Item
Trent Jansen Oral History, 2020/05/19
Media
Title (Dublin Core)
Trent Jansen Oral History, 2020/05/19
Description (Dublin Core)
An oral history interview with Trent Jansen. Trent discusses how family and friends have been impacted by the COVID pandemic. He also talks about how his day-to-day work life has evolved during the pandemic. Trent additionally discusses his views that it is time to reopen businesses and get people back to work. He theorizes that mental health issues caused by shutdowns will result in worse long-term issues than the virus itself.
Recording Date (Dublin Core)
Creator (Dublin Core)
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Economy
English
Emotion
English
Food & Drink
English
Events
English
Government State
English
Pandemic Skeptics
English
Sports
English
Technology
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)
Collection (Dublin Core)
Collecting Institution (Bibliographic Ontology)
The University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
12/21/2021
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
04/26/2022
Date Created (Dublin Core)
05/19/2020
Interviewer (Bibliographic Ontology)
Nick Eggert
Interviewee (Bibliographic Ontology)
Trent Jansen
Location (Omeka Classic)
Minneapolis
Minnesota
United States of America
Format (Dublin Core)
Video
Language (Dublin Core)
English
Duration (Omeka Classic)
00:41:35
abstract (Bibliographic Ontology)
An oral history interview with Trent Jansen. Trent discusses how family and friends have been impacted by the COVID pandemic. He also talks about how his day-to-day work life has evolved during the pandemic. Trent additionally discusses his views that it is time to reopen businesses and get people back to work. He theorizes that mental health issues caused by shutdowns will result in worse long-term issues than the virus itself.
Transcription (Omeka Classic)
Nick Eggert 00:05
Does it say recording on the top left for you?
Trent Jansen 00:07
Yep. Yeah, it's recording.
Nick Eggert 00:09
Perfect. All right. My name is Nick Eggert and I'm part of the UWEC COVID-19 archive project. Today is 5/19 and the time is three o' seven in the afternoon. My first question to you is, what is your name?
Trent Jansen 00:29
My name is Trent Jansen.
Nick Eggert 00:32
Okay. And do you mind sharing demographic information for the study?
Trent Jansen 00:37
Nope, that's fine.
Nick Eggert 00:38
All right. So, then what is your race?
Trent Jansen 00:42
I am white.
Nick Eggert 00:44
All right. And your ethnicity?
Trent Jansen 00:50
Italian.
Nick Eggert 00:51
Okay. And what's your age?
Trent Jansen 00:55
I am 25.
Nick Eggert 00:58
Ok...and gender?
Trent Jansen 01:01
Male.
Nick Eggert 01:05
What are some of the things you do on a day-to-day basis?
Trent Jansen 01:10
So, I am in telecom sales. So, being in sales, my job is to work with my customers on you know, daily projects, whether it's, you know, selling them new products or solutions, you know, going over any billing issues, they may have any outages. That's kind of the day-to-day stuff.
Nick Eggert 01:34
And outside of work, what...what do you primarily do?
Trent Jansen 01:39
A lot of fishing, hunting, hanging out with friends.
Nick Eggert 01:46
Where do you live?
Trent Jansen 01:48
I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Nick Eggert 01:53
And what is it like there?
Trent Jansen 01:54
As far as now you're saying compared to the normal?
Nick Eggert 02:04
Mmhm…
Trent Jansen 02:05
You know, we've gone downtown a couple of times, and seems to obviously be a lot less busy. Some of the skyways they shut down, some of the parking ramps they shut down. So, the actual city is you know, a lot more quiet. As far as where we live, there's a big lake right around us and on these nicer days, we've gone out on some walks. And there's actually probably just as many people, if not more people walking around the lake, you know, exercise and being, you know, close to each other. So, from that perspective, it seems pretty normal.
Nick Eggert 02:47
All right. When you first learned about COVID-19, what were your initial thoughts about it?
Trent Jansen 02:55
I thought it was a little bit of an overreaction with how dramatic the shutdowns were. I understand that it is very scary time and a scary virus just because we don't know so much about it. So, I understood that perspective, but it was just very odd to, to obviously see everything shut down. Because that's something that's never...never happened before.
Nick Eggert 03:26
And have your thoughts change over time about it? Yeah, I'm to the point where I just think that everything needs to be completely reopened. I think that if you are in one of the categories, that proves you know, that's been proven that you're at a higher risk, whether you know, of your age or because of, you know, different conditions, then you...you obviously have to continue the social distancing, staying at home as much as you can or even if, you know, you're not in that category, if you're hanging out with you know, whether it's relatives or friends that fit in those categories, then you need to take it serious, you know, as serious as possible, but I think for the greater society that they should be able to be given the choices to go back and I don't think that the shutdowns shouldn't be happening anymore. So, what were some issues that most concerned you about COVID-19?
Trent Jansen 04:32
You know, personally, I haven't worried about getting this or getting super sick, you know, knock on wood, but you know, my biggest fear would be giving the virus to somebody, you know, whether it's my grandparents, my parents, you know, or even a friend and then them getting sick. That's kind of my...my only personal fear of it.
Nick Eggert 04:59
Right, I'm going to switch up the topics here, for this going forward, how is COVID-19 affecting your job?
Trent Jansen 05:06
So, for my job, you know, luckily beforehand, being in sales, it's a lot of remote, a lot of customer visiting, and you know, not necessarily having to be at a corporate office. So, from that standpoint, you know, I was already able to work at home kind of whenever, you know, I needed to or wanted to. So, that hasn't really changed much, I'd say the biggest change is not being able to meet with my customers face to face, whether I'm going to their offices, or going to lunches with them. So that's been kind of challenging. And then also, obviously, now taking a lot more video calls. Rather than, like I said, me, and I'm in person or just calling them on the phone, you know, it's hard to get a good reaction, you know, on a product or solution from your customer, just by their voice, you know, obviously, seeing facial expressions is a big part of you reading, you know, where they're at, with the solution. So that's changed a little bit.
Nick Eggert 06:15
Have you ever been at fear of not being able to work during COVID-19? Like, was there any initial thoughts that you weren't gonna be able to work?
Trent Jansen 06:26
No, not, not specifically, I think the biggest thing for us was, you know, obviously, being in sales, we're always kind of remote, always going up to the customers. But some of our internal, you know, resources, I worried about, as far as you know, getting answers that we need back quickly. Whether it's, like I said, it could be a billing discussion or issue, it could be, you know, an outage, having, you know, how quickly could our field techs get on site um with everything going on? So, that's been the most, you know, I'd say the most impacting on my job is just getting other resources from people that are normally, you know, working from an office,
Nick Eggert 07:15
And then do you find yourself working more hours…hours a day, when you're at home? Is it hard to distinguish work hours?
