Normally this blog features (hopefully) humorous drawings, stories, and perspectives regarding my experiences living with a chronic illness. However, I'm breaking from tradition today with a call to action that I think has the potential to work very well to help slow the spread of coronavirus, and also to help lots of low-income people. I think slowing the spread of coronavirus will be beneficial to everyone, including people with disabilities, so I've decided that it's okay to break theme. I'm also going to try to keep this post more swear-word-free than usual, in the hopes that it (or at least my plan) get shared. Unless you've been living in a hole, I'm sure you've heard the recommendations that everyone who can should work from home and socially distance themselves in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Crucially, these measures won't prevent everyone from getting the coronavirus - most of us are probably going to get it eventually. These measures are important because it will slow the rate of the virus's spread, and will allow hospitals and healthcare providers to not be overwhelmed. Following these measures will dramatically reduce the death toll (here's an article that, in my opinion, breaks this down in an easy-to-understand way). I've also seen a fair number of posts of social media that are addressing that directives to try to stay home and socially isolate are difficult/impossible for low-income people (here's an example), and that often only upper-class people can do things like this. These posts are making an important point - in the USA, there is no guaranteed paid time off for illness, and just about all workers in the service industry will not get paid and risk losing their jobs if they don't work when they're ill. Since so many people in America live paycheck-to-paycheck (according to a 2019 survey conducted by Charles Schwab, that number is 59%), this is terrifying. If these people contract coronavirus, they will either lose money they desperately need, or they will continue going to work and spread the virus. It's my opinion that now would be the time for government to step in and find a way to guarantee that employees who are sick or who are non-essential to a functioning society practice social distancing. However, we're not there yet - the quick passage of a paid sick leave bill was blocked because the funding for sick leave was expected to come from employers, and the Sen. Lamar Alexander (the senator who blocked the bill) believed that the government should fund this sick leave. So, while we're waiting for a better solution, what can everyday people like you and me do, other than the obvious things like wash our hands and socially distance ourselves as much as possible? Well, if you're reading this blog post, you probably have access to the internet. And if you have access to the internet and sometimes buy things, I've got an idea - I think we should vote with our dollars (and I don't mean by donating to Bernie Sanders's campaign, though please also do that). My plan is based on one surprising fact I learned in my five-ish years working for for-profit corporations: these corporations really care about your complaints and about what you write in those customer surveys. They care A LOT. I have been in meetings where the contents of one negative review are discussed by highly-paid professionals for over 45 minutes. I worked for one company where a customer service representative getting 4 star reviews instead of 5 star reviews was grounds for termination. They care that much, folks, which seems insane to me, but the fact is that our messages, sent directly to these corporations, are one of the best ways the corporations have to learn about how we choose to spend our money. And they want us to spend our money on their products and services. Oh, do they ever want that, so, so very muchly. So here's what I've been doing:
Here's a sample email I sent: Obviously me doing this by myself won't make much of a difference. But if we could get lots of people contacting lots of corporations, encouraging them to make the right choice, I think we could actually make a difference and make corporations realize that there is real economic value in giving their employees paid sick leave. Come with me on this magical *swear word redacted* journey. UPDATE March 14, 2020: I got a response from eShakti's CEO promising that all employees had paid sick leave! Success! If you need a new dress or skirt, I know who you should order it from!
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Grace Daly
I'm young, hot, and have multiple chronic illnesses. Come with me on this magical fucking journey. Archives
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