With the recent news of COVID-19 becoming a pandemic, many workers are being forced to work from home. But how can you work for home when you’re a firefighter? 

Eddie Kues is a firefighter and has been for the last 35 years. However, with this pandemic spreading more and more, his normal routine of getting up before dawn and working for weeks on end has been put off. He says, that instead of working from home because he can’t, he is working for 30 minutes a day as a groundskeeper at Lindenwood. Each grounds keeper only gets a 30-minute shift and is then sent home. 

What happens if you’re the head chef and kitchen manager of a restaurant? Nathan Apollo is a classically trained Le Cordon Bleu Chef at the Grotto Grill. His work is originally a dine-in restaurant, but with the new rules stating that we practice social distancing, it has become curbside pickup. 

As with many other restaurants, takeout has become the only option to make any money. With the definition of what an essential employee is, Apollo is worried that he will soon be out of work and told to stay at home. 

A New York Times article has shown that Kues and Apollo aren’t the only ones that can’t work from home. Only about 9% of workers that are in the bottom 25 of the income percentile can work from home. Not only that but many businesses and companies are leaving their workers without paid sick leave for its employees. 

This pandemic is disrupting not only their routine of working, but it also disrupts some of their abilities to work from home. Jobs, like being a firefighter and being a chef, aren’t able to be done at home. Millions of workers are out of jobs and unable to earn money to continue paying rent, take care of their loved ones, or their utility bills.