Item
Anonymous Active Air Force Reservist Oral History, 2020/11/16
Media
Title (Dublin Core)
Anonymous Active Air Force Reservist Oral History, 2020/11/16
Description (Dublin Core)
This is a audio interview with a active Air Force Reservist, describing how the Covid pandemic has impacted his work environment and personal livelihood.
Recording Date (Dublin Core)
11/16/2020
Creator (Dublin Core)
Arthur Reyes
Contributor (Dublin Core)
Arthur Reyes
Event Identifier (Dublin Core)
HS6301
Partner (Dublin Core)
St. Mary's University
Type (Dublin Core)
Audio Interview
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Economy
English
Government Federal
English
Labor
English
Travel
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
#coveryourfangs
hs6301
military
veteran
reserves
work
travel
Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)
#coveryourfangs
#phstmu
hs6301
military
work
travel
office environment
Collection (Dublin Core)
Military
Environment
Exhibit (Dublin Core)
#CoverYourFangs>Snapshots of the Student-Veteran
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
11/16/20
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
11/17/20
11/23/2020
07/16/2021
11/28/2021
04/04/2022
12/08/2023
Date Created (Dublin Core)
11/16/20
Interviewer (Bibliographic Ontology)
Arthur Reyes
Interviewee (Bibliographic Ontology)
Anonymous
Format (Dublin Core)
mp3
Language (Dublin Core)
English
Duration (Omeka Classic)
00:07:46
abstract (Bibliographic Ontology)
This is a audio interview with a active Air Force Reservist, describing how the Covid pandemic has impacted his work environment and personal livelihood.
Transcription (Omeka Classic)
Art Reyes 0:02
All right, today's date is November 16, 2020. It's about 2:15 in the afternoon. And we're taking a interview, for our COVID-19 project. I have an individual - male reserve worker for the U.S. Air Force. And my question to him is what has been different about your work environment since January of this year until now?
Anonymous 0:48
Okay. Basically, since January through March was pretty normal with COVID kicking up and increasing. I believe it was about March, when everything started shutting down and locking down, which is normal for just about any environment, work environment. As far as any precautions, they were all the same for a short while, as everyone else will be doing, going off of what the city would be recommending and what the local environment would be recommending, If in certain environments, you're able to maintain distance and certain environments that you're not, you know, you're going to increase precautions, things like that. Once it got heavier after March for a short term, and then it started to downgrade and of course it had a second kick that brought things up so there was increased precautions. Pretty much everything that you can do virtually is being done virtually, so that's pretty standard across all kinds of companies and schools. And of course, the summer hits so people staying away, people- anyone that would have increased exposure would be taking the extra precautions and continuing to work. I would say until now, approximately now when school started starting again but most kids are still doing virtual. So having parents that need to be able to pay more attention to kids working with school. And just balancing work and homeschooling, things like that. So for the most part, there's been very rare shutdowns unless somebody has a- a positive test or maybe even a false positive test where things might be like, just delayed for a day to and it's you know 100% virtual. But for the most part, it hasn't affected as much as I would have expected, but it has actually gone on longer than expected, but that's been the same for everywhere else.
Art Reyes 3:06
So within the work environment- well, were you all required to wear masks and take temperature readings within your work area you're building?
Anonymous 3:17
Yes, pretty much standard I was doing the- the mask and testing and temperature readings and keeping people isolated, and if you don't need to be here, go home or do things virtual, or if you are here, spend the least time as possible, and just really spread everybody out, and then keeping everybody informed if anybody comes up positive or feels weird or anything like that. Because it's not so much the office, you know, it could be a family member or somebody who bought something from the civilian job or they just, you know, got a false positive or an actual positive. A lot of people just are asymptomatic so it just- it's not anywhere different anything different than what any other company or a school might have to experience.
Art Reyes 4:10
Another question. As a reserve member, has there been less, more or the same opportunities to go into work?
Anonymous 4:31
In that case, it's been fluctuating depending on where you are, what your actual position might be. So I'd say at the beginning it was, it was normal. And then it went to less to almost nothing and then it got to a more opportunities. And it's been fluctuating and changing, and of course, it always fluctuates and changes with budget issues. But that's a normal thing that so even if COVID wasn't around, it would still be something normal that we deal with. So it hasn't been- for me, it hasn't been too much of an issue.
Art Reyes 5:12
So when you do go in, are you going in half day, full days, five days a week, once a week. I know that COVID has put a strain on a lot of work environments, and it's pretty much the same everywhere, but just curious on how it affected you and your particular job. Did they say don't come in five days a week, come in once a week?
Anonymous 5:42
Yeah, a lot of it was a you'll come in take care of what you got to do and go ahead get out of here if you could do it by virtual do it virtual, and then the office that I'm working in is. We would rotate so some people will come in for a couple days, you know, we pick certain days and kind of rotate everybody in and out of the office so somebody was only amending the office versus, all of us there at once, so less exposure all the way around.
Art Reyes 6:06
So when you say rotating, you mean because of the number of people that would exceed the six foot radius personal space?
Anonymous 6:16
Yeah, that would probably be the number one rule that gets enforced and you know, other than you're just wearing a mask it's- it's the same as anywhere else you know so it's not just… we're probably used to more- being able to deal with that kind of issues like that. As far as, you know, possibly getting affected.
