A little more understanding to those not wearing masks THREAD TWO

[Fuckinellitsme]

Following on from the first thread here

Thank you to all the lovely posters who have shared their experiences on the first thread. It's been incredibly useful in understanding why some people are exempt from wearing a mask on transport, in shops and so on. Particularly in terms of learning about health conditions that aren't widely known, and also the psychological reasons for exemption. Some incredibly brave posters on that thread for whom I am full of admiration.

For those who need them exemption lanyards are available here

Sunflower lanyards can also be picked up for free at several large supermarkets, including Sainsbury's and Asda.

If anyone feels they want/are able to share their reasons for exemption, please do - it may help others to understand why many people can't wear masks, and also (if the last thread is anything to go by) is useful for educating the rest of us on conditions we're not familiar with.

Stay safe all 💐

@canigooutyet Its so handy to keep on the phone. Sometimes being caught off guard can make things go out the window, having it to hand keeps it as easy as possible. I 100% agree that I think it will come from members of the public. Besides staff in stores don’t have to wear them, so can’t exactly criticise someone else for being exempt and not wearing one.

@Fuckinellitsme I agree! I checked everything out last week and had area managers and executives ring me this week with their final decisions. Impressed with some larger companies as they’ve left contact details for incase I’ve not had a pleasant experience with staff/stores.

I think if general public can jump on board with understanding we can all co-exist well. It’s not like bone mask wearers are dirty bastards some of us will still wash our hands and social distance 😂

Lang and Helena I see you and am reminding local groups of rights

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/police-can-use-reasonable-force-22405916?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

Not read the whole thread yet as heading off to work in a few minutes and if I'm honest dreading this whole mask scenario...
Absolutely nowhere near as bad as some brave posters on here but..

I suffer a few breathing problems and minor heart problems anything around my nose and mouth make it worse and a phobia of not being able to breathe and masks, plus hearing impediment.

Just thinking about wearing one and seeing other people wearing them has had me on the verge of panic attacks the last few weeks. In fact on Wednesday I had walk out of a redundancy meeting when we got around to talking about wearing them. All this is in my medical records...

I work in retail so even though I don't have to wear one officially I have had to agree to try wearing one by my line manager and told if I don't the store manager wants to know why.

It's added pressure now as being a candidate for redundancy if I don't comply it'll go against me.

@LangClegsInSpace Agree with every word you say. What people are being forced to put themselves through to 'comply' is horrific.

Lang, that is correct. Anyone who i s no obliged by law to wear one just needs to go about their business without a mask on and try not to worry about having to justify themselves. Most shops will not be asking shop to enforce it anyway and if another shopper approaches you just say you are exempt. No obligation to give a random other shopper any more detail. In fact you could just say no comment if you prefer or not answer them.

I won't be judging anyone not wearing a mask because I will assume they have a genuine reason for not doing so and I reckon that most of the people who don't believe they work or think it's an infringement of civil liberties or just don't fancy spoiling their lipstick etc will get on board quickly enough as they start to feel self-conscious for being one of the few not wearing one.

I feel deeply uncomfortable over how people with genuine conditions will be treated.

We already see abuse of people based on age, sex, race, disability and I do think some people will see it as an excuse to pick on the vulnerable.

Yes, if people could just be kind to each other in this pandemic it would help. Lots of people are suffering in all kinds of ways and we just need to cut them some slack rather than all start to act like policemen about who had a daily walk when they should not have done, who sat down on a bench during their walk and who went out to work when they should not have done and now face coverings. Just leave others alone and mind our own business

I start work at 12 today in a supermarket and really don't want to go in. I didn't sleep last night due to feeling panicky. I've got my mask exempt lanyard ready. Though I feel really annoyed about wearing one I'm hoping it will mean I don't get challenged by a customer. I don't even know what to say if I do get asked why I'm not wearing a mask, I think saying none of your business to a customer might get me disciplined. I'm feeling hyper alert today so won't take much to trigger me. I'm really hoping it's not as bad as I fear it will be. On the plus side I've got to work til Tuesday then I've got 3 weeks off to recover.

@zobalina77 try not to worry it isn’t a compulsory requirement for staff of shops, just for customers. You may find lots of your colleagues choosing not to wear them whether for medical reasons or not.

Just politely inform them that you’re exempt and your company doesn’t require you to wear one. I think it staff are subjected to abuse that’s most likely when police would be called anyway. Lots of Luck

Twitter is absolutely awful today.

So far so good at work. I'm the only one not wearing a mask but no one has commented. Apparently the department reps have had a meeting and have said I need to wear a visor, so that was nice. Luckily the store manager is being supportive and has said if anyone challenges me, be it customer or colleague, I'm to get him to immediately. If a panic attack starts I can also come off a till immediately but so far I'm ok, just hyper alert which is exhausting.