Trent Jansen 07:23
Yeah, I would, I would say, so. You know, starting the day, obviously, there's no real prep time, you know, you don't have to get all dressed up, you don't have to drive downtown at all, to find a parking spot, and, you know, walk pretty far to get to my office, in the city. So, from that perspective, obviously, you know, you don't necessarily have to start as early. But, you know, if you're used to getting up, you kind of jump on the computer, you know, a couple minutes, early, 30 minutes early. And then as far as later in the day, I would say, working more just, you know, easy, I have everything set up. So, if I need to do something or something comes to my mind, I kind of just want to get it done right away, compared to when, you know, I was going downtown, I tried to shut the computer, after you know, left for the day and just leave it off. So, yeah, its uh, I was working a little bit more, just because there's no travel times and you kind of work through your lunches, you know, you're not interacting with other people in in the office. You know, even if I wasn't at a customer lunch, you know, I look to see who's in the office and go get lunch with them, you know, for an hour...hour 15. And now you're kind of just I've been skipping lunches and you just kind of work through it, you know, there's always fires or big priorities that you're trying to, you know, work on whether it's internal or with your customers.
Nick Eggert 08:57
And you talked about a little bit of your coworkers, how's the atmosphere going around your company?
Trent Jansen 09:07
It's pretty good, you know, they're trying to do all they can to keep it as normal as possible. So, we do, I mean, there's a lot of opportunities, whether, you know, they try to do like a team walks where, you know, you don't have to call in or be on your face screen, sharing your screen. But, just trying to set up time to make sure, you know, people are still going out, you know, taking their 30 minutes or hour of a break at lunch, doing you know, try to do happy hours virtual, which, you know, I joined a couple, they don't really do much for me, but you know, I understand the purpose of them. And then just a lot more meetings over video. Like I said, even without customers, even if it's just, you know, team meetings, just to try to, you know, get over the fact that we haven't been in the office for for quite some time,
Nick Eggert 10:00
You talked about those happy hours; how has COVID-19 affected your social life?
Trent Jansen 10:12
Quite a bit, you know, with work and even outside of work, you know, just not being able to go out to restaurants and bars, you know, even just have a drink or two or have appetizers. That was kind of a big part of my life with work and then outside of work. So, you know, obviously have not been able to do that. So that was a big change. So, for the most part, you know, we've just been, you know, eating at home, you know, going grocery shopping once a week. And, you know, very rarely ordering out.
Nick Eggert 10:55
How is COVID-19 affected anyone, like employment of people that, you know,
Trent Jansen 11:01
You know, for the most part, I'd say, I'm, like, I'm very lucky. And, you know, most of the people I know, have been lucky with, you know, not losing their jobs, because I know, that's been a very big impact for, you know, throughout this whole thing. But, you know, I do have a couple friends that, you know, are furloughed for the time being, just because obviously, when company doesn't have customers anymore for the short term, you know, like, it's hard for them to continue to pay their workers. So I've seen a little impact that way.
Nick Eggert 11:43
Alright. I'm gonna switch off the topics again, here. How is COVID-19 affecting you and your family's day to day activities?
Trent Jansen 11:53
Yeah. So, for, you know, my personal family, I, you know, I have not seen them, they're taking it, you know, I'd say more serious than myself. So, they, I was doing a wait until there's more guidance on, you know, where the whole, the whole viruses add, and you know, what other steps they could take to be cautious with it. So, you know, I've just been texting them during the FaceTime, talk to them as much as I can. So I'm not seeing them at all. But, for you know, myself, still been, you know, doing the stuff I like, luckily, fishing and hunting for the most part, you're pretty isolated to begin with. So I'm able to still do those sort of things on my own.
Nick Eggert 12:48
And you find yourself more like, on the internet and social media?
Trent Jansen 12:56
I'd say debatable. I mean, I'm always kind of on my phone. Whether it's work, you know, respond to emails, or just like you said, screwing around on social media. I'd say I am paying attention and watching the news a lot less because I just mean, every social media outlet, every news station is spewing different facts that they...there, they call them facts, but different statistics. And you know, it's just all depressing stuff. It's like you might as well just push that aside and that's kind of what I've what I've done.
Nick Eggert 13:42
Alright, this is kind of more of a fun question. Have you challenged yourself with any new skills?
Trent Jansen 13:53
Any new skills? No, like I said, just been obviously cooking more. I haven't gone to restaurants. So, just been trying to learn some new recipes and do a little more cooking.
Nick Eggert 14:10
So, you said that you…you haven't been really in much communication with your family. Have they...have they been doing okay with the COVID-19 pandemic?
Trent Jansen 14:24
Like yeah, they're, yeah, they're fine. They just don't want me to come visit because I've came in contact with a lot more people. And I've taken you know, a couple trips right at the very beginning of this whole thing. So, I understand, you know, you'd rather be safe than sorry. But for the most part, they've just obviously kind of listened to you know, what, what is being told and kind of stayed isolated at at the house.
Nick Eggert 14:53
Okay. All right. What...what normally did, they do like at home, like for recreational things that that they seem to be more into?
Trent Jansen 15:07
I mean, honestly not much stay with parents, some gardening. And then, you know, I know that they've been trying to go on walks. But I mean, as far as my younger sisters, brother, you know, they obviously don't enjoy not being able to go hang out with their friends, you know, go to the mall do that you're, you know, the normal teenage you know, preteen stuff. So...
Nick Eggert 15:35
Alright. So, you also said that you live in Minneapolis, in the Twin Cities? How has COVID-19 affected that community?
Trent Jansen 15:51
Yeah, like I said, as far as I think at the beginning, it was more impacting, you know, everyone took it super serious. And actually, the, the governor of Minnesota even said, like, you know, originally, Minnesota was given an A rating for their social distancing, and you know, how they were reacting to this. But I think it's gotten to the point where people are kind of just like, I want to make my own decisions, you know, if I want to risk this at this point, you know, that's my choice. And he said that this past week, Minnesota was given a D, for that same reading that they got a month ago. So like I said, I think everyone here is really just ready to get back to, you know, how things were. And, you know, if you want to play it safe, and stay in and keep practicing social distancing, you know, that's, that's great. But, if you want to get back to your, your daily life, you know, I think that should be your choice. And then obviously, you know, each of the businesses are going to have their, their own way of getting back to their new normal, let me know, however, that is.
Nick Eggert 16:58
What precautions have you and your family taken against, like, going out?
Trent Jansen 17:02
The biggest thing I'd say is I normally do my grocery shopping Sunday mornings at 5am, once the grocery store opens, so, you know, I'm the first person in there, you know, hope that helps hope that's, you know, right after they just clean everything, and there's, you know, not many people in there. Other than that, you know, not much has changed, we've always carried around hand sanitizer, wash your hands, the basic stuff that you think most humans would understand. But they don't. So, and from that perspective, nothing's really changed. You know, we try to just avoid going to the stores as much as much as possible during busy times, unless absolutely needed.
Nick Eggert 17:57
And you find yourself able to find everything, when you're out shopping?
Trent Jansen 18:04
You know, obviously, the, all this stuff that was, you know, mentioned all over the place with toilet paper and Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer, and it was the, you know, this huge deal. But, I mean, for the most part, we find everything. You know, I'm able to find Clorox wipes to Lysol. Those things, if you go, you know, first...first thing in the morning, you know, and, you know, obviously, now that stores have to limit everything to one per person, or, you know, whatever they decide. That helps a little bit. But yeah, for the most part, you get everything you need.
