Counting the Cost of Non-Compliance.

in LeoFinancelast year

A different sort of post from me today. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at my personal financial situation, and the ramifications of not taking the Covid-19 vax. I recognize that the choice to take it, or not, is and should be a personal one. My position has always been that everyone should make their own mind up, and have never preached or advocated one way or the other.

But choices have consequences, as we have been continually reminded through all this period, so lets see what the financial consequences have been.

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Source: Pixabay

First, why?

I won't spend too long on looking at why my family and I chose not to take the vax - like I said it is personal. We did come close, having appointments booked late last year, and only cancelled at the last minute.

The extreme coercion that was been applied made us cautious. The fact that governments, media, and employers were going to such extremes with the bullying and coercion made us resistant. If this thing is so amazing, why where (and still are) they hiding so much data from trials, and fanning hostility so heavily against the unvaccinated? Why were vax injuries being ignored, gaslight and downplayed?

Anyway, after working in a high risk environment for the best part of two years, where our work continued throughout lockdowns, in a supermarket with daily contact with the public, I felt my immune system would do the job. I knew people with vax injuries, I didn't know anyone that had been seriously ill from Covid.

There are other reasons, but that will do for this post.

The leadup.

My employer, Australia's largest supermarket chain Woolworths, announced late 2021 (I think it was in October or November from memory) that it would mandate the vax for all its employees. The mandate would come in to effect, conveniently for them, at the end of January, just after the busiest time of the year and heading in to a quiet trading period. The move seemed to me highly cynical, and I sent in my objections during a farcical "consultation period". Of course those objections, along with many others from people of a similar mindset, where completely ignored.

Early January, the company suffered during a massive wave of Omicron variant outbreak, with large supply chain disruption and a hugely increased amount of people of sick. Interestingly, myself and a few other unvaccinated friends in our particular store continued working through this period, while many of our vaccinated colleagues became ill. That is of course purely anecdotal, and does not prove anything about efficacy of the vax. Still, it reinforced my position that the vax did not prevent transmission, and therefor making it mandatory was unethical.

In another highly cynical move the company postponed the application of the mandate for a month, till the end of February. They claimed it was to allow more consultation time. I am sure it had nothing to do with the massive absenteeism and buying time for the wave of infections to pass before firing a portion of their workforce. Definitely not.

I decided I was not going to play their game any longer, and turned in my resignation.

screenshot of resignation.png

Screenshot of my resignation letter.

So, after 14 years of loyal service, including several team leader roles, I finally left the company.

The Costs:

  • When I left, I had around 700 hours of sick leave accrued, that is forfeited upon departure from the company. The value lost there - 15,400 AUD (9,700 USD)

  • I then spent 5 months unemployed - lost income 24,000 AUD (15,200 USD)

  • During that period, I sold off a significant amount of crypto, as prices where rapidly dropping and the bear market kicked in. Estimated losses 30,000 (18,900 USD)

  • Since returning to work, at a competitor to my former employer, my income has not returned to equivalent to my previous full time position (being casual currently). Estimated shortfall: 3,000 AUD (1,900 USD)

  • My wife also left work, from the same employer, late 2021 due to the mandate. She decided she did not want to continue in a job where ultimately she would not be wanted, being used and then kicked out after the busy period was not acceptable to her. Lost income from her part time job from December to now - 18,000 AUD (11,400 USD).

Total cost = 90,400 AUD (57,100 USD).

Would I make the same decision again?

Absolutely!! Money isn't everything. The choice had its consequences, but I most definitely would make the same choice again. The only thing I would do different is I would have stayed the extra month. People that left early got no extra payout from the company, whereas others that stayed till the end received a small settlement I am told, amounting to 4 weeks of extra pay. But that is it, that is the only thing I would do differently.

Woolworths Ltd (the Australian Woolworths), and a number of other major corporations that still have vax mandates in place to this day can go to hell.


