“Do I just go to work to keep my job knowing I won’t make any money and won’t get unemployment?” Saneka Smith, a server whose restaurant is reopening in Georgia next week, told VICE. “Or do I not go back to work for my safety and then I don’t have any type of income?”Smith says she can’t imagine being able to stay six feet away from her co-workers and restaurant patrons. She hasn’t decided yet what she’ll do, but feels pressured to return given that she’s depending completely on her unemployment benefits right now.“Something could go wrong and then you bring [the virus] home to your family and your family is all sick and it’s your fault,” Rachel said.
States have instructed businesses that are opening up to reduce capacity and implement social distancing guidelines. But many workers told VICE that they feel like their workplaces—salons, restaurants, tattoo parlors—won’t be able to adhere to them.Candace Hughes, a hair stylist in Dallas, told VICE that she thinks that it’s still too soon to return to work. In Texas, hair salons are part of phase two of the governor’s reopening plan, which could commence as soon as May 18.Do you have a coronavirus story you want to tell? Fill out this form or reach out on Signal at (310) 614-3752 and VICE will be in touch.
“The question is, is any job, like a restaurant job, suitable right now?” Evermore said. “The working conditions there are much [worse] than when the person lost the job. It’s now very unsafe.”
“When you look at states that have gutted their unemployment insurance system and really reduced benefits, they’re states with a high number of workers of color,” Evermore said. “Communities of color are going to suffer for a very long time from this.”Governors like Kemp have framed their states’ reopenings as an “opportunity,” not a “mandate.” But many workers VICE spoke to feel like they’re being strong-armed into going back to work. With backed-up unemployment lines and delayed stimulus checks, some people have to return to their jobs before they think it’s safe simply because they need money to survive.“It’s a hard position to be in,” Hunt said.“If [my boss] offers me my job back and says Come back on May 1st, I don’t feel like I can look at her and say ‘I don’t want to come back, I’m scared.’”
“A lot of clients I’ve gotten in touch with about coming back relatively soon are a bit hesitant,” Goodnight said. But with his savings drained and rent due, he needs any money he can get. When asked about what he thought about Kent reopening the state, Goodnight said, “It comes off as a ploy to avoid paying us.”It’s not that employees don’t understand the challenges some of their employers are facing. Blythe Nichols, 41, was able to receive unemployment after she lost her job waiting tables at a small restaurant outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Her boss, however, didn’t receive substantial government aid in any form and is now stressed about the financial health of the business.“He feels a real pressure being a small business to open up right away,” Nichols said. “So he’s kind of said that we have to suck it up and go back.”Nichols feels a loyalty to her employer, but she’s scared to go back. She has a 74-year-old mother, and she questions the judgement of any patron who would enter the restaurant, let alone the decision by her governor to open the state of Georgia back up already.“I feel like we’re all just this test market on this. Like we’re just being thrown to the wolves,” she said.But when VICE asked her if she would ultimately return to her job, Nichols didn’t have to think too hard about her answer. After all, she said, “I don’t think we have a choice.”Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.“We’re put to the question of either starve to death and lose our homes, or go make money and put ourselves in a risky situation,” Jason Goodnight, a 33-year-old tattoo artist in Georgia, told VICE.