Nick Eggert 18:46
Have you seen people around you change their opinions or day to day activities in the pandemic?
Trent Jansen 18:56
I mean, personally, like people that I personally know, I mean, a little bit, like I said, they're more cautious at first. And then, you know, at this point, their turn, be like, okay, like, you know, let let me decide if I want to, you know, go out to a restaurant, let me decide if I'm gonna, you know, go see my friends. So, personally, I'd say, you know, they're, like I said, cautious at first and now ready to get back to normal as far as other people I've seen out in the Odeon, you know, stores or, you know, outside I've obviously seen people change and they're, you know, stare you down or don't want you to come near them or, you know, you have to sneeze or you have allergies and they think that you're like passing all these germs. So, I don't know it's, like I said, I think some people you know, if you're going to be that that into it or that worry, then maybe you know, you should just stay inside and have others go, go shop for you.
Nick Eggert 20:04
And has COVID-19 Change your relationship with family and friends?
Trent Jansen 20:11
Not really. For the most part, you know, it's pretty standard. Before this, I talked to my…my family, even though you know, they're pretty far away, you know, I don't necessarily see them all the time. But you know, we still text all the time, we still, you know, FaceTime, we did all that before, still do today. And then obviously, you know, things shifted a little bit being in an apartment in Minneapolis, with my fiancé, so then, you know, both of us working at home, we just had to get used to that, you know, having our own...own space or own rooms during the day. But, like I said, trying to avoid changing anything else.
Nick Eggert 21:02
Have you known anyone that's gotten COVID-19?
Trent Jansen 21:07
I do not. I know people that say that they think they had it, but then you ask them if they've been tested? And they say, "Well, no." Okay. So, I think that is also could be an issue with false reporting on numbers, but...
Nick Eggert 21:29
In what ways do you think like COVID-19 infected, excuse me, is affecting people's mental and physical health?
Trent Jansen 21:38
I mean, you, I've heard it and, you know, I've heard, you know, a bunch of stories, just how, I mean, it's just proven that the mental health, you know, has really gone...gone downhill with, with all those being forced inside not being able to see people and then, like, I talked about people letting this, you know, idea of a virus take over their, their brains, which is pretty sad and scary. Um, but, you know, obviously, suicides continue to happen, and they keep going up, and it's just horrible. So, you know, obviously, I think that is actually, the mental health piece of it is, you know, more deadly than the virus itself. And I think at the end of this, when you, you know, like I said, you look at the…the suicides compared to the deaths from just the virus, it's going to be overwhelming, you know, deaths caused by the mental side of it, which is, you know, just horrible.
Nick Eggert 22:45
Yes, it's been one of the darker times, you know, they talked about it almost being bad, it's like, the Great Depression.
Trent Jansen 22:54
And the depression is just so you're so getting worse, I think, the more the longer this lockdown is taking place, you know, obviously, then, hospitals are trying to avoid people coming in for non, you know, COVID related cases, which, you know, to me, having mental health issues, because of it, you know, is just as bad if not worse. So, I just don't think people are, you know, able to get the help that they need from a mental health standpoint, which is obviously, like I said, leading to a lot more, you know, unfortunate suicides.
Nick Eggert 23:33
I'm gonna change the topic again, before in the interview, you were talking about news stations? And how have you been following along with the news during COVID-19?
Trent Jansen 23:46
What do you mean, how have I been following along?
Nick Eggert 23:49
What…what primary sources have you been, like looking at?
Trent Jansen 23:52
I mean, for the most part, you know, I mean, I, I look at all the news sources, whether it's to get a laugh, or to just hear all the different sides of it. But like I said, at this point, I'm kind of just over it all together with any statistics just because, you know, it's such there's so many unknowns that I just feel like, it's, it's unfair for the media to be pushing it out to, you know, everybody, when, you know, it's most likely not true with what...what they're saying, to a certain extent, is, I think they're really just at this point, you know, more scaring the society more than giving good advice. So, like I said, at this point, I've just kind of, you know, if it pops up on, you know, on Facebook, or if I see, you know, something on, you know, a news app, you know, I'll read it, but other than that, it's like, I'm not going out of my way to turn on the news to hear the same story over and over and over again all day on every news station.
Nick Eggert 25:11
Do you think there are any important issues that they're like, not covering or covering?
Trent Jansen 25:17
Yeah, like I said, I think they need to stop scaring everybody. I mean, the whole thing is just, you know, and I've talked to a lot of people, you know, you know, maybe my age that are kind of in the same boat as myself, as far as kind of, you know, not over this, because, you know, I get, it's still here, it's still like a real thing, and people are still dying. But, like I said, when you compare it to, you know, mental health issues, and it's causing, you know, businesses, unemployment that's causing, like, you know, what, what's the lesser of two evils, but I think the media has just done such a, you know, a horrible job. And, you know, maybe to them, it's a good job, but scaring a lot of the older folk, in the communities, to where, you know, they don't think they can even step outside, which is just kinda…kind of sad.
Nick Eggert 26:17
Alright I'm going to switch this to more of like a governmental view of it...how you, how do you think it's the world leaders and government officials have been covering COVID-19 are responding to it?
Trent Jansen 26:31
I don't know, it's been kind of interesting to see how all the fingers, you know, could be pointed at, you know, the highest level, the president, but then now it is, you know, it's a state level of, you know, how they want to handle it. And now looking even, you know, closer at it, you know, now that like Wisconsin for an example, you know, it was rejected, they had to open back up. But now it's down to a mayor level, you know, the mayor of Milwaukee, keeping them shut down. So, it's just been kind of interesting to see how specifically, you know, at each level of the government, they've been able to kind of control, you know, our lives to a pretty heavy extent, which, you know, looking six months ago, you know, there would have been no way I would have believed that would ever have happened. So, so, yeah, I mean, overall, I think we did what we could with the limited amount of time we were given to really be told how bad it was. And, again, I think, at the end of the day, I mean, the finger pointing shouldn't be...should be no finger pointing at any of our government, you know, whether, you know, it's your republican state, democratic state, I think the finger pointing should be where the virus came from China. They knew about it. And they, you know, played it off, you know, absolutely. devastated. Italy, devastated Spain, the country is, you know, closer to them, and then, you know, let it continue to circulate and get around all these countries before, you know, we were really able to, you know, look at what's the best way to shut down the borders, what's the best way to get prepared for for this, because we know what's coming. So, like I said, whenever someone wants to, you know, argue about, you know how they think someone in our government handled it wrong. It's like, we should really be looking at how the Chinese government handled it [inaudible].
Nick Eggert 28:48
I know, there's a lot of debate going on about our responses to the whole COVID-19 and foreign. But now, let's coming to, I would say, people are saying it's coming to a close, how do you how do you think the country or sorry, how do I rephrase that? How do you feel about the country like reopening now that's on the downturn as far as this?
