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Labor Day: Spartanburg professionals share experiences of working through COVID-19 pandemic

Herald-Journal - 9/7/2020

Sep. 7--When the coronavirus pandemic struck in March, many employees began working remotely and some businesses saw their day-to-day slow to a standstill. However, for other Spartanburg workers, the pandemic was the beginning of the busiest months of their careers.

For Labor Day and the approaching six-month anniversary of the coronavirus shutdown, the Herald-Journal asked three Spartanburg professionals to share their pandemic experiences and how their jobs and lives have changed.

As the Director of Health Services for Spartanburg School District 7, Joylyn Robinson has the health of thousands of students and staff on her mind this school year. Beyond her regular duties of developing and implementing student healthcare protocols, Robinson is now also the lead in investigating any potential or confirmed student or staff COVID-19 cases and the district's go-to for any coronavirus queries.

"My main point of focus is making sure we're getting all the information that we can as quickly as we can so that we can react and hopefully by reacting, be preventative," Robinson said.

Prior to the pandemic, Robinson said she would regularly visit the district's nurses at their schools but now, holds any meeting she can virtually. All of the work to prep schools for the fall was communicated during her weekly video conferences with the school nurses, and Robinson limits her own in-person meetings to 10 minutes with all parties six feet apart.

Robinson spends a lot of time at her desk these days, researching the latest, rapidly-changing preventative measures and following up on the symptoms of anyone in the district who wasn't feeling well.

"Being flexible and being able to leave yesterday, yesterday has been essential for me to be able to do my job," Robinson said.

She often works long hours, contact tracing until well past her children's bedtimes and working in family time -- pancake breakfasts, doing hair, and playing games -- early in the morning.

While healthcare roles have always been important, Robinson feels the pandemic has emphasized the value of health service roles in schools.

"The validity and justification for positions like mine, and also for having a nurse present in the school, has really been reinforced," Robinson said.

Turner Foster is always ready to brighten a customer's day with their favorite dish and a big smile under his mask. As a driver for Hub City Delivery, a Spartanburg-based takeout delivery service, Foster has only seen his work increase since the pandemic began.

"After they first announced the sort of self-quarantining and they started closing businesses, we started breaking records (for orders). It was consistent. It was like every Friday, it was another record broken," Foster said.

Hub City Delivery owners Sarah and Joel Petty said they were glad their business has been able to help the over 100 restaurants they deliver from. The increase in business after the shutdown led to them hiring around 25 new drivers and creating two new part-time office positions.

Foster said he enjoyed being able to make his new regulars' time at home a little more pleasant. He said he felt safe enough to make deliveries wearing a mask. Foster sets his own hours and most customers prefer contact-less delivery these days, he said.

"The city of Spartanburg has really shown up for local businesses, especially the restaurants that they love. We go to houses and when they leave cash tips they'll put them in a bag or an envelope and usually, they'll write on it 'Thank you for being an essential worker.' It makes us feel super valued," Foster said.

Six months on, Foster says the customer gratitude has persisted and the gratification he gets from doing his job has only increased.

"I've had gentlemen that looked like they were prepped for surgery come out to grab food, and I know that I just contributed to helping him do his job. And really there's nothing like that," Foster said.

Teresa Medlin loves her job as a cashier at Wise Buys Discount Groceries on Whitney Road, where she's worked for almost two years. And while her shifts have gotten a lot busier since March, she said she still enjoys it.

"We've been super busy, crazy busy," Medlin said. In March, "we had people coming in, stocking up because I feel like they felt like they were going to be stuck inside for a long time. I'd say we're still very busy every day."

The uptick in business came as soon as places started closing and hasn't really slowed since, Medlin said. She meets new customers every day, some from Spartanburg and others from farther away. One customer, Medlin said, had traveled from Columbia just to do their grocery shopping.

Her duties have somewhat increased. While the store cleaned often before, cashiers are now supplied with hand sanitizer at their registers and Clorox wipes to clean all their station's surfaces during breaks between customers. Medlin said she believes the family-owned business is invested in keeping her and the rest of the staff safe. The owners installed safety shields at each of the registers in March, she said and provided them with masks and gloves to use at their own discretion since the store is located in the county.

"I haven't been stressed at all," she said. "I love working here -- I don't even like to take a day off."

Medlin said being called an essential worker as a cashier and hearing how much the store being open was helping customers was very gratifying. She was glad that the store has been able to keep its prices low throughout the pandemic.

"A lot of people thank us for being here. They tell us they appreciate the lower prices and they can feed their families more efficiently and make their money go a little farther. It's very rewarding," Medlin said.

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