Every room I go into, I don’t know–was someone here who had COVID?
We have to protect our families.
I have two little kids at home. Sometimes I get home while they are already awake and they run to hug me right away. And I have to avoid them and run away from them to the bathroom to change and shower. It hurts my kids’ feelings like I am avoiding them. I feel so bad about that.
I’m from a country where kids are everything. We spend all day with our kids in my country. But here I have to work.
I have been using the same mask for a month. It seems so dirty.
Every day I shower and I pray, “God don’t give me this so I don’t give it to my family.”
We have masks, but we need a supervisor to sign off on getting a new one. If they don’t, you have to use the same one. I have been using the same mask for a month. It seems so dirty.
I don’t know whether it is protecting me anymore. I don’t know if the mask is going to protect me or if the virus is going to get inside.
If I get sick, it will affect all of my family. I’m afraid to ask for help.
Why don’t they care about us?
I say support me in the same way you are supporting other staff. No matter where they are from. No matter what kind of work they are doing.
If I get sick, it will affect all of my family. I’m afraid to ask for help. Nobody wants to pay attention. They just want you to work.
We are Environmental Services. We are working the same as everybody else. We want to do our jobs, to clean so we can protect the doctors and nurses.
We need to be protected too. We need help.
Update: KOLD News Story & a Policy Change
After we first published this environmental services worker’s story, KOLD News 13 reached out to interview them. They gave the worker a chance to say anonymously what they want from their employer to feel safer and valued.
“We need a supervisor to sign off on getting a new mask. If they don’t, you have to use the same one. I have been using the same mask for a month. I want my job to give me a new mask every week without making me ask for one.”
Note: One N95 a week is still stretching the use of the mask past what it was designed for. But it does potentially fall within the CDC guidelines for extended use: “Follow the employer’s maximum number of donnings (or up to five if the manufacturer does not provide a recommendation).”
We have heard that since this story ran, there have been some policy improvements at the worker’s facility, making getting new masks easier for the EVS workers.