erin mendenhall Archives

Job Search

I am focused on applying to jobs. I’m specifically looking for remote work because I think in the long run it makes sense to work from home in case Covid-19 flares up later this year. It’s hard to find remote work, especially in writing fields that isn’t freelance. Finding positions that offer full benefits, time off, a flexible schedule and a good 401k are rare. My goal is to find remote work so I won’t have to work in a restaurant after the stay-at-home order is lifted in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Internship!

Yesterday, I got a Literary Internship for a publishing house. This internship is unpaid but requires only 10-15 hours of work per week. It is valuable experience that I know I need to help build up my resume. My career goal is to work for a publishing house in publishing/editing. This internship is an exciting opportunity and I get the feeling it will be a positive experience.

I know that I can balance full-time work (when I find it) and my internship with everything else I do: blogging, writing, reading, art, and music.

Utah & COVID-19

The stay-at-home order issued by Governor Gary Herbert through May 1st, will presumably be lifted by the end of this week. I am still checking twitter and local news for updates from Salt Lake City’s Mayor Erin Mendenhall. We’ll see what happens, what regulations will be put in place by the Utah Department of Health for restaurants to be have dine-in service. It will be interesting to see what happens this week and the next.

Current Covid-19 stats for Utah

Summary: Total Cases 4233, Total Reported People Tested 100195, Total Covid-19 Hospitalizations 349, Total Covid-19 Deaths 41

Population of Utah (estimated) 3,282,115

A Tiny Opinionated Rant

I believe it is important to save lives and stop the spread of Covid-19 as effectively as possible. It is frustrating to hear about protests saying the stay-at-home order is unconstitutional. I think these people fail to realize the gravity of the situation and that having no vaccine for Covid-19 makes this a serious matter. The argument to sacrifice the weak to open up the economy is revolting.

If anything these people that are protesting against the stay-at-home orders across the nation should be protesting against Trump’s failure as POTUS to handle Covid-19. They should be protesting the government’s pathetic attempt to ‘help’ Americans financially: a one-time check of $1,200 is a slap in the face, the $600 add-on to weekly unemployment is more helpful right now but not for those that are having trouble filing for unemployment.

Trumps response time to Covid-19, his ignorance to take it seriously, his continual suggestions to ingest disinfectants, his failure to help state governor’s, and his continual back and forth indecision about almost every little thing is unacceptable. The man is an idiot and his presidency is a joke. My main concern is voting for this years presidential election. With the spread of Covid-19 and everyone trying to just make it through, the risk of the election being ‘manipulated’ with the excuse of Covid-19 I think is a very real possibility.

End of My Poetry Workshop

Yesterday was the last day of the Free Poetry Workshop taught by Natasha Saje. This workshop was about four months long and I absolutely loved it. Saje is amazing, she taught me so much and I look forward to staying in touch with my fellow students.

Facebook

I finally caved. I am extremely opposed to Facebook but over the last few weeks I have realized when it comes to putting my writing out there and connecting with readers, having a Facebook Profile and Page is a necessity. Below are links to my Profile and Page.

I will be using my Profile for personal/writing updates and my Page is specifically for all content I post to my blog.

Alina’s Facebook Profile

Alina’s Facebook Blog Page

Reading

I finished reading Joan Didion’s Where I Was From

This was a great read. I started it the last week of March and took my time with it. Didion talks about her family history which creates a sort of ‘bookend’ structure for the rest of the book. The meat of it is a detailed history of California, specifically Sacramento where she is from. It was an informative read and I have a craving for more Didion, so I might be raiding my boyfriends bookshelf very soon (he has most of her books).

Uncertainty and Relief

I am hopeful that a gradual re-opening of Salt Lake City will be successful. Our case counts and deaths are very low in comparison to the rest of the nation. But I think there is a real risk at opening the state too soon and a second wave could rip through Utah and our deaths could increase rapidly.

Thank you

I hope that you are safe and well wherever you are. Thank you for reading about my life during Covid-19. Feel free to respond, comment, or contact me directly.

Best,

Alina

Become a Subscriber! Get notified when new posts are published plus once a week I will send content just for you: poem, personal update, reading list, writing tips and more!

If you enjoyed this post, check out these:

Life During COVID-19 (5/5/2020): Tutoring, Freelancing on Fiverr and Job Searching(Opens in a new browser tab)

Life During COVID-19 (5/21/2020): Novel Writing, My Birthday and Opinions(Opens in a new browser tab)

Life During COVID-19 (6/6/2020): George Floyd Protests and My White Woman Privilege(Opens in a new browser tab)

UPDATE 4/21/2020:

On April 19th, I equally divided the Tip Your Server Donation fund plus a $100 contribution from a friend, a total of $600 among me and four other co-workers. I contacted all of the co-workers listed in this post below as well as fellow co-workers from Wasatch that I used to work with. Four co-workers came forward and said they were in need of some help $. On Sunday, I disbursed the funds equally among us, $120 each. I am glad that I could help my co-workers and I am so grateful to the Tip Your Server Donation and my friend that contributed $100, Thank you.

UPDATE:

On 4/7/2020 I was notified by Squatters that our company was picked out of the Tip Your Server Lotto. I was one of the five tipped employees randomly chosen to receive $500 from this donation.

I have decided that after I receive this money, I will be dividing it up equally among me and my co-workers that need it the most. I want to say thank you to the Tip Your Server Donation, the Downtown Alliance Salt Lake City, Thank you to Ty Burrell and the Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall. Thank you for your help, I deeply appreciate it, we deeply appreciate it!

