where's Bryan?

I've been worried about my coworker "Bryan" for a little while now. He stopped coming to work one day and now we haven't seen him in a couple of weeks.

He might have a preexisting condition which makes him vulnerable to the coronavirus in which case he would qualify for limited paid time off from the company or he might live with someone who has such a condition in which case he could get unpaid time off.

I obviously don't need to know more about his personal life situation than he cares to share with us but at the same time it has caused my coworkers in the grocery department and I to ask, "What if he got the virus?"

He's not the only one to stop coming in either. All over the store familiar faces have been conspicuously absent and its left some of us wondering, "If folks did catch the virus would our store even tell us? Is this the reason the lead manager has been excitedly scolding us for working near each other, because she knows that someone has already got it?"

I've received far more information about our company's response to the virus from an internet community of store employees than I have from anyone working in management at my actual store. Some folks at other locations have said that their stores informed them when coworkers tested positive but one person suggested their store had known for 2 weeks before informing non-supervisor employees.

Why might management not let us know? I think they're afraid it would be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I believe they are afraid of the power of the workers.

Recent strikes at Amazon were set off when the company refused to close and sanitize one of their warehouses after multiple people tested positive.

Would our store willingly close and sanitize? Despite their rhetoric, I have seen nothing to suggest that they would be inclined to undertake an operation of that scale willingly. They are hardly cleaning the store as it is and won't provide hand sanitizer or protective gear to to us employees or limit the number of people in the store. Its hard to imagine them shutting down for a couple of days.

It wouldn't necessarily even take a coordinated strike effort to hurt their bottom line. Our store is already has large numbers of employees calling off and probably would struggle to continue in the face of a larger wave of employees staying home in the face of a virus outbreak.

I hope Bryan and the others are all well and are able to enjoy a break from the day to day rather than miserably sick in bed or worse.