Retail chain GameStop has once again shown its questionable grasp on how to deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, as just this weekend it’s been revealed that district leaders are reportedly telling their workers to protect their hands by covering them with in-store plastic gift bags. No, not actual protective gloves, the thin plastic bags customers take their new games home in. The video game retail chain has already drawn ire for its toothless efforts to protect its workers in the wake of the outbreak, and it seems this hasn’t changed.
As the respiratory illness known as COVID -19, or novel coronavirus, continues to spread throughout the world in recent months, places like theme parks and movie theaters have been forced to temporarily close due to either customers staying home or a desire to protect their workforce from the pandemic. However, GameStop raised many eyebrows when it previously refused to shut down, making the outlandish claim that their business of trading and selling video games is “essential.” It would take weeks of backlash before the company finally relented, closing their doors last week save for digital and curbside pickup services. Unfortunately, it seems not even these measures are safe from GameStop’s questionable decision-making in this time of crisis.
According to The Boston Globe, an anonymous manager working for GameStop recently unveiled details contained in an email sent from a Massachusetts district leader regarding safety procedures as employees were sent back to work last Monday – including a stunning direction to simply tape plastic GameStop shopping bags to their hands while accepting trade-ins and credit card payments. Other instructions in the email, which the manager says “seemed like a prank,” consisted of telling workers how to reach out with their hands to take payment or product from customers while keeping their face behind a glass door, something the manager has described as similar to handling an animal or a pet.
This isn’t the first time GameStop has been caught giving its employees dubious advice in regards to the coronavirus. Earlier this month, a conference call from the company was leaked, in which higher-ups told their workers to outright ignore warnings about the virus in order to keep coming in to work. This, mixed with GameStop’s aforementioned head-in-the-sand approach to the ongoing outbreak, has compounded the company’s previously reported morale issues, and it’s been announced that it will close up at least 300 GameStop locations this year in addition to the coronavirus-related shutdown.
While plastic bags taped to hands might provide temporary protection from contaminated items in extreme circumstances, they’re no substitute for actual protective gloves, and it can be argued that a large company like GameStop shouldn’t let things get to the point where their workforce is forced to resort to such measures. With the coronavirus showing few signs of slowing down in the coming weeks or possibly even months, it’s critically important for those who are still turning up for work during this crisis to have adequate protection while dealing with potentially infected customers. Hopefully, GameStop can pull itself together soon, though its past behavior in the midst of this continuing epidemic makes this seem painfully unlikely.
Source: The Boston Globe