A friend of mine works for a private company (I also used to work there) that has FedGov contracts. This private company is fairly conservative but the FedGov threatened to pull the contracts or at least not renew them if the private company did not have vaccine mandates and subsequently unvaccinated workers. So they capitulated and put the mandate in place and my friend staged a “sick out” and refused to return to work until the mandate was lifted or resolved in court. He is in a critical position for the company at this point so he kind of had them over a barrel so to speak. After a few weeks, the president of the company privately told him he agreed with his position and asked him personally to submit a request for a waiver. My friend said he did not religiously object but he objected on the grounds that when he served in the military he served to protect and defend the constitution of the United States, not some dictatorial regime. So, in his request for a waiver he very eloquently stated the same and his company granted the waiver.
He stood by his principles and did not lie or deceive anyone in his waiver request, but made his point very clear.
I’ve actually advised a couple of companies on how to implement exemptions. There is nothing preventing companies from creating a “check the box” exemption or from liberally granting them.
The fight happens when the company is on board with the mandate and they want to force it on their workers.
Even if there was a nationwide vaccine mandate, the companies who wanted to could help people get out of it by liberally granting exemptions. The problem is that a lot of woke companies are on board with the mandates and like the “but the government is making us” excuse as cover.