I stayed in the house for the last week or so, coming out only to walk and go to the grocery store once. Yesterday, I drove down into the city to start a new work assignment. The change in elevation transported me from Winter to Spring - brilliant yellow forsythia in bloom, trees budding. Change in perspective. The sunny morning showed no signs of virus.
Working feels good, but I'm not yet entirely sure how to make myself useful. I'm maintaining distance. I'm encouraging the managers who are caught in the typical squeeze between the workers and the top. They're scared too. One is in his 60s and has smoked most of his life. The other is younger with a wife and three young kids at home. No one wants to get sick. Everyone's afraid to die.
I saw how fragile the balance is. This warehouse has received more orders than the staff can fill. They don't have the stock available or enough time or people power to do it in the allotted time frame. They are moving quickly, efficiently, but the number of orders is unprecedented due to the boom in on-line shopping for essentials. They depend on long distance truckers to keep them stocked. They also depend on local delivery drivers, like UPS and Fed Ex, to get the orders out.
If workers at any link in this chain sicken, panic, or get good and pissed off, all of it grinds to a halt. And then you don't get your Cheetos.
Working feels good, but I'm not yet entirely sure how to make myself useful. I'm maintaining distance. I'm encouraging the managers who are caught in the typical squeeze between the workers and the top. They're scared too. One is in his 60s and has smoked most of his life. The other is younger with a wife and three young kids at home. No one wants to get sick. Everyone's afraid to die.
I saw how fragile the balance is. This warehouse has received more orders than the staff can fill. They don't have the stock available or enough time or people power to do it in the allotted time frame. They are moving quickly, efficiently, but the number of orders is unprecedented due to the boom in on-line shopping for essentials. They depend on long distance truckers to keep them stocked. They also depend on local delivery drivers, like UPS and Fed Ex, to get the orders out.
If workers at any link in this chain sicken, panic, or get good and pissed off, all of it grinds to a halt. And then you don't get your Cheetos.
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