I am sure you meant well, I think now I would call the company to compliment the employee for calling to apologize and say how polite etc he was. Wearing a mask is new for all of us and takes some getting used to. Too bad you did not think to ask the man to wear his mask rather than calling his boss.

The only way people will know how you feel is to tell them.

I like the idea of offering a compliment now. I'd email the company again to say how much you appreciated the employee's direct call, and how masks make you feel safe. The company hopefully will benefit by hearing a customer say masks are important.

It's good that you contacted the employer, that way the supervisor can remind all employees to wear a mask and practice social distancing.

You feel badly about it? Really?

Sorry, but no. What if someone had knocked on your door holding a gun pointing at you? Had that person been ill, the worst case effect could have been the same.

I would have called (an email is too passive) and politely given them holy *ell. And told them to tell the guy to go away and send someone else with more sense another day. It's a one strike and you're out ballgame. "Oops, sorry" doesn't cut it.

I agree with contacting the company to offer your appreciation for their response, and thanks for the employee's apology.

ole joyful

I really think the masks help keep everyone safe.

I do too, and I think you chose a very good way to handle the issue. By saying something to the company, you put them on alert so they can now monitor more closely how their employees are complying with masks.

A follow up for the response would help cement that step, I think, toward worker compliance.

I bet the employee is wishing you had just said from the get go "Do you have a mask, it would make me feel sooo much more comfortable. I really am not interested in speaking to you until you have one on". You can't crab or complain unless you asked and they refused!!!

Rose, I think you handled it just fine with the company and employee. I agree with letting the company know you appreciated the employee's call.

I agree with Arcy. It’s easy to forget your mask in the car, I did it for the first time the other day. Just ask whoever to put it on.

It's not a habit yet for me either. I only go out when I have to and I forgot my mask the other day when I needed to make a quick trip into my office to pick up something.

It never crossed my mind until I walked back in the house and saw the mask hanging next to where my car keys go. Fortunately for me everyone in my office is working remotely so I didn't cross paths with another human the entire time.

It wasn't a political statement, it wasn't me trying to "prove" anything - I just completely and totally forgot.

I think you handled it the very best way. That way the employee wasn't put on the spot or made defensive about it. Hopefully his company didn't ream him out about it. A simple reminder is enough and clearly it got the guy to come and say something to you without you having to come at him with a bad attitude in the beginning. I like the idea of emailing a thank you for the company listening and acting on your concern and a chance to compliment the worker. I find email a very useful tool. It can be dealt with with thought and contemplation whereas a phone call can get people being defensive and feeling that the customer is really mad about something and to be on the receiving end of a dressing down by the customer. Well done, Rose. You got your issue addressed in the best possible way.

If I had been the worker, I would have wanted to be reminded. Please, if we need to talk to each other and you see I'm not wearing a mask, remind me. Please!

I have been in a couple situations where I was working alone outside with a mask at hand, yet not wearing it because no one was on site, yet after a while someone walked right up to me to ask about what I was doing (they were not wearing masks either). I naturally fell back on a lifetime of how you chat with a stranger and totally forgot my mask, not thinking of it until the interaction was over. I want all involved to wear masks.

Were you wearing a mask when you answered the door? If you never opened the door, say, you spoke through a glass door, the two of you were equally protected & equally exposed if you both had no mask.

I keep a mask right by the front door. It is another way life has changed. Perhaps I need a tiny mask cabinet on the wall in the entry. Hmm, that could be another line of production for me-- Mask Cabinets available in transitional, MCM, traditional, and Scandi.

I like the idea of emailing a thank you for the company listening and acting on your concern and a chance to compliment the worker.

I do too. I'd call / email back and compliment the company and their employee.

The harder issue for me to address is when the vendor is wearing a mask incorrectly -- like when it covers their mouth but their nose is poking out. Or, when the whole mask is pushed down under their chin. Drives me nuts!!

A flock of lambs has passed through this thread. I'm really shocked at the passive responses.

Someone whose job involves direct dealing with the public, especially one that involves knocking on private residence doors every day, doesn't have the option of "oops, I forgot my mask". Or forgetting to put it in place when someone comes near.

The requirement didn't start today, the health crisis requiring everyone to do their best for others isn't new. It just isn't that hard. Someone who's lax about safety isn't welcome anywhere near me or my home, nor cutting down a tree nearby. You all are welcome to have different opinions.

Dear Elmer - there is lamb, and then there is pitbull. And sometimes there is indeed a reasonable middle ground.

You are of course welcome to have different opinions.

:)

Nah, I'm not a pitbull. But I don't allow others to choose or define "realities" for me I don't want, if I think reasonable alternatives are available and I have a reason to prefer something to be different.

I did say in my first post that I would "politely" let them know where this employee's conduct fell short of a reasonable expectation. Hey guys, go ahead and trim or cut down the tree. Try again tomorrow, send out someone who still has a few brain cells. My thoughts, not my words.

Since there is now a complaint about the employee, I think it would be very kind (and important to him) since he did graciously apologize to also register the compliment.

