If you have a good job with a good company, maintaining that bond is vital. Money and eating and shelter are all kinda cool things.
If you work in healthcare, be aware OSHA cranked out new rules in June that allows healthcare firms to relax masking etc but the must have a way of tracking vaccination status. It's not the employer, it's the govt.
If your employer is just "following orders," don't take it out on them...curse Bidet, stay unvaccinated if that's your choice, and mask up at work. The silliness will end eventually, and you'll likely be lauded for your "playing ball" with the company. Trust me, HR keeps track of the whiners and the "company men" (or women....wanna be all inclus Gen here...).
If your employers is acting woke, do everything I said but start your job search. The maket is surprisingly hot. But keep it quiet. When you resign, do it professionally and with a smile on your face.
Telling senior management to go fornicate themselves is a guaranteed way to screw up your career at your current AND potential employers (the corollary to my HR comment, is HR people talk across firms).
The time to be an American and say NO isn't in this case. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that employment long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that employees are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. Every little usurpation doesn't require going to DEFCON 1. People who do such things...well...usually have to find new employers frequently.
I am not a career counselor nor do I play one on TV. Your mileage may vary. Caveat emptor.
I work for a very good company but as stated, they are bound by the government mandates on COVID, silly as they may be. It is not your HR department's fault that they have to find a way to comply with these directives.
First of all, always tell the truth. I would never try to deceive my employer by making them believe I have been vaccinated, when I actually have not.
Of course, I don't broadcast my unvaccinated status either. Only a few co-workers (besides HR) know and they are fine with it. I ask them if they want me to wear a mask in their presence and they laugh and wave it off. So basically I don't wear a mask around the office. I do keep a mask in my pocket just in case. Not that I get very close to people. Believe it or not, when I'm in the office, I'm still doing ZOOM calls all day as most of the employees are still home.
Not that I ask directly but it appears that all those that still come to my Manhattan office have either not been vaccinated or they are not concerned about the masks.
Your advice about not telling senior management (of which I am one) to "f off" is sound. We do not want to lose any good employees over this nonsense but if they decide to make a federal case about it, we have no choice but to take the appropriate actions.
As you stated, if you have a good job with a good company, don't screw it up.
We are due to be 100% back to the office in September (week after Labor Day) so it will be very interesting how this plays out.
Personally, I think it blows over in short order. Once people are all back at work and they realize