How has your job been affected by the coronavirus?
By Lily Nichols
Rob Moor
Physics TA
Second Year
I'm a physics TA and I really love and enjoy my job and the physics department. I can't teach in-class labs and get teaching experience I want if I don't have time to teach and have students. And while that's frustrating, it comes from a point of understanding. The department can't do anything about it and I think the school made a smart choice. I just won't be able to keep saving money for things I need in the future or spend it on spoiling my girlfriend with dinner. It's just job insecurity, which sucks.
Maegan Rhodes
Choral Area Manager at WWU
Fourth Year
This weekend was supposed to be the ACDA conference, which stands for American Choral Directors Association, so a lot of students and faculty from my department were supposed to be going out of state for that this week and I was expecting work to be kind of dead for me anyways. The conference was supposed to go on as planned despite everything that’s going on and then this morning WWU sent out the notice saying no one could travel out of state for university related events. Everybody who went to the conference now has to come home so they’re all flying back to Washington tomorrow morning. For me as a student employee at Western if they had closed campus I wouldn’t have been able to finish working for the quarter. I’m not just an hourly paid employee, I’m work-study so that would’ve been money that I was awarded that I then wouldn’t have been able to collect. Luckily they did keep the campus open when they moved classes online so I have been working all week. Usually, at this point in the quarter, I would be helping with music collection and starting to total up final grades but I had to focus solely on grades because we didn’t know if the University would remain open for us to get those things done. I know a lot of people are relying on their campus jobs for income. I also live on campus so, if they completely shut down I would go home to Mukilteo. As far as my actual job goes if they did completely shut down campus I would not be able to work and my boss would have to do everything from home I guess.
Emma Neilsen
Sales Associate at GNC
Third Year
I normally work around 16 hours a week, and this week when I was at work, it was the middle of the week and during both shifts which immediately upon walking into the mall I noticed it was a lot quieter than usual. From being a store that typically gets $3000-2000 on a good day, we’re struggling to get $1000 per day;it’s kinda concerning for business. I definitely notice that a lot more people are coming in and looking for specific products because we’re a supplement store like vitamin C and hand sanitizer. it’s definitely hindered our business. I’m doubtful the mall will close because I know how they’ve been in the past with snow closures. I’m not super optimistic about it closing but I know it will be best for business.
Amelita Brown
Peer Mentor
Third Year
I’d say it’s been very interesting with work and the virus going around. I’m the Passport Navigator, and I’m a peer mentor for college students who have experienced foster care, unaccompanied homelessness and/or housing insecurity .I also plan dinners and events for specified students. With that, I also have things like office hours. Because school is canceled, I wasn’t allowed to host office hours. However, my manager assigned some things I could start planning for the next quarter and said I could do it from home. I have a new coworker and we’ve become super close, so we went out to a coffee shop today and plugged away at some stuff our manager asked us to do. I feel fortunate that I was still given an opportunity to do something because yes, safety first, but it sucks for students being cut down on hours, not on their own choosing.
