Member-only story
Back at Work Once Again
I’m doing my part but there’s more.
I‘m back working after being retired for four and a half years. I was asked to come back as a Covid contact investigator due to the pandemic. I said I would not work in a hospital nor would I be out with the public. I didn’t get to be a healthy senior by risking things in my life. I also said I would only work halftime.
Before I retired I worked as a poison specialist. I left over four years ago, and much as I loved it, that world changes at such a fast pace I knew I couldn’t go back to it. So when they called again to work for the Covid effort I real.ized we all need to do our part. They made me an offer to work at a public health service informing people that they are positive for Covid and how they need to deal with this. We do this over the phone. I work two days a week and that is plenty, especially since these are eleven-hour shifts. This works out to just over fifty-eight percent.
One thing that is different from when I was last working is that while at that time I was the senior nurse, most people were within 10 years of my age and had comparable skills. This time I really think I am the oldest person in the room of over 100 people. I don’t look the oldest and probably have more energy than half the people in the room, but the oldest I am!
