In-N-Out employees in five US states will no longer be allowed to wear masks as part of new company guidelines that “emphasize the importance of customer service,” notably showing their smiles, according to a new policy issued by the fast food chain.
I love In-N-Out. I could even ignore the bible verses on their packaging since it was pretty hidden. But I haven't been there since they refused to enforce the mask mandates during the pandemic - if they ignore one health regulation they don't like, who's to say they're not ignoring others? I won't go there again until there's some sign that sanity is taking over.
They had a reputation as a good company before the pandemic, and they let it go to the crapper during. Now they're sprinting in the other direction. Bunch of reality-denying dipshits.
This world is fucked lmao. I still wear a mask, never stopped. I had a double lung transplant and don’t feel like rejecting my lungs due to something I can very easily avoid.
Yeah, but my point is obviously that In-N-Out doesn't have paid leave and is eliminating one of the few effective protections employees have to prevent the spread of disease.
And it’s ultimately an issue not even worth getting worked up over because I’d be willing to bet about 99% of In-N-Out employees never wear masks even when they’re knowingly sick.
Vacation is earned on an accrual basis and can be taken after 90 calendar days of employment. Full-time Associates also accrue sick time at the rate of 6 days per year.
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.
Yeah if there is one thing about Reddit I wish wouldn’t carry over to Lemmy, it’s the political bias that’s completely disconnected from reality.
If you are legitimately upset over a company saying their employees can’t wear face masks, you’re in the minority. Most Americans don’t give a shit and have bigger things to worry about than mask policies in 2023.
Funny how “muh freedom” means you should be able to not wear a mask, but others should be disallowed from wearing masks, even if they have actual safety or health concerns. Very consistent.
Funny how the same people who said “Private companies can do whatever they want” back in 2020 when people were upset about mask requirements are now losing their shit because a private company said their employees can’t wear masks.
A certain subset of people on the internet wants to die on the hill of masks like they’re almost upset that it’s no longer 2020 or something. Seriously go outside, touch grass, see that nobody gives a shit about masks in the real world.
I've had to wear a mask for allergies since WAY BEFORE the whole mask thing became identity politics. There's plenty of flavors of grass, that no amount of Flonase or whatever that gets the straight up burning of the inside of my neck to stop. So. I've had to wear masks since as long as I can remember for pretty much every summer.
Then COVID happened and now what used to be something literally nobody cared about, suddenly everyone has fucking opinions about masks. So here's my thing. How about we all just go back to everyone leaving me and everyone else who have been wearing masks most their lives the fuck alone about their mask? Can we do that?
Y'all can fight about COVID or whatever fucking shit, I don't care. I didn't really want to have a dog in this race. But yes, some people still wear masks. And the reasons they wear masks can vary for all kinds of reasons. And believe it or not, before 2020, nobody gave two shits about people wearing masks. I know, I was there.
I worked at an Arby's in the late 1980s wearing a mask during the summer, nobody cared. I've worked in warehousing while doing college, nobody cared at the warehouse nor the college. I swear, and I have lived in middle of nowhere Tennessee most of my life and people I went to high school with (way back in dinosaur days) knew me and knew I wore a mask. And even still, today, they might run into me and be like "Oh I thought COVID was over... (snicker, snicker)" And yeah it gets fucking old having to remind them about my allergies and them going "OOOOOHH YEAH!" Like I know we're getting old, but we ain't that old.
So I get it, some of y'all just want a fight and apparently "masks" are one of the things on the field. Whatever. But, some of us out here wear masks because the grass is the devil. And gosh, it's weird thinking that wearing a mask between 1970 and 2020 was the glory days, but fuck, here we are.
All I'm asking is the whole:
wow, people still wear masks?
If you want to bitch, can you at least add "for COVID" at the end? And let us that have shitty immune systems the fuck alone? Can you at least not yank us allergy sufferers in this bullshit? I would greatly appreciate that.
I don't know why there was a mandate, I don't know why the mandates made people angry. No one consulted me about any of it and even if they did, I'm not smart enough to have opinions on it anyway. But I don't know why me putting a piece of cloth over my mouth so that evil grass seed doesn't get inside my throat has anything to do with that bullshit. Here's the US House and the US Senate I guess go get them or something. I don't know, but everyone wearing a mask isn't some evil liberal employed by Soros, or at least I'm not getting my fucking check.
TL;DR — Some of us wear masks for a lot of other reasons and no one used to give a shit about us wearing masks.
I’d rather not see their smiles and not get whatever illness they may have. There’s a reason food prep people wear hair nets, gloves, blue band-aids, and all that other stuff. We’re just getting done with a global pandemic, can we let people wear masks if they want to for a while please?
I don’t have a problem with this. I was an “essential” employee in the before-times and I muddled through and never had an incident of sickness…I think my masking and sanitation saved me from hazard. I’m not downplaying the whole pandemic - I lost a few very good people because of it (I miss you, Russ).
The before-times are past…we need to work through the now times and that requires that we are together as people and a part of being present in the now-times is not hiding behind fear. We need to connect and see each others visage to gauge our connections.
Wear a mask if you have the sniffles (cold/flu), wear a mask if you want to avoid allergens or smoke in the air. Wear a mask if you, like me, are just plain ugly and it makes others more comfortable but do not wear a mask because of covid anymore. That threat is behind us as a people just as the Spanish Flu is behind us as a people, despite it’s presence in the world at large.
Do they offer insurance? It should be illegal to require doctors notes if you don’t offer insurance. Fuck, insurance should be illegal and visiting doctors should be free.
Sorry, but you’re insane. COVID is still alive and well, and killing people daily. How can you say you lost people and miss them, and then turn around and say we shouldn’t wear a mask due to COVID?
I had a double lung transplant. I’m wearing my mask. You’re ignorant as shit.
Why did adding this little bit of context get downvoted? Yes it’s still a ridiculous requirement to require a doctors note if someone wants to wear a mask to protect themselves from illness but OP wasn’t commenting on that, just adding context. If we want this place to be better than Reddit we really should only use the downvote button against posts and comments that are off-topic, inflammatory, or trolling
I agree. That commenter may have been trolling but as a personal rule I only downvote people being rude or people I KNOW are disingenuous from other interactions. If I disagree I just move on.
Definitely not trolling. I saw the news elsewhere and this post was missing what I considered an important piece of information in the title. But yeah I guess brevity failed me.
I dislike this move by my favorite burger joint, but I also dislike headlines that are crafted for more outrage than is deserved. Even if it’s just a teaspoon more.
Add comment