Thanks for reading, I know this is a controversial topic and there are many different opinions and beliefs out there. These are just mine, and in no way a recommendation to anyone else. Make your own choices, but inform yourself first, rather than just believing the government and media narrative.

Cheers,

JK.

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It's had no impact on me at all, financially.
Just luck that I wasn't in a role that required it, and the momentum's shifting away now. I doubt the mandates will get worse from here.
Ultimately when the government tries to expand its power like this, we owe it to our neighbours and descendants, to defy them.
Anyone with any knowledge of bullies or history, could've seen that the closer we got to 99%, the more pressure would be applied to the hold outs.
If we got to 99.9% I guarantee they'd have gone door to door and held people down.
Sorry its hit you so hard, mate.

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Lucky I had crypto to fall back on, and see us through the period without income, otherwise we may have not been able to make this stand. When I look at my bags now, I am both grateful that I had the backup, and sad that I had to sell so much of it. Was meant to buy a house with it in a couple more years.

Anyway, it was definitely a stand that had to be made, and I am very pleased that some of us where able to. The powers that be need to know that not everyone will cede their personal autonomy to the state, or their employer.

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Well done mate! I came to conclusion in late 2021 that money is worthless without freedom. As far as I'm concerned you made the right choice and it's a choice that may well have saved your life. You can't put a price on that.

That is exactly how I feel about it. Seen plenty of sudden illness recently, but non amongst the fellow unjabbed.

Particularly glad we didn't allow the kids to get it - risks way to high for me to let that happen.

Thanks for the comment mate, appreciate it.

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Thank you for having the courage of your convictions and investing your time to write this post, @jk6276. You have my admiration and respect!

Sadly, there are far too few similar minded people. Both there and here (and probably around the world ...) If there were more courageous people, then this type of tyranny simply would not hold up ...

FWIW, we never got VAXed either. And survived just fine, even at our ... "advanced age." We believe our natural immunity is superior to anything all of these VAXes / Boosters / ?...? (what's next?) supposedly provide people. Man has faced various types of pestilence since the beginning of time. Up until this particular "round," relying upon our personal consultation with our doctors and our natural immune defenses was deemed sufficient.

Only God knows why "the powers that be" decided this time it would be different ...

"Would I make the same decision again? Absolutely!! Money isn't everything. The choice had its consequences, but I most definitely would make the same choice again."

All the best, to you and your loved ones, in overcoming all of this. You have a great attitude, so I think you will be fine!! 🙂👍

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The whole thing just smelt from day 1. Dodgy propaganda everywhere, and the extreme attitudes have been an eye opener as to how easily manipulated and conned many people can be.

Still amazes me how many people that I considered smart, thoughtful people have been completely hoodwinked by the narrative, and have not yet seen through this stuff. Even with the mountain of real information coming out.

Very happy you made the same choice we did, its amazing that we all survived the "winter of death for the unvaccinated" 😂

Have wanted to do this kind of post for a while - finally got it done.

Cheers mate.

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If this thing is so amazing, why where (and still are) they hiding so much data from trials, and fanning hostility so heavily against the unvaccinated?

Same suspicion.

Interestingly, myself and a few other unvaccinated friends in our particular store continued working through this period, while many of our vaccinated colleagues became ill.

Same experience here. I know several people who have been vaccinated and yet got infected again.

I admire you for your courage despite the financial consequences of your decision.

Wishing you health, freedom, peace, and prosperity!

!PIZZA

!CTP

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Same wishes for you.

It's funny how some of us saw through all this, while so many didn't. I do feel that many that have been here in crypto for a while were already a little suspicious and distrusting of governments, and the mainstream - so there are a lot more crypto people that have not complied.

Thanks for the comment, and the twitter share. 😀

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My pleasure.

Together with two other employees, we were actually labeled "hard-headed". At the height of the lockdown, I was just waiting for our President to issue a demand letter that non-compliance would mean forfeiture of my job.

!PIZZA

!CTP

about $50k AUD here..