Trent Jansen 29:13
Yeah. And the thing is, I don't even think it's necessarily on a downturn and once there's reopening, the cases are going to spike back up. It's just seriously, it's a given. And until there's actual test that show how many people have already got the virus. You don't already beat it without any symptoms, and to really determine, you know, what is the actual, you know, mortality rate of the virus. You know, it's kind of hard to determine or put it into, you know, a fair table of, you know, balancing and, you know, looking at the pros and cons of, you know, like I said, deaths by just the virus or, you know, deaths by because of all the mental health that issues and it's caused all of the economic hardships it's caused, you know, those are leading to, like I said, more deaths for a fact, you know. So, I, like I said, you just you hate comparing lessers of two evils when it comes to American lives, you know, dying, because you never hope it comes to that. But like I said, you know, it just, you can't keep the United States closed down. I mean, just the amount of pain that causes on you know, also just our country to, you know, it's, it's, it's too much. Like I said, I think the death rate, as we learn more, as more testing comes out, I think we'll, we'll find out that the mortality rate of COVID 19, alone, being the standalone cause of someone's death is going to be so much lower than, you know, originally anticipated. And I think, you know, even looking at all the government charts, and, and i know those are just estimates, but you know, every one of them, you know, it's been way lower than was originally anticipated. And like I said, I know when with reopening, it's going to cause more cases, you know, people are not going to be smart about it, they're going to rush to the bars, they're going to want to go to concerts, they're going to want to, you know, do all that. And I think you just have to be more open to some of the changes that are obviously going to happen. But you know, just be smart, wash your hands, you know, everywhere you're going, you know, don't go near huge groups of people. If it's, you know, unnecessary, you don't know, um, but like I said, I, we…we really need to reopen the country, I don't think that we could do this any longer.
Nick Eggert 31:58
All right. So, my next questions are gonna be looking out towards the future more and towards yourself. Has your experience transformed how you think about your future career plans, or about handling money?
Trent Jansen 32:21
But you said about handling money?
Nick Eggert 32:25
So yeah, so let me just say that, again, has your experience transformed how you think about your future career plans, or about handling money.
Trent Jansen 32:38
Not so much future career plans. But I mean, as far as money, like I said, you know, not going out to restaurants to bars, you know, doing all that, you know, saved quite a bit of money, but also put it in perspective, as you know, you asked anyone, if this event would have happened six months ago, it would have said, "There's no way that's possible." And so from that perspective, it's, ya know, I would want to start saving more money, you know, you can never, you know, have enough you never know, what's, you know, coming next. Like I said whether it's various whether it's, you know, job loss, whether it's, you know, a sickness, you just, I mean, you just can't, can't be over prepared for something like that. So, I think from that perspective, you know, just wanting to be as conservative, you know, save as much as much as possible, just to always, you know, be prepared as much as you can for something.
Nick Eggert 33:35
And before you talked about, like, sporting events and going out, are there any things that you took for granted, such as attending a sporting events or large concerts or restaurants? And think anything different about them now?
Trent Jansen 33:48
Yeah, you know, I went to some sporting events, you know, I went to a lot of baseball games, I went to some football games, hockey games, but, you know, I think the biggest thing for me is even just, you know, being a big sports fan and saying, you know, I guess the only sport on right now is the UFC fights, but it's just even weird seeing those events going on without the atmosphere of fans in the crowd and cheering and thinking about, you know, the NFL without fans in the stadiums or baseball. You know, it's just really odd. From that perspective, and then, you know, more personally, you know, obviously, like I said, went to really more restaurants, and then I did go to sporting events, but that's definitely been kind of the biggest change. And, you know, I guess that is the restaurants are open up. They're going to I think, try to put in a new guidelines, you know, whether it's government, you know, unnecessary or they just want to prove to the, you know, their communities that they're, you know, doing what they can to keep people safe. I think that may or may change a little bit. But…but yeah, other than that, like I said, it's just been really odd not being able to, you know, after work, go grab food somewhere sit down, you know, just have that, that ability to be somewhere outside of, you know, just your home.
Nick Eggert 35:21
Do you think anything differently now about large crowds and like public display of affection?
Trent Jansen 35:31
Not really, like I said, I think it's still it's your, your personal decision. But I just, I mean, when I think about a large crowd, now I just placed I think how sad it will be. If that's no longer allowed at sporting events, you know, stadium, you can have people six feet apart during a concert, you can have people six feet apart during a football game. And just you know, what that does? You know, as far as, like I said, the atmosphere of these big events, you know, these big revenue events. So, I, I guess, I think it'll be interesting to see these next couple of months and, and how these sports leagues decide to move forward, you know, with all of this.
Nick Eggert 36:21
How long do you think pandemic will last?
Trent Jansen 36:26
You know, will it ever really technically end I guess, you know, what do you consider ending? You look at, you know, other viruses, you know, the flu, it's like, it's always still…still a thing. Each year, you know, so many people still get the flu, so many people die from the flu, you know, even if they're getting the vaccines. So, I guess it really determines on, you know, what do you consider it being, you know, over, you know, obviously, we're trying to push and rush these vaccines now. But you know, how many vaccines actually get rid of it altogether? It could always be changing, mutating, you know, and different forms of the virus. So, so I guess, you know, from that perspective, you know, like I said, I don't I don't know, when you to consider it over. But I think like I said, once we have more concrete evidence, you know, hopefully, a lot lower mortality rate, then, you know, what's been spoke, you know, to the society. At that point, you know, when the fear levels, you know, ultimately go down, you know, we can take that as a win is, you know, it's over, but, you know, it's still, you know, around the world, still a real virus, it's still killing people. So, yeah, I guess that's my take on that.
Nick Eggert 37:56
All right. I got one final question for you know, COVID-19 is kind of a dark and depressing topic. Is there anything that you that you can think of a little positive effect or outcome of the pandemic?
Trent Jansen 38:14
Yeah, like I said, I don't necessarily see my, my direct family a ton, because, you know, I am working out of a different state than they are in. But, you know, just how important, you know, family, as friends are, you know, you see people doing these Zoom calls, doing these face times with people that, you know, maybe they actually haven't seen in even longer, but, you know, it's trying to turn to bring from, [inaudible] you know, even the, the economy standpoint of it. You know, I think it's interesting to see how businesses are going to react after this. Just on, you know, there's so many jobs that were always these are jobs that, you know, you have to be in an office doing. And then, you know, they're all forced on a flip of a switch to turn them all into remote jobs. So, I think that'll be kind of interesting. And, you know, maybe it's a positive couple of years from now, once you know, everyone, you know, hopefully, the unemployment rate gets back down and you know, more...more businesses start opening up. So, obviously, that's not a positive. But, like I said, it would be interesting to see sort of, you know, how…how much more people can possibly work from home because I know that definitely benefit that a lot of people don't have today or in haven't had but would…would like to have more freedom to do going forward.
Nick Eggert 39:48
Right. Well, I'm all out questions. Is there anything else you'd like to say for people about COVID-19?
