‘My co-workers mock me for wearing a mask — is this workplace harassment?’

[Seymour Flops]

As long as I was getting paid I would not give a shit.

What if your boss made YOU carry a blankie and suck your thumb though? To keep you from having an anxiety attack that could endanger your co-workers given the proliferation of assault weapons in the US?

Remember we all make each other's health decisions now. That includes mental health.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

What if your boss made YOU carry a blankie and suck your thumb though?

I would find a new job.

 

[Circe]

Your first post was not that far off though.

The same people that spent 2 years whining that wearing a mask should be a personal choice now mock people for making that personal choice.

Thus it the country we live in today

Yeah. I am extremely opposed to wearing a mask myself (and I don't mean to get into extended conversations with anybody whose face I can't see) but it would seem rude to make any comment on personal mask choices in the stores and such. For one thing, some of these people are clearly afraid. Still! They don't realize masks don't stop viruses. It's a mistake to assume much sophistication in the general public.

It is becoming clear in Maryland that blacks wear masks more than whites; and of blacks, more young males than otherwise. So probably they just don't want to be identifiable, which is the Number One reason people used to not be SUPPOSED to wear masks. Shoplifting, or just generally don't want people knowing who they are, like wearing hoodies. So that could be a problem as time and crime go on.

But for this calendar year and maybe next, I'm leaving the issue alone as a personal choice thing.

What the harassed person should do (of course she is being harassed!! Duh!) is back these people right off verbally and don't be shy or nice about it, either. Do it once, they won't do that again. Don't tattle to the boss! Give 'em hell. People really need to learn to stand up for themselves. That's what I've learned this past few years.

 

[Circe]

Remember that we were told over and over that we should wear a mask to protect other people, not ourselves and that we were horribly selfish people if we did not. So when you see a person in a room with hundreds of people and they are the only ones wearing a mask, do you really think it is because they want to protect the hundred, or they want to protect themselves?

They want to protect themselves, of course.

As for calling for masks to be banned, it's not a good sign about all the young black males around here wearing them. No one can protest their anonymity, so they can do crimes more easily. At some point, that's going to be recognized as a problem.

 

[Circe]

Remember all the quaking mask loons who said we were killing them and should be killed for it?

Yeah, but for homosexuals to give monkeypox to everyone all over the country is just fine. And to their dogs.

Looks like a double standard going on to me.

 

[Wild Bill Kelsoe]

A mask requirement to enter a business is no different than a "shirt and shoes" requirement or like one of the courses I sometimes go to which require collared shirt and a belt.

If a business requires a certain dress code, that's the owner's/manager's right.

If maskers want to demonize people for not wearing masks, that's they're right.

If non-maskers want to pick on maskers, that is their right, too.

 

[WEATHER53]

No it’s not workplace illegality but rather whimpering simps who don’t want comment on their bad idea and need their safe space

 

[WEATHER53]

If a business requires a certain dress code, that's the owner's/manager's right.

If maskers want to demonize people for not wearing masks, that's they're right.

If non-maskers want to pick on maskers, that is their right, too.

Far too many comments are offered that “they are really afraid”. That might be a reason but it’s no excuse. We don’t capitulate to others fears and we were adamant about that during the height of Covid. There is no reason to offer fear up at this point. Thinkers conquer fear, emoters revel in it and as we saw insist on forcing that fear capitulation on the brave and reasoned.

 

[JOSweetHeart]

I asked this question the first time I was stationed in Japan and saw people out in public wearing mask like we now see here.

One of the locals I had become friends with told me it was a common courtesy by people that were not feeling well but still had to be out in public to keep from spreading their germs as much. I was told it was really no different to them than when we cover our mouth when we cough or sneeze. That made a lot of sense to me.

It is why I was not triggered by the sight of mask in the US. The thing the US lacks though is a sense of common courtesy, we as a nation pretty much only give a shit about ourselves.

Now that it has been well over two years, my only question is how much of a difference does a mask really make?

God bless you always!!!

