For Many Workers, Change in Mask Policy Is a Nightmare

After a shift by the C.D.C., employers withdrew mask policies that workers felt were protecting them from unvaccinated customers.

The Kroger supermarket in Yorktown, Va., is in a county where mask wearing can be casual at best. Yet for months, the store urged patrons to cover their noses and mouths, and almost everyone complied. “People don’t like to wear masks here,” said Janet Wainwright, a meat cutter at the store, “but very few people would go without it.” That changed in mid-May after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised vaccinated Americans that they could go maskless in most indoor settings. The next week, the store told employees that they could no longer ask customers to cover their faces. So mask use plummeted, and the anxiety of Ms. Wainwright and other workers shot up.