https://twitter.com/BenBonnema/status/1365422715436478470
https://twitter.com/BenBonnema/status/1365448606677876743
When I was reading the guy's letter at first, I was actually on his side. I personally find it annoying when corporations take performative, low-value "COVID safety" measures, which look good on the surface but don't actually help prevent the spread of the virus.
He's actually likely correct that aerosol transmission of COVID is probably the main culprit. It definitely isn't surfaces, and it may not even be droplets as previously thought. This would explain why most of the COVID spread occurs indoors where there's heating/AC systems running. This is also why I have almost completely avoided being indoors (other than my own home) over the past 11 months, and also why I believe that masking is only a minor factor in preventing the spread.
Unfortunately, as the letter goes on, it comes off as condescending and pedantic, and he makes absurd demands which are unrealistic to expect of the corporation.
He demands MERV-13 filters instead of MERV-7, wants changes to the HVAC system, wants the CO2 level constantly monitored and store capacity changed accordingly (lol), and most obnoxiously, wants a "three strikes" rule against customers who don't mask.
The corporation decided the guy was a dickhead, especially with the three strikes rule he proposed, and canned him.
I don't think he deserved to be fired over this, but his demands were mostly crazy, and he was asking for way too much. Did he really expect all Trader Joe's stores to constantly monitor its CO2 level, or to institute a customer three-strike system?
The letter would have been far more reasonable if he simply pointed out that aerosol transmission is likely the way COVID mostly spreads, and then suggest a few simple, easy-to-implement changes which could improve safety for employees. It's also important to know that large corporations are full of bureaucracy, so it's impossible for one low-level employee to force through multiple elements of major change. He wrote this as if he were communicating directly with the owner of a mom-and-pop store (who also probably would have told him to eat shit), and was completely naive regarding the way corporate complaints are processed and handled.
Also, this dude (who isn't trans) lists his pronouns in his Twitter bio, so that's pretty much all you need to know.
Opinions?