This article gives voice to a front-line manager in food retailing, discussing her experiences during the COVID-19 outbreak which, overnight, became an ‘essential service’, leaving employees exposed to the virus. The article utilizes the ‘moral economy’ framework to understand how organizational policies, which were developed by senior management and implemented by front-line managers, denied human flourishing and well-being during a period of socio-economic crisis. The article captures the complexity of morality in organizations across managerial levels. Questioning the morality of managerial decisions during the pandemic and emphasizing how these are driven by the intense competition in the market, it reveals that front-line managers are caught between conflicting moral values and expectations. This study contributes to the ‘moral economy’ framework suggesting that the structural constraints of front-line managerial authority have challenged their moral values and narrowed the space for safe and meaningful work and well-being for front-line managers and employees.

本文向食品零售业的一线经理发出了声音，讨论了她在COVID-19爆发期间的经历，该经历在一夜之间变成了“基本服务”，使员工容易感染该病毒。本文利用“道德经济”框架来了解由高级管理人员制定并由一线管理人员实施的组织政策如何在社会经济危机时期否认人类的繁荣与福祉。本文介绍了跨管理级别的组织中道德的复杂性。对大流行期间管理决策的道德性提出质疑，并强调了市场激烈竞争如何驱动这些决策，这表明一线经理陷入道德价值观和期望之间的冲突。