Are you in Ontario and working a job that you don't think is essential but you've been told by your employer to physically go to in to work because they've deemed it essential you be there in person? My DMs are open if you'd like me to anonymously share your experiences.

Here's an RN in a diabetes clinic whose whole office is still going into work because the office has paper charts

Here's someone whose husband works at Hydro and so is deemed essential whose office is still stuck in the land that thinks if you stand 6 feet apart indoors, there's no need for masks

Here's another medical office that refuses to pivot from paper

Here's someone in Ontario's Film and TV industry whereby the new lockdown has changed nothing

Here's someone whose husband is deemed essential, whose workplace is not wearing full PPE (not healthcare), where even with confirmed exposure by coworker, has been told there's explicit requirement to go back to work

And of course kitchen manufacturing is essential

At this essential ontario carpet manufacturer masks aren't worn if more than 6 feet apart, nor could they if that even really mattered with an airborne virus

This Ontario office space where virtual work is wholly possible requires everyone to come in 1 day a week because if they don't, they're slackers

Guessing this is an extremely common issue - virtual work possible, workers told nope.

As I was saying

Accountants working on laptops definitely can't do so from home

Though it's difficult to imagine why film/TV production is essential, if only kids in school received the same testing that they apparently do

"I'm just really wondering in what world is selling black stretchy pants essential to human survival?"

And of course if construction is deemed essential, so too are construction materials, and this DMer who wonders why it is there aren't ever any workplace inspections?

Can't stop making cars of course

Graphic design boss doesn't want their workers to get used to the privilege of working from home. Also gotta make military vehicles right now

Employer won't cough up for workable VPN. Oh, and in manufacturing, do you think the loud workfloor affects people yelling, wearing masks, and proximities?

VP and CEOs friends can work at home. Everyone else? Nope.

Software engineer's job's entirely online. Same setup at home vs. in the office. Collaborating virtually with offsite people. Boss says he has to be physically in the office 50% of the time

ePayments? Who the fuck needs those when you have a 65 year old immunocompromised bookkeeper to come in and cut cheques?

And how many bosses are passive aggressive about work at home requests or publicly shame those employees who ask (or choose if given option) to do so?

If an industry is deemed essential, like um film?, people who need to pay the bills, even if they're at heightened risk and work with anti-maskers - gotta go to work

Store's literally not offering up public retail. No one's coming in. Except workers that is. Essential that they do.

Tech worker on a work Visa so quitting not an option and whose job can be done online told nope, if people on factory floor have to come in, so do you, oh, and also, stop being so dramatic.

Dentist won't pivot to emergency services only so hygienist needs to bring her kids to work with her as schools are closed

Can't stop selling cars, or allow for reduced numbers of employees/shifts

January's been kickass for essential <checks notes> RV sales

Generally have heard most people working for Ontario government have been afforded work at home options where possible. Not so much jail it would seem. Good thing they're not riskier places when it comes to COVID.....

Home healthcare company CEO says definitely you can't stay home to do virtual administrative work

Import/export company kindly provides employees with the laptops and headsets they need to do their entirely online jobs that they must come in to work for because it's essential they're in the office to use them

What could be more essential than selling boardgames?

People need indoor cake!

I mean if this person didn't go in to stock the coffee who would? Also there are no such things as telephones.

Working from home all summer, same job, now told "it's not the way they do things" and have to come in person

Special needs teacher who had been doing great with their kids online forced, today, to go back to in person. Bonus? Kid came to school whose mother was sick at home

Bank employee who had been working from home given instructions to head back to work at least one day a week along with a letter to provide authorities deeming they're essential if they're stopped

Sure, CPR's good to know, but is teaching it to 10 different people day in and day out in an unventilated room essential during a pandemic?

Grad student at U of T, who was able to work from home in spring/summer when pandemic wasn't as bad as it is now is now apparently essential

Apparently Ontario schools aren't empty. At least not Upper Canada District School Board admin staff and custodial workers who are still going in

So there might not be any people in Toronto's libraries, but apparently they're still being fully staffed in person

Guess what happens when you're a big box store that sells a few essential items and the rest not? You stay open, that's what

So, ever so slightly off thread but wtf? This Grade 2 teacher who has been teaching a *virtual* class all year is finally able to do so from home, because up until this most recent "lockdown" with school open, they were forced to teach their virtual class from within the school

I mean NordVPN Teams does cost $7/user/month so I mean who could blame this financial analyst for not ponying up for a VPN so that their staff could work from home?

