COVID-19 and grocery workers VENT

Y’all I work in a grocery store and I’ve been holding this in and since I can’t share on any other media I’m sharing here.

I dread going to work!!! My job won’t allow us to get paid to stay home unless a doctor has tested us and we have the virus. My co-worker is extremely sick and I’m sure she has it but they won’t test her right now so my job isn’t obligated to pay her. She isn’t getting better and is afraid to got to the ER because she was told that even if she went they might not pick to help her. She has son still at home that’s also a minor.

Anyway my boss isn’t even telling the rest of the grocery workers that we’ve possibly been exposed. He doesn’t want to cause panic. This enrages me. I’ve had a few co-workers that I did tell thank me because they have family members that are at a higher risk and they are not going to go near them now because I informed them.

5 days ago when I finally convinced her to go the doctor, I told my parents and I’ve been quarantined to my room when I’m home from work until further notice.

None of us grocery workers are nearly as important at the medical personnel working desperately to fight this but my fear is that since there aren’t enough strict rules in place for grocery stores that there will be more and more deaths in grocery workers than nurses and doctors and I don’t want to be one of them.

We don’t have any real protection while we are working. Even though we can wash our hands, if your a cashier you have to make sure you have no one in your line and then be allowed to leave your station to wash your hands. Yes they can wear gloves but the probability that they will accidentally touch their face while wearing those gloves is high. We also can’t change them often because we don’t have enough and the perishable departments have to have them too.

We don’t have any hand sanitizer left because customers were stealing our big bottles we did have, that were there for our safety. The warehouse is now out as well.

We don’t have a way to order face masks and even if we did they would be needed at the hospitals more.

Not all Customers follow the 6ft rule and then you have the ones coming into the grocery store coughing and not covering it with anything.

Personally, I’m doing everything I know to do while at work and at home. If by some miracle I haven’t been exposed yet, then I want to keep it that way but since we don’t have stricter rules at the grocery store here in my state, I don’t this is going to get any better.

If you’ve read the whole thing, thank you for your time and stay safe!