From the link, I think Alison missed what the letter about masks was asking. Alison responded about mask mandates from state and local governments, but the letter asked about the rights of employees to request others wear masks in companies that don't require it. This is the position I'm in. My company required masks until a few weeks ago, but we are now mask-optional. The new policy forbids any employee, including managers, from requesting or requiring another employee to wear a mask.

I do not want to have a discussion about whether this is the right time to have a mask-optional policy, and frankly I'm not sure there is a "right time" since infection rates will rise and fall. Given that masks are optional, though, I agree they should be optional everywhere, and employees shouldn't feel compelled or pressured to wear masks. Either make them compulsory or fully optional; the middle ground is messy.

From the letter above: "herstory" and especially "femtor" sound awful and ridiculous, but this is not the hill I would die on.