With the entire state under stay-at-home orders, local towns have undergone rapid transformations. The normal springtime awakening that livens local communities has been replaced with desolate shopping centers, barren restaurants, and empty roadways. Amidst the isolation, only our communities’ essential workers remain acting as indispensable lifelines.
Workers like grocery cashiers, delivery people, and public transportation drivers now put themselves at risk on a daily basis in order to ensure that our lives can continue to function with some semblance of normalcy. Often unnoticed or underappreciated, these workers, now facing the growing risk of the COVID-19 infection, support the infrastructure that allows non-essential workers and their families to remain safely at home under lockdown orders.
The drastic transformation to that infrastructure can be seen in any of the grocery stores or gas stations that have remained open throughout the COVID crisis. At a Cumberland Farms in Marion, blue duct tape marks the positions where customers should queue in order to remain safely distanced. Plastic shields line the cashier stations in order to guard the employees from the potential spread of the virus. The employees themselves are concealed behind masks that hide the majority of their faces.
Despite the protective facial coverings, and plastic shields, it seems easier to connect with these workers who have now become the frontline in providing essentials to local families. Despite the hazards of their workplace, they are still quick to ask about our well-being, and you can still spot a smile behind the creases in their face masks.
In speaking with numerous essential workers, it is clear that many of them expressed pride in continuing their work and conquering new challenges as they come. That said, unsurprisingly, many have expressed fears related to their own health at the workplace and the safety of their families at home.
“We are all worried about bringing the virus back to our families,” said Donnie, an order-fulfillment worker at the Target in Wareham. “[The virus] is constantly on our minds. If we slip up once, it could mean infecting our friends and families.”
Thankfully, many stores have adopted plans to maximize the safety of customers and employees, like markers indicating where customers should wait at appropriate distances, and employees constantly sanitizing the self-checkout machines.
“We are doing everything we can,” said Donnie. “Our managers encourage us to take more breaks to wash our hands, and certain employees have been given the specific job of sanitizing every checkout station.”
Though he did explain that he feels safe at work under the current policies that the store adopted, he expressed uncertainty about whether this is the best possible option for his family.
“I would definitely prefer to wait it out and avoid exposure altogether,” he said. “Unfortunately, most of the essential workers just don’t have the financial stability to stay at home.”
Despite the $2 trillion relief package passed by Congress, the reality is these essential workers still have bills to pay. Regardless of the hazards to which they are exposed in the workplace, they still need to work to provide for themselves and their families.
“The relief check was just enough to give me time to transition into a new job,” said Donnie, “but there is no way anyone could live on just that amount or even cut their hours to reduce the risk of exposure.”
With no clear end to the stay-at-home orders, these essential workers continue to provide the foundation which allow for local communities to remain safely at home during the COVID-19 crisis.
By Matthew Donato