Dear Unemployment workers during the pandemic, thank you.

Due to the pandemic there are now millions of people filing for unemployment, and its been brought to my attention that those who work for unemployment aren’t being recognized and thanked by those they’re helping.

I want to address this issue because my grandmother whose in her late 50’s works for unemployment in the department of labor, office of information technology. She’s someone who’s at great risk when going up against COVID-19 but, since she like many others is label as an essential worker she still has to go into work in order for those who’re struggling financially to be able to get the money they need to get by during these times.

With that being said I feel as if she and those in her field deserve more appropriate for the work they’re doing, instead of dedicating a regular appreciation letter to them, I want to take you through her day so you can see all that she does.

But, before I go into details I’ll give you a brief summary of what her job consists of. She prints out all reports, forms and checks for the day, maintains totals of completed reports and postage costs, does monthly/quarterly reports that consists of 18 cases of paper, and prints all forms for clients that apply for unemployment and their employers.

Now for more details to tell you what all that looks like and means. The first task she does is run reports with all the information for unemployment, she sends them to a department in Annapolis in which there they run the same reports and create the jobs she needs, then they send them back to her. The following day she’s able to create the forms, each form created 4 different papers, afterwards she packages them and sends them to the mail room. Once everything is ready in the mailroom she calls/emails 11 different departments to inform them that the work they need is ready for pickup. In a typical day she packages and prints out about 42 different forms, that’s roughly 8 cases and each case has 5,000 pieces of paper in them.

She’s also in charge of maintaining the amount of supplies for the paper and printer stock, she does that by putting in requests in general services for copier paper, orders paper through the fmis, and orders supplies for the printers through xerox. If a printer malfunctions she has to put in error sheets for technical difficulties with the printer and contact xerox to put in a technician request so it can be fixed.

Recently her work load has increased tremendously, the work she handles is usually around 7 thousand but lately it’s become 180 thousand, meaning her job has increased by about 3 thousand percent. This increase has also required for her department to alter their work schedules in order to keep the printers running 24/7. However, she told me that the printers weren’t made for that type of continuous activity, they were meant to run only 8 hours a day so with the additional 16 hours they break down a lot more.

As I wrote down everything she told me I started to realize how important her job was before the pandemic and how important it is now especially with the pandemic happening.

She never blamed those who are starting to apply for unemployment for the work overload, in fact she keeps telling everyone to apply so they’ll get the money they need. But, because she’s not a doctor or nurse who are recognized essential workers that also deserve appropriate, you could say “well it’s her job”. You definitely aren’t wrong, however it’s important to take her and others who’re contributing to the nations recovery personal lives into consideration as well. At work she lifts heavy cases of paper, loads and unloads printers, packages the papers, and has to run back and forth from the printer room to her cubicle. Then at home she might have to go out to get essentials and groceries for those in her household and family members who can’t do it themselves, clean, do laundry, cook, etc.

All basic things everyone does at home but for someone in her age group that’s a lot of strain on her knees, arms and back. Nevertheless, she goes to work, does her job and comes home to do other things she needs to do in order for her and her family to get through this pandemic.

She knows her job is essential to those who desperately need their unemployment funds, she knows she’s essential to her loved ones, and she knows how blessed she is to still have a job and a paycheck. So, even when her body is sore she doesn’t complain about things she knows she has to do. The only thing that she complains about is missing her family, not being able to see family and spend time with them, and I’m sure there’s a lot of you that feel the same way.

With that being the case, I genuinely think everyone should show appropriation to not only her department but to the other departments that are helping families financially behind the scenes. And since it seems like no one will given that they’re most likely too worried and focused on their own families, which is expected and totally fine. I figured I’d do it.

So, thank you unemployment workers who are working everyday to make sure other families aren’t struggling, I appreciate your hard work and dedication to those who need you during these tough times. And thank you grandma for doing your job at work and at home, love you.