Good on you for holding on to your resolve despite economic losses. Health and freedom are the most valuable things we have and i'll never trade them for continual financial servitude.

Thanks for the share on Twitter and the #informationwar curation, much appreciated mate. You are spot on - Health and freedom > compliance and submission.

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I am sorry to hear you decision cost you so much.

I am disappointed by the failure of our traditional belief in individual freedoms to figure out a path that preserved both life and liberty.

While I know it’s commonly stated that it’s unfortunate that this became political, I think that’s far from the truth. I think it wasn’t just political, it was cultural. The vaccine crisis was to me the poster child for our current greatest failure: the intolerance of different opinions, and the loss of respect for people’s right to hold them.

When people say: “It’s unfortunate this became political”
I think No Shit an expression meaning you made a huge understatement.

The culture in the western democracies has changed, and we no longer hold dear the very principles which made us special.

We have lost our widespread belief in the diversity of thought, and respect for it as well.

No matter where we stand on the fax, we should always stand together in support of freedom.

I think our collective recognition of this fact is delayed, but I think we all feel it, but don’t know what to call it.

While some do feel it it, and are running to the doors. One of those doors says crypto on it. So people go through that door seeking a means of preserving their freedoms through finances.

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The whole thing should never have been a political thing. The test run of the surveillance state in many western countries was too tempting for the politicians to pass up, as I see it.

I am so pleased that crypto was here for me well before all this came around, and allowed me the freedom to make the choices I have. My bags may be lighter, but they possibly saved my family from a far worse fate than financial difficulties.

The health of my family is intact, as is our medical autonomy, and that is the most important thing in my eyes.

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Ok, so 4 weeks pay is 4 weeks pay... but I'm willing to bet that handing in that resignation letter was worth every penny.

Good on you for standing ground, not only for yourself but also for your wife and children too. You've given them a gift far greater than money.

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It was pretty satisfying to hand that in, and caused a bit of a stir in my store amongst those that saw it at the time. Didn't make it up the food chain to any decision makers however.

My store manager was very good about the whole thing, understanding and disappointed to see me leave. Actually said at a team meeting where the topic came up, and people started with the "bloody anti-vaxxers" line that he basically agreed 100% with my sentiment in my letter. Hearing that through the grapevine cheered me up at the time.

Took a bit to get my wife on board in the early days, but now she is down a lot more rabbit holes digging for all sorts of info and very relieved that we cancelled that appointment.

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It's tough but I ended up taking the VAX. However, I was working from home anyways so I don't really think anyone got sick because I don't spend that much outside when the media was in full force. If I become financially independent, I would probably choose a decision like yours but it's not my current situation though.

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It was a very close thing for us - the only thing that allowed us to make this choice was the fact that I had built up crypto bags that we could use to sustain us. If we had taken the vax, it would have been because of the coercion, not because we thought it was the best thing to do.

Totally understand that many didn't have the choice we had, for so many their financial circumstances dictated their decision.

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That is really terrible, especially in the light of now mainstream basically accepting that there was never any protection to others from taking it. A lot of people should get fired or even put in jail who advocated this tyrannical behavior

Totally agree. Those that knew what they were doing, and pushed this stuff anyway need to be held accountable.

With news coming out that various governments employed "nudge departments" and used coercion tactics deliberately, there would be a good place to start with some trials.

Medical boards that suppressed doctors from being allowed to speak freely is another great place to start arrests.

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very difficult choice, even most ppl think is easy

It was a tough choice, but having crypto made it a little easier. Many people didn't have that, and the choice was much tougher for them.

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Somehow I missed this post before and it's too late to upvote it, but wow. I'll say this much: that was a far more stinging resignation letter than most of the ones I've written.

I couldn't help but be reminded of my entry upon leaving China, as you listed the cost of everything and totalled up the damage done, but that's another story. Anyway, props from topside for having the guts to stand up on principle and let everyone know that's what you were doing.