Hiya everyone! I hope everyone is doing as well as possible during these trying times.
I personally feel that the walls are closing in on me. One of our neighboring stores has half of their management team out awaiting the results of Covid tests after being exposed. Our regional manager is pulling managers from other stores to cover the absences at this store. In my opinion, this risks potentially spreading Covid throughout the company at breakneck speed right before the ongoing holidays. I know she feels she has to do this to keep this particular store open, but I feel she is risking shutting down the chain en masse before the holiday implementing this strategy. One of my management coworkers left yesterday after an hour when his wife called and told him that the babysitter his family uses is Covid positive. Our management ranks could be wiped out shortly. If this person comes down with Covid, the natural inclination would be to have everyone get tested. But the kicker is, at my company, one can't work while awaiting Covid test results. In my state, it is back to taking a week plus to get results. We are forced to decide whether to be "company people" and soldier on with little piece of mind, or potentially screw over our coworkers and our store.
Frankly, I am surprised it has taken this long for the situation to come to a head. My county is down to less than 15 ICU beds left as of Thursday, and I imagine that they are all gone by now. People are being diverted to random hospitals at this point. As an old person, I am naturally pretty concerned. It's ironic. Just as the vaccines are dribbling out, Covid is packing its hardest and most dangerous punches.The state is begging people to stay home and stay away from grocery stores and pharmacies. Meanwhile, we are having record sales. People are fatigued by this fight, and just don't seem to care anymore. It's a no win situation for me. For those of you that can work from home or work with few coworkers, be grateful. If you don't need to go out, stay home. It is frightening going to work each day at this point.
I hope everyone is keeping on. The holidays seem especially somber this year.
Hang on everyone! Stay safe.
Reporting live from the front lines.