Art Reyes 6:39
Okay. So, a third question has COVID-19 prevented you from accomplishing any personal goals this year.
Anonymous 6:51
Yeah, I think that's all the way around for everyone. You know, if anything involves travel. If anything involves distancing or maybe seeing relatives that might be higher risk for exposure or friends or young ones, stuff like that. So it's been limited on that basis, but it's I think it's the same for everybody. Got to find your workarounds for what you want to do and not do, and I guess the distance that you have to travel would also be a factor. So, if it's less distance, then it’s less restrictive versus longer distance if you're going out of state, you're going out of the country, going down the county, things like that. They just don't factor- factor in.
Art Reyes 7:39
All right. Well, I want to thank you very much for this opportunity for the interview. Have a great day.
Anonymous 7:45
Thank you.
All right, today's date is November 16, 2020. It's about 2:15 in the afternoon. And we're taking a interview, for our COVID-19 project. I have an individual - male reserve worker for the U.S. Air Force. And my question to him is what has been different about your work environment since January of this year until now?
Anonymous 0:48
Okay. Basically, since January through March was pretty normal with COVID kicking up and increasing. I believe it was about March, when everything started shutting down and locking down, which is normal for just about any environment, work environment. As far as any precautions, they were all the same for a short while, as everyone else will be doing, going off of what the city would be recommending and what the local environment would be recommending, If in certain environments, you're able to maintain distance and certain environments that you're not, you know, you're going to increase precautions, things like that. Once it got heavier after March for a short term, and then it started to downgrade and of course it had a second kick that brought things up so there was increased precautions. Pretty much everything that you can do virtually is being done virtually, so that's pretty standard across all kinds of companies and schools. And of course, the summer hits so people staying away, people- anyone that would have increased exposure would be taking the extra precautions and continuing to work. I would say until now, approximately now when school started starting again but most kids are still doing virtual. So having parents that need to be able to pay more attention to kids working with school. And just balancing work and homeschooling, things like that. So for the most part, there's been very rare shutdowns unless somebody has a- a positive test or maybe even a false positive test where things might be like, just delayed for a day to and it's you know 100% virtual. But for the most part, it hasn't affected as much as I would have expected, but it has actually gone on longer than expected, but that's been the same for everywhere else.
Art Reyes 3:06
So within the work environment- well, were you all required to wear masks and take temperature readings within your work area you're building?
Anonymous 3:17
Yes, pretty much standard I was doing the- the mask and testing and temperature readings and keeping people isolated, and if you don't need to be here, go home or do things virtual, or if you are here, spend the least time as possible, and just really spread everybody out, and then keeping everybody informed if anybody comes up positive or feels weird or anything like that. Because it's not so much the office, you know, it could be a family member or somebody who bought something from the civilian job or they just, you know, got a false positive or an actual positive. A lot of people just are asymptomatic so it just- it's not anywhere different anything different than what any other company or a school might have to experience.
Art Reyes 4:10
Another question. As a reserve member, has there been less, more or the same opportunities to go into work?
Anonymous 4:31
In that case, it's been fluctuating depending on where you are, what your actual position might be. So I'd say at the beginning it was, it was normal. And then it went to less to almost nothing and then it got to a more opportunities. And it's been fluctuating and changing, and of course, it always fluctuates and changes with budget issues. But that's a normal thing that so even if COVID wasn't around, it would still be something normal that we deal with. So it hasn't been- for me, it hasn't been too much of an issue.
Art Reyes 5:12
So when you do go in, are you going in half day, full days, five days a week, once a week. I know that COVID has put a strain on a lot of work environments, and it's pretty much the same everywhere, but just curious on how it affected you and your particular job. Did they say don't come in five days a week, come in once a week?
Anonymous 5:42
Yeah, a lot of it was a you'll come in take care of what you got to do and go ahead get out of here if you could do it by virtual do it virtual, and then the office that I'm working in is. We would rotate so some people will come in for a couple days, you know, we pick certain days and kind of rotate everybody in and out of the office so somebody was only amending the office versus, all of us there at once, so less exposure all the way around.
Art Reyes 6:06
So when you say rotating, you mean because of the number of people that would exceed the six foot radius personal space?
Anonymous 6:16
Yeah, that would probably be the number one rule that gets enforced and you know, other than you're just wearing a mask it's- it's the same as anywhere else you know so it's not just… we're probably used to more- being able to deal with that kind of issues like that. As far as, you know, possibly getting affected.
Art Reyes 6:39
Okay. So, a third question has COVID-19 prevented you from accomplishing any personal goals this year.
Anonymous 6:51
Yeah, I think that's all the way around for everyone. You know, if anything involves travel. If anything involves distancing or maybe seeing relatives that might be higher risk for exposure or friends or young ones, stuff like that. So it's been limited on that basis, but it's I think it's the same for everybody. Got to find your workarounds for what you want to do and not do, and I guess the distance that you have to travel would also be a factor. So, if it's less distance, then it’s less restrictive versus longer distance if you're going out of state, you're going out of the country, going down the county, things like that. They just don't factor- factor in.
Art Reyes 7:39
All right. Well, I want to thank you very much for this opportunity for the interview. Have a great day.
Anonymous 7:45
Thank you.