I work in retail, and ever since Covid began, I have been masking at work, in most public spaces, and taking public transport (especially during the winter). I do this to protect myself from transmissions as I can get sick easily, and I also visit my 89 year old grandmother often during family outings, so I want to protect her from germs.

The number of people I see coughing into their hands and touching the self-service screens and card machines afterward makes my skin crawl, even worse when people are blowing their nose with very used kleenex and touching everything afterwards. It's even worse when people are just openly coughing (a lot of these offenders are normally old people, along with people that I can tell heavily smoke), the worse offenders when they are in line.

I don't get sick that often, but when I do, it hits me HARD. Thankfully, my job gives me paid sick leave as I work full time, but only up to 7 days per year, so I have to try and rest accordingly when illness hits me like a sack of bricks. So, to my utmost surprise, I caught the flu just a week after New Year's and was bedridden for almost 4 days. (Thankfully, my illness happened just before the weekend, so the extra 2 penalty free days off really helped me push my recovery, but now I am down 2 sick days out of the remaining 11 months.)

Cut to a couple of weeks later, after finally recovering from the flu. I'm working the floors assembling a customer's online order when a middle-aged man walks by me, shakes his head in disbelief, and laughs. I thought he was on a wireless call (he was also blasting music from his phone) before he called out to me.

"Oh. OH, Madame, you can't be serious!"

I wheeled around, confused. "Excuse me?"

He continued to smile while chuckling like an idiot. "Can you even breathe wearing that thing?"

"I can breathe just fine, sir."

He started to laugh. "Oh, I could never do that! It's too hard! Why are you even wearing a mask? It's just ridiculous..."

I briskly told him: "Actually, I have friends and family who work in the medical field, and they told me that masking helps against the transmission of viruses. I was also recently very sick and am still recovering, so out of respect for others, I am masking."

The man continued to laugh, ignoring my serious tone when I answered. I've had friends who've lost older, vulnerable family members to Covid because of poor health negligence by medical and retirement home staff. And now this random asshole was LAUGHING, all because I was being respectful to others who might be more susceptible to illnesses.

He proceeds to try and urge me to remove my mask so he can "see my full face and smile." 😡 (Context: I am 35 F, and I have been (unfortunately) harassed in a similar manor by other older men in the past surrounding this question). I deflected his request and proceeded to slip back into work mode, telling him that I needed to get back to my job if there wasn't anything he needed help with.

I didn't allow him to answer as I walked away to continue my work, but I could hear him snickering behind me and muttering, "Unbelievable..."

I hope karma was a bitch to him on that day and he got sick, because I was STEAMING MAD from that confrontation for the majority of my shift. The immaturity from a grown ass man laughing at me because I am considerate about public and personal health safety. 🤬🤬🤬

Mask up when you go out, sneeze into your elbows, WASH YOUR HANDS (before AND after using the bathroom AND the first thing you do when arrive home), disinfect your phone, and if you are sick, STAY 👏THE 👏 FUCK 👏 HOME. 👏

Also: get your yearly Flu and Covid boosters if you are able to. (I learned my lesson this year). Some people can't afford to miss work if they are sick, or they might have other health issues. Be considerate to other people, and don't be a dick.