I'm A Fast Food Worker. Each Day I Come In, I May Be Signing My Own Death Certificate
“The only people you have to worry about is each other.”
This line has repeated in my head over and over during the past couple of weeks. It’s the response my district manager gives when I ask her if it matters we aren’t following the six-foot social distancing guideline recommended by the Centers for Disease and Prevention in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
I work at a fast-food restaurant in Seattle ― a city recently displaced by New York City as the epicentre for the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Since our store can do takeout, the chain sandwich shop where I work has been deemed “essential” and remains open. Our store is situated by some of the major hospitals in Seattle — Harborview and Swedish — and serves many of their medical staff and visitors.
“The only people you have to worry about is each other.”
This has become the line I use to comfort myself when I walk through the doors of my restaurant for another eight-hour shift. It’s also the line that keeps me awake at night.
Every day, I wake up torn between being grateful that I still have a job and being terrified for my own safety. Because I am asthmatic, I’m considered at high risk for experiencing especially devastating or even fatal symptoms if I do contract covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.
Last year, when I got the flu, my asthma kept me home for a week. I was sleeping with my pillows propped up, windows open, and still barely managed a breath above a wheeze. My job is willing to let me take the time off, but, like a majority of other food service people, I have no paid time off and minimal sick hours to use, so I keep working.
Every day, I do the mental math: How close are our customers to us? Less than six feet? Definitely. Sometimes they are less than even one foot. How many times does someone touch my hand when I hand back their credit card or cash? More than ten times within a single hour. How many delivery service people do I deal...
