By Karine Chan, Editor-in-Chief
A sad result of COVID-19 has been the necessary shut down of many businesses. From department stores to chain restaurants, anyone and everyone has had to take a break from working in order to protect themselves from this fast spreading virus. As a result of closing, revenue has inevitably gone down. Many people suffered from unemployment and some businesses lost so much they were forced to close for good.
As a senior here at Mills as well as an employee at The Little Gym of Millbrae (a gymnastics establishment for young children), I have had first-hand experience of the effects COVID has had on businesses. Working through a pandemic as well as school has definitely been strenuous, but being unemployed for nearly five months arguably took a greater toll on me. Still living under my parents’ roof, I am lucky enough to not have to worry about living expenses, yet I still found myself tight on money. Expenses I take care of myself—as in food, clothing, and personal care—mixed in with no longer having a constant flow of money lead me to mind my spending much more closely. Now being back at work for approximately three months now, my paycheck is still far below my average income, as school is now a factor that takes up a great deal of time.
Alongside money being tight, guidelines and changes to how businesses run have been greatly altered. Some universal changes that businesses have undergone is lowering the maximum capacity, hours shifting (I used to work four to five days a week ranging from four to six hours, now I have been reduced to two days a week for around three hours per day), masks being implemented as a requirement, and of course, cleaning—all the time. Because my job is extremely high contact, ensuring everything is as sanitary as possible is a major factor in being able to return back to work. Pre-covid, yes of course we were sanitary—kids washed their hands before going in for snack, all the tables and windows got wiped down at the end of the day, etc.—but now we are wiping down everything two to three times, and that is only accounting for the few hours I am there.
While cleaning has skyrocketed, the amount of children we are allowed to have in the gym has dropped tremendously. Camps used to be jam-packed with around thirty kids, but now we have around seven to eight—which can be credited to government regulations of having a max of twelve children and parents’ active concern for bringing their children to such a high contact place. It’s daunting to these children, as many are too young to fully comprehend the dangers of Corona. They don’t understand why we tell them not to get too close to each other, or why they cannot hug their friend goodbye.
With all these changes and different safety measures being executed, work has started to feel more tiring and less fun. We used to be able to play giant group games and the kids would love it, but now it’s all “hey keep airplane arms distance from each other” and “I’m sorry you can’t sit that close to them”. I have experienced instances where a child presumed I was being unfair to her because I would not let her sit at the same table as her friend, but what this child did not understand is that they each had an assigned seat at the far ends of each table (one at each end) and we could not risk any more cross-contamination between kids. Now don’t get me wrong, the safety measures are one hundred percent justified—I guess what I am getting at is it sucks how much COVID has taken a toll on previously fun and enjoyable things.
Reopening with all the new protocols at the same time as school has begun has also been a really difficult transition. After spending hours on Zoom calls doing endless assignments while listening to teachers go on for what feels like forever, the last thing I want to do is go to work. In all honesty, I am exhausted. When working last year after school, yes I was tired, but at least I could look forward to giving the kids hello hugs and high fives. Now there is little to look forward to, unless you count a new Clorox bottle as exciting. It is kind of a sad case that a lot of the school work teachers are giving out just feels like busywork, so rather than learning, it is just taking up time and energy. Once class is out, I take an hour or so to do homework then it is off to work for the last few hours of camp. Once I get home, it is right back to the computer and I find myself finally being able to relax far too late into the night. Finding a good balance between school and work has definitely been one of my biggest challenges, but I’m making do.
Whether you’re back at school, work or both—please make sure you are staying happy and healthy! And if you are going out to establishments, please wear a mask and practice proper social distancing. With all of us working together, we can only hope for blue skies ahead!
