Day In The Life Of A Duke Essential Worker – Duke in the Time of Covid

A day in the life of a duke essential worker

During the COVID-19 pandemic the term essential workers has been coined to describe those frontline workers that work in face-to-face settings at medical hospitals, grocery stores, crop fields, food delivery, public transportation and in-home settings like housekeeping and nannying. The pandemic has lasted more than a year and as different businesses like clothing stores, schools and universities started opening back up slowly, the term essential workers became a flexible term used to describe different kinds of workers including retail workers and K-12 teachers.

Duke has always had essential workers on campus that keep this campus maintained and functioning. In this section I take a deeper look into the the day in the life of one essential worker that works in Duke retail to see how their routine has has been affected during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Duke employee asked to stay anonymous so I have given them the pseudonym Rebecca. Rebecca is white middle aged woman. Most essential workers at Duke University are people of color.

Daily Work Routine During COVID-19 Spring 2020 Semester

Timeline of Rebecca's Daily Work Routine

Daily Symptom Monitoring on the SymMon App and weekly COVID-19 swab testing at a Duke Testing Site has become a normal part of Duke Employee’s routine similar to Duke Students.

Q&A with Rebecca

In March of 2020, at the start of the pandemic, how was Duke retail affected??

From like March 15th or 16th up through the end of July the lobby shop and the East campus store were essential. So they were completely run off their feet and obviously the lobby shop and the East campus store sell food and medicine and occasionally toilet paper. Only the lobby shop area and that big front area were open and the inner gate was dropped. People were either working from home like me or just not working and stores did pay us the whole time whether you were working at home or not working at home you’re getting paid. However, they made it clear that that was going to have to end at some point because you can’t do that forever um so I was very grateful for that um… so those portions of Duke stores were essential.

Why do you say you that your specific role in Duke retail being called essential is a stretch?

After July 2020, when everything opened back up to try to get ready for whatever portion of the students were coming back textbooks had to be dealt with and school supplies and all that, where I work we’re technically part of the University stores and so we constantly get subject to the same things that they do even though it’s not necessary. But they don’t want to single us out like if they all have to come to work but I don’t that fosters ill will. We are part of the University store so we are counted as essential well we’re not! We can put the sign up and they can buy whatever they want but out there (the lobby shop).

Is there any compensations you expect about coming to work in person during a global pandemic?

So um and it’s the same thing with severe weather… If you make me come in A) you have to come and get me and take me home ’cause I’m not crashing my car for [Duke retail] and B) you have to pay me the 10% severe weather premium.

How have you been feeling during the global pandemic?

Like I’ve always had sinus problems, all of my stress always settles in my stomach… um the whole lot of things that go along with premenopause that I have to determine if it’s that is it something else. So I have been very stressed out and very very anxious…now that I have my first vaccine shot and I get my second one on Wednesday. Yay! That will probably lesson a little bit.

Contextualizing Rebecca's experience with other Duke Essential Workers

Duke Dining and housekeeping staff have been impacted by the pandemic in different ways than Duke Retail. These essential workers cannot work remotely since their jobs require them to be face-to-face.

Duke University administration will not respond to the self-organized Duke essential workers who wrote a petition of their demands for hazard pay and clearer communication from management. More than 100 worker signed the petition. Duke University will only respond to the local 77 union but the union leadership has not backed the petition.

Workers who are unionized have voiced their concerns about the lack of clear communication from Duke about their schedules and compensations for being put in hazardous situations. These concerns were amplified during the shutdown of Marketplace and the larger university lockdown in March.

The future for essential workers at Duke: Forming Unions

The pandemic has affected Duke essential workers’ working conditions in unprecedented ways. With no hazard pay and the university’s long history of anti-union campaigns it’s difficult to see if there will be any compensation for Duke essential workers in the near future. However, with the previous success of the Duke graduate student union and the current movement of the Duke University Press Union it seems like workers across the University are taking note of how to successfully organize themselves and pressure the university to meet their demands. If more essential workers unionize it could change the way Duke communicates with their workers. It is important to note that unionizing does carry negative stereotypes portrayed in movies and TV, but a workplace does not have to be terrible for workers to collectively want to make decisions about their work conditions, and negotiate those decisions with their organization’s management. It is every workers’ right to form a union without fear of punishment or retaliation from their employer.

If I would to continue this research I’d like to conduct surveys and interviews with as many Duke essential workers on campus on their thoughts about joining a union. I’d like to hear the different perceptions, fears, and aspirations that workers have about unionizing.