Trent Jansen 39:59
No, I think that I think you covered the questions. Like I said, I'm just hoping that it wraps up here to, you know, a certain extent, like I said, you know, obviously, this is going to be a lingering virus, a lingering issue for, you know, probably years to come, you know, the economic effect, it's going to have, you know, on so many people will, will last for a long time. So, I just really hoping that, you know, the government as a whole kind of, you know, stops the, the divide to a certain level and, you know, actually, was just focused on solving this one issue. And, you know, stop looking at, you know, other issues and trying to group them all together. And just really, you know, focus on the people and how we could, you know, start saving more…more lives, virus-related mental health related, you know, get people working again, you know, that unfortunately were furloughed or lost their jobs and kind of go from there.
Nick Eggert 41:16
Alright, so I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do this interview with me.
Trent Jansen 41:23
Yep, no problem.
Nick Eggert 41:25
And I hope everybody in your family stay safe and healthy during this time.
Trent Jansen 41:29
Yep, you as well.
Nick Eggert 41:31
Thank you again, have a great rest of your day.
Does it say recording on the top left for you?
Trent Jansen 00:07
Yep. Yeah, it's recording.
Nick Eggert 00:09
Perfect. All right. My name is Nick Eggert and I'm part of the UWEC COVID-19 archive project. Today is 5/19 and the time is three o' seven in the afternoon. My first question to you is, what is your name?
Trent Jansen 00:29
My name is Trent Jansen.
Nick Eggert 00:32
Okay. And do you mind sharing demographic information for the study?
Trent Jansen 00:37
Nope, that's fine.
Nick Eggert 00:38
All right. So, then what is your race?
Trent Jansen 00:42
I am white.
Nick Eggert 00:44
All right. And your ethnicity?
Trent Jansen 00:50
Italian.
Nick Eggert 00:51
Okay. And what's your age?
Trent Jansen 00:55
I am 25.
Nick Eggert 00:58
Ok...and gender?
Trent Jansen 01:01
Male.
Nick Eggert 01:05
What are some of the things you do on a day-to-day basis?
Trent Jansen 01:10
So, I am in telecom sales. So, being in sales, my job is to work with my customers on you know, daily projects, whether it's, you know, selling them new products or solutions, you know, going over any billing issues, they may have any outages. That's kind of the day-to-day stuff.
Nick Eggert 01:34
And outside of work, what...what do you primarily do?
Trent Jansen 01:39
A lot of fishing, hunting, hanging out with friends.
Nick Eggert 01:46
Where do you live?
Trent Jansen 01:48
I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Nick Eggert 01:53
And what is it like there?
Trent Jansen 01:54
As far as now you're saying compared to the normal?
Nick Eggert 02:04
Mmhm…
Trent Jansen 02:05
You know, we've gone downtown a couple of times, and seems to obviously be a lot less busy. Some of the skyways they shut down, some of the parking ramps they shut down. So, the actual city is you know, a lot more quiet. As far as where we live, there's a big lake right around us and on these nicer days, we've gone out on some walks. And there's actually probably just as many people, if not more people walking around the lake, you know, exercise and being, you know, close to each other. So, from that perspective, it seems pretty normal.
Nick Eggert 02:47
All right. When you first learned about COVID-19, what were your initial thoughts about it?
Trent Jansen 02:55
I thought it was a little bit of an overreaction with how dramatic the shutdowns were. I understand that it is very scary time and a scary virus just because we don't know so much about it. So, I understood that perspective, but it was just very odd to, to obviously see everything shut down. Because that's something that's never...never happened before.
Nick Eggert 03:26
And have your thoughts change over time about it? Yeah, I'm to the point where I just think that everything needs to be completely reopened. I think that if you are in one of the categories, that proves you know, that's been proven that you're at a higher risk, whether you know, of your age or because of, you know, different conditions, then you...you obviously have to continue the social distancing, staying at home as much as you can or even if, you know, you're not in that category, if you're hanging out with you know, whether it's relatives or friends that fit in those categories, then you need to take it serious, you know, as serious as possible, but I think for the greater society that they should be able to be given the choices to go back and I don't think that the shutdowns shouldn't be happening anymore. So, what were some issues that most concerned you about COVID-19?
Trent Jansen 04:32
You know, personally, I haven't worried about getting this or getting super sick, you know, knock on wood, but you know, my biggest fear would be giving the virus to somebody, you know, whether it's my grandparents, my parents, you know, or even a friend and then them getting sick. That's kind of my...my only personal fear of it.
Nick Eggert 04:59
Right, I'm going to switch up the topics here, for this going forward, how is COVID-19 affecting your job?
Trent Jansen 05:06
So, for my job, you know, luckily beforehand, being in sales, it's a lot of remote, a lot of customer visiting, and you know, not necessarily having to be at a corporate office. So, from that standpoint, you know, I was already able to work at home kind of whenever, you know, I needed to or wanted to. So, that hasn't really changed much, I'd say the biggest change is not being able to meet with my customers face to face, whether I'm going to their offices, or going to lunches with them. So that's been kind of challenging. And then also, obviously, now taking a lot more video calls. Rather than, like I said, me, and I'm in person or just calling them on the phone, you know, it's hard to get a good reaction, you know, on a product or solution from your customer, just by their voice, you know, obviously, seeing facial expressions is a big part of you reading, you know, where they're at, with the solution. So that's changed a little bit.
Nick Eggert 06:15
Have you ever been at fear of not being able to work during COVID-19? Like, was there any initial thoughts that you weren't gonna be able to work?
Trent Jansen 06:26
No, not, not specifically, I think the biggest thing for us was, you know, obviously, being in sales, we're always kind of remote, always going up to the customers. But some of our internal, you know, resources, I worried about, as far as you know, getting answers that we need back quickly. Whether it's, like I said, it could be a billing discussion or issue, it could be, you know, an outage, having, you know, how quickly could our field techs get on site um with everything going on? So, that's been the most, you know, I'd say the most impacting on my job is just getting other resources from people that are normally, you know, working from an office,
Nick Eggert 07:15
And then do you find yourself working more hours…hours a day, when you're at home? Is it hard to distinguish work hours?
Trent Jansen 07:23
Yeah, I would, I would say, so. You know, starting the day, obviously, there's no real prep time, you know, you don't have to get all dressed up, you don't have to drive downtown at all, to find a parking spot, and, you know, walk pretty far to get to my office, in the city. So, from that perspective, obviously, you know, you don't necessarily have to start as early. But, you know, if you're used to getting up, you kind of jump on the computer, you know, a couple minutes, early, 30 minutes early. And then as far as later in the day, I would say, working more just, you know, easy, I have everything set up. So, if I need to do something or something comes to my mind, I kind of just want to get it done right away, compared to when, you know, I was going downtown, I tried to shut the computer, after you know, left for the day and just leave it off. So, yeah, its uh, I was working a little bit more, just because there's no travel times and you kind of work through your lunches, you know, you're not interacting with other people in in the office. You know, even if I wasn't at a customer lunch, you know, I look to see who's in the office and go get lunch with them, you know, for an hour...hour 15. And now you're kind of just I've been skipping lunches and you just kind of work through it, you know, there's always fires or big priorities that you're trying to, you know, work on whether it's internal or with your customers.
