Rue
“I’ve been less strict with myself since the beginning. I’ve still been working, so it really didn’t feel that different to me because I was just going to work, and that was all I really did in the first place. If I had gone to school, it probably would have been a whole different situation. I have a friend whose mom works in hospice, and I didn’t want to go out with her after I had been working and coming into contact with people. So I wasn’t with my friends for a hot second, because I don’t want to get anyone sick but still have to work. I was alone for a good few weeks. We’ve been hanging out now because they haven’t been with their parents, so it’s been better now than it was at the start. Yeah, working at Starbucks all the time. So it’s been good for me to get working, but the solitude was hard.
“I’ve been getting more hours because of this, too. It was a combination of people being less willing to work and people taking advantage of a bad situation. Starbucks was generous enough to offer a leave if you felt unsafe or uncomfortable working (whether you had kids at home or whatever else), and they offered payment for that so that you’d still be able to work. But some people would say they didn’t feel comfortable working and then still come to the store for free drinks. It’s been mostly people taking advantage of a shitty situation, and I was having to work more than 40 hours every week -- which really isn’t that much, but for a teenager that’s a lot of hours.
“We were drive-thru only at first, and people haven’t really been hostile about not wearing masks (I haven’t experienced it, but I’ve heard things from others). It’s more on the opposite side -- people are concerned that we’re not doing enough because we’re not wearing gloves. We’re open in the cafe now and they’re enforcing masks starting tomorrow, and I imagine we will be having a lot more of those issues of people not wanting to wear masks. People keep asking why we’re not doing more, but like, I work at Starbucks, I don’t think you need to be here if you’re that concerned about it. Maybe if I worked somewhere more essential, but we’re not in that scenario. I’m wearing a mask for 8+ hours so that you can get a cup of coffee. As much as I love coffee -- I drink it every day -- I’m not going out and about and complaining about how other people doing a nonessential service are being affected. With these people that I’m dealing with sometimes, one day I’m going to pop off and start screaming at some old lady who probably doesn't even deserve it.
It was hardest during the first bit of this, when people pretended to care more, so I had to work more because of everyone taking leaves. All I was doing was working, and then when I did get free time, I wasn’t able to see people. It was just work, sleep, work, Animal Crossing, sleep. I didn’t feel like I had a routine, and I didn’t have school either because of my gap year, and my work schedule wasn’t consistent. But now that there’s less work and I’ve found ways to see friends, it’s getting better, because I don’t have to be so alone. I probably should still be alone. I feel kind of stupid saying that I’m hanging out with people, but I promise I’m being safe. I’m still not going out and about -- just to the grocery store -- and I’m still wearing my mask, of course. Obviously I’m going to wear a mask, and half the people there aren’t wearing a mask, but whatever.
“As much as I was working and it was garbage, I’ve been able to save money more because I’m not going out and spending as much. It’s kind of forced me to get it together, and it’s forced me to take time alone to get ready to go back to school in the fall. I have all this time to actually get stuff done. You get bored just doing nothing between work hours, so I’ve been more productive since I’m not going out with friends. I wouldn’t have made the time to get my school situation in order if I hadn’t been home like this. Bright in a bad situation.
“I’ve been trying to watch how I’m wording it, because people will say “all that COVID stuff” but like, it’s a literal pandemic. So maybe I should call it what it is. We all just play it down for ourselves, but it’s literally a pandemic.
“I’ve definitely gotten more involved in activism this summer. If there wasn’t a pandemic, I’m sure I would’ve still have been as involved as I am now. I could still be more involved still, but I’ve been growing within the movement since before this. I wasn’t always as understanding of it -- not in that I was a gross racist person, but I just didn’t understand it to the full extent that I needed in order to be actively not racist. It’s just been a further growth within that, so it hasn’t been any big shift for me since I’m just now getting deeper into it. It’s going to be more weird whenever there isn’t a pandemic -- whenever that is -- for me to be active in the movement. Plus, I’ve always been active on social media with these things that I’ve been passionate about, so it’s been about the same as before with doing a lot of it on social media. I hope we can keep this amount of social media when we then start going out a lot more again once it’s safe to do so. If we don’t stick to that, that’ll be kind of garbo. I mean, since I was going out and working already, then once protests started I tried going when I could. I’ll still be going out after -- I say this, but I have to hold myself to it, obviously -- I want to.
