Sadly Having To Mask Your Contempt

I work in a small clothing boutique. We’ve been doing online and curbside orders only for a month due to the lockdown measures but our state just reopened, despite cases multiplying and testing being nearly nonexistent, and my store’s owner decides we need to be open, as well.

I bring in my own mask and gloves since my owner thinks this is all “overblown.” Unfortunately, it seems the rest of our city agrees. I spend the day dodging customers who want to stand within a foot of me, won’t step back from the counter, insist on picking up and touching everything, and won’t use the hand sanitizer at the door, and NONE of them are wearing masks. 

At the end of the day, one of my customers looks at me in my own, correctly-fitted mask.

Customer: “You know you don’t need to wear that. I got one and tried but I didn’t like how it felt and I’m healthy enough anyway, so what’s the point?”

The point, dear customer, is to keep my asthmatic self safe. But apparently, that’s not good enough. And if I were to say that, I’d be fired. So, wonderful catch-22 here. If I get sick, then it’ll be nice to know that at least I didn’t make a customer feel mildly uncomfortable!

This story is part of our Anti-Masker roundup.

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