Nick Eggert 08:57
And you talked about a little bit of your coworkers, how's the atmosphere going around your company?
Trent Jansen 09:07
It's pretty good, you know, they're trying to do all they can to keep it as normal as possible. So, we do, I mean, there's a lot of opportunities, whether, you know, they try to do like a team walks where, you know, you don't have to call in or be on your face screen, sharing your screen. But, just trying to set up time to make sure, you know, people are still going out, you know, taking their 30 minutes or hour of a break at lunch, doing you know, try to do happy hours virtual, which, you know, I joined a couple, they don't really do much for me, but you know, I understand the purpose of them. And then just a lot more meetings over video. Like I said, even without customers, even if it's just, you know, team meetings, just to try to, you know, get over the fact that we haven't been in the office for for quite some time,
Nick Eggert 10:00
You talked about those happy hours; how has COVID-19 affected your social life?
Trent Jansen 10:12
Quite a bit, you know, with work and even outside of work, you know, just not being able to go out to restaurants and bars, you know, even just have a drink or two or have appetizers. That was kind of a big part of my life with work and then outside of work. So, you know, obviously have not been able to do that. So that was a big change. So, for the most part, you know, we've just been, you know, eating at home, you know, going grocery shopping once a week. And, you know, very rarely ordering out.
Nick Eggert 10:55
How is COVID-19 affected anyone, like employment of people that, you know,
Trent Jansen 11:01
You know, for the most part, I'd say, I'm, like, I'm very lucky. And, you know, most of the people I know, have been lucky with, you know, not losing their jobs, because I know, that's been a very big impact for, you know, throughout this whole thing. But, you know, I do have a couple friends that, you know, are furloughed for the time being, just because obviously, when company doesn't have customers anymore for the short term, you know, like, it's hard for them to continue to pay their workers. So I've seen a little impact that way.
Nick Eggert 11:43
Alright. I'm gonna switch off the topics again, here. How is COVID-19 affecting you and your family's day to day activities?
Trent Jansen 11:53
Yeah. So, for, you know, my personal family, I, you know, I have not seen them, they're taking it, you know, I'd say more serious than myself. So, they, I was doing a wait until there's more guidance on, you know, where the whole, the whole viruses add, and you know, what other steps they could take to be cautious with it. So, you know, I've just been texting them during the FaceTime, talk to them as much as I can. So I'm not seeing them at all. But, for you know, myself, still been, you know, doing the stuff I like, luckily, fishing and hunting for the most part, you're pretty isolated to begin with. So I'm able to still do those sort of things on my own.
Nick Eggert 12:48
And you find yourself more like, on the internet and social media?
Trent Jansen 12:56
I'd say debatable. I mean, I'm always kind of on my phone. Whether it's work, you know, respond to emails, or just like you said, screwing around on social media. I'd say I am paying attention and watching the news a lot less because I just mean, every social media outlet, every news station is spewing different facts that they...there, they call them facts, but different statistics. And you know, it's just all depressing stuff. It's like you might as well just push that aside and that's kind of what I've what I've done.
Nick Eggert 13:42
Alright, this is kind of more of a fun question. Have you challenged yourself with any new skills?
Trent Jansen 13:53
Any new skills? No, like I said, just been obviously cooking more. I haven't gone to restaurants. So, just been trying to learn some new recipes and do a little more cooking.
Nick Eggert 14:10
So, you said that you…you haven't been really in much communication with your family. Have they...have they been doing okay with the COVID-19 pandemic?
Trent Jansen 14:24
Like yeah, they're, yeah, they're fine. They just don't want me to come visit because I've came in contact with a lot more people. And I've taken you know, a couple trips right at the very beginning of this whole thing. So, I understand, you know, you'd rather be safe than sorry. But for the most part, they've just obviously kind of listened to you know, what, what is being told and kind of stayed isolated at at the house.
Nick Eggert 14:53
Okay. All right. What...what normally did, they do like at home, like for recreational things that that they seem to be more into?
Trent Jansen 15:07
I mean, honestly not much stay with parents, some gardening. And then, you know, I know that they've been trying to go on walks. But I mean, as far as my younger sisters, brother, you know, they obviously don't enjoy not being able to go hang out with their friends, you know, go to the mall do that you're, you know, the normal teenage you know, preteen stuff. So...
Nick Eggert 15:35
Alright. So, you also said that you live in Minneapolis, in the Twin Cities? How has COVID-19 affected that community?
Trent Jansen 15:51
Yeah, like I said, as far as I think at the beginning, it was more impacting, you know, everyone took it super serious. And actually, the, the governor of Minnesota even said, like, you know, originally, Minnesota was given an A rating for their social distancing, and you know, how they were reacting to this. But I think it's gotten to the point where people are kind of just like, I want to make my own decisions, you know, if I want to risk this at this point, you know, that's my choice. And he said that this past week, Minnesota was given a D, for that same reading that they got a month ago. So like I said, I think everyone here is really just ready to get back to, you know, how things were. And, you know, if you want to play it safe, and stay in and keep practicing social distancing, you know, that's, that's great. But, if you want to get back to your, your daily life, you know, I think that should be your choice. And then obviously, you know, each of the businesses are going to have their, their own way of getting back to their new normal, let me know, however, that is.
Nick Eggert 16:58
What precautions have you and your family taken against, like, going out?
Trent Jansen 17:02
The biggest thing I'd say is I normally do my grocery shopping Sunday mornings at 5am, once the grocery store opens, so, you know, I'm the first person in there, you know, hope that helps hope that's, you know, right after they just clean everything, and there's, you know, not many people in there. Other than that, you know, not much has changed, we've always carried around hand sanitizer, wash your hands, the basic stuff that you think most humans would understand. But they don't. So, and from that perspective, nothing's really changed. You know, we try to just avoid going to the stores as much as much as possible during busy times, unless absolutely needed.
Nick Eggert 17:57
And you find yourself able to find everything, when you're out shopping?
Trent Jansen 18:04
You know, obviously, the, all this stuff that was, you know, mentioned all over the place with toilet paper and Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer, and it was the, you know, this huge deal. But, I mean, for the most part, we find everything. You know, I'm able to find Clorox wipes to Lysol. Those things, if you go, you know, first...first thing in the morning, you know, and, you know, obviously, now that stores have to limit everything to one per person, or, you know, whatever they decide. That helps a little bit. But yeah, for the most part, you get everything you need.
Nick Eggert 18:46
Have you seen people around you change their opinions or day to day activities in the pandemic?
Trent Jansen 18:56
I mean, personally, like people that I personally know, I mean, a little bit, like I said, they're more cautious at first. And then, you know, at this point, their turn, be like, okay, like, you know, let let me decide if I want to, you know, go out to a restaurant, let me decide if I'm gonna, you know, go see my friends. So, personally, I'd say, you know, they're, like I said, cautious at first and now ready to get back to normal as far as other people I've seen out in the Odeon, you know, stores or, you know, outside I've obviously seen people change and they're, you know, stare you down or don't want you to come near them or, you know, you have to sneeze or you have allergies and they think that you're like passing all these germs. So, I don't know it's, like I said, I think some people you know, if you're going to be that that into it or that worry, then maybe you know, you should just stay inside and have others go, go shop for you.
