The Authentic Eclectic

I Lost My Job Because of COVID — But Probably Not How You Think

Today’s Supreme Court decision about Biden’s COVID vaccine policy prompted former Republican David Jolly to comment today on MSNBC that Americans now formally have no governmental support in fighting COVID at the workplace — it’s everyone for themselves.

Regarding COVID, I’ve been fortunate. I’ve written elsewhere about how the conditions imposed as a result of the pandemic have helped my mental health immensely. I’ve also managed not to catch it, nor has my 75-year-old mother with whom I share a home. We’ve been vaccinated and boosted, and we’re very, very careful.

Ironically, the same cautious concern that may have saved my life and the life of my mother cost me my job at the end of 2021.

My Remote Work History

When COVID emerged in early 2020, I’d been freelancing (as a copywriter) for several months at a small marketing agency (let’s call it ABC). I loved the work and was thrilled to be able to do it from home. The rest of the small team had been working from a co-working space, but when the virus hit, ABC’s owner (let’s call them Boss) decided the team would go remote.

ABC thrived with the remote working conditions and was well-positioned to help small businesses adapt to the new digital model. I was offered and accepted a full-time job with ABC, and I was happy to be part of what I thought was a forward-thinking agency. But my 2020 vision was naive. With my 2022 vision, I see that I fell into an all-too-common trap. I believed what I wanted to believe because it made me happy.

A Nonsensical Return to In-Person

In July 2021, Boss announced during one of our weekly Zoom meetings that we’d be starting to work in person again, in a different co-working space. Boss also said they’d talked to everyone on our 8-person staff, and everyone thought it was a good idea. They hadn’t asked me. I frantically messaged my closest two coworkers. No, Boss hadn’t asked them, either. And this was just after the Delta variant emerged. What the hell was happening? What was Boss doing?

Immediately after the meeting, I told Boss I couldn’t do that. “Is it a COVID thing?” They asked. No, it wasn’t. I mean, yes, I certainly didn’t feel safe going to a coworking space where I had no control over my environment nor who was in it, but it was more than that.

A quick digression; I’ve written about it extensively, but suffice it to say that chronic, crippling anxiety and depression have largely dictated the circumstances of my life until very recently. They don’t now only because I’m at long last developing some healthy coping mechanisms. One of them is working remotely.

I explained that to Boss, and they answered that they didn’t know if remote would be possible, as we worked in a “highly collaborative industry.” Considering I’d been working successfully from home (as had we all), for over a year, I thought that was odd. Boss said I’d have to get a doctor’s note. There would be ADA forms to fill out. And even still, it wasn’t “up to them” whether permission would be granted or not. As Boss is the owner & founder, I found that odd, as well. Nonetheless, I did as I was asked.

The proper documents were filed, and after a discussion, my doctor complied forthwith. My health and well-being must be put first. After deliberation, Boss agreed. I would be allowed to keep working in precisely the same way that I had been working the entire time I’d worked for ABC. It seemed like much ado about nothing.

Passive-Aggressivity from a Distance

Meanwhile, my coworkers had to start reporting to a co-working space. They told me it was like a big loud cafeteria where they’d try to find quiet corners by themselves to work. For this they were commuting in a pandemic? My closest friends on the team left for other things. They congratulated me on negotiating a way to work from home and said they’d have probably stayed with ABC if they could have done the same.

Autumn rolled around and things were going fairly smoothly at work. My only problems were with the connectivity at the coworking place. I couldn’t hear anyone during the Zoom meetings and Boss deemed it my problem. Also, there was some kind of issue with the internet there — it goes out intermittently. Kind of a problem for a digital marketing company, I would think, but oh well.

Thus was the state of things in December, about a month ago, when a new hire (turnover is big there) asked me on Slack if I’d be coming to ABC’s holiday party. Imagine my humiliation. I’d been with the company longer than any other employee, but no one had invited me to the holiday party. I felt like I’d been kicked in the gut. It was quite obvious a point was being made. But what was it? Was I being punished?

The company holiday party occurred on a Wednesday. On Friday, Boss called me for a surprise review. They said it had been on their calendar, but I’d not been aware of it. My last review had been in June, before Boss made the return-to-office decision. At that point, I’d gotten a considerable raise and Boss had praised my work.

