Going Back to Work

The adults in our sample work in construction, retail, food service, child-care, cleaning and other industries where remote work is not an option. When the pandemic began, many lost their jobs.  Others were deemed “essential workers” and experienced the health risks associated with continuing to work.  Now as Massachusetts begins to reopen, they are eager to get back to work because they desperately need the income, but some are finding they no longer have a job to return to, others have been offered significantly reduced hours, and still others can’t return to work because their childcare has not reopened.

The Risk of Being an Essential Worker

For “essential workers,” working through the worst of the pandemic meant putting their health on the line as they performed their duties often with increased workload and without adequate safety equipment. 

Alfredo never stopped working at his transportation sector cleaning job.  When the pandemic started, someone in the night shift got COVID and infected many of the workers. As a result of this and the reduced demand for travel, Alfredo’s cleaning crew went from 60 workers to 5. The employer did not provide any protective equipment for the remaining workers; each worker was responsible for procuring his or her own mask. But even a mask was not enough protection for the time when he was emptying a clogged septic tank, and all the tank’s contents got on him from head to toe. He had to throw all his clothes away. 

Like many other “essential workers,” Alfredo continues to go to work even through he is concerned about the health risks.  His wife says,

“all those people they took out (of work), they don’t know if they’re going to come back (to work). That’s the fear. You have to keep going because you don’t know if later you’ll end up without a job. You understand. You don’t know if they’ll call you back, so imagine it…When everything starts, out of the 60 people, they’re not going to call everyone (back to work), out of the 60 people, they’ll call 20, you know, until they recuperate. Because right now those people are practically bankrupt. Then those are the people that are likely to end up totally with nothing”

 [“esa gente que sacaron esos no saben todavía si van a volver, entonces eso es el miedo. Tu tienes que seguir porque tu no sabes despues si te vas a quedar sin trabajo. Tu entiendes. Tu no sabes si te van a llamar, entonces imagínate...Cuando comience todo, de esa 60 gente no a todos los van a llamar, de esa 60 gente llamaran a 20, tu sabes, hasta que ellos se recuperen. Porque ahora mismo esa gente está prácticamente en bancarrota. Entonces esas son gente que está propensa que se van a quedar totalmente sin nada”]

When the pandemic began, Francis was asked to work more hours at her retail cleaning job. She was also required to disinfect seats every time one customer stood up and before the next sat down. This required her to stand and push through a crowd of people in order to sanitize surfaces. A few weeks later she and her husband became gravely ill from COVID-19. Although her husband is too weak to return to work, Francis has been asked to return to her cleaning job. Many of her colleagues never stopped working, and a number of others also contracted COVID. Returning to work for Francis means being “essential” once again in a job without paid sick leave or benefits.  

“If my husband hadn’t gotten sick, I would have continued working. My [female] coworkers are still working, they never stopped working because they are essential workers. The cleaning company never closed…my boss sent me to another store that they never closed. She distributed us [to other stores]…I think that my boss will have to contract more employees because she told me that there were various employees that had gotten the virus, it was not just me.”

[“Si mi esposo no se hubiera enfermado, yo hubiera seguido trabajando. Mis compañeras de trabajo siguen trabajando, nunca dejaron de trabajar porque eran trabajadoras esenciales. La compañía de limpieza nunca cerró…la jefa me mandó a otra tienda que nunca lo cerraron. Ella nos distribuyó… Yo pienso de que va tener que contratar más empleados [mi jefa] porque ella me dijo que de los empleados habían varios que les había dado el virus porque no era solo yo.” ]

Returning to Work

As businesses and service industries reopen, many are returning to work in less than ideal conditions.

Eric worked at one restaurant In the morning and at another in the evening. His wage was  $4.75/hour, making him almost entirely dependent on tips. He never knew for certain what he’d take home in a given week. Now restaurants are reopening but Eric says he can’t go back to just relying on tips, especially with low customer volume and after months of no income and mounting debt to his landlord. He’ll return to the evening restaurant, assuming the risk of interacting with people in close proximity, but he wants to find something with a fixed weekly income for the mornings. Thus far, he has had no luck in his job hunt. 

Fernando worked 80-hour weeks before the pandemic between his morning construction job and evening restaurant work as a cook at a Mexican restaurant. When the pandemic hit, he lost both jobs.  A couple of weeks ago, he was happy to be recalled to his construction job, but just a week later the owner of the restaurant he used to work for called to tell him that the restaurant would be closing permanently. The restaurant tried to remain partially open offering take-out, but it wasn’t enough to keep it in business; at lunchtime the number of customers had gone from 50 to 5. Now everyone who worked at that restaurant has lost their job, including the 10-15 people who used to work in the kitchen with Fernando. To make enough money to support his wife and five kids, Fernando has to look for a new restaurant job . 

Childcare Barriers

When things are normal, Eric places his daughter in a summer camp and his son is in daycare. Neither the camp nor the daycare are set to open in the next few months. Both Eric and his wife were laid off from their restaurant jobs.  The restaurants are re-opening and have offered to rehire them, but without childcare they cannot both return to work when the restaurants reopen. Having to take turns working in order to watch the children will greatly reduce their income, and they currently see no prospect for being able to make enough money to start paying their rent again. 

“If there is no summer camp we  will need to take turns [working], we cannot leave the kids at home. Only summer camp and daycare [can help].”

[“Si no hay summer camp nos tenemos que tornarnos, no podemos dejar los niños en casa. Solo summer camp y daycare.” ]

Francis is facing a similar challenge.  With her husband still recuperating from being in the ICU with COVID and no summer camps or daycare for her children, she can’t go back to work.

“I could go back to work now the issue is that nobody can take care of my kids and my husband still has the virus, that’s why I can’t [go back to work].”

[“Yo podría regresar ya a trabajar el detalle es que nadie me cuida a los niños ahorita, mi esposo tiene el virus todavía, por eso no puedo.” ]

*Names and some details changed to protect confidentiality.