Cheyenne Mojica
MCOM 3301
June 16, 2020
Feature Assignment 4 – Aftermath
Word count: 366
Back to Work
Mary M., a student at Tyler Junior College, is adjusting to a new normal as a waitress at Cracker Barrel in Tyler. Mary is grateful to have a job again but doesn’t enjoy all of the new safety measures.
“It was around May 3rd we went back, and we didn’t immediately open. We kind of had meetings for about a week, just briefing everyone of what procedures we would have to do,” Mary recalled as she is preparing for her next shift. “We have to quarantine everything that goes out onto the tables that isn’t used. We have butter packets and jelly packets, and if they’re unopened they’re still good. All of those have to be quarantined for 48 hours before we’re able to use them again, after they’ve gone out on a table.”
Mary isn’t the only one who went back to work after the reopening began. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Texas unemployment rate skyrocketed from 5.1% in March to 13.5% in April. The rate has now dropped 0.5% to a flat 13% in June. The number is still high, as not every county has reopened, and stores are continuing to maintain fewer employees than before.
Another East Texan returning to work is Katie P. of Kilgore. She given her first shifts at Cracker Barrel in May since middle of March. Katie agrees with her company’s decision to furlough employees for the sake of remaining open. “They were still able to have people work, but they did it so that whenever stuff came back people would have a job to come back to, and they would still be open. I think it was a good idea that they did that,” Katie explains as she is getting dressed for her five-o’clock shift. “They decided to not have hourly employees and just have managers working during that time. I hear of a lot of places closing, it was probably because they had too many people working and not enough business.”
Despite stores and restaurants reopening, there is a decline in consumer spending for the month of June. The June sales tax haul was $2.67 billion, down from $2.86 billion a year earlier.
Sources
Katie P.
Mary M.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2020/07/01/texas-reopening-from-coronavirus-eases-hits-to-consumer-spending-sales-tax-collections/