This time the praise was less effusive, but the review was fine. After about an hour of talking, Boss asked if there was anything else I’d like to discuss.

“Well, since you bring it up…” I began. Boss and I had been worked closely together and had become, over the course of our 2.5 year relationship, accustomed to being frank with one another. “It really hurt me that I wasn’t invited to the holiday party. I learned about it from a coworker.”

And that’s when everything spun out. Boss quickly became agitated.

“I didn’t do the invitations,” their tone became defensive, “and when I found out you weren’t invited, I added you to the list. And it’s hard for me — you don’t understand…your disability makes it really hard for me…”

I think at that point my jaw dropped. My disability makes it hard for Boss?

“And the way you are about COVID, you make people feel uncomfortable. It’s harassment. You harassed a coworker, and that’s very serious.”

“Boss,” I was incredulous, “what are you talking about?”

“It’s true. You asked a coworker if they’d been vaccinated and that is a very serious violation.”

I knew exactly what Boss was referring to. In a virtual meeting, a coworker announced that they would be taking some time off because they had COVID.

“Oh damn. That sucks! Were you vaccinated?” was how I had replied. And now Boss was deeming that harassment. This was like the Twilight Zone.

“That is absolutely not harassment, Boss. And I don’t know what kind of violation you’re talking about.”

“It IS a violation. A very serious violation. You violated their privacy and you discriminated against them because you didn’t ask anyone else if they were vaccinated.”

“No one else had just announced they had COVID! Is this a joke?”

“It is absolutely not a joke. And this is the second time you’ve harassed that coworker.”

“Oh really? When was the first?”

“The emoji thing.”

Oh my God. The goddamn emoji thing. I would’ve laughed if it wasn’t so like a gut punch.

The “Emoji Thing” (or, I believe Black emojis are not for white people)

Here’s the “emoji thing” briefly:

Coworker is white, but Coworker uses emojis (thumbs up, happy face, etc) with Black skin tones. Because I was in the process of initiating a DEI (diversity, equality, and inclusion) internship at ABC, Coworker’s use of them worried me (honestly, it’s just generally distasteful AF, but whatever). I was concerned that Coworker might correspond with people outside of our company with those emojis, and I knew that was bad form, to say the least. So I reached out to Boss very politely and asked them to ask Coworker not to do that. Please. In the interest of ABC. Boss got very upset and called me a bully. At that point, I began to rethink my adoration of Boss and ABC. I also decided that if Boss couldn’t even discuss such matters without getting riled, it was no wonder that ABC had never hired a person of color in the decade they’d been in operation. I decided to drop the DEI internship idea as it would clearly be an uncomfortable place for a person of color to work.

And now, 5 months later, Boss was throwing that in my face.

Unbelievable.

The Ax Came Down

The next day Boss sent me a formal “final warning” for my two grave trespasses — absurd on its face as I’d never received a first warning. If I wanted to keep my job, I was to acknowledge my misdeeds and take mandated “anti-harassment” training. Boss was treating me having asked a coworker if they were vaccinated in the same way they’d have treated me commenting on someone’s ass.

As you might guess, I declined that training.

And thus, here I am. 49 years old and unemployed. I suppose I’m a sort of victim of the “culture wars,” but I have no regrets.

Truthfully, I believe I was fired in retaliation for my disability. In spite of the fact that COVID has shaken up everything in the world and smart employers have figured out that a lot of workers are happier — and as productive, if not more productive — while working remotely, Boss was living in the past and it irked them that I wouldn’t join them there. They clung to a past where workers rolled over and showed up when & where their bosses told them to. Even if it wasn’t necessary. Even in the face of a deadly pandemic. A past where race wasn’t discussed and everyone just smiled and agreed to the boss’s face, then rolled their eyes and scoffed when they weren’t looking. I’m old enough to have lived through decades of that past, and I don’t want to live there anymore.

So what do I do now? I move on. Of course I’m filing a claim with the EEOC. But with today’s Supreme Court decision, what more can be done? Maybe nothing. But I’m a writer, and so I write. I tell this story so that it may be known — don’t assume you’re safe from the ‘Rona, even if you never leave the house, even if you’ve been relatively unscathed thus far. It may still cost you your job.