Dispatches from the Time of the Virus XI: Dignity of Work, Meet the Eternal Desire to Stay the Hell Alive a Bit Longer

     The first week Erie County, my place of employment, was back to “full” operations had some good and some bad, and a lot of it seemed to be an enlargement of what has gone on since February or so when the COVID-19/coronavirus first hit Buffalo/Western New York so hard.

     

Tools of the trade, kind of.

     I work in the Rath Building for the Erie County Department of Social Services; I’ve previously mentioned that my job is in what is basically the ECDSS accounting department, in the cashier’s office (I am the casher). It is also known as The Cage, because we have very limited access (3 people, including me, have keys to the office), it has a very old and secure safe for obvious reasons, and are kind of locked in by a very heavy, electronically locked door because we handle financial transactions daily with clients, as well as provide transportation to homeless people and clients seeking transportation to jobs, job interviews and substance abuse treatment, when approved by social workers. We have two windows with solid hard, thick plastic where we conduct transactions with both clients and other workers, and the large windows facing Franklin Street cannot be opened, at least not from the inside. Normally, 4 of use work in this “office” full-time, but since a person went to another department at the end of January, we have worked with 3 people; a planned replacement was postposed and apparently canceled after the COVID-19 crisis hit.

     I suppose the lower number of workers due to COVID-19 staffing in the Rath Building (normally in the thousands) has been good in ways. Those of us who worked at our offices, our stations, all throughout the COVID-19 crisis so far, have formed a camaraderie because we have gone through the same issues, precautions, scares, altered work spaces, environments and rules. We’ve gone through a mid-year budget reduction plan that cut some positions, left many of us worried for either our jobs or those of coworkers and friends as well as the effects on efficiency and productivity, we’ve gone from being issued paper face masks and a few bottles of hand sanitizer to being issued cloth masks, sanitizer on every desk and having work spaces sprayed several times a day by county employees. We went from having extra face masks on hand for clients who appeared sick or made us feel unsafe in any health regard to having the building require them for all employees and visitors. You can also toss in the standard municipal employee loathing too many citizens still have and direct at us.

    While some workers began to trickle back to the Rath Building in what seems to be the start of June, along withe the increase of hours worked by many employees who never stopped working, the vast majority of workers who either worked form home, were moved elsewhere or were still on very limited hours returned to the Rath Building Monday, June 29. A large number (possibly majority) of people who work in the Rath Building appear to start their shifts at 9 AM; I and much of my department start at 8:30 AM, so we get to avoid some of the normal rush. With the elevators limited to no more than 4 people riding at the same time, the earlier you get to work, the less people there are to use the elevators. I work on the 4th Floor and sometimes use the elevators, sometimes walk up the stairs, and I had no problems during the pseudo shutdown getting a ride. It didn’t appear to be too much of a problem this past week, except in Wednesday, when I had to verbally tell someone to get off the elevator because they were exceeding the capacity. There are 6 main elevators in the Rath Building, and usually 2-3 arrive and open their downs in a 30-second period of time in the morning, so there should be no problems. But…at about 8:20 AM Wednesday, July 1, a man tried to get on the elevator when four of us were already on it (several large signs saying elevator capacity is 4 are posted on the lobby at the elevators). Both I and another man on the elevator told the man he was above the capacity limit. the man got off when he looked at me and saw no smile; after the man got off the elevator, the other man who said it said to the other three of us on the elevator, “I was really half joking,” to which I replied, “I wasn’t. My health means too much to me.” The elevator was silent until I got off on my floor.

     

     Besides seeing people I haven’t seen in a while, there seem to have been few changes. Our workload barely seems to have decreased despite more people being on more of the time, and we are seeing more members of the public/clients at our windows for transportation as well as making payments, along with more workers conducting normal business such as dropping off checks to be distributed to clients, processed and deposited by us, signing for cheeks and dropping off applications for payments. And yes, our supervisor continues to be just a wee bit of a micromanager, which can even be good at times, such as when she wrapped individual plastic ware and napkin settings for and distributed the pita wedge sandwiches, fruit salad and chips for our birthday luncheon for the workers celebrating July birthdays. Or at least I think it was good; I made a point of getting my own piece of cake later, and did not eat any of the other food (not a fan of them).

     Otherwise, the week started with more violations of there face mask rules (must be worn by all workers except when eating, drinking or in your own office alone) before improving as the week proceeded. With the cashier’s office being one communal room without even cubicles, we had to make sure all of our seats at our desks were at least 6 feet apart and moved them to make sure they were more than that distance from each other. We always wear masks except for eating and drinking, and one reason we make sure of this is that there are 2 work telephones between the 3 (and sometimes 4) of us working there. With some the newly returning workers having trouble with the concept of mandatory at first, as well as some with issues over covering noses, I was one of probably many to constantly remind people to wear masks and wear them properly, and reported frequent/flagrant violation to supervisors. I don’t care if some people believe I’m being petty, annoying, a combination of these or just me on steroids; I plan to continue to survive this pandemic and help as many other coworkers survive it. I even noticed a supervisor not in my direct section (not my supervisor, in other words) who not only wore her mask off her nose several times, but was observed by me sitting directly next to an employee with her mask completely down around her lower neck as she trained or instructed her on something. We’re talking at least 10 minutes the first time and a second session later. I just don’t fucking get it; if she has a medical exemption, rare as they are, then I understand; otherwise, no.

     With so many states seeing record number of COVID-19 cases, some like California after allegedly getting things under control, I will not relax one bit or trust anyone more than they have proven they should be trusted in fighting and avoiding coronavirus infection. Christ, more than 130,000 Americans have died from it already, and we aren’t even out of its first wave, much less anywhere into the second wave. As much as I wish we could open up more of Buffalo, Erie County and New York State, the best way to fight this is to wear face masks, avoid crowds by social distancing and take precautions. I wish not one business was affected by this, but until we have flattened this virus and its reach, we have to do more and stay vigilant, not let down our guard. My lovely wife Val is working from home, and fortunately, her multiple sclerosis and its accompanying screwing with her immune system hasn’t hurt her worse than normal. Let’s keep it that way.