A Tale of Two Jobs: Jay Hamm

Jay Hamm: Environmental Services

In today’s fast-paced, always-changing world, there are few people who can boast an almost 30-year commitment to a single occupation. Twenty-six years at one job invites you to see a lot of changes, new administration, new job duties, and even see a college change into a university. For environmental services employee and Lynchburg native Jay Hamm, most of these changes don’t bother him. He has seen countless people come and go, has been moved from cleaning dorms to student centers and then back to dorms.

For Jay, he has stayed at the University of Lynchburg all these years for the benefits it has provided him and his family. The 4 weeks of leave per year allow him to spend time with his 5 grandchildren, whom he joked he loves more than his own kids.

“I took this job for the 401k and the insurance. The breaks are nice, and I get to eat campus food for free.”

The health insurance has definitely come in handy, especially for Jay’s wife of seven years whose cancer is now in remission.

For Jay, however, working at this University is by no means all sunshine and roses. His day starts at 3:50 AM, only a couple of hours after most of us college kids go to sleep. Although he gets to clock out of here at around 1 pm, his day is far from over. After a quick nap and dinner at home, Jay heads out to his second cleaning job in the evenings.

When most people are winding down for the night, Jay is showering and preparing to get up and do it all again the next day. His job at the university is seven days a week. Two manually intensive jobs, seven days a week.

I asked Jay to tell me if there was anything he wanted the campus community to know about his experiences working here, I wanted a candid response of how tiring this job can truly be. As much work as the housekeeping staff do during the school year, cleaning the hallways, stripping carpets and waxing floors, the real work starts in May. When students are packing up to go home, getting ready to graduate, and planning out their summer vacations is when Jay’s job starts to get a lot more intense. Cleaning routines start to become more demanding and more thorough, expanding his duties without increasing his pay.

Especially during a global pandemic in which cleanliness matter now more than ever, Jay and the other members of the environmental services team are truly who allow this campus to carry on. Without clean rooms, bathrooms, and classrooms, students would not have the ability to attend university at all. People like Jay should not be required to work two jobs just to make ends meet. When asked if there was anything he’d like to see change about this institution, he hesitated. As much as he loves his job, he feels that after almost three decades of grueling work, he needs a pay raise. Along with all other University employees, Covid meant not only working remotely but also no pay raise for the year.

I will say what Jay was too polite to say: pay our employees a living wage. Not minimum wage, but a living wage. Our school cannot function without them.