“You don’t build a business, you build people, then people build the business.”
- Zig Ziglar
by Luke Schmaltz
Just as 2020 was hijacked by Covid-19, 2021 was stifled by the Delta variant, and now it seems that 2022 is being preemptively overshadowed by Omicron.
The fear, confusion, and hysteria being whipped up in anticipation of the new variant is yet another example of how the pandemic ultramarathon is wearing down the fundamental American values of body autonomy and personal freedom.
On September 9, 2021, President Biden issued vaccine mandates for all Federal contractors, Federal employees, and Medicare- and Medicaid-funded healthcare workers. This was followed by a November 4th requirement issued by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety Hazard Administration (OSHA) that all companies with 100 or more workers ensure that each of their employees are either vaccinated for Covid-19 or tested on a weekly basis. Weeks later, the latter order was blocked by Federal judges in Kentucky and Louisiana — both citing the unconstitutionality of the decree.
The New Abnormal
Workers: Must retail and hospitality workers become the front-line soldiers in an underfunded war?
Should this pattern continue, regardless of blockages by Federal judges, the next logical step in this progression is a vaccine mandate for all businesses — including those that fall under the “small business” umbrella and happen to employ 48% of the entire American workforce — according to a recent report by Florida TaxWatch. Should such an Executive order be foisted on business owners and managers, perhaps after that will follow an order requiring that all persons who enter a business must show proof of vaccination. At this point, should circumstances progress to such an extreme, is when the specter of encroaching doom begins to loom over small businesses and family-owned enterprises like the shadow of a fast-approaching storm.
Unlike pandemics of the pre-Internet age, today’s vaccine hesitancy is at an unprecedented disparity with compliance. This division is fueled by everything from religious beliefs to folks citing fact-based studies on post-inoculation health issues and, of course, a litany of unfounded myths about the vaccines turning people into magnetic zombies, 5G antennas, and premature corpses.
Deja Vu
Compliance issues aside, a major underlying concern is that a small business mandate could foist the job of policing vaccine compliance onto the shoulders of Mom and Pop who are simply trying to make an honest living at the corner store. Essentially, those who serve their neighbors everyday — whether it is a meal, an oil change, a dry-cleaning order, or any one of 1,000 other services — will become the de facto enforcers of government policy on a street level, one on one basis. In a profoundly stressed labor market, this additional requirement of doing business may overwhelm some establishments, placing them in jeopardy of being shut down for failing (or refusing) to harangue every last patron for a vaccine card. Think about it: A populace of stressed-out, paranoid citizens prying into the personal matters of their neighbors at the behest of the government. Sound familiar?
Dysfunction Junction
OSHA: This agency administers rules which require compliance lettering illustration with icons for web banner, flyer
Across the Denver commercial landscape, it is universally agreed upon — among customers and proprietors alike — that all anyone really wants is for business to return to something resembling pre-pandemic normalcy. Covid-19 and its growing ranks of variants, however, do not share this outlook — and thus the current predicament. Meanwhile, the labor market limps along like an extended case of walking pneumonia as small businesses struggle to hire workers. If retail stores, contractors and every branch of the hospitality industry are scrambling to fill positions, chances are good that the government agency tasked with enforcing the speculated vaccine mandates will be understaffed as well. Over the last 18+ months, most Denver residents have seen the astonishing effects of unenforced policies. They are scattered across the sidewalks, alleyways and parking lots of the city — human casualties of a rampant, unmitigated dope epidemic.
Not In The Job Description
A vaccine mandate on the workers and patrons of small businesses could potentially decrease productivity and increase operating costs — as employees will have to shift their main concern of serving customers to first snooping into private medical histories. A secondary effect of this dynamic could be the systematic erosion of trust between the proprietors, the customers, and the workers who take care of their needs. And of course, don’t forget about the archetypical nosey-ass, Yelp-reviewing, tattletale busybodies who — with nothing better to do — will be policing the actions of workers and posting about the poor souls who have become default enforcers of government policy. Should things come to this, one might speculate that people will simply stop leaving home to do business and revert back to the unthinkable — going online to fulfill every need and giving even more money to Jeff Bezos.
The current consensus among small business owners is that they are willing to comply with mask mandates so that they can, at the very least, keep doing business. Owners, customers, and workers alike all pine for the days of yore. Yet, when presented with the speculative scenario of vaccine mandates which would have to be enforced by each business lest they be fined and possibly shut down, most respondents are, for now, staying tight-lipped. After calls to dozens of Denver restaurants, retailers and the like, a few folks willing to offer opinions were finally found.
The Bookies
Mandate: A vaccine mandate on the workers and patrons of small businesses could potentially decrease productivity and increase operating costs.
This book retailer and gift shop at 4315 E. Mississippi Ave. was recently acquired by Nicole Sullivan, owner of northwest Denver’s inimitable BookBar. Anna, perhaps the friendliest customer service person in all of Denver, answered the phone and offered a bit of relevant insight. “The mask mandate gave us more confidence to post it [the policy] on the door,” she begins. “But a vaccine mandate? I don’t even know how you would even begin to enforce that,” she explains. “I wouldn’t want to put anyone at the door checking vaccine cards. I think it’s OK for big places where people congregate a lot, but this is a store. We already went through all of that at the beginning, making sure people had masks on. Thankfully most people do.”
Staybridge Suites Hotel
While this Glendale outpost of high-end hospitality at 4220 E. Virginia Ave. is part of a worldwide conglomerate of hotels, commentary from hotel manager Max Kiker offers some valuable insights into the proposed vaccine mandate scenario. “We are a huge business, so the [current] mandate would apply to us,” he says. When asked about his managerial team’s “for or against” stance on a vaccine mandate, he continues, “Right now we are neutral. There are too many conflicting views out there, but it would impact our business because we have already lost people because of the mask mandate,” He explains. “There are enough labor issues right now and this would compound them.”
Dr. Proctor’s Bar
This Glendale neighborhood treasure at 4201 E. Mississippi Ave. is known for plenty of pool tables, great food, big screen TVs, and has been a local go-to since 1981. The daytime bartender, Susie, is quick to point out, “We are a small bar and regardless of what it [vaccine mandate] would come down to, we can’t afford to lose our liquor license, so we enforce everything. As far as the mask mandate goes,” she continues, “We are enforcing it as much as we can. Some people are compliant, and some people are just absolutely ignorant about it. If you can’t wear your mask, you gotta leave,” she explains.
Whether citizens working in retail, hospitality, and other iterations of small business have to either become spies, de facto law enforcers, or criminals by default — only time will tell. If small businesses must enforce vaccine mandates, the current state of civic division will pale in comparison to the ensuing social breakdown.