“It’s so weird that we have to push normal healthy habits, just because now it’s even more of a problem if you don’t have these habits. Things like not washing your hands, picking your nose and then handing me your debit card, that’s not okay. I’m hoping that the contactless situation continues. Even if it’s not coronavirus, it’s probably some other sickness that people will get from these interactions. The distance when handing off at a drive-thru -- not necessarily a plastic shield between me and a customer -- is a good thing.
“I mean, I always knew that people were stupid, but in a pandemic… I’ve never been a people person (even though I do work in customer service), but I dislike people even more now. It’s easy to see the type of people that are going to irritate me, because they don’t have a mask, and they walk up and put their face in my face, so I’m realizing how much ignorance there is. Not because they’re just stupid, but because they don’t care or don’t even care to try to care. It’s really sad to see that -- in the pandemic, in the movement, in all of it. It’s aggravating. But it pushes me to want to make more of a difference. Seeing all this ignorance, I think it’ll push more people like me to want to take that extra step. Like, obviously more people are getting on board with the Black Lives Matter movement, in part because it’s been going on longer and longer (and shouldn’t have to), but I think that seeing the ignorance in all these different ways is actually pushing people to get involved in making change -- including myself. Making a difference and pushing myself to get involved in more things. I was never really involved in protests or anything like that. I agreed with things, but never said, “Oh, I’ll go to a protest. That sounds like something I should do.” But now it’s like, “These people are stupid and I need to let them know that they should open their noggins.”
“Every person that I see that’s not wearing a mask, I want to look them in the eyes and ask them to leave my store. I can’t say anything, because I’m usually at work, but now [under a mask mandate] I will be able to. I see it and think, “Well I guess I need to go home after work and make a post telling more people to wear a mask, to make up for all the people I just saw not wearing one.” Now I can actually enforce it. I’m a shift supervisor, so I’ll actually be one of the people telling these customers that I cannot serve them indoors if they’re not wearing a mask. We’ll still serve them, but outside the store and six feet away, setting their order on a table. I mean, it’s good that they’re not staying inside, but they’re still coming inside. And if they say they can’t wear a mask because of underlying health conditions, we’re not allowed to question it. So as soon as everyone figures that out (just like with service animals), people are all going to come in and say that they can’t wear a mask because of a health condition. I can’t say you’re wrong, so I guess you’re right. Very excited to deal with that.
“It’s always either that they don’t care at all about there being a pandemic, or they care so much that they don’t make sense anymore. Like, we’ve had multiple occasions where a customer has said, “I’m sorry, you touched that, can I have another one?” but I have to touch the cup in order to make and hand you a new one. I’ve had people hand me their card and use a sanitizer towel to wipe every cup -- are you not getting, like, chemicals in your drink? -- and use the same towel for like four drinks. I don’t think it’s doing anything at that point. I don’t know what you think you’re doing there. I don’t think you’re accomplishing anything, but I can’t tell you you’re stupid so I guess you’ll figure it out later. Or they walk up with a mask, and I can’t hear them, so instead of speaking up they just take it off. I’d much rather you just walk in loud and proud about not wearing a mask than be a dingus and pull it off before you talk. Or they’ll go around the plastic shield to talk to you. And there’s not a shield in front of the espresso bars, so this lady comes and leans over asking about her drinks, probably spitting on us. And now they have to wear a mask, and I’ll be a little less annoyed… until someone doesn’t want to wear a mask. If you have these underlying health conditions, maybe you shouldn’t be coming and getting a venti frappuccino.”
Quotes edited for clarity.
Similar to Rue, Victor is an essential worker during the pandemic and has seen an increase in hours since March; view his profile to hear more about how he’s navigating “the new normal.”
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