With the coronavirus affecting the entire world, many people have been put out of jobs while others continue working in places deemed essential. Sarah Norris is a microbiology major at Jones College and also works at McDonald’s on 16th Avenue.
“Even though the business is a little slower than usual, we have to work harder than normal to meet the health regulations that we have recently been given.” Norris said.
Norris noted a few of the health-related rules that she has been asked to follow.
“All employees directly in contact with customers must wear gloves, and nothing touched by the customer can come back through the window,” Norris said.
This means that if an order is wrong, the employees cannot take back the food, and they will have to remake the order, but the customer gets to keep the original food they received. The workers are provided with gloves but not masks. She also elaborated that there are supposed to be no more than 10 employees working at a time in order to follow the safety guidelines concerning gatherings.
“We have had to close our lobbies in order to accommodate the social distancing guidelines, so we are only doing drive-thru orders until further notice,” Norris said.
Classes from home are hard for a lot of students, and Norris is no exception. Norris is ready for things to get back to normal because learning advanced things such as Calculus is very hard to do online for her. As much as Norris wants things to go back to normal, she doesn’t want to put anyone at risk, so she doesn’t mind waiting until the coronavirus passes.
In the time that she is not working, Norris happily enjoys talking about the new Animal Crossing game and watching movies through different streaming services. On top of having to continue working, Norris also finds time to balance her work schedule with her classes that have been moved to online.
“It’s stressful having to work and do school already, but not being able to go outside and enjoy my freetime makes it worse,” Norris said. “These activities can be boring after extended periods of them, but I try not to binge them and balance them with a good sleep schedule and being active even if it’s only walking around the house and small things like that.”
“Even though we’re stuck at home, we are all in this together. Stay home and stay safe,” Norris said.
As a truly exemplary student and essential worker, Norris remains positive in this strange time for the Bobcat family.
by Corey Blue
