“Mother, May I Breathe With Danger?” Masks from a Business Perspective

“I’m not opening until 2021, I don’t want to get shot.”

Business owners often feel as though they are parents for their clientele. At the end of a long day (or perhaps the beginning of one), we are all a little, well, delicate. Sometimes an incorrect latte or a denied exchange is all that is needed to cause someone to snap.

It’s not that people are the worst, it’s that those in professional and services industries often see people at their worst.

America, in particular, has a consumer-friendly, consumer-facing culture: The Customer is Always Right.

But what about when the customer is wrong?

Masks in America are currently hotly contested and often misunderstood. Presently, the nation is considering making masks a mandate.

But until that time, business owners need to decide whether they want to enforce a mask policy at all… and what the consequences of that might be.

How Did a Mask Become Political — and What Does This Mean for My Business?

It’s easy to blame the people for this situation, but the truth is that this all occurred due to a perfect storm of governmental mishandling and misinformation, during a time when people were particularly stressed and vulnerable.

During the early days of COVID-19, it wasn’t properly understood that people could be asymptomatic carriers. Thus, the CDC said masks wouldn’t work very well — and with the knowledge they had, they were correct. Once it was understood that there were many, many more carriers than previously thought, this information was revised.

But for a good while, the CDC told people, essentially, that they were selfish for wearing masks, that they were hoarding them from people who needed them. People were “named and shamed” online, often without context.

Since then, the situation has changed in two important ways:

• We now know that, if everyone wears a mask, COVID rates go down. We’ve seen this in many other countries.
• We now have a large variety of masks available, and there’s no longer a worry about supply.

So, why don’t people want to wear masks?

First, there’s a confusion about what a mask does — both for those who wear them, and those who refuse them.

A mask does not protect you, unless it is a sealed, medical-grade mask. A mask protects other people from you.

If you’re an asymptomatic (or, heck, symptomatic) carrier, a mask makes it more difficult for you to transmit COVID. It does not prevent you from getting COVID. This has been a major misunderstanding from the start, leading to people not wearing masks because they don’t care about getting COVID.

It’s this misunderstanding that has prompted people to question their own personal freedoms. They want the freedom to get COVID if they want to, and they do not understand that they’re fighting for the freedom to give other people COVID.

Second, people resent being told that they were being selfish for wearing masks, and then, not a month later, being told that they are being selfish for not wearing masks.

It’s no wonder people don’t want to follow the pack when the pack so easily turns against them!

Finally, some people simply believe masks don’t work. Since the information has changed, they have no faith in the information.

But the bottom line right now is: It harms practically no one to wear a mask and it could do a great deal of good.

Unfortunately, it also requires at least 80 percent adoption to be really helpful.

Wal-Mart is replete with people not wearing masks. Go to your local McDonald’s, the situation is the same. Since not wearing masks has become normalized, people are asking “Why should I wear one?”

The truth is, if you’re in a room with a hundred unmasked individuals, there is very little point to wearing a mask yourself. Masks have to be normalized to be useful.

But business owners can make a difference, because business owners can ensure 100 percent mask adoption within their own space. Small business owners, in particularly, are poised to make a real difference in their communities.

The problem is, well, should they?

The Argument Against Masks

Let’s look at this with reason and compassion.

The argument against masks is simple: It’s their choice to wear a mask or not to wear a mask. It’s the choice of every individual, to decide whether they want to go into a business with people wearing masks or not wearing a mask.

Some have even argued that masks can be considered ableist. There are people with sensory disorders who are highly uncomfortable in masks. There are people with breathing issues who feel as though they cannot breathe properly.

But from a business owner perspective, who owns or leases private property, it’s really up to the business whether it wants to entertain people with masks or not. It’s up to the business owner to decide whether they think masks are effective or not, and whether they want to put themselves in danger.

In May, a Family Dollar security guard was shot over a mask policy in Michigan. A barista at Starbucks was assaulted after asking a customer to wear a mask. Masks have led to altercations across the nation. The threat of violence is very real, and so far, no one has been shot over not requiring masks.

So, if the goal is to reduce harm, a business owner has an important question to answer:

Am I putting my employees at risk by requiring masks?

