The new COVID-19 virus variant, Omicron, has swiftly been spreading throughout the country. And while things have seemed okay for a bit, this new variant has put a hamper on our plans; especially the holiday season. With this, T-Mobile has decided to bring back its face mask mandate for all its employees, regardless of vaccination status.
The T-Mo Report has shared the news today with an internal email sent out by T-Mobile’s President of Consumer Markets, Jon Freier. The reimplementation of the mask mandate is to be observed “effective immediately.”
This is what the internal email says:
Team –
As you are likely well aware of, the Omicron COVID-19 variant is now the dominant strain in the United States. The public health community is learning more about Omicron real-time, but what we seem to know, at the moment, is that the Omicron variant is much more transmissible, but potentially much less severe in terms of serious illness. That said, we are monitoring hospitalizations very closely to understand the impact of the Omicron variant.
From the very first moment of COVID-19, our priority has been to maintain a safe environment for our employees and customers in an effort to promote personal wellness. As we’ve navigated the environment in a pre-vaccine environment, post-vaccine environment, new variants, etc., we’ve been the leader to take decisive action to keep our employees safe. Given the higher transmissibility of the Omicron variant, we will be returning to required masking for all employees from now through January 31, 2022. As we approach January 31, we can re-evaluate where we are at that time, and if we can return to our policy of vaccinated employees not being required to mask, or potentially extend the January 31 date into February as we safely get through the Omicron variant’s impact.
We will be strongly encouraging customers to wear face masks, but will not take the action of requiring customers to wear masks at this time. That could potentially change, but at this moment, we’re not taking that action. We will be updating store signage and store locator messaging soon. Of course, if a local jurisdiction requires masking, we will comply and enforce that local rule.
Additionally, and just as importantly, I’m asking all of our retail team members to review their physical distancing practices that include appropriate retail occupancy management. Given the higher Omicron transmissibility, ensuring we have good physical distancing practices would be smart of us as we effectively manage this next COVID-19 wave that will undoubtedly produce a high number of infections over the next several weeks across the country.
Nothing is more important than our personal health and taking the necessary actions that keep our teams safe. I know we are well past the point of pandemic management fatigue. I continue to be optimistic that the pandemic will begin to transition into an endemic as we get into 2022 thanks to rising vaccination rates and other factors. Until then, we have to stay vigilant and be willing to make temporary adjustments to our pandemic management playbook to continue to keep our teams safe. I appreciate your flexibility as we make these adjustments.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you!
Jon Freier
Although T-Mobile staff are required to wear face masks, customers will not be required to use a mask in stores unless mandated by local law.
In addition to wearing face masks, Freier reminds T-Mo employees to practice social distancing measures once again since the Omicron variant is known to be more transmissible.
The new mandate will be reevaluated on January 31st, where a new decision to end or extend it will be made.
Source: The T-Mo Report