New employees will all be permanent WFH unless there is a specific need for them to be in the office (more than the hoteling stations will allow) because the office footprint was reduced by half. I would like to be part time WFH, but I think I would get in trouble if I permanently reserved a hoteling station for the same days every week. It was wasteful for me to have an office when I was only in office 2x a week, but it was still a nice thing to have.
No one (that isn’t already required to be there) is required to be back in office until after school starts up here, so September-ish is the expectation.
That’s reasonable. My concern is that they are, I presume, also releasing their customers from mask requirements. And unlike their employees, they have no way of knowing whether those customers are vaccinated. And some of their employees are no doubt still working on getting their second dose, and will be exposed to those customers.
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presumably, the employees still working on their second dose are still “required” to mask. If masks work, they are protecting themselves.
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AFAIK, Target is not telling anyone, employees included, that they need to be maskless. If masks work, they can choose to continue wearing one to protect themselves, right?
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They’ll be exposed to those customers whether or not any of them are wearing masks, because cloth simply doesn’t stop aerosol viruses. They just won’t be required to wear an uncomfortable, unregulated “medical” apparatus on their faces their entire shift.
If masks are more effective at protecting others from the wearer than at protecting the wearer from others, and if “protection” is a matter of degree, and not “total or nothing”, then none of your points makes any sense.
You should read that article I @'d you on. It claims that masks range from about 30% to 99% effective at preventing the emission of virions, and that exposure to 10 virions appears to be enough to give you a 10% chance of becoming infected, and does a lot of math to demonstrate that even the 30% reduction is clinically quite significant in reducing the risk of disease.
Unless the employees were vaccinated at Target, they have no way of knowing if the employees are vaccinated either.
Serious question: Are they allowed to ask and require proof, or is that a HIPAA violation?
I looked through it at the time; honestly looked like a lot of GIGO. But I’ll take a closer look at that section.
Everyone in the country is talking about their vaccination experience. It seems to have replaced the weather and sports as small-talk. I think supervisors have a decent idea who has been vaccinated. And I also think that people are more hesitant to explicitly lie to their employer than to implicitly “lie” to a shop by walking in unmasked.
But, fwiw, my very-part-time employer (for whom I’ve worked zero hours this year, and hope to work about 20 hours next year) asked me to document my vaccination status, including a photo of my vax card, and the dates and lot numbers of the vaccines I received.
Is that part-time employer requiring a vaccine as condition for employment? If so, do they realize the liability they may be assuming?
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That’s an interesting link (and quick read). Thanks Marcie.
No, at the moment they are only requiring that you tell them your vaccine status, in a lot of detail. And they say they might have different working requirements for the vaxxed and the unvaxxed, like daily testing for the unvaxxed. And they say they are collecting this information now to better plan. But we’ll see how that develops.
I wonder what would happen if you didn’t disclose that information. 
Are they going to be ignoring naturally acquired covid immunity through recovered prior infection?
Do they ask your status on any other vaccines (measles, rubella, pertussis, hepatitis, TB, …) or any other health conditions (eg HIV status)?
I don’t know what would happen if i refused to disclose it. They did not ask if i had a document case of covid. They have not asked about any other health issues.
They do strongly encourage me to get a flu shot every year, including offering a convenient walk-in clinic plus lots of emails. I happen to know my boss is allergic and can’t get the flu shot, and it doesn’t seem to have affected her employment.
And this year they have had draconian restrictions on who can show up in person (and my job for them can’t be done remotely) including twice-weekly PCR testing for covid.
So an interesting case is Walmart. They’re allowing employees that are fully vaccinated to not wear a mask on an honor system basis.
They are also offering a $75 bonus to employees who get vaccinated. For that, they do require proof. I’m wondering if there are any smart managers at Walmart who cross check payroll records with employees not wearing a mask to figure out which ones are abusing the honor system.
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I have worked for employers that mandated me to get the flu vaccine as condition of employment. This is somewhat common in the healthcare world, and even as an actuary if you are an employee of the hospital system you have to meet those requirements. Religious or health exemptions were allowed but had to be documented with HR. AFAIK mandating vaccines is legal federally, but a state may have a law against mandating vaccines (Oregon does not allow mandated vaccines).
I have worn different types of dust masks for years to help with allergies. for example, anytime I mow the gross I need to protect myself or Ill be miserable due to allergies. Also pretty much the entire month of october every year when they harvest the fields around me.
fyi, medical masks used for covid are garbage for helping alergies. They stop you from spitting on others, but dont stop dust from entering your nose. need a good n95 dusk mask that fits tight around the nose/mouth for best results.
it has been difficult to find good masks for this use due to every idiot in the world buying up masks over the last year.
So if your employer requires you to wear a mask or enter through a different door where you are subject to temperature check and questioning if you have not proven that you are vaccinated does that imply it is required?
From the article:
Note that for this discretion to apply, the vaccine must be truly voluntary. For example, an employee’s choice to accept or reject the vaccine cannot affect their performance rating or professional advancement. An employee who chooses not to receive the vaccine cannot suffer any repercussions from this choice. If employees are not free to choose whether or not to receive the vaccine without fearing adverse action, then the vaccine is not merely “recommended” and employers should consult the above FAQ regarding COVID-19 vaccines that are a condition of employment.
Note also that the exercise of this discretion is intended only to provide clarity to the public regarding OSHA’s expectations as to the recording of adverse effects during the health emergency; it does not change any of employers’ other responsibilities under OSHA’s recordkeeping regulations or any of OSHA’s interpretations of those regulations.
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The Walmart $75 bonus seems like a related question.
I think that might be why at least some companies have (rapidly) switched to mask-optional for all employees (or vaccinated on the honor system).
if you say vaccinated people can do things unvaccinated people cannot (like remove masks), you are discriminating against people that are not vaccinated. Many would argue this is morally justified as a way to improve total population health, but we are still discriminating against this group. This is going to make people feel very uncomfortable in the workplace as they effectively have to wear a scarlet letter identifying their resistance which may be perceived as a pollical statement. It is very possible this group will be labeled adversely at a higher level because of this for a long period of time.
This will force people that dont want the vaccine to either, 1: lie 2: wear a mask forever or 3: get a vaccine they do not want due to social pressure.
I was under the impression that they would leave mask rules in place much longer than they did. then when they were happy with the vaccine numbers, just tell everyone to take them off, regardless of vaccinated status.
That was my thought as well. The government and CDC can put out whatever mandates/advice they want, but as a private business, I would be more inclined to look at the vaccination numbers to determine when I thought removing the mask mandate should happen.
Personally, i would look at the infection rates in the community, not the vaccination numbers. That’s a real measure of hazard, and responds to things like new variants.
And i imagine the CDC planned to say, “everyone can unmask” at some threshold. Perhaps they still will, even though it will be completely meaningless, because their recent announcement effectively said just that.
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