Working Professional, mother and wife during Covid -19
COVID-19 truly affected everyone around the world whether it was directly or indirectly. As a mother of three and wife of a hospital employee my life was turned upside down during the pandemic. I have worked in various organization and various professional capacities but always advocating for underserved communities. I love my job since our organization helps farmworkers in different areas such as disaster relief, immigration, mental health, and community development. Every day is an exciting day and we have the chance to offer services in different ways.
With COVID -19 many things changed in our work; because we serve the most in need our work increased dramatically because COVID -19 affected the underserved, immigrant and farmworker communities at a much higher rate. Our office provided food distributions, financial assistance and mental health therapy during these difficult times. We were on the "front line" providing services to essential workers; agricultural workers that included farmworkers, poultry and meat packing workers and nursery workers. The community that we serve had to go out and work every day despite the risks because they had no choice. If they didn't work they didn't get paid.
Despite the fear they had to show up and do their jobs. We heard many stories of the families getting COVID-19 and the health battles they were going through but only were they battling for their health; they were also having financial battles because most people because they were undocumented were not getting paying during their quarantine time. We also heard many stories where families had friends and family members who passed away due to COVID-19. Times were hard for many of us.
This is just one perspective of the work life. Another aspect that was really difficult and continues to be difficult is managing the part of being a working mother when the kids were doing school from home and not being able to clone myself to be a full time employee plus more and full time mother and wife. COVID -19 highlighted the tension of being a female professional. It's difficult of parent and kids to understand the dynamic that even though were all home we must still maintain the "student" roles and the "employees" role in a home setting. At times it feels that working from home is more difficult than being at the office. There are so many ways that COVID-19 has affected us and has changed the way we see and live life.
