On Christmas morning, a test confirmed a positive COVID diagnosis. We don’t want you to be put into a situation that turns into a confrontation.”Īfter working a shift on December 22, the employee went home, where she lives alone and observes what she describes as a "low-risk" lifestyle she stayed there until December 24, when she started experiencing symptoms. "At this time we made the decision protect the staff from having to get into an uncomfortable situation by asking our staff to not actively approach guests on the subject. “The aquarium is in compliance with the mandate at this time with having the signs posted on all the doors," a manager emailed employees after some complained.
#Oceanarium restaurant reopening how to#
“It’s a very small, overly worded sign that no one is going to look at, no one is going to read, because want to actually appear to be enforcing this,” the employee says.Īquarium Employee The City of Denver offers resources for businesses, including pre-made signage and guidance on how to implement mask mandates. After employees asked for more signage throughout the exhibit floor, the company added a sign at the stingray reef. Only four signs in the 100,000-plus-square-foot facility announce the mandate, including one at the entrance where people can buy tickets. On several occasions when unmasked patrons didn't respond to a request that they cover up, floor employees called management for backup, as they were instructed to do in the email - but management did not attempt to ask those patrons to put on masks or support the employee’s desire to encourage masking, she says. “Even when you try to explain it to guests, they never want to believe that the rule applies to them, which really sucks, because then we're fighting on both sides and we get no support from management,” she notes.
"If you need to ask someone kindly to wear a mask and they get upset, just let it be or contact a manager, please do not put yourself into a bad situation."īut a bad situation got worse when unmasked parties arrived, says the employee, who asked to remain anonymous, citing retaliation against other workers who have spoken out she sent emails and photographs to Westword to back up her statements.
“Please do not worry about policing the policy," it advised. When the Denver County mask mandate was originally announced on November 24, management sent an email to employees saying that the aquarium would require reservations and masks, as it had at the start of the pandemic.
“It's terrifying, because they literally don't care,” says the employee of Landry’s, the massive Texas-based restaurant company that owns and operates the Downtown Aquarium, which started out as Colorado's Ocean Journey over thirty years ago and today is an " entertainment and dining complex" with a full-service restaurant and bar as well as underwater exhibits featuring 500 species, A Downtown Aquarium employee got an unexpected gift this Christmas: a COVID-19 infection that she attributes to her workplace’s lax enforcement of Denver’s mask mandate, which was just extended to February 3.
0 kommentar(er)