Nick Eggert 20:04
And has COVID-19 Change your relationship with family and friends?
Trent Jansen 20:11
Not really. For the most part, you know, it's pretty standard. Before this, I talked to my…my family, even though you know, they're pretty far away, you know, I don't necessarily see them all the time. But you know, we still text all the time, we still, you know, FaceTime, we did all that before, still do today. And then obviously, you know, things shifted a little bit being in an apartment in Minneapolis, with my fiancé, so then, you know, both of us working at home, we just had to get used to that, you know, having our own...own space or own rooms during the day. But, like I said, trying to avoid changing anything else.
Nick Eggert 21:02
Have you known anyone that's gotten COVID-19?
Trent Jansen 21:07
I do not. I know people that say that they think they had it, but then you ask them if they've been tested? And they say, "Well, no." Okay. So, I think that is also could be an issue with false reporting on numbers, but...
Nick Eggert 21:29
In what ways do you think like COVID-19 infected, excuse me, is affecting people's mental and physical health?
Trent Jansen 21:38
I mean, you, I've heard it and, you know, I've heard, you know, a bunch of stories, just how, I mean, it's just proven that the mental health, you know, has really gone...gone downhill with, with all those being forced inside not being able to see people and then, like, I talked about people letting this, you know, idea of a virus take over their, their brains, which is pretty sad and scary. Um, but, you know, obviously, suicides continue to happen, and they keep going up, and it's just horrible. So, you know, obviously, I think that is actually, the mental health piece of it is, you know, more deadly than the virus itself. And I think at the end of this, when you, you know, like I said, you look at the…the suicides compared to the deaths from just the virus, it's going to be overwhelming, you know, deaths caused by the mental side of it, which is, you know, just horrible.
Nick Eggert 22:45
Yes, it's been one of the darker times, you know, they talked about it almost being bad, it's like, the Great Depression.
Trent Jansen 22:54
And the depression is just so you're so getting worse, I think, the more the longer this lockdown is taking place, you know, obviously, then, hospitals are trying to avoid people coming in for non, you know, COVID related cases, which, you know, to me, having mental health issues, because of it, you know, is just as bad if not worse. So, I just don't think people are, you know, able to get the help that they need from a mental health standpoint, which is obviously, like I said, leading to a lot more, you know, unfortunate suicides.
Nick Eggert 23:33
I'm gonna change the topic again, before in the interview, you were talking about news stations? And how have you been following along with the news during COVID-19?
Trent Jansen 23:46
What do you mean, how have I been following along?
Nick Eggert 23:49
What…what primary sources have you been, like looking at?
Trent Jansen 23:52
I mean, for the most part, you know, I mean, I, I look at all the news sources, whether it's to get a laugh, or to just hear all the different sides of it. But like I said, at this point, I'm kind of just over it all together with any statistics just because, you know, it's such there's so many unknowns that I just feel like, it's, it's unfair for the media to be pushing it out to, you know, everybody, when, you know, it's most likely not true with what...what they're saying, to a certain extent, is, I think they're really just at this point, you know, more scaring the society more than giving good advice. So, like I said, at this point, I've just kind of, you know, if it pops up on, you know, on Facebook, or if I see, you know, something on, you know, a news app, you know, I'll read it, but other than that, it's like, I'm not going out of my way to turn on the news to hear the same story over and over and over again all day on every news station.
Nick Eggert 25:11
Do you think there are any important issues that they're like, not covering or covering?
Trent Jansen 25:17
Yeah, like I said, I think they need to stop scaring everybody. I mean, the whole thing is just, you know, and I've talked to a lot of people, you know, you know, maybe my age that are kind of in the same boat as myself, as far as kind of, you know, not over this, because, you know, I get, it's still here, it's still like a real thing, and people are still dying. But, like I said, when you compare it to, you know, mental health issues, and it's causing, you know, businesses, unemployment that's causing, like, you know, what, what's the lesser of two evils, but I think the media has just done such a, you know, a horrible job. And, you know, maybe to them, it's a good job, but scaring a lot of the older folk, in the communities, to where, you know, they don't think they can even step outside, which is just kinda…kind of sad.
Nick Eggert 26:17
Alright I'm going to switch this to more of like a governmental view of it...how you, how do you think it's the world leaders and government officials have been covering COVID-19 are responding to it?
Trent Jansen 26:31
I don't know, it's been kind of interesting to see how all the fingers, you know, could be pointed at, you know, the highest level, the president, but then now it is, you know, it's a state level of, you know, how they want to handle it. And now looking even, you know, closer at it, you know, now that like Wisconsin for an example, you know, it was rejected, they had to open back up. But now it's down to a mayor level, you know, the mayor of Milwaukee, keeping them shut down. So, it's just been kind of interesting to see how specifically, you know, at each level of the government, they've been able to kind of control, you know, our lives to a pretty heavy extent, which, you know, looking six months ago, you know, there would have been no way I would have believed that would ever have happened. So, so, yeah, I mean, overall, I think we did what we could with the limited amount of time we were given to really be told how bad it was. And, again, I think, at the end of the day, I mean, the finger pointing shouldn't be...should be no finger pointing at any of our government, you know, whether, you know, it's your republican state, democratic state, I think the finger pointing should be where the virus came from China. They knew about it. And they, you know, played it off, you know, absolutely. devastated. Italy, devastated Spain, the country is, you know, closer to them, and then, you know, let it continue to circulate and get around all these countries before, you know, we were really able to, you know, look at what's the best way to shut down the borders, what's the best way to get prepared for for this, because we know what's coming. So, like I said, whenever someone wants to, you know, argue about, you know how they think someone in our government handled it wrong. It's like, we should really be looking at how the Chinese government handled it [inaudible].
Nick Eggert 28:48
I know, there's a lot of debate going on about our responses to the whole COVID-19 and foreign. But now, let's coming to, I would say, people are saying it's coming to a close, how do you how do you think the country or sorry, how do I rephrase that? How do you feel about the country like reopening now that's on the downturn as far as this?
Trent Jansen 29:13
Yeah. And the thing is, I don't even think it's necessarily on a downturn and once there's reopening, the cases are going to spike back up. It's just seriously, it's a given. And until there's actual test that show how many people have already got the virus. You don't already beat it without any symptoms, and to really determine, you know, what is the actual, you know, mortality rate of the virus. You know, it's kind of hard to determine or put it into, you know, a fair table of, you know, balancing and, you know, looking at the pros and cons of, you know, like I said, deaths by just the virus or, you know, deaths by because of all the mental health that issues and it's caused all of the economic hardships it's caused, you know, those are leading to, like I said, more deaths for a fact, you know. So, I, like I said, you just you hate comparing lessers of two evils when it comes to American lives, you know, dying, because you never hope it comes to that. But like I said, you know, it just, you can't keep the United States closed down. I mean, just the amount of pain that causes on you know, also just our country to, you know, it's, it's, it's too much. Like I said, I think the death rate, as we learn more, as more testing comes out, I think we'll, we'll find out that the mortality rate of COVID 19, alone, being the standalone cause of someone's death is going to be so much lower than, you know, originally anticipated. And I think, you know, even looking at all the government charts, and, and i know those are just estimates, but you know, every one of them, you know, it's been way lower than was originally anticipated. And like I said, I know when with reopening, it's going to cause more cases, you know, people are not going to be smart about it, they're going to rush to the bars, they're going to want to go to concerts, they're going to want to, you know, do all that. And I think you just have to be more open to some of the changes that are obviously going to happen. But you know, just be smart, wash your hands, you know, everywhere you're going, you know, don't go near huge groups of people. If it's, you know, unnecessary, you don't know, um, but like I said, I, we…we really need to reopen the country, I don't think that we could do this any longer.
