Items

• 2020-05-25

  Emotional Toll

  I work at a prominent community college in California. When we first started hearing about the virus we took precautions right away in the office. First those employees over 65 were sent home to work remotely, because they were identified early on as being a risk group. Then we decided as a college to take all of the on ground classes and convert them to online for the remainder of the spring semester. Shortly after that, most all of the faculty and students were sent home to shelter in place. Those remaining were the lab classes in the industrial arts area and some CTE programs. Staff remained on campus and weeks went by as we continued to operate the college. Slowly staff were asked to work remotely from home, taking their work home with them. Division Offices remained open, as did the IT and Facility areas. The community continued to walk in the door with concerns and questions. Some of us felt we were at risk of infection, because no one really knew much about the virus at this point. I personally felt the effects of stress building. We were asked if we would like to begin working from home in mid-March by our supervisor, but there still wasn’t a directive from the District, so I was concerned. I took work home and my plants, not knowing if and when I would return, because of my age; almost 62. I worked remotely for seven days and then over the next weekend I became incapacitated, due to stress not only regarding the virus, family dynamics, elder care and stress of trying to do my work from a makeshift home office. I was out of the office for nine weeks, while my doctors prescribed slow acting medicines. I came out of my depressed state and now there are still so many things we don’t know about the virus. Besides the toll on me physically and emotionally I also saw a huge chunk of my retirement disappear, as the stock market tumbled. $40K lost out of one account alone. At my age I’ll likely never recover. I expect there will be fallout in other areas as well. While we were all wondering where we could go to buy toilet paper and disinfectant wipes, airlines were parking their planes, car rentals were parking their fleets and the housing market became a whole new game. Where will this all end up is anyone’s guess. What it has done is, the virus has been the great equalizer. Were all in this together. It knows no boundaries except that seniors appear to be the hardest hit group and are accounting for the largest percentage of deaths. On a personal note, I have not been able to meet my new grandson who was born on Mother’s Day because of Covid risk concerns my daughter has and I have to respect that and meet him over the Internet. My own Mom is 81 and will no longer accept a hug from me. It’s just sad. Dianne Nau