Retail associate morale is taking a beating from COVID-19

The Omicron variant is wearing on retail store associates as concerns about their health, quarantined coworkers, testy customers, shortened hours and other factors weigh on their minds. “We had gotten to a point here where we were comfortable, it wasn’t too bad, and then all of a sudden this new variant came and everybody got sick,” said Artavia Milliam, who works at H&M in New York City. “It’s been overwhelming, just having to deal with not having enough staff and then twice as many people in the store.”