HJAR Jul/Aug 2020

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  JUL / AUG 2020 25 of sanitizing it were the pharmacist and the lead technician, who cleaned the counters, keyboards and phones with Lysol wipes. It was a valiant effort, he said, but hardly the work of professionals. CVS and Walgreens did not respond to questions about employee complaints that it’s hard to maintain social distance and that cleaning is inconsistent. Whether they’re floaters or not, CVS and Walgreens employees say that management rarely tells them when a co-worker shows symptoms or tests positive. But employees stationed at a single location are more likely than their roving counterparts to learn about such developments by word of mouth. While managers “have avoided giving us any notifi- cations when someone gets sick,”said Fram, who stays put at the Walgreens in upper Manhattan, “it’s such a tiny district that we all know each other’s business.” Floaters said that they are unaware of what’s happened not only before they’ve “Floaters said that they are unaware of what’s happened not only before they’ve come into a store, but also after they’ve departed. In one case, a floater stopped working at a store, and days later an employee there fell sick; the floater said he was not informed at the time and still doesn’t knowwhether he was also exposed or even the source of the exposure.” come into a store, but also after they’ve de- parted. In one case, a floater stopped working at a store, and days later an employee there fell sick; the floater said he was not informed at the time and still doesn’t know whether he was also exposed or even the source of the exposure. “Because you’re not on a conference call or on a mailing list with a core group of em- ployees and managers, you don’t receive the same regular communications that others would,” the Dallas floater said. “You are re- lying on others to play telephone with you about what’s going on.” When employees notify CVS orWalgreens that they are presumed to have COVID-19 or have tested positive, they are advised to quarantine for two weeks, for which they can receive paid leave. The CDC advises that workplaces then identify and contact any in- dividual who “has been within 6 feet of the infected employee for a prolonged period of time.” In practice, however, each workplace exercises significant discretion to define what prolonged means and just how risky the ex- posure was. One floater in Ohio described receiving a last-minute change to her schedule and showing up to a store where co-workers told her that there had been a confirmed case. “Everything was done secretively and the safety of the employees [was] endangered,” the floater wrote in an email to ProPublica in April. “If the company is sending people to work in a store that recently has a posi- tive case, they should tell the people what to expect. They should, at least, tell them what happened there and advise them to wear masks or take precautions.” Whether they’re floaters or not, CVS and Walgreens employees say that management rarely tells them when a co-worker shows symptoms or tests positive. But employees stationed at a single location are more likely than their roving counterparts to learn about such developments by word of mouth. While