So I’ve taken a little time to rest and I want to write out what happened today. Just in case. Please note: for my own protection, I will not be naming the company. Yet. All I will say is I work in the food service industry.

Anyway, here we go. This will be a thread. https://twitter.com/brazenqueer/status/1252961182631239680

I got to work today & I was instructed that we had a new “check-in process” that we had to complete before work. This included a “ #COVID19 self-assessment” questionnaire that we had to complete on company-issued computers, as well as getting our temperature taken by management.

Once both were complete, we had to sign a form with our name and the date saying we were both cleared to work as per the self-assessment questionnaire, and our temperature was below 100.4°F. Management then had to also sign the form, saying they had seen both and we were clear.

The questionnaire was highly invasive. It asked if I had travelled, not just internationally, but to any jurisdiction or municipality where a self-quarantine order was in place. It asked if I had any underlying health conditions that put me into the “high-risk” category.

The questionnaire mentioned things like pregnancy, asthma, & heart/lung issues as things that put one into a “high risk category”. (Nevermind that asking if an employee is pregnant for the purposes of determining if they are allowed to work is grey-area illegal, but I digress...)

It asked if I had any contact with people who had tested positive for #COVID19, or if I had experienced any symptoms. It asked if I had been ordered to self-isolate. Just really invasive questions. I don’t remember all of them, but the entire thing made me HIGHLY uncomfortable.

At first, before I was shown the piece of paper I needed to sign, I was told the questionnaire was “anonymous” and was not tied to our employee ID or name in any way, and, when I took the questionnaire, that seemed to pan out. I didn’t need to log in to any system to take it.

I was already HIGHLY uncomfortable signing a piece of paper saying my temp was in an “acceptable” range, but I was told if I didn’t sign it, I wouldn’t be allowed to work. I expressed my concerns about my privacy rights & was told there was no other option. Sign or don’t work.

So I went to sign the paper...and saw I also had to sign that I completed the questionnaire and was cleared to work. I left that part blank and went on to the floor to work.

About 10 minutes later I was called into the back and told I had to fill EVERYTHING out, or go home.

I again expressed my concerns about my privacy rights, & even said that I had no issue showing management the data they needed (we have to anyway), but that I had no idea where or how this data was being used, & frankly, I didn’t trust <My Company> to protect my privacy rights.

And no one could tell me how the data was being used or stored.

Not even the store manager could tell me much of anything about the process, only saying, “It was rolled out so quickly, I don’t know, let me get back to you.”

And that was not acceptable.

So I did not sign.

I want to make it clear that I actually don’t have a problem taking my temperature, or even verbally answering questions about how I am feeling, or if I am experiencing any #COVID19 symptoms. But I was specifically told by management that I was signing a “legal document”.

Those were the words used. “Legal document”. And I’m absolutely unwilling to sign any document—especially a document that contains health data that isn’t really classified as health data so companies can do whatever they want with it—w/out knowing EXACTLY what’s being done w/ it.

It’s also highly ironic that if I don’t sign a piece of paper, I can’t work, but I have text messages between myself and a manager from LAST WEEK that have me telling them I have a slightly elevated temperature and a mild cough, and the manager approving me to come into work.

It’s all security theater. This is the same company providing us “masks” so thin, my phone camera can see completely through them without any sort of camera flash. https://twitter.com/brazenqueer/status/1252054455958278145?s=21 https://twitter.com/brazenqueer/status/1252054455958278145

Oh, I forgot one thing. When I was called into the back to discuss why I had not filled out the form in its entirety, one of the reasons why I was told I HAD to fill it out was that it “looked bad” and “made other people uncomfortable” that I hadn’t filled it out.

The paper we had to sign wasn’t an individual sheet, but rather one paper for the entire store where everyone writes their name in a slot & checks off that their temp is OK & they “passed” the questionnaire. So not only are we telling our company these things, coworkers see, too.

And that. is. not. okay.

People being “uncomfortable” with me not filling out a damn piece of paper can be easily dealt with by management saying, “They showed me both their temperature and the results of the self-assessment and they are cleared to work.”

There.

Done.

My coworkers do not need to know what my temperature is, or if I am pregnant, or if I have asthma, or if I have travelled. I have been picking up shifts where I can for A MONTH without having to submit to ANY OF THIS. And, suddenly, if I don’t sign a piece of paper, I can’t work.

Small update to this thread:

Just got off a 30 minute call with the manager of the store I have been working at.

They can’t tell me much, but they DID tell me a few very interesting things.

Hold on, because this is going to be a wild fucking ride...

So. Once the paper logs are filled out, they are filed into our store records book. We get a new book every three months or so. When the books are complete, they are shipped to a data storage facility, where they are stored indefinitely (or at least for a long fucking time).

This means our company will have indefinite access to these logs, where we have recorded that our temperatures were in an “acceptable” range, & we “passed” a questionnaire that included questions about travel, contact with possibly infected people, & underlying health conditions.

But that’s not even the most creepy part.

Oh, no, dear reader.

The creepiest - AND BEST - part came later in the conversation.

Hold on to your juice boxes, kids.

Because this is a doozie.

The manager and I were talking about the questionnaire and how it works, and AS THE HOLY MARSHA P. JOHNSON IS MY WITNESS, the manager said, “The other day, [Coworker] was filling out the survey and said that she had asthma, and [district manager *immediately* got an email...”

When I told her this DID NOT MAKE ME FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE ABOUT FILLING OUT THE QUESTIONNAIRE AND HOLY CRAP THIS MEANS CORPORATE IS MONITORING US TAKING THESE THINGS IN REAL TIME AND OH MY GOD NO she kind of regrettably said, “Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have told you that part.”

So, the tl;dr version is I’m not going into work tomorrow because the manager ended up having to call corporate to answer the questions, “What is my data being classified as & how is it being protected? Is it being classified as medical data? Does it have any protections at all?”

Manager said the conversation went something like this:

Corporate: “She wants to know if it’s HIPAA?”
Manager: “Yeah, basically.”

Corporate couldn’t tell her.

They had to escalate it to a team that has a minimum of a 24-hour turnaround time.

And I won’t sign until I know.

(Also please ignore that work doesn’t gender me correctly. I literally had to scream at my manager to get my store to start calling me by my proper name. This, after changing my name tag, politely asking for months, explaining terms “deadname” & “dysphoria”...But I digress...)

So, I’m now out basically 2 days of work because my company can’t tell me how my own goddamn data is being protected.

THE MANAGER EVEN KNEW WHAT THE FUCK CONTACT TRACING WAS. LIKE, SHE HAD AN UNDERSTANDING THAT THE QUESTIONS BEING ASKED WHERE AKIN TO CONTACT TRACING.

So, donations to help offset being out two goddamn days of work because my own goddamn company can’t tell me how THEY are going to protect my data would be nice.

http://cash.me/$brazenqueer 

Another update to this thread:

So I heard back from store manager. She claims our district manager was told by Fancy Title Person (henceforth known as FTP) in our Company and she was told that our info is “absolutely protected by HIPPA” and the info won’t be used, only stored.

Good, right?

Well, you may remember this tweet. https://twitter.com/brazenqueer/status/1253456710997590016?s=21 https://twitter.com/brazenqueer/status/1253456710997590016