Item
Mike Streicher Oral History, 2022/04/17
Media
Title (Dublin Core)
Mike Streicher Oral History, 2022/04/17
Description (Dublin Core)
We talk about working in the pandemic, the affect that covid had in the workplace and in his own personal experience. Also, we discussed the protocols that his department took in response to covid and the vaccines and how they affected the place of work with the ability to choose to get it or not too.
Recording Date (Dublin Core)
April 17, 2022
Creator (Dublin Core)
Nathan Schenk
Mike Streicher
Event Identifier (Dublin Core)
HIS459
Partner (Dublin Core)
University at Buffalo
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Government State
English
Health & Wellness
English
Social Distance
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
vaccine
government
protocol
health
differences
Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)
working
vaccine
protocol
government
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
04/18/2022
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
04/18/2022
04/20/2022
05/01/2022
05/21/2022
06/07/2022
Date Created (Dublin Core)
04/18/2022
Interviewer (Bibliographic Ontology)
Nathan Schenk
Interviewee (Bibliographic Ontology)
Mike Streicher
Location (Omeka Classic)
14223
Buffalo
New York
United States of America
Format (Dublin Core)
Audio
Duration (Omeka Classic)
00:03:32
abstract (Bibliographic Ontology)
We talk about working in the pandemic, the affect that covid had in the workplace and in his own personal experience. Also, we discussed the protocols that his department took in response to covid and the vaccines and how they affected the place of work with the ability to choose to get it or not too.
Transcription (Omeka Classic)
Transcript:
NS: What has been your experience with Covid?
MS: The constant threat of getting sick definitely weighed on people in the workplace. Every sniffle or cough you have puts you in a panic about whether your positive or just in your own head. I got sick once but thankfully my symptoms were mild and I didn’t pass it to anyone else.
NS: How was working in a government job during a pandemic?
MS: Working in the government during the pandemic has had its ups and downs. Working from home provided me with the ability to really zone in on tasks without the distractions of someone stopping by my desk to chat, a phone ringing or the copier going. People were much more difficult to reach however. Many people I worked with had hybrid at-home/in-office work schedules and if you didn’t have a personal number to contact them at you may not get to talk to them for extended amounts of time.
NS: What changes occurred to make life harder for your job to get done?
MS: One huge limiting factor for me has been technical difficulties. If there was a server error or connectivity issues, it usually happened to a majority of users so you could be stuck without the ability to take care of specific tasks for hours at a time depending on how bad things were.
MS: Another difficulty was when dealing with businesses where face to face interactions were necessary during the peak of the pandemic. Every establishment had a unique protocol for ensuring their staff’s safety which is really good, but could make it difficult as an outside entity depending on where you were and who you had to speak with.
NS: Since restrictions have eased has it been better or worse due the vaccine requirements within government?
MS: Personally, things have been easier for me as restrictions have eased. You are still able to follow your own level of intensity for safety based on the information and guidelines from the Health Department and CDC, but the more broad restrictions from businesses are not as severe as they were earlier into the pandemic.
NS: What has been your experience with Covid?
MS: The constant threat of getting sick definitely weighed on people in the workplace. Every sniffle or cough you have puts you in a panic about whether your positive or just in your own head. I got sick once but thankfully my symptoms were mild and I didn’t pass it to anyone else.
NS: How was working in a government job during a pandemic?
MS: Working in the government during the pandemic has had its ups and downs. Working from home provided me with the ability to really zone in on tasks without the distractions of someone stopping by my desk to chat, a phone ringing or the copier going. People were much more difficult to reach however. Many people I worked with had hybrid at-home/in-office work schedules and if you didn’t have a personal number to contact them at you may not get to talk to them for extended amounts of time.
NS: What changes occurred to make life harder for your job to get done?
MS: One huge limiting factor for me has been technical difficulties. If there was a server error or connectivity issues, it usually happened to a majority of users so you could be stuck without the ability to take care of specific tasks for hours at a time depending on how bad things were.
MS: Another difficulty was when dealing with businesses where face to face interactions were necessary during the peak of the pandemic. Every establishment had a unique protocol for ensuring their staff’s safety which is really good, but could make it difficult as an outside entity depending on where you were and who you had to speak with.
NS: Since restrictions have eased has it been better or worse due the vaccine requirements within government?
MS: Personally, things have been easier for me as restrictions have eased. You are still able to follow your own level of intensity for safety based on the information and guidelines from the Health Department and CDC, but the more broad restrictions from businesses are not as severe as they were earlier into the pandemic.
Item sets
This item was submitted on April 18, 2022 by [anonymous user] using the form “Upload” on the site “Oral Histories”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/oralhistory
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