rather be jobless than gasping for air and dying alone, in a semi-sterile environment where overworked caretakers may be reluctant to save me because they understandably fear for their own lives.
It's hard to choose your health and/or well-being over your employer. I know; I've been staying in a position that's been negatively impacting my health for the past few years. Hard workers often have unrequited loyalty that doesn't pay off in the ways we would hope, such as recognition, adequate compensation, or advancement. I wonder how many people will realize that the risks they've been allowing an employer to expose them to are not worth their current paycheck, as a result of this pandemic. How many of us will be making a career change not because of layoffs, but because we finally understand that we are undervalued and underappreciated. It takes a second to come to that realization. It takes a second to decide to change it.
