It coughs. It sneezes. It flies. There, in the open space, colleagues with Covid-compatible symptoms sow their miasma without thinking for a second of wearing a mask. Meanwhile, against the backdrop of the eighth wave of coronavirus, the epidemic figures are racing. On Wednesday, 67,948 cases were identified, reports Public Health France. The day before, the figure climbed to 94,753. And the incidence rate is exploding, with 576 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, up more than 22% in one week.
Since the lifting of the health protocol in companies on March 14, wearing a mask is no longer compulsory, it is simply recommended. And in practice largely shunned. For a majority of workers, they are tired of living with restrictions. To the chagrin of a small minority who would like not to contract Covid-19 from their office neighbor. On the occasion this Friday of National Air Quality Day, the readers of 20 minutes who responded to our call tell us how they approach wearing a mask and the Covid risk in their workplace.
“Macron wanted us to live with the Covid-19! »
“The Covid-19 is no longer scary at all, believes Eric. President Macron wanted us to learn to live with it, for once we listen to him. So, yes, I’ve had “flu-like” symptoms for almost a week. But I don’t do any tests, or consultations, or anything at all! A little honey and paracetamol, and I’ll get to work. And I’m sure I haven’t infected anyone.
Ditto for Florence, “sick for ten days, with sore throat, loss of voice, stuffy nose, headache. But I won’t get tested and as long as my legs will carry me, I’ll go to work! There, I learn that I am in contact after a family meal, well I will not take any particular measures, that’s it! »
It must be said that after almost three years of pandemic, for many, the virus has generated too many constraints. “Collectively, the fact of no longer wearing the mask is experienced as a liberation, even a victory, explains Alain d’Iribarne, sociologist and labor economist, and director of research at the CNRS. At the same time, employees are showing the need to return to their workplace, to renew contact with their colleagues and their management, as an element of well-being. But any obligation or injunction – here to wear the mask – is very badly perceived. We come back to the quasi-philosophical debate on selfishness and altruism. Wearing the mask in exchange for the well-being of returning to your workplace is, for many, experienced as an unbearable constraint. It’s the very French notion of “such is my good pleasure”.
“You can’t live with a mask all the time”
Thus, in his open space where a hundred people work, Jean-Philippe is one of the only ones to wear the mask. “Because my 20-year-old son has cancer, he has been in chemotherapy for four months, so he is very vulnerable from an immune point of view. My employer is understanding and lets me telecommute. Wearing a mask is recommended by management, but apart from me, only one or two senior managers wear it, to set an example. However, the father of the family understands his colleagues. “If my son wasn’t sick, I wouldn’t wear a mask, it’s very uncomfortable, and you can’t live with it all the time”.
For the sociologist, Jean-Philippe “could be a pedagogical actor on the question of the usefulness of the mask: “is it useful because it protects me from others or because by putting it on, I protect others? ” Face-to-face work must be understood as a package: returning to the office, in particular for reasons of conviviality, implies that in return, if the health situation requires it, you must agree to wear the mask to protect each other.
It is not Yohan who will say the opposite: “just with a mask, you avoid passing on your angina, your cold and your Covid, it’s not complicated! I have no desire to catch other people’s viruses. We know how to protect others, so we might as well do it! »
“I don’t understand the people who trivialize the Covid”
After being infected in July, Christelle developed a long Covid and has “only one fear: contracting this dirty virus again. Since then, I wear the mask but at the office, I am the only one. My five colleagues don’t wear it even though they have a cold, cough and sneeze. It bothers me a lot but I say nothing, since it is no longer mandatory. I don’t understand people who trivialize the Covid-19, it’s pure unconsciousness! »
A feeling shared by Léa. “A colleague knowingly came to work with symptoms, said nothing, did not put on a mask, and several of us were infected, says the young woman. Since then, I wear the mask, but I am alone. And everyone makes fun of me saying: “you scare us with your mask, we’ll think you have the Covid”. It makes me crazy ! »
For Alain d’Iribarne, “this is the issue of open spaces. If everyone agrees to wear – or not – the mask, there is no problem. But if opinions are divided, the disagreements expressed can create tensions. It is up to the direct manager, possibly with the support of human resources and management, to manage the problem”.
“I don’t receive any compensation if I have to close shop, so I work”
Without having a clear opinion on the question, there are some for whom sick leave due to coronavirus rhymes with drying up of cash. Like Zazou: “I have the Covid, but above all I have a business to run. I can’t be absent: being independent, I don’t receive any compensation if I have to close shop”.
Grégoire is a postman. “In the event of sick leave, I am deducted 20% of my quarterly bonus per day of stoppage, even in the event of Covid-19, he explains. So if I stop for a week, I lose 160 euros. And given my mediocre salary, I can’t afford it.
“Rational reasoning,” comments Alain d’Iribarne. The employer cannot pass on to his employee the responsibility of being a good citizen. It is a moral problem and an untenable situation for the employee: there is a sort of moral injunction not to risk contaminating others, but at the cost of a difficult financial sacrifice. This is not a good calculation by the employer: not only is it at the risk of creating a cluster in the workplace, but more profoundly, it is at the risk that the employee feels discredited, and long live this situation as a form of contempt. While today, an important point in the commitment of employees to work is to feel respected and considered by their superiors”.