If you are like me, you've been sitting in your house quarantining from the rest of the world. If you are like my significant other, you are an essential worker or part of the "suicide squad". I find that I've been getting stuck in a cycle that is not healthy for me both physically and mentally. I'm thankful for my circumstances because I still have a paycheck coming in while I am sitting on my but at home. They say that the worst comes out of people during a crisis and it's evident in the media.
I understand that businesses need to make decisions that could end up destroying someone's life. We are the need for people to work a cashier, stock shelves, and handle customer service needs. All of the essential workers are those who we need to cherish right now more than ever because they are allowing our society to function as normal as it can be. There is a difference in providing a professional decision that was made with business logic and the company as a whole in mind and those who follow a doctrine that isn't going to help anyone but themselves. There is no excuse for how some of these companies are acting and the public is paying for it.
Medical, Food & Beverage, Utilities, and Retail are essential businesses that allow our society to thrive. There are companies that run in a retail setting but are not essential, but how most of these businesses are treating their employees is nothing short of shameful. How can a company lay off their employees without giving them a call or a mass email being sent to them? We are living in a tech-dominated society communication on a large scale is as easy as clicking the send button on a monitor. Businesses that didn't give their employees proper notice deserve all the misfortune that befalls them,
Small businesses are suffering because some are deemed unessential and for most of those families is their only source of income. I understand that there are grants and loans that are made available to these businesses, but the websites are crashing every time someone goes to fill out the information that defeats the purpose. Thankfully we can result back to the "paperwork" days and have these businesses send in the paperwork to an office that is understaffed. By the time that paperwork is looked over, I would assume this quarantine would be over.
They say that when you hit rock bottom, you see the true colors of those around you. This pandemic has shown that we are living in outdated times especially when it comes to big companies. I understand that people are just numbers in the system, but we lost the human aspect of doing business. Not one person can save the world because it takes a village to make a difference. If you were mistreated during this pandemic economically then you should be thinking long and hard about your life in the next few months. It is going to get better, but we now have to be more careful.