busterbill wrote:
Good luck on the plumber. They are considered "essential services" in Illinois, so unless you are actively symptomatic you may be able to find another if your regular guy is not game.
Got another guy coming, thanks. Plumbers are essential services here, too, but even when the customer is asymptomatic (as is everyone else in the entire building), you can't in good conscience force people to work in such extraordinary times when they're terrified; how would that succeed? They'd probably just quit anyway, or they'd resent you forever, and what kind of management model is that? There's essential, and then there's essential; plumbing is not
quite as essential as health care, law enforcement or firefighting, nor does it carry the same occupational level of commitment. I completely understand how the plumbing company would make allowances for their worker, and I thought I should, too; the work definitely needs to be done, but it's not a critical emergency like a burst main. I thought it was a bit too early to start worrying much about my chances for service since there were plenty of other plumber fish in the sea, but it was nice to be able to get someone else from the same usual company; you want to be able to keep that trust relationship going, and I think that was their hope as well.
There's been a big push to abandon one-use plastics in Minnesota, shopping bags being the most visible, and I've dutifully gotten on board with my various reusable cotton mesh bags and what have you, but some stores won't handle customers' personal bags now and are going back to the one-use bags as a health safety precaution for the time being. I never thought that day would ever come, but it makes sense in its sadly ironic way.