Holly

P.S. What you said about us as a nation is true, but only to a certain degree. Last week, I was actually hit with the sickness again for my second time. I missed three days of work. If I was a money hungry word that I can't say like so many other people in this country are, I would've gone to work anyway with no regard to anyone that I would've handed my sickness off to. In other words, considerateness is shown in a lot of different ways, however, depending on the situation, self-defense isn't something to be ashamed of either.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

P.S. What you said about us as a nation is true, but only to a certain degree. Last week, I was actually hit with the sickness again for my second time. I missed three days of work. If I was a money hungry word that I can't say like so many other people in this country are, I would've gone to work anyway with no regard to anyone that I would've handed my sickness off to. In other words, considerateness is shown in a lot of different ways, however, depending on the situation, self-defense isn't something to be ashamed of either.

I think this will be one of the better things to come out of COVID, this "i have to go to work no matter how sick I am" mentality seems to have been done away it....for the better.

 

[Seymour Flops]

They want to protect themselves, of course.

As for calling for masks to be banned, it's not a good sign about all the young black males around here wearing them. No one can protest their anonymity, so they can do crimes more easily. At some point, that's going to be recognized as a problem.

Exactly. It used be that in any given jurisdiction, it was against the law to wear a mask (even the Klan stopped wearing them), or it was unquestionably reasonable grounds for suspicion for a Terry stop.

No doubt masks contributed to the violence of the BLM/ANTIFA insurrections, allowing the rioters to cover their identity with impunity.

 

[JOSweetHeart]

I think this will be one of the better things to come out of COVID, this "i have to go to work no matter how sick I am" mentality seems to have been done away it....for the better.

I second this. However, everyone is going to have a different opinion where being bad enough sick is concerned. In other words, some people will think that a fever is not enough to get a person sent home from their job until they are in the bathroom throwing up for example. Some people may try to milk whatever sickness they do have for all that it is worth too which at the end of the day is no help to anyone.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

P.S. I was sent home one time over how bad of a cough I once had. I wasn't running a fever, but because of how bad off I was, I just couldn't keep quiet. I had gone to the doctor earlier that week. week.

 

[Seymour Flops]

I think this will be one of the better things to come out of COVID, this "i have to go to work no matter how sick I am" mentality seems to have been done away it....for the better.

I have to disagree with your understanding of human nature, especially in the workplace.

First of all let's agree that "no matter how sick I am" is hyperbole. Perfectly acceptable among intelligent folk, but some of your ideological siblings don't understand the concept at all.

I could be hyperbolic and say that the mentality of many is "if I have little sniffle, I want to sit on my ass at home for ten days and still get paid. Ka-choo, and ka-CHING!"

Let's avoid hyperbole and say that people like think "Even if I'm not feeling so good, people are counting on me for their own jobs. So unless I'm contagious with something serious that will make other people miss work, I'm going in to get 'er done." Let's say other folk think 'I have plenty of sick days owed to me, and if I wake up not a hundred percent, that is a good time to use them. No one ever died thinking, "I wish I had worked more."'

That's how different people used to feel pre-COVID. Guess what? That is how they still feel now. People haven't changed. Those who are dedicated to our work are still dedicated, and those who believe a job is a burden and that their employer owes them more than the day's pay they signed for still have that attitude.

The only difference is that the second type of person had a couple of years in which their philosophy was given free reign, especially once the Democrats realized that we could get COVID over and over, no matter many times we got vaccinated.

At a point coming very soon - like January - the representatives of the participants in the Great Resignation will lose seats, and two years later, the White House. Then the country will get back to rewarding hard work, Blacks will have the lowest unemployment rate in history - as under Trump - and the dollar will stop losing value like a Tesla with burned out batteries.

 

[Seymour Flops]

See post #27

I'll reprint it here:

I asked this question the first time I was stationed in Japan and saw people out in public wearing mask like we now see here.

To point out the obvious, Japanese people are far different from American people.

