As we all know, the spread of Covid-19 has affected Earth’s population greatly. With the pause in large manufacturing companies, to the overflow of patients in hospitals, it’s definitely taken its toll on workers.

So much has changed in such a little time.

One of the obvious changes that have occurred for essential workers are the hours that are worked. Depending on the company, the hours could be more or less, or not even changed at all. Learning how they’ve changed is quite an experience as well.

“Hours have not changed much. As a hospice nurse, we have allowed families the options to space out visits from twice a week to once every two weeks to limit exposure,” Jackie Craven, RN working for Reliant at Home Hospice, said.  “Some families still want at least weekly visits. So there are days where I don’t see people, but mostly I am still busy as usual.” 

Essential workers also have their opinions on non-essential people disregarding the CDC rules of staying inside and helping lower the spread. Those that are going out unprotected for only leisure activities are seen as inconsiderate as others as well. 

“In my opinion as long as people are staying safe and following the ways to keep themselves and others safe I think it’s okay to go out,” Lacey Cullens, Branch Manager at Reliant at Home Hospice said. “I don’t believe there is a way to stop the spread completely, and eventually without a vaccination we will all get it one way or another. The orders are just buying us time to find a vaccination or a way to treat the virus.”

Being an essential worker means taking proper precautions themselves. By doing so they’re lessening the spread of the disease. 

“I’ve socially distanced myself and my children, including socially distancing myself from my elderly parents,” Casey Wilson VP of Reliant at Home Hospice said.

Essential businesses are expected to cope well with the sudden boom of cases relating to the COVID-19. Fortunately most businesses have done a great job coping and adapting to this unique problem. 

“We coped with the spread by implementing full CDC guidelines for healthcare workers as well as limiting employees in the office to no more than one. We spent countless hours sourcing PPE for the staff as well,” Wilson said.

This pandemic has and will continue to affect our personal and work lives. No one knows exactly how long it’ll take to get back to normal. 

“There will not be a ‘normal’ in my opinion until there is a vaccine,” Cullens said “Short of that vaccine, I think there wouldn’t be a return to normal until enough people had been exposed and immune.  Eighty thousand dead in just over a month, and many of those are the demographic that my business cares for.”