There are many business owners who have decided to forego reopening entirely because they don’t want to deal with this type of issue. But being able to avoid reopening is a privilege itself. When unemployment ends in July, business owners are going to have to start reopening for their employees. What then?

Can You Keep Your Business Safe While Requiring Masks?

Let’s say that you do want to require masks. How do you keep yourself safe?

Well, you and you alone understand your own demographic. If your demographic is college students, you’re probably safe; that’s a demographic that has strongly encouraged mask wearing. If your demographic is the NRA, the temperature likely changes.

The more open you are to “walk-ins” and new customers, the more likely you are to experience issues. If you’re part of a community, if most customers are within your own neighborhood, you’re far less likely to be in danger; you know your clientele intimately.

And there are also some tips and tricks you can use to encourage mask usage:

• Frame it as something that customers are doing for other people. The truth is, most people aren’t terrible. They want to help, they want to cooperate. They misunderstand what the mask does.
• Take responsibility for your decision. It’s not the employee’s job to manage mask usage, it is your job. As a business owner, if someone is getting shot, it’s going to be me, not an employee.

Employees and managers can remind someone to use masks, but angry customers need to be dealt with by the person who has made this decision — you.

• Be realistic about mask usage. If you’re serving food and drinks, it’s obvious people can’t wear masks all the time. That means you need to make an extra effort to ensure social distancing.
• Talk to people as equals. Don’t just jump on someone for not wearing a mask, ask them why they aren’t wearing one. They could actually be one of the rare people for which wearing a mask could be detrimental.
• Provide disposable masks. Some people haven’t been able to get a mask. Others feel that masks are useless, but will still wear one if it’s offered to them.
• Don’t leave it at just masks. Masks are the most visible form of protection. But you also need to sanitize things, and gloves can help, too.

Above all, we need to stop assuming the worst about each other. For some people, going to your store may be the first thing they’ve done. For all you know, they’ve been in quarantine for the last three months. And now they’re suddenly being told they’re killing someone’s grandmother!

If there is anything that has damaged our country the most, it is an inability to adapt to new information and make room for each other.

What If You Decide to Open Without Masks?

Business owners still have the right to decide to open without masks, or to encourage mask usage but not require it. Some business owners need to open right now to avoid closing, and they may not want to risk getting shot.

Other business owners might actually feel that masks aren’t useful, or may feel that people shouldn’t be required to wear masks.

Let’s be realistic. If you’re a restaurant or a bar, masks are not going to do a lot. People have to take it off anyway.

For these business owners, social distancing becomes more important. While the CDC guidelines are six feet, eight feet or more can be even more effective. This is because people do shift around, they move chairs around, they bump tables.

Employee mask usage is also still a good idea, but keep in mind: Employees can also encounter aggressive individuals who “want to see their face.” Make sure you have policies in place to protect your employees.

While limitations on capacity have been lifted in many areas, business owners may still want to continue limiting their capacity to what is reasonable for their space. Simple birthday parties have led to an almost 72 percent infection rate.

It has to be assumed that some people in your business may contract COVID from each other.

You want that number to be as low as possible.

Working Together for the Future

Masks are only one of the polarizing issues that are facing our nation today, and while to many of us there is a clear “right” and “wrong” side, there still does need to be room for nuance. It is good to feel righteous and vindicated for our choices, but not if we put other people in danger.

Many small businesses have already shut their doors forever. Consider that 40 percent of black businesses are likely to shut down after coronavirus, compared to 17 percent of white businesses. From that data alone, black businesses have more to lose from trying to mandate masks than white businesses.

Business owners of all backgrounds are worried that a second shutdown will wipe their companies out. This doesn’t just affect them, but their employees. And there is the always present risk of danger. This is another thing that business owners are being forced to consider as they move forward. It’s one thing to say that economy doesn’t trump health, but in many ways it constantly does. Otherwise the alcohol and tobacco industries wouldn’t exist.

There are a myriad of factors affecting us all, and we need to be open to having productive conversations about ourselves, our situations, our futures, and what we have to offer each other. For now, all we can do is create our policies to the best of our abilities, and stand by them with courage and compassion.