Please it's going well and you're getting support @zobalina77

I'm staying away from Twitter until this evening. Being on there yesterday while I was cooking, meant the stir fry veg ended up kind of burnt-ish

Yes Twitter today is incredibly bad.

I went to my local Waitrose today and I was crapping myself even before leaving the house. Forgot half the stuff I needed to pick up, my whole body shaking.

I have since emailed the store to let them know how much I appreciated their support. A customer did try and challenge me, telling me I need to wear one and all the rest. Staff member intervened and said to the other person to stop hassling their customer or leave and said if I needed assistance to let them know.

THe other person said that are logging it with the police who will demand to see cctv, track me down and an official complaint will be lodged about their staff not enforcing the law.

There was also a couple who would mutter something under their breathe and glare at me. After the third time I asked if I could help with something, they muttered something and walked off.

Most of my stuff is delivered thankfully, and today's experience hasn't quite stopped me from going out again for top-ups. Although I say this now can easily see me avoiding going out and being more reclusive which is really bad for my mh. But then neither is walking around shaking.

@canigooutyet That's a great approach from Waitrose staff and I hope staff in other supermarkets will be the same. I'm sorry that you had the harassment in the first place though and hope it doesn't stop you going out. I think that if shop staff respond like this, and if the police keep making it clear that they're not getting involved, then this might die down quite quickly. The majority of the bullies are just looking for attention and are likely to give up if they don't get it - a bit like your mutterers

@canigooutyet

Yes Twitter today is incredibly bad.

I went to my local Waitrose today and I was crapping myself even before leaving the house. Forgot half the stuff I needed to pick up, my whole body shaking.

I have since emailed the store to let them know how much I appreciated their support. A customer did try and challenge me, telling me I need to wear one and all the rest. Staff member intervened and said to the other person to stop hassling their customer or leave and said if I needed assistance to let them know.

THe other person said that are logging it with the police who will demand to see cctv, track me down and an official complaint will be lodged about their staff not enforcing the law.

There was also a couple who would mutter something under their breathe and glare at me. After the third time I asked if I could help with something, they muttered something and walked off.

Most of my stuff is delivered thankfully, and today's experience hasn't quite stopped me from going out again for top-ups. Although I say this now can easily see me avoiding going out and being more reclusive which is really bad for my mh. But then neither is walking around shaking.

This is revolting. I honestly cannot believe this is how we're treating people within our society.

I hope you're able to forget about it and enjoy the rest of your day.

Our local police force have widely circulated their stance on social media. Do not report non-mask-wearers to them. If any aggression etc comes about from the issue of someone not wearing a mask then they are available according to their usual policing policy.

I bet the majority of the gobshites on twitter etc wouldn’t approach anyone anyway.

I’m just assuming anyone without a mask has a valid reason. Why would I want to get close enough to challenge them anyway, if they aren’t wearing a mask and I am? Counterproductive, surely?

I’ve been out to couple of places today. I can sense people are unsure. First place was early and even though I was in the shop before another customer I was asked to wait outside so she could deal with his request first and then she changed from mask to a visor. I thought this was good as obviously it’s unknown the reason Why I wasn’t wearing a mask and hope it was to accommodate for lip reading, even though I don’t require this.

In the supermarket it was odd as I was literally the only person with no mask on. I had looks but no one said anything, the lady at the checkout was extremely rude even though she was wearing her mask in correctly. All round not bad at all, was expecting worse 🙈 I suppose this is for the next 12 months with a review in 6 so we shall see.

Sorry to hear of some of your experiences today!

I didn't go into a shop deliberately but I suppose I will have to at some point particularly the post office for work purposes which is also on the list of shops in the regs although again if you are exempt you are exempt there too.

I did a very small Tesco shop today............in a face mask. Hot uncomfortable , affected my breathing. Had to leave the trolley and go outside for a couple of mins so i could take it off.

However ive never done a supermarket shop so quickly. I power walked around the store at one point i broke into a run.............accidentally knocking over a Mr Kipling cake stand. (it wasnt there on Wednesday) i just didnt see it. I just wanted to get done and get out. So i only got the basics, no browsing to see if i fancied any little extra treats like muffins or chocolate so it might be better for my waistline. So obvs i will also save money. I usually do a supermarket shop twice a week but am going to cut it down to one. Its just too unbearable Anything that gets forgotten we can go without, Thank fuck we have always shopped by putting an odd extra couple of items in the trolley each week. And this was pre Covid

As i masked up ready to go into store i was standing opposite the three pubs, I just felt so angry to see one rule for one and one rule for the other right in front of me.

I had a woman ask me if i was okay , I said No not really. Didnt see any point in lying.

Most of the nastiness and vitriol seems to be coming from the left im sad to say.

Just don't wear the mask then . It seems to me it causes you severe distress and therefore you don't have to wear one under the regulations.