Collected Item: “The Silent Sufferers”
Give your story a title.
The Silent Sufferers
What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?
text story
Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.
I am the product of a small town in Western Pennsylvania. I grew up, got some very lucky opportunities, and was able to go on to do things I never thought possible. I have no formal education beyond high school, and have spent most of my life from 12 years old on teaching myself what I needed to know to keep moving forward. I live in the Pittsburgh suburbs now and work as an IT professional.
I went back to my father's recently to help him out with some IT work at his shop. He's been in business for 20+ years now and we fall on fairly opposite ends of the political spectrum.
I've seen him go through difficult periods before, but walking on to his shop floor and seeing the absolute desolation that covid-19 has left in its wake, was so overwhelming I was crying when we left.
He and I have talked about covid and the Trump administration at various points in the past several years. Sometimes calmly, sometimes less than so. All I could say as someone who is very much pro "Stay at home, wear your mask, stop fucking bitching." was "I'm sorry this is happening, and anyone on either side of the aisle politicizing this horrible thing for their own gain, should have to walk through there and see the effect it has."
His response was a simple “Thank you.” and we moved on to other topics.
My job allows me to be remote 99.9% of the time, and on-site time is batched to make the most of it. My paycheck has not been affected at all through this, nor my benefits, and until the recently announced ICE changes, I had no concerns that it might be affected. I am extremely fortunate in the face of a world being flipped upside down.
Governor Wolf was perhaps more heavy handed in his approach in some rural areas compared to more urban ones, and that will have a lasting impact. With my very limited sample set of 1, my father has 70 - 90 employees in a building the size of a couple airplane hangers. They made a difficult decision to close for several weeks. He was heartbroken, but agreed for the safety of his employees. Once we entered our green phase, they were able to re-open, but the impact that time had on their business was unimaginable.
This time last year, his shop had nearly $750,000 dollars in product in production, ready to go to their customers. This past weekend it was only $82,000.
My father is confident his company will survive this storm as they have many others. The renewal of the Payroll Protection Program will offer some relief, however if business doesn’t increase, or the program isn’t renewed again before covid-19 is acknowledged as a very serious problem, or a vaccine is found, layoffs are inevitable.
I can't imagine how he sleeps at night when I'm having difficulty doing so myself. He knows that it’s not only his employees being impacted, but their entire family. Part of his being in business for himself was my need for better insurance because of my medical issues as a child.
He and his partners have always provided as much of the cost of health insurance as possible as a result. Last I knew, they were still covering 90% of all costs for every employee and their families with minimal contribution from the employee.
After hearing how angry my brothers and Dad were about the quarantine, then seeing the devastating impact covid has had on them, I understand now why they were so angry.
If the Federal Government had been more willing to admit something was happening, make an appropriate plan, work with state governments to put appropriate restrictions in place, and provided resources to help make that happen, he might not be in this spot.
However, if Wolf hadn't done what was done, how much more of an impact would this have had on Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and their surrounding communities?
There's no "one size fits all" solution here. Each situation is different, but without support and resources, how do you make those decisions effectively?
I went back to my father's recently to help him out with some IT work at his shop. He's been in business for 20+ years now and we fall on fairly opposite ends of the political spectrum.
I've seen him go through difficult periods before, but walking on to his shop floor and seeing the absolute desolation that covid-19 has left in its wake, was so overwhelming I was crying when we left.
He and I have talked about covid and the Trump administration at various points in the past several years. Sometimes calmly, sometimes less than so. All I could say as someone who is very much pro "Stay at home, wear your mask, stop fucking bitching." was "I'm sorry this is happening, and anyone on either side of the aisle politicizing this horrible thing for their own gain, should have to walk through there and see the effect it has."
His response was a simple “Thank you.” and we moved on to other topics.
My job allows me to be remote 99.9% of the time, and on-site time is batched to make the most of it. My paycheck has not been affected at all through this, nor my benefits, and until the recently announced ICE changes, I had no concerns that it might be affected. I am extremely fortunate in the face of a world being flipped upside down.
Governor Wolf was perhaps more heavy handed in his approach in some rural areas compared to more urban ones, and that will have a lasting impact. With my very limited sample set of 1, my father has 70 - 90 employees in a building the size of a couple airplane hangers. They made a difficult decision to close for several weeks. He was heartbroken, but agreed for the safety of his employees. Once we entered our green phase, they were able to re-open, but the impact that time had on their business was unimaginable.
This time last year, his shop had nearly $750,000 dollars in product in production, ready to go to their customers. This past weekend it was only $82,000.
My father is confident his company will survive this storm as they have many others. The renewal of the Payroll Protection Program will offer some relief, however if business doesn’t increase, or the program isn’t renewed again before covid-19 is acknowledged as a very serious problem, or a vaccine is found, layoffs are inevitable.
I can't imagine how he sleeps at night when I'm having difficulty doing so myself. He knows that it’s not only his employees being impacted, but their entire family. Part of his being in business for himself was my need for better insurance because of my medical issues as a child.
He and his partners have always provided as much of the cost of health insurance as possible as a result. Last I knew, they were still covering 90% of all costs for every employee and their families with minimal contribution from the employee.
After hearing how angry my brothers and Dad were about the quarantine, then seeing the devastating impact covid has had on them, I understand now why they were so angry.
If the Federal Government had been more willing to admit something was happening, make an appropriate plan, work with state governments to put appropriate restrictions in place, and provided resources to help make that happen, he might not be in this spot.
However, if Wolf hadn't done what was done, how much more of an impact would this have had on Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and their surrounding communities?
There's no "one size fits all" solution here. Each situation is different, but without support and resources, how do you make those decisions effectively?
Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?
suffering, loss, anxiety, fear
Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)
I prefer to remain anonymous, but I wrote the text myself
Give this story a date.
2020-07-05