Well, if your boss doesn't "believe" in COVID can you blame them for making you come to work everyday at your empty showroom?

Masks, shmasks

Worker at a wellness centre closed in March for 3 months who figures maybe there's one person a week there justifiably definable as emergent wants you to know to you should make sure to call in advance for an appointment as they're fully, fully, booked.

Without floors, where would you walk? Also if you work for this flooring contractor, better not mention when you used to work from home or you'll be shamed. Also, masks are optional.

About your essential lattes - you might be getting them at the expense of your baristas getting spit on and abused.

Glad I don’t work at Costco head office where it was ok to work from home when there was an actual work from home order, but not now that it’s just a work at home ask.

Not all companies are awful. Kudos from a follower to @RBC

Need a few more? How about this from a nurse practitioner working at a major downtown Toronto hospital on the nurses that have to show up for in person work because equity?

Person who reports they're doing data entry for The City of Toronto says they can't work from home because laptops are too expensive

Another PhD student, this one doing basic cell biology with experiments that could be put on hold, here to tell me that ALL research is essential

Casual worker for the federal government and working in Ontario? You still have to go in to the office. And masks are optional of course

Don't forget too, if your Toronto based employer won't bother trying to figure out how to transition workers online, and they don't have a car, they'll be taking public transport, possibly even an hour each way.

Don't you dare eat lunch at your workstation at your warehouse that isn't selling anything essential but is essential. Instead you must sit in the lunchroom without masks or social distancing.

I mean of course, um, sports marketing, is essential

Are you a confirmed close contact of a positive case working in a large Toronto department store who feels fine? No need to isolate until test results are back

Person who could do their job from home is for some reason discouraged that instead their boss has them conducting online meetings with people who are working from home at work along with 5 other people in the same room

Wet signatures are of course essential to insurers. I mean how could they ever get by with digital ones?

I would genuinely encourage this non-lawyer working in a maskless in person law office that refuses to go remote to speak with a lawyer about their workplace rights

You might think hospitals would be thoughtful employers during a pandemic. You might.

Looks like big banks are the places to work during pandemics. Here are more kudos for one from a follower working for @TD_Canada

Another caring boss story (no snark), this one from a physiotherapy office that is clearly trying their best for all involved

What the fuck is ZOOM again?

On working for minimum wage with no hazard pay to sell essential gummy bears and art supplies and get yelled at

Health and safety officer's job is to report COVID related health and safety related problems that then don't get acted upon. Must be super fun.

"If we just close the shop doors, Public Health won't know there's people working there it's not like they're actually following up" - Casedemic boss

Fast food restaurant can't get a server so no working from home. See what I did there? Also ugh.

Clinical researchers doing non-essential work in Toronto hospital telling bosses who work from home that their workplace isn't safe but no worries, because bosses send back emails saying everything is fine

Rather than layoff their groomers who could then get EI and stay home (which they did in March) PetSmart is apparently having them come in for 6 hours of sweeping and cleaning. In this particular person's case, coming in also includes over 2 hours of public transit commuting

What could be more essential than virtual interior design?

Not enough laptops/laptops are too expensive seems to be a common theme out there too

Perhaps it's not surprising that COVID denialist CEOs choose not to let their employees work from home with current you decide if you're essential "lockdown"

If we don't let 20 maskless workers share portapotties and build $400,000 homes right now where will people live?

Belleville City Hall might have an interesting take on testing

Answering emails and coding is "too dynamic" to be done from home. Same with training people virtually to work virtually

I mean of course it's essential for us to be able to buy plants in January in Canada

Working more than 1 day remotely per week would definitely destroy this logistics company's logistics

Food is certainly essential and so of course it follows that making Instagram posts about food is essential enough to require you to go to the office to do so

Promotional food displays are so essential that hundreds of vendors are travelling around the province to multiple grocery stores daily to sell them

Beer? Yes. Masks? No.

