Starbucks: A tale of sickness

Melissa – New York City, NY

“I work as a barista at Starbucks, and it has become apparent through this crisis that profit and the bottom line are first and foremost in corporate's eyes, over the safety of their workers and customers. This should be clear from the fact that stores remain open well into outbreak, but even when baristas are symptomatic, the process of getting paid leave becomes a nightmare.

As of March 11th, the company announced that they would be providing “catastrophe pay” to employees out of work for reasons related to COVID-19 for up to fourteen days of missed shifts. 

The following day I found myself developing symptoms consistent with COVID-19. Based on my understanding of the illness, it would be necessary for public health for me to quarantine myself, but the hurdles presented by the company were impossible to navigate.

The criteria to access catastrophe pay – as explained to me by an HR rep who used a variation of the phrase “but if you don't think your symptoms are COVID-19 related” about ten times – required me to have a positive test for COVID-19, to have a confirmed interaction with a carrier, or to have a doctor's note recommended self-quarantine. Especially given how early in the outbreak I displayed symptoms, being tested would have required hospitalization. As a healthy young person with just a fever and a deep cough, I was never going to be tested anywhere. I also couldn't confirm interaction despite living in a crowded city. So that left getting a note.

I contacted urgent care facilities (they wouldn't see someone with symptoms), I rang doctor's offices (they wouldn't see someone with symptoms), after a tip from one office I even called 311 (they didn't know I what I was talking about). The only real option anyone could suggest was an ER visit. I called my workplace insurance company to ask what that would mean for me financially. It was explained to me that I would pay a $150 copay upon walking in, up to a $700 deductible, and 30% of any bill beyond that. All of this to MAYBE obtain a note saying that no, I should not be making people cappuccinos and that I should continue to receive much-needed pay in the meantime.

My solution? Continue to use my own personal sick time to ensure that I wouldn't advance pandemic and yet still have rent money. After three days, that did not even remain an option, because I was told that four days of sick leave constituted a leave of absence that once again would require the medical letter that had already proven impossible to get. I felt like I was being actively hindered from complying with CDC recommendations.

We as workers deserve better than this. We deserve the right to take time off when we're sick. We deserve to be able to take actions that will protect ourselves, our coworkers, and the public who we have come to know. We deserve to know that our incomes won't be at risk for doing so.”