Some Starbucks employees are angry over mask mandates lifting, while others are eager to end customer confrontations
- Starbucks is one of several retailers to lift mask mandates following new CDC guidelines.
- Some workers are worried about greater risk of exposure to COVID-19.
- Others are eager to end confrontations with customers.
Starbucks is one of many retailers lifting mask requirements for customers, and workers say they are split over whether it's the right decision.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday relaxed mask guidance for fully vaccinated people, and Starbucks, Walmart, Costco, and others have dropped mask requirements except in states where they are still legally required.
The new rules put retail workers in a bind. For some, ending confrontations with customers over masks is a welcome respite after a difficult year, but others remain worried about contracting COVID-19 and low vaccination rates.
Starbucks pointed Insider to the company's updated COVID-19 response page, which says that face coverings are optional for fully vaccinated customers beginning Monday, May 17. Employees will continue to be required to wear double masks.
A Starbucks worker in Connecticut told Insider that she is concerned as a "chronically ill and high-risk barista," and is considering leaving her job over mask mandates lifting. The worker and others cited in this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly on the topic, and their employment was confirmed by Insider.
Masks are technically still required for unvaccinated customers, but in practice workers can't police each person's vaccination status.
A barista in Michigan who works at a Starbucks near a hospital shared concerns about the potential spread of the virus among immunocompromised patients.
"We can't verify if the people coming in without a mask have been vaccinated or not, and we're outside of a hospital so people with compromised immunities have to share spaces with people who have no mask on," the worker said. "I'm worried we're going to end up with another spike in cases."
At the same time, many Starbucks workers have shared in interviews and on social media message boards that they are ready to end uncomfortable confrontations with customers over masks.
"It isn't like the system was great when we were enforcing masks," the Michigan barista said. "We still had people take masks down to talk to us, people who only wore face shields and would talk over the espresso bar, and kids who put their hands on everything and had no mask on at all."
A Pennsylvania employee said that she and her coworkers struggled to enforce mask mandates prior to the revised CDC guidance.
Store management did not confront customers who refused to wear masks, and that made other employees uncomfortable when it came to enforcing the mandates, she said.
"We should not have to put ourselves in that situation and we should be able to ask disruptive customers to leave," she said.
As of May 17, 47% of the US population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 37% are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.
The past year has exposed the massive demands put on retail workers, often for relatively low pay and few benefits, even as they were called heroes and essential workers. While tasked with enforcing mask mandates and interacting with customers during the height of a pandemic, many workers reported abuse, harassment, and assault on the job. A West Coast barista told Insider that she was "punched by a grown man" for asking him to wear a mask before restrictions were lifted.
These conflicts in customer-facing jobs over the past year have helped fuel a mass exodus from the retail industry as a growing number of openings in the labor market are making it easier for retail workers to transition to new careers.
Do you have a story to share about a retail or restaurant chain? Email this reporter at mmeisenzahl@businessinsider.com.