HALLIA ROBINSON My name is Hallia Robinson, and today I’m here with…
THOMAS HAYES Thomas Hayes.
HALLIA ROBINSON Thank you for agreeing to do this interview with me, and can you start by telling me about yourself?
THOMAS HAYES I’m 29 years old. Father one and work at Amazon the one at Edison, New Jersey, I love football, and you know, I’m here with my niece today.
HALLIA ROBINSON Can you tell me how COVID-19 has affected your life?
THOMAS HAYES Well first of all, there’s definitely a lot of people with differences. I would say it was a different environment like you know if you know, can’t go out as much anymore like how we used to, you know, a lot of people who have lost a lot of people you know. It’s definitely different, it’s not what we all expected to have 2020 go, you know. We all had plans, you know, going out traveling whatsoever but it’s just, I was just shocked.
HALLIA ROBINSON How many days a week do you work?
THOMAS HAYES Well I work five days a week. Some weeks I work six.
HALLIA ROBINSON How many hours?
THOMAS HAYES Well, some days I work 12 hours, sometimes I work 10 hours. And maybe overnight.
HALLIA ROBINSON Have the hours increased or decreased since the pandemic?
THOMAS HAYES Well, definitely had an increase because you know how they mentor overtime so that’d be 11 hours mostly for the shipping, that’d be working overtime and, yeah.
HALLIA ROBINSON What safety measures do you have to take at work?
THOMAS HAYES Well you know where a mask on my face and so we gotta be, we have to be six feet apart from each other, can’t really be close to one another, you know, that’s really a major part.
HALLIA ROBINSON What safety measures do you have to take at home?
THOMAS HAYES Well that’s the thing, you know. That’s a priority, you know. I gotta look after mom and dad, you know. It could really affect them as much, you know. COVID could really affect them as much, you know and being young, well you know cuz you know COVID really can affect really elder–elderly people because you know, you know, it’s about how your immune system is so, that’s my priority, I try to stay as far away from my mom and dad because I can’t be really close to them as much because you don’t know if I have it or not. I do get tested every now and then you know make sure I’m good and so far I’m undefeated.
HALLIA ROBINSON Do you know anyone who might have contracted the virus or passed away from it?
THOMAS HAYES Oh, yes I know a few people our aunt recently, you know, had it as well. I have friends, That had it as well, they had COVID-19 as well as. I had some people that had battled with it. Some won some, you know, lost so.
HALLIA ROBINSON What are some things you’ve seen or experienced since the pandemic?
THOMAS HAYES You know, it’s a lot of stuff, I’ve seen. Mostly everybody trying to be safe. It’s been a lot of shopping. Especially early, you know, hours change from that. Shopping at Walmart and Shoprite, that’s different.
HALLIA ROBINSON How long did you think it was going to last?
THOMAS HAYES Well I didn’t know it was gonna last this long. I think, you know around summer it’s gonna maybe make a decrease because you know sun kills germs and also winter really like the best thing, you know, it kills germs away right you know you it’s supposed to kill infection, you know, outside this house outside. Didn’t know, it was gonna last long. I mean last–I like to watch sports, and sports was shut down. So when that shut down it’s like, Hey, you rarely watch TV as much or anything, you know, so it was it really didn’t expect it was gonna be too long, you know, but (inaudible) back in baseball someone’s back but you can’t have a crowd so it’s like wow, you know. I didn’t mean to get off topic.
HALLIA ROBINSON Do you think we’ll recover from this?
THOMAS HAYES For sure, definitely will. Nothing will last long forever. I feel as though you know we’ll find a way, you know, get the research done because you know we all got to be a team with this you know. I feel as though this is like a new frontier there’s you know there’s, a greener edge in a frontier. And sometimes we just gotta go to challenge zone to get to the end zone you know. Stuff like this is like, we gotta get our commas. That means, we got to keep our health first, you know, while I was doing that kind of found a way, so I feel that we will find a way.
HALLIA ROBINSON What did you learn about yourself during this time?
THOMAS HAYES Well you know, I never stopped anything, you know. Never stop the fact that you gotta, you know. Well, I know I always never stop, I know what I gotta do. I gotta make money to do what I gotta do far as you know, working, still, you know, hustling and I’m surprised that I’m still doing that even with this COVID thing. It is. It hasn’t stopped me and my money, you know.
HALLIA ROBINSON What did you learn about our society?
THOMAS HAYES Well our society, you know like, I learned the fact that we, coming together, in a time like this happening, even while COVID-19 is going on. I feel as though we all came together as you can see how all we came together, the speeches, Black Live Matter, I just saw this hashtag that came and up the bar, and see how everybody really up the bar, everybody on the team, you know. So it’s good to see how we all care for one another, you know.
HALLIA ROBINSON Well, those were all the questions, thank you for your time.