To wear or not to wear? Compliance with face-covering mandates

Most managers are committed to the success of their organizations, employees, customers, and communities. They work hard to provide safe and healthful workplaces. They give their best efforts to manage in good-faith compliance with the myriad of federal, state, and local laws applicable to their organizations. They are generally mission critical to protecting their organizations against liability exposure. Even so, some organizations have faced significant manager resistance to the use of COVID-19-related face-coverings in the workplace. Why is that, and what can be done about it?

Understanding the mandates

As employers, we are dealing with the human condition, which is inherently good but which suffers from certain frailties from time to time—including while in the workplace. Some manager resistance to face-coverings is likely attributable to the multiple, divergent, and conflicting opinions of medical and health experts concerning the efficacy of their use in protecting against the spread of COVID-19. Other resistance may be connected to legal and political debates concerning the constitutionality of face-covering mandates. Still other resistance may be related to discomfort or embarrassment.

Ultimately, managers should feel comfortable wearing face-coverings in the workplace when required by applicable law or employer policy, without feeling like they are compromising their personal integrity, because it's simply part of their overall duties to help their organizations and others be successful.