Nick Eggert 31:58
All right. So, my next questions are gonna be looking out towards the future more and towards yourself. Has your experience transformed how you think about your future career plans, or about handling money?
Trent Jansen 32:21
But you said about handling money?
Nick Eggert 32:25
So yeah, so let me just say that, again, has your experience transformed how you think about your future career plans, or about handling money.
Trent Jansen 32:38
Not so much future career plans. But I mean, as far as money, like I said, you know, not going out to restaurants to bars, you know, doing all that, you know, saved quite a bit of money, but also put it in perspective, as you know, you asked anyone, if this event would have happened six months ago, it would have said, "There's no way that's possible." And so from that perspective, it's, ya know, I would want to start saving more money, you know, you can never, you know, have enough you never know, what's, you know, coming next. Like I said whether it's various whether it's, you know, job loss, whether it's, you know, a sickness, you just, I mean, you just can't, can't be over prepared for something like that. So, I think from that perspective, you know, just wanting to be as conservative, you know, save as much as much as possible, just to always, you know, be prepared as much as you can for something.
Nick Eggert 33:35
And before you talked about, like, sporting events and going out, are there any things that you took for granted, such as attending a sporting events or large concerts or restaurants? And think anything different about them now?
Trent Jansen 33:48
Yeah, you know, I went to some sporting events, you know, I went to a lot of baseball games, I went to some football games, hockey games, but, you know, I think the biggest thing for me is even just, you know, being a big sports fan and saying, you know, I guess the only sport on right now is the UFC fights, but it's just even weird seeing those events going on without the atmosphere of fans in the crowd and cheering and thinking about, you know, the NFL without fans in the stadiums or baseball. You know, it's just really odd. From that perspective, and then, you know, more personally, you know, obviously, like I said, went to really more restaurants, and then I did go to sporting events, but that's definitely been kind of the biggest change. And, you know, I guess that is the restaurants are open up. They're going to I think, try to put in a new guidelines, you know, whether it's government, you know, unnecessary or they just want to prove to the, you know, their communities that they're, you know, doing what they can to keep people safe. I think that may or may change a little bit. But…but yeah, other than that, like I said, it's just been really odd not being able to, you know, after work, go grab food somewhere sit down, you know, just have that, that ability to be somewhere outside of, you know, just your home.
Nick Eggert 35:21
Do you think anything differently now about large crowds and like public display of affection?
Trent Jansen 35:31
Not really, like I said, I think it's still it's your, your personal decision. But I just, I mean, when I think about a large crowd, now I just placed I think how sad it will be. If that's no longer allowed at sporting events, you know, stadium, you can have people six feet apart during a concert, you can have people six feet apart during a football game. And just you know, what that does? You know, as far as, like I said, the atmosphere of these big events, you know, these big revenue events. So, I, I guess, I think it'll be interesting to see these next couple of months and, and how these sports leagues decide to move forward, you know, with all of this.
Nick Eggert 36:21
How long do you think pandemic will last?
Trent Jansen 36:26
You know, will it ever really technically end I guess, you know, what do you consider ending? You look at, you know, other viruses, you know, the flu, it's like, it's always still…still a thing. Each year, you know, so many people still get the flu, so many people die from the flu, you know, even if they're getting the vaccines. So, I guess it really determines on, you know, what do you consider it being, you know, over, you know, obviously, we're trying to push and rush these vaccines now. But you know, how many vaccines actually get rid of it altogether? It could always be changing, mutating, you know, and different forms of the virus. So, so I guess, you know, from that perspective, you know, like I said, I don't I don't know, when you to consider it over. But I think like I said, once we have more concrete evidence, you know, hopefully, a lot lower mortality rate, then, you know, what's been spoke, you know, to the society. At that point, you know, when the fear levels, you know, ultimately go down, you know, we can take that as a win is, you know, it's over, but, you know, it's still, you know, around the world, still a real virus, it's still killing people. So, yeah, I guess that's my take on that.
Nick Eggert 37:56
All right. I got one final question for you know, COVID-19 is kind of a dark and depressing topic. Is there anything that you that you can think of a little positive effect or outcome of the pandemic?
Trent Jansen 38:14
Yeah, like I said, I don't necessarily see my, my direct family a ton, because, you know, I am working out of a different state than they are in. But, you know, just how important, you know, family, as friends are, you know, you see people doing these Zoom calls, doing these face times with people that, you know, maybe they actually haven't seen in even longer, but, you know, it's trying to turn to bring from, [inaudible] you know, even the, the economy standpoint of it. You know, I think it's interesting to see how businesses are going to react after this. Just on, you know, there's so many jobs that were always these are jobs that, you know, you have to be in an office doing. And then, you know, they're all forced on a flip of a switch to turn them all into remote jobs. So, I think that'll be kind of interesting. And, you know, maybe it's a positive couple of years from now, once you know, everyone, you know, hopefully, the unemployment rate gets back down and you know, more...more businesses start opening up. So, obviously, that's not a positive. But, like I said, it would be interesting to see sort of, you know, how…how much more people can possibly work from home because I know that definitely benefit that a lot of people don't have today or in haven't had but would…would like to have more freedom to do going forward.
Nick Eggert 39:48
Right. Well, I'm all out questions. Is there anything else you'd like to say for people about COVID-19?
Trent Jansen 39:59
No, I think that I think you covered the questions. Like I said, I'm just hoping that it wraps up here to, you know, a certain extent, like I said, you know, obviously, this is going to be a lingering virus, a lingering issue for, you know, probably years to come, you know, the economic effect, it's going to have, you know, on so many people will, will last for a long time. So, I just really hoping that, you know, the government as a whole kind of, you know, stops the, the divide to a certain level and, you know, actually, was just focused on solving this one issue. And, you know, stop looking at, you know, other issues and trying to group them all together. And just really, you know, focus on the people and how we could, you know, start saving more…more lives, virus-related mental health related, you know, get people working again, you know, that unfortunately were furloughed or lost their jobs and kind of go from there.
Nick Eggert 41:16
Alright, so I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do this interview with me.
Trent Jansen 41:23
Yep, no problem.
Nick Eggert 41:25
And I hope everybody in your family stay safe and healthy during this time.
Trent Jansen 41:29
Yep, you as well.
Nick Eggert 41:31
Thank you again, have a great rest of your day.