Essential Employee Meme- Origin Unknown

As the quarantine has been progressing, many restaurants and stores have had to adapt to new hours and implement steps against preventing the virus. A lot of employees have been forced to work from home and many places have temporarily closed due to being non-essential. Essential businesses include gas stations, grocery stores, auto shops, etc because they provide life sustaining services and items. One of these businesses is my employer, Sheetz.

Sheetz has sneakily utilized its status as gas station to keep the doors open and continue serving people MTO food and selling convenience items. This doesn’t seem like a big deal from afar. The seating areas are closed and we no longer provide self-serve drinks, as well as ramped up cleaning procedures being implemented. However, Sheetz is really doing the minimum to protect employees.

To start with, personal preventative steps cannot really be taken while working in the store. Us workers had to fight to even be able to wear gloves at the register while coming into contact with dozens of customers in a given shift. There is also no enforcement of social distancing. In the lines, customers stand inches from each other, and the cashier is also less than three feet from the person being rung up. Other businesses have put in sneeze guards to protect their employees. Sheetz doesn’t even allow us to wear masks.

Working Third Shift, which now nets me $16.50/hour- Image by Author

Something else I find to be aggravating is the leave policy. Workers are allowed to go on leave, but if they do not go to a doctor and get a medical note, their leave is unpaid. A lot of people at Sheetz work there for their livelihood. The policy is supposed to prevent people from cashing in without contributing, but I believe it should be adapted to those living with someone especially vulnerable to the virus and its lethal effects, or those who have no form of childcare due to the closure of schools/daycares.

Sheetz is also only willing to provide two weeks paid leave if you have been exposed to, or have contracted, the virus. So, if I were to get Coronavirus at work while making the company money, I would only get paid for two weeks while fighting it off.

Sheetz is really a shining example of corporate greed. Taking advantage of the ‘essential business’ policy and putting our lives on the line with little protection feels like a sick ploy to cash in on a pandemic while other food services are closed. I could go on leave, but they have agreed to begin paying us an extra $3 an hour so I’ll continue to work, but I wish they were doing more.