Year Interrupted
A View from the Essential Sidelines
I just wrapped up another week of Isolation. I’m fortunate enough to work for a company that is a medical supply wholesaler. That means we were deemed an essential company and were allowed to stay open when things started getting bad, when “social distancing” and hand washing became daily mantras, when news headlines of total deaths from inner-city crime switched to the number of COVID-19 casualties.
Week 1
Before any stay-at-home order was mandated, I came into work one Monday in March to find HR bulletins taped to every message board and door. “Stay At Home If You Are Sick” seemed kind of harsh, but so did the “How to Wash Your Hands” memo in the lunchroom. Do adults need to be told how to do this? Purell and Clorox wipes were now stationed at every sink, including Purell wall stations outside the lunchroom and every bathroom. Other than these office anomalies, nothing else seemed out of place.
It was evident that customers would soon be reaching out and looking for specific products. The problem we immediately faced, like most of the country, was there wasn’t enough supply to meet the demand. We tried to stock up on PPE products, but our local vendors were either already out of stock or had started allocating all of their customers.