The goal of this post is to provide VENMO links to my fellow employees of Squatters and Wasatch Pubs in Salt Lake City, Utah. We have been LAID OFF INDEFINITELY with no financial compensation during the COVID-19 Pandemic. For most of us, our only job(s) were as restaurant employees. Any amount you can spare to help us get through this hard time would be deeply appreciated as we file for unemployment and look for new jobs.

On Monday, March 16th, 2020 Salt Lake City was ordered to stop all dine-in service at Restaurants and Bars by 11 p.m. Only to-go and curbside service are allowed right now.

I am a full-time employee at Squatters Pub Brewery in Downtown Salt Lake. This job was the only source of income for me and countless fellow employees. After the restaurant ‘closure’ for dine-in service our corporate office communicated with us that we could come in and clean the restaurant for hourly pay. They were never clear as to how much that hourly was going to be and I have yet to hear what that hourly was for those that went in and worked when they could.

Squatters Brewpub — Squatters Pub Brewery

In the state of Utah, employers are not required to pay servers more than $2.15/hour. We do not get paid/sick leave and for many of us (before COVID-19) we couldn’t even request time off for vacations/emergencies.

On Wednesday, March 18th, 2020 at 7:09 a.m. MST a 5.7 Magnitude Earthquake hit Magna, Utah less than 20 miles from Salt Lake City. The Earthquake was felt throughout Salt Lake County and many other parts of Utah. Aftershocks have continued since the initial quake.

On Friday, March 20th 2020, all employees (including management) for Squatters Pub Brewery and our sister company Wasatch Brew Pub were LAID OFF INDEFINITELY, approximately 98% of all labor until the COVID-19 pandemic blows over and restaurants can open again. They decided to do this so we could file for unemployment. I was just notified by a fellow employee of Squatters (Server Chelsea: her info below) that her first unemployment check is not due to arrive for another 3 weeks.

HELP

We have rent/mortgages & bills to pay, we need groceries and supplies. More importantly, we need help and jobs asap.

Below are VENMO links to my fellow employees of Squatters and Wasatch. Any amount you can spare to help us get through this hard time would be deeply appreciated as we file for unemployment and look for new jobs.

LINKS, NAMES, and VENMO’s have been deleted as of 7/25/2020 for the safety of persons involved.

Other Resources to help Service Industry Employees in Utah right now:

TIP YOUR SERVER Downtown Alliance Salt Lake City, Utah

This donation program is amazing, all thanks to a local business owner and Actor Ty Burrell and our Mayor Erin Mendenhall.

ty burrell and mayor erin — photo source: tipyourserver

All local SLC restaurants and bars must register their businesses with this donation then employees can be verified and money distributed after March 25th. So far this donation has raised approximately $141,000 for the estimated 15,000 restaurant employees in Salt Lake City.

Our company has registered with this donation.

If you want to help us and donate to other restaurant employees in SLC please donate to tipyourserver .

More resources to help Service Industry Employees in the U.S.

(I will be adding to this list)

Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation

https://www.restaurantworkerscf.org/

United States Bartender Guild

https://www.usbg.org/home

More info about where I used to work:

Squatters Pub Brewery

Wasatch Brew Pub

About the Author,

My name is Alina and I am a writer, artist, poet, and musician. I have been blogging and posting original content on alinahappyhansenwriter.com since March 2017. I am a graduate from The University of Utah with a Bachelor’s of Arts in English with a Minor in Writing and Rhetoric Studies. I have had half a dozen poems published in the last five years and have actively been reading my Poetry locally in Salt Lake City since my Utah Arts Festival Reading in June 2018.

I have been working in the Service Industry/Restaurants since 2016. From 2016 to 2018, I worked at Wasatch Brew Pub sister company to Squatters Pub Brewery. At Wasatch, I worked full-time as a Hostess, in charge of training new hires to host, restaurant policies and procedures, and most importantly providing the best customer service possible. In June 2018, I moved to Downtown Salt Lake City and started working as a full-time Hostess at Squatters Pub Brewery. I worked full-time at Squatters until March 20th, 2020 when I was LAID OFF INDEFINITELY with NO PAY due to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Pandemic. As an employee of Squatters, I excelled at my job as a Hostess and later trained and worked other job duties including Expediter and Busser.

I miss my job and my friends at work and I just want to help in any way I can during these uncertain times.

If you would like to support me, I am handwriting Poems for $. For more info on this please go to SUPPORT ALINA: POEMS FOR $. So far I have already completed FOUR POETRY ORDERS FOR $ as of 3/22. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support both financially and emotionally during this time.

When I get a job I will continue to write POEMS FOR $ and I will be sending all the money I earn directly to my fellow employees of Squatters and Wasatch who need it the most.

Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your love.

Best of luck to you all, stay safe and stay well out there!

–ALINA

Want to become one of my Patrons? Go to my page here and join a tier. All patrons regardless of Tier have access to all of my patron-only content right now! Tiers start at $3/month! I will also send you via snailmail a handwritten personalized Poem + Thank you card for becoming a patron.

Become a Subscriber! Get notified when new posts are published plus once a week I will send content just for you: poem, personal update, reading list, writing tips and more!

Liked this blog post? Check out these:

SUPPORT ALINA: POETRY FOR $(Opens in a new browser tab)

Life During COVID-19 (4/21/2020): Poetry, Sylvia Plath and My Novel(Opens in a new browser tab)

Life during COVID-19 (4/13/20): Poetry for $ and more poems(Opens in a new browser tab)