I love In-N-Out. I could even ignore the bible verses on their packaging since it was pretty hidden. But I haven’t been there since they refused to enforce the mask mandates during the pandemic - if they ignore one health regulation they don’t like, who’s to say they’re not ignoring others? I won’t go there again until there’s some sign that sanity is taking over.

They have Bible verses on their packaging.

They had a reputation as a good company before the pandemic, and they let it go to the crapper during. Now they’re sprinting in the other direction. Bunch of reality-denying dipshits.

I’d rather not see their smiles and not get whatever illness they may have. There’s a reason food prep people wear hair nets, gloves, blue band-aids, and all that other stuff. We’re just getting done with a global pandemic, can we let people wear masks if they want to for a while please?

I have started wearing a mask if I have a cold so I don’t give it to everyone else. I am not going to a doctor for a cold. This is a terrible policy.

If they’re so worried about customer service, they should be focused on changing their shit fries.

They shouldn’t have to smother them with cheese or sauce to make them palatable

Isn’t it a requirement in some countries that food handlers wear some sort of mask anyway?

This world is fucked lmao. I still wear a mask, never stopped. I had a double lung transplant and don’t feel like rejecting my lungs due to something I can very easily avoid.

So, this decision is really bad for reasons that go beyond sick workers. It’s really unpopular to mention but COVID isn’t over, it’s not gone. We just normalized the suffering and shunted the most vulnerable into its path. As one of those vulnerables still trying to survive, masking has been an exhausting situation. I mask, I have to, and antimask sentiment makes it hard to operate in a world that already wishes I wouldn’t. Decisions like this cause harm in wider ways. I wrote an email to In-N-Out Owner/President Lynsi Snyder about this in response to this policy. I don’t think she cares what this policy does, but I’m sharing here for others who may want to understand.

I’m writing to ask you to please reverse your recent decision to ban employees from wearing a mask unless medically exempt. This decision shows not only a complete disregard for the health and safety of your employees and customers, as everyone is affected by disease spread, but is also profoundly ableist and lacking an understanding of current (and historic) context. Requiring employees to not only divulge their medical information to their employers but also openly to the public is a mindset rooted in othering people who are disabled or otherwise medically vulnerable. In general, it’s bad when a marginalized group must publicly declare their status as such, but especially now when people are already struggling to survive an ongoing pandemic amidst the hostility of antimask sentiment. This decision furthers that othering and hostility, making those employees into targets. But this decision doesn’t just impact your employees directly, it feeds into that larger cultural antimask sentiment and perpetuates ableism. This lack of understanding of the impact of your decision is a clear message that it’s not just those employees your company does not value, but all disabled and vulnerable people. Please show your abity to learn and understand the impacts of your decision, as well as your disapproval of ableism, and reverse this decision. Further, I urge you to demonstrate actual value for your employees and customers by adapting to our reality and implementing measures to reduce the spread of covid and other pathogens in your restaurants and other workplaces. This can be achieved through simple measures like improving the ventilation and filtration in buildings, improving sick leave policies, and other actions including, yes, masking by employees.

Thank you Xxx

PS This company push to ignore our current reality and new cultural understanding of disease spread is not just callous, it’s boring. Be better.

I’m sure this won’t backfire

unless they have a doctor’s note

Edit: I’m only providing some pertinent information that the headline left out. Not trying to stir shit up, y’all.

Ahhhh a good ol’ mask fight. It’s been ~~too long ~~not nearly looking enough

[email protected] is fucking worse than /r/politics. The echo in here is so damn loud I can’t hear anything else.

wow, people still wear masks? didnt Biden say “mission accomplished” or whatever?

I don’t have a problem with this. I was an “essential” employee in the before-times and I muddled through and never had an incident of sickness…I think my masking and sanitation saved me from hazard. I’m not downplaying the whole pandemic - I lost a few very good people because of it (I miss you, Russ).

The before-times are past…we need to work through the now times and that requires that we are together as people and a part of being present in the now-times is not hiding behind fear. We need to connect and see each others visage to gauge our connections.

Wear a mask if you have the sniffles (cold/flu), wear a mask if you want to avoid allergens or smoke in the air. Wear a mask if you, like me, are just plain ugly and it makes others more comfortable but do not wear a mask because of covid anymore. That threat is behind us as a people just as the Spanish Flu is behind us as a people, despite it’s presence in the world at large.