COVID-19

Since Dr. Rytter wants to significantly decrease the chances her staff and she get COVID, she requires her employees to wear masks provided by her. This requirement can still be in place even after the state mask mandate has been lifted because COVID will likely still be circulating. Besides staff and herself to protect, Dr. Rytter has elderly parents with health issues to consider. She definitely doesn’t want anyone to catch COVID because of the work environment. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have the luxury of wearing a mask for a long time, since masks ride up into her eyes, interfering with her ability to use her eye gaze communication system. In addition to talking with her eye gaze communication system, Dr. Rytter also uses it to email, text, and write articles and her novels.

All staff are required to have the most current COVID boosters to decrease the chances of catching COVID and spreading it to your coworkers and Dr. Rytter.

This is a personal note from Dr. Rytter, since it is so valuable to hear her perspective regarding COVID.

Before COVID hit, I didn’t care what my support staff did after hours as long as they came to work on time, sober, and ready to perform their duties. This allowed me to have a lot of mental energy to do my own things such as working on my series of reality-based novels, visiting my friends, watching documentaries, and decorating my house. I had a good life.

Then, the novel coronavirus struck. Suddenly, my very life literally depended on all of my staff social distancing and wearing masks on their off hours since I was already prone to pneumonia. I have had pneumonia several times, and one of my aunts died from pneumonia in 2012.

I knew first hand that dying from it would be painful and terrifying. Naturally, I started quarantining so that I wouldn't get COVID from a stranger. Also, I didn’t want to catch COVID from staff who were in my home. As an employer, I feared that my house would become a hotbed for COVID, making my employees sick and jeopardizing their lives. Therefore, I felt hugely responsible to keep everyone safe both during their shifts and when they were not working. I still remember the immense stress that I experienced back then during that first winter, spring, and summer.

I finally gave up trying to keep everyone safe from the virus and started to quarantine with my parents in a different state for over a year. This should tell you how much I value my life.

Ever since the COVID vaccine became widely available, I have debated whether I would require my staff to be vaccinated. This decision is much more difficult than you might think because I value people being individuals who can make choices that are right for them in their personal lives. This is our fundamental right, and I expect my staff to let me make all of my own decisions.

Unfortunately, when it comes to COVID, not getting vaccinated is a public health issue, and I don’t wish to put my staff and myself at risk for catching COVID and/or dying from it. Therefore, I require all of my employees to be vaccinated with up to date boosters, as I am. Hopefully, you can understand why I came to this hard decision, given the above explanation.

Although everyone will be vaccinated in your workplace, I require use of health and safety precautions in case someone experiences a breakthrough infection. For example, disinfectant is used frequently.