I agree with the way Rose Pekelnicky handled the situation,and sounds like it turned out well. Actually we are all human and all make mistakes,although some on here react to others as if they are perfect but the reality of the matter is they too make mistakes, and far far from perfect.

"I think it would be very kind (and important to him) since he did graciously apologize to also register the compliment."

So first you called the company, told them about the problem, they say they'll correct it, the boss calls the field guy to tell him he screwed up and reminds him of what the company's policy has been for months, and then the guy comes by and says he's sorry.

You then contact the company again to register a compliment? Seriously? What's the compliment about? That although the guy was too dumb to avoid the problem and then to say "sorry" on his own, you're complimenting him on doing what the boss told him after chewing him out?

Nah, that makes no sense. We must live in different orbits around the sun.

I have no issue with how Rose handled it....

Whether or not I'd have said so thing directly to the gentleman would have depended on how I read him. I'm from N.Y., I'm not afraid to speak my mind.

What I've learned about me is that how I feel about myself corresponds to how I treat others. If I get crabby or judgemental... I don't feel good about myself. So unless I know someone is being deliberately hostile or aggressive, I find I feel better assuming it's unintentional. That combined with the fact that as I age, I amaze myself with the ways I can forget stuff! LOL.

A flock of lambs? You hang out on a forum populated almost exclusively by women (sorry Matthias and Ole Joyful and some others) and yet you haven't noticed that women are socialized differently than men, that women are more at risk when/if confronting men or just interacting or even living with men? Women are socialized to be non confrontational. Our survival often depends on that.

We are used to being polite to people around us, so sometimes it is awkward to comment on someone's personal habits. But we are all still learning in this disaster and will begin to be able to speak up. I recently told a grocery store worker with a mask to "back up" when she came face-to-face with me even tho' I was in the car. I also reported her to the store in an email.

A guy making sandwiches in a Subway had NO mask!!! I reported the shop to the county health department.

We have to speak up.

"Women are socialized to be non confrontational. Our survival often depends on that."

Baloney. I couldn't disagree more about your generalization

As a person (me) who is sensitive to women, historical mistreatment of women, the minimization and denial of women's rights, and the need to be supportive of the attitude that people are people without regard to other labels (race, gender, etc), I'll challenge you to follow an attitude that I suspect you espouse - it's wrong to generalize "about women" and to think every woman is like this or like that, or is a certain way for an assumed reason.

Since tree workers tend to work outdoors where masks are often not required it would be reasonable to assume they are more likely to forget to put on a mask than someone who works indoors in the food service industry like a Subway worker. Apples and oranges.

A simple direct request to asking the employee to wear a mask when speaking with you should've been sufficient. No drama needed either as meekness or over confrontational speech needed.

If someone knocked on my door and they were standing outside, several feet away on my porch while I conversed with them through the screen about the reason for their visit, I don't think I would feel uncomfortable or be upset at them for not having a mask on. Especially if they only had to briefly inform me of the reason for the visit and then went and cut the trees.

Frankly, I don't understand seeing pictures of others outside, close to no one wearing masks. Joggers wearing masks? Outside workers, landscapers, pest control, construction etc wearing masks when there is no one else close to them?

I don't feel that is being sensible.

Indoors, in close proximity to others, yes, absolutely wear a mask, I know I do! But I have socialized with friends throughout this ordeal.

They come over, bringing their own beverage, and we sit outside in the backyard or by the pool, spaced far apart and have a good time visiting.

At this point, I feel some are taking it too far.

Well, I don't think you need to mansplain to any woman about her experiences. Kind of like a white person telling a person of color that their perspective about their and their community's experience is wrong. Maybe quit trying so hard to be right and listen.

"What I've learned about me is that how I feel about myself corresponds to how I treat others. If I get crabby or judgemental... I don't feel good about myself."

I feel fine about myself, at all times. Confident but with appropriate (not excessive) humility.

My wife will sometimes ask me "Doesn't this bother you" and I'll often reply "Yes". "Well", she'll say, "you don't show it". And my response always is "No, I don't. Ask me if you want to know, don't try to read my disposition". It's the same no matter what.

I can like something, I can dislike something. I can be glad, I can be mad about something. Maybe I should be a poker player because my outward demeanor and how I speak to others is unaffected. I try to be polite in all but the most extreme circumstances.

I'm not tolerant of stupidity or thoughtless conduct. If you should have known better but screwed it up anyway, that annoys me. I think about what I do, it any dummy can do so. My words and the message may change if I'm peeved but my outward disposition will likely be the same.

I'll teach the regular class, not the remedial one with people who don't pay attention and don't care.

"Well, I don't think you need to mansplain"

More baloney. A word that suggests a narrow, hypocritical and ignorant attitude. Too bad. You're a misandrist maybe? I hope you don't practice that, the nature of which in opposite orientation to what irks you, you sometimes like to allege where it isn't.

Lol, sounds like more mansplaining to me!

How sad, the insistence suggests ignorance and bigotry. Not the first outburst of this kind from you.

When it's your ex-spouse, maybe it's "ex-plaining"?

And I think that it should be "man-kind" ... whether it's the male or the female doing it.

o j