Michael, Delivery Driver, California
By Doug Wallen
Shift Change tells the stories of ordinary people on the frontlines during a transformational period in American life. The goal of this project is to raise funds for Supply Drop Brooklyn, a charitable organization that partners with local restaurants to deliver meals to healthcare workers at affected hospitals. Your help can make a critical difference. Please visit Supply Drop and learn how you can make a contribution. For more information about this project, check out our About page.
Michael is a delivery driver in Visalia, California. This is his story.
Why did you decide to become a delivery driver?
Mainly because I needed an additional source of income, and something flexible. I’m a Writing Center tutor on my college campus, [so] something I could do along with my tutoring job and still be able to attend classes.
How has your life changed since the coronavirus struck?
I’ve definitely been more stir crazy and spending a lot more time at home. And trying to find a balance between my work schedule and my social schedule, trying to fill in the time with additional projects. I’ve definitely caught up on a lot more sleep.
What are you delivering on a day-to-day basis?
Mainly takeout orders — fast food or from restaurants. Sometimes I’ll pick up groceries and go to a pharmacy to pick up over-the-counter medications.
Is it fulfilling to know that you’re helping people that way?
Everyone I do an order for, I’m doing them a service. Even before the pandemic, I was already taking a lot of orders to stay-at-home moms or dropping off orders at the hospital for a nurse who might have worked a late shift. So my job was already essential. Just being able to relax at home and order in, or have something brought to their workplace, is something that brings you relief or joy at the end of a long day.
How has the pandemic changed your view of your job?
I definitely feel more involved with the community, [like] I’m doing one small part. I feel like being a delivery driver is the least I can do to give back. Obviously I think the people that deserve more credit are the ones on the frontlines like nurses and doctors, or people who work in the restaurant industry.
What are your hopes for the future?
I definitely think this will change the narrative around the employees who are now considered essential, who have been criticized for being in low-income jobs or part-time work. This whole series of events shows that we are an essential component to the economy, and I hope that both politically and socially, attitudes will change toward service workers. I hope they get better income, benefits, paid leave, sick leave, all that stuff. I hope this shows that you can have pride doing a job like this and that people can make a decent living off it, if people see it that way.
Everyone has their place in society. There shouldn’t be a stigma anymore for people who are in this line of work. And that goes for everyone who’s either still able to work during the pandemic or doing what they can to provide for themselves and keep the economy going. I hope there is a culture shift for workers like us.
What have you been listening to?
Well, I also coordinate spoken word and poetry slam events, so one of the things I’ve been doing in my downtime is working on new ideas for writing. April is National Poetry Writing Month, so a lot of writers have been challenging themselves to work on daily prompts or new poems every day for the month. I’ve been doing that, very loosely.
As far as music, there are a couple of albums I’ve been listening to on repeat, including the new Slipknot album [We Are Not Your Kind] and the new Korn album [The Nothing]. Strangely enough, I’ve been listening to video game soundtracks too. One of the newer ones is the Doom Eternal soundtrack by Mick Gordon. He takes a very experimental approach to the soundtrack. He makes the music feel like the atmosphere you’re supposed to be in, which is like hell. [laughs]
