Julia Moreno
Marketing
No. I work for a yarn company, and we had a lot of business through our website. We had a lot of people visiting and buying on our site. Crocheting and knitting became very popular during the pandemic. We had more work than most businesses; there was a revival. TikTok had a lot of videos showing how to knit and crochet.
Claudia McStay
Commercial bank teller
It was a lot less personal during the pandemic. I was at home doing 12-hour days. I worked on small business loans with Zoom; Zoom wasn’t used as much before the pandemic. Today, it’s much different; we’re reviving personal relationships.
Shirley Woods
Retired school principal
I was supervising students on Zoom. I’d supervised learning before in-person, but not on Zoom. It was really, really weird. I was supervising a set of twins on Zoom, and they would take their laptops underneath their bed. I’ve gone back to the schools now twice in-person, but I still do a few Zooms.
Jesse Schmidt
Food server
It was absolutely horrible. I was losing about $150 a day in tips. I lost a lot of money. When we came out of the pandemic, I was still wearing a mask, and it was hard to talk to people. Masks sucked! People were rude when I served them and complained if I touched my mask, even though they weren’t wearing one. It’s better today. People are a bit less rude, in a better mood—and tips are up.
Brian Tschirhart
Accounting student
I was a full-time student during the pandemic and was doing remote learning. It could’ve been better, as it lacked the personal essence of in-class learning. (We) lacked the ability to talk to faculty and other students. The quality of education took a dip. When in-person learning returned, it was not the same energy as before; the faculty seemed less friendly