Sarah H*, 26, left her job as a designer at a Chicago advertising agency on the spur of the moment. It’s kind of a like the pandemic really shook things up, and I think that shifted perspectives a little bit.” “I feel very optimistic about the future. Despite the significant losses she faced in the past 18 months, she is upbeat about her direction. There is a practical side, too - she plans to start a family and own a home one day, and nurses in California earn relatively high wages, good benefits, and strong worker protections in the form of unions.Įsme used her stimulus check to pay off some of her medical debt, then she quit her job and began to take classes. It just felt like a meaningful human connection, and that seemed important to me, and still does.”Įsme spent a lot of time in hospitals as a patient herself, and she holds nurses in high regard, but does not romanticise their job. “It just felt super meaningful, and like I could make a difference in that way, because you’re looking into somebody’s eyes and anticipating their needs. This realisation, coupled with caring for her aunt throughout her illness, focused Esme on the kind of work she longed for – nursing. Esme told me losing them was a “reminder of how fragile and short life can be”. Then along came the pandemic, during which she went through a tough break-up, and three of her loved ones died - two from cancer and one from Covid-19. I was justįocused on my inbox, and I was wondering where the last six years had gone.”Įsme was struggling to afford the rent on a shared apartment, and despite having health insurance, she owed thousands of dollars in medical debt, a problem 19% of American households share.
“I was spending at least 90% of my day behind a computer, and it felt monotonous, and you know, the time was marching on. Six years into an administrative job at a university, she saw little opportunity for promotion, despite performing strongly in the role. In Los Angeles, 35-year-old Esme W* has a very different plan for her life than she had at the beginning of last year. These shifts are both directly and indirectly related to the pandemic. Our work lives were bound to change, considering how many profound shifts have occurred in other parts of our lives in the past 18 months.
0 kommentar(er)