One of the locals I had become friends with told me it was a common courtesy by people that were not feeling well but still had to be out in public to keep from spreading their germs as much. I was told it was really no different to them than when we cover our mouth when we cough or sneeze. That made a lot of sense to me.

I thought the idea is to stay home if you have a cough or sneeze.

If someone has been voluntarily wearing a mask for two and a half years running, I think that is more than a cough or sneeze. That would be either a physical or mental disorder.

It is why I was not triggered by the sight of mask in the US. The thing the US lacks though is a sense of common courtesy, we as a nation pretty much only give a shit about ourselves.

I think that Americans might be willing to be more self-sacrificing if the authoritarian leaders who demand that self-sacrifice were not invariable Billionaires who fly in private jets from one mansion to another.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

That's how different people used to feel pre-COVID. Guess what? That is how they still feel now. People haven't changed. Those who are dedicated to our work are still dedicated, and those who believe a job is a burden and that their employer owes them more than the day's pay they signed for still have that attitude.

I disagree. One can be dedicated to their work and not come to work when they are sick. You also ignore the other side of the equation, perhaps you co-workers do not want you at work when you are sick passing your germs on to them.

It is also telling that you disparage people for using their sick days that companies use vice other forms of compensation.

That coming to work while sick is a political thing in your world is also anyone needs to know about you

 

[Seymour Flops]

I would find a new job.

Oh . . . with a boss that doesn't care enough about employee mental health and workplace safety to require that simple step, of carrying a woobie and sucking a thumb? I'm sure he'd let his employees use a pacifier instead, so how tolerant is that?

But nooooooo. You insist on a workplace in which everyone is a mental ticking time bomb, with half a dozen gun stores on the drive to work.

That's how the mask crazies sound to normal people with their talk of selfish murderers being tired of them.

 

[dblack]

View attachment 683624
I wear a mask in the office and my colleagues are always teasing me. They think it’s funny but it makes me very uncomfortable. I feel this has become a hostile work environment but my boss says to just lighten up — that no one is threatening me, making inappropriate advances or discriminating against me. What should I do?

He should grow the **** up. Despite the ambitions of nitwit liberals, it's not illegal to make fun of people. And no one is owed a job. If you find your work place "hostile", quit.

 

[Seymour Flops]

I disagree. One can be dedicated to their work and not come to work when they are sick. You also ignore the other side of the equation, perhaps you co-workers do not want you at work when you are sick passing your germs on to them.

Actually, I addressed that point, but I suspect that you only skim my posts.

It is also telling that you disparage people for using their sick days that companies use vice other forms of compensation.

I'm not sure I understand your use of the word "vice," there. I disparage people who have the "I might as well use them," mentality. Actually, I only point out that this is their mentality, and that it isn't going to change. Neither is mine.

I had an extended sick leave about six years ago that lasted almost eight weeks. That was after taking many days off for treatment. I didn't like missing work, but I really was laid low, and I would have died without the treatment and surgery. Turned out, I did not miss a paycheck, because I had built up so many sick days by not feeling like I needed to "use them."

That coming to work while sick is a political thing in your world is also anyone needs to know about you

I've noticed that you make it personal when you lose an argument. No matter. I'm very tolerant of people's foibles, as I must be in my job.

 

[Seymour Flops]

That coming to work while sick is a political thing in your world is also anyone needs to know about you

Your side politicized it during COVID, with mandates and prohibitions, selectively applied based on political ideology.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

I'm not sure I understand your use of the word "vice," there. I disparage people who have the "I might as well use them," mentality. Actually, I only point out that this is their mentality, and that it isn't going to change. Neither is mine.

I use the word "vice" there because companies give you sick days in place of a higher salary.

Do you also disparage people that use their vacation days the company offers?

I had an extended sick leave about six years ago that lasted almost eight weeks. That was after taking many days off for treatment. I didn't like missing work, but I really was laid low, and I would have died without the treatment and surgery. Turned out, I did not miss a paycheck, because I had built up so many sick days by not feeling like I needed to "use them."

What a slacker! You should have been at work since you were not contagious.