By Brandon Sprague and Linsey Madison
Cathy Legacy, the Dining Services Director never thought that her job at The College at Brockport would result in her working from home, along with many other colleagues.
Since Covid-19 implemented many new rules with social distancing and determining who is an essential worker, many people have started working from home.
To help its employees throughout all of this Brockport Auxiliary Service Corporation (BASC) has been following guidelines from government health officials. BASC has reduced its density when it comes to employees. The employees that are still in the offices are instructed to practice social distancing by staying six-feet away from each other as much as possible. All of its non-essential employees that can complete their work from home have been instructed to do so.
Cathy Legacy talked about her experience with such a disruption to her job and her time on campus.
“I was a student on campus when we had the big ice storm in 1991, where campus closed for 2-3 days if I remember correctly. As soon as power was restored, we were back in class. In all my years, that was the most disruption we have had on campus. That seemed quite major at the time, but nothing like this,” said Legacy.
She also mentioned how lucky students are to be able to continue their education at home even in this time.
“I hope we can find some normalcy again soon and can all return to campus. BASC employees, myself included, really enjoy serving the students and being a part of their campus experience,” said Legacy.
All non-essential staff on campus have moved to remote work environments. All catered meetings and events have been postponed/canceled at this time. About 15 essential staff within the Garnishes team are working remotely and working on the BASC website.
Many students however are left out of a job. Many students are at home but aren’t employed because BASC had to lay-off so many people to reduce density in the work place. Before the pandemic, roughly 300 students worked for BASC.
Mia Callahan, an employee for BASC, expressed her concerns on how BASC handled things with some employees and how being unemployed is hurting her financially.
“I went to my last shift, and I asked my boss what would happen. My boss didn’t know what would happen. I left, and then two weeks later I got an email saying due to the circumstances unfortunately these unforeseen times have resulted in a reduction of BASC. Your position at BASC will be terminated,” said Callahan.
Anyone whose job was terminated is eligible to receive retraining, re-employment services and other assistance with the department of labor.
Many of its employees are now struggling financially due to them not being able to work. Many are filing for unemployment and are waiting for help from the stimulus package that was created so they can make ends meet. Ambrose Wagner is one of the many employees that is taking those steps.
Chef Ambrose Wagner is a Brockport community resident and a full-time employee for BASC. Like many other BASC employees, Wagner lost his job in March due to the college being forced to shut down for the coronavirus pandemic.
“I am currently in the process of trying to file for unemployment. I have a wife and three kids so I need to find a way to financially support them throughout all of this,” said Wagner.
To help employees like Wagner the company is still giving its employees access to its Employee Assistance Program (EAP.) This program gives the employees access to health care for themselves and their families. This allows the employees to not have to worry about having to pay for any healthcare at this time.
At this time, employees around the country are being affected. Many people are struggling to make ends meet and are seeking assistance in any way that they can. Whether it is a full-time worker or a student employee, everyone is being affected by this pandemic.