Car dealership where 18% of employees have already had COVID. But don't worry. They're closing an hour earlier. But don't you go home earlier because you won't get paid.

Of course it's essential that school custodians travel for hours to clean empty schools and mix with day staff while they're shut down.

Can't micromanage your 100+ employees if you let them do the jobs they're able to do remotely from home

Media is essential, so of course that would include veterinary magazine production

Costco's got to be doing well during this pandemic. Their employees who could easily work from home? Much less so

Blowing up rocks is apparently essential. Safe working conditions for those blowing them up is apparently not.

Another good story to mix in. This digital agency not only supports working from home, they gave employees $1,000 to help set themselves up to do so

Law office requires its employees to be there in person 3 people to an office "in case an errand needs to be run" and despite having everything set up to work from home which people do on weekends when they're not paid to do so because it's a law office and "nothing changes here"

Driving through 3 red zone cities to your job that you were allowed to do virtually during the springtime actual lockdown with papers to show the cops how essential it is you're there at least twice weekly must be just a bit incensing

Put a sign on your door asking people to wear a mask, get fired, and then have to train your replacement? Thinking this person should definitely speak with an employment lawyer

Support staff and lawyers - you can work from home. No, not you paralegals

Call forwarding? What's that?

Getting lots of messages like this from law firms

Film industry pushing back in my mentions saying but we're awesome at testing. Ok. Film/TV support industry says, um, hello there

Just no possible way executives could press the print button twice a week. No. Way.

If University courses' basic science labs paused their in-person instruction, no one could ever possibly get an advanced degree

Certainly it's essential to keep selling $500 purses in Toronto. Who could ever argue with that?

According to this DM if you work at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Toronto, where I hear their residents are, um, geriatric and at much higher risk, and you're admin, go in or you're fired. Director, Executive or HR? You can stay home.

Used office furniture retail during a stay at home "order" sure sounds like an essential service to me

School social worker who was not allowed to see students/families in person and who was also not allowed to do her virtual meetings from home is finally home now because school closures were actually ordered while businesses were just asked. Also, WTAF?

While FedEx and courier services are undeniably essential, it's also undeniable that masks shouldn't be optional at their warehouse

Working for a public library from home? Not anymore. Now you've got to come in for at least a shift a week

Essential cardboard boxes aren't going to make themselves you know

Working on *digital collections* for a public library and never had to physically touch a book as long as they've been employed, worked from home from March-August, now told come in or be on unpaid leave

London area hospital says even if you're doing 100% virtual work, you need to do it in house because of, wait for it, occupational health and safety

My alma mater, U of T, having resident physicians write a self-assessment where the score doesn't matter on a laptop on site in hospital with a group of other residents seems like a good learning case for U of T medicine's public health block

Ontario "lockdown", where superior courts are virtual while provincial courts are still in person

Here's a free tip, don't joke with your barista that "coffee is essential ha ha ha"

Another member of Ontario's film and TV essential industry support staff who doesn't care one whit about how many times the actors are getting tested because he sure isn't and nor are the people he works in close proximity with

Because it's an official email I'll officially tag
@PCLConstruction who state unless they're legally forced otherwise, are forcing their employees, even those successfully working remotely, back to their offices because their "culture" & "family feel" is best achieved in person

Have an ice-cream store and want to stay open? Well now of course you can because it's a "lockdown", but if it's ever an actual lockdown, just make sure to start selling milk and eggs too and you're golden. Also no need for hazard pay

Install a server so workers can work from home? Unpossible. But at least masks are cool. Since the death that is.

Tough to blame the company with over $1 billion in annual revenue for not setting up systems to allow administrators to work from home during a pandemic. I mean it's not as if it's from an industry that should certainly know better. Oh wait.

Nurse practitioner's supervisor insists they go in daily (rather than perhaps 1-2 days per week) despite not needing to because they only see maybe 5 patients face to face per week (rest virtual). I'd have hoped primary health care would know how shameful this ask is.

Yeah, that super essential film industry seems quite problematic despite all that testing that people in the film industry keep trying to suggest makes everything ok. Positive tests probably should um, I don't know, stop production for a bit?