Workers throughout the state are facing layoffs and financial uncertainties as businesses close their doors to reduce and prevent the proliferation of COVID-19, per Gov. Steve Sisolak’s guidance to close all ‘non-essential’ businesses.

As businesses and individuals navigate an uncertain future, they are getting creative — if they can.

The Nevada Independent is sharing one of their stories each day. If you are a Nevada business owner or worker whose job has been upended by coronavirus, we would love to feature your story. Send an email to [email protected] for consideration. 

***

Brandon Summers says things haven’t changed that much for his social life during the pandemic because as a “naturally introverted” person, staying in his house and communicating mostly with his laptop is nothing new.

What is new is the uncertainty. Summers is a musician and a substitute teacher in the Clark County School District, and with events canceled and schools shut down, both of his sources of income have been cut off.

“It’s really, I guess, disconcerting to know that I don’t have any more income, and I have to find a way to survive in the interim,” said Summers. “I do have savings, but I’d prefer not to tap into that.”

While his schedule varies, in a typical week Summers has one to two gigs as a violinist and substitute teaches two to three days. He works as a day-to-day sub rather than taking on long term sub positions to make sure he has time to take on new gigs as a musician, as those make up the majority of his income.

Before the shutdown, he had six paid gigs lined up and within a week, all of them were canceled. He had only been paid in advance for one.

“One was a wedding that was for next week, and since they don’t know when this will be resolved, they said [it was] postponed indefinitely,” said Summers. “The other ones were flat out canceled because they were corporate conferences.”

In addition to his canceled performances, Summers had been scheduled for multiple days of subbing that are now completely gone. While long-term subs and those filling vacancies are still being compensated for their scheduled work, things are ambiguous for those like him who work day to day.

“We were told over the weekend that school was going to be canceled indefinitely and may possibly resume in April, but that’s not even sure.”

The Clark County School District offered substitute teachers and support staff a one-time emergency loan, and Summers has applied for unemployment benefits. On Friday, legislation passed extending unemployment benefits to contractors and self-employed, “gig” and part time workers, but he has yet to hear back about his own application.

Little guidance has been offered by the district about possibilities for supplementing income with other part-time work. Summers said some substitute teachers, who do not receive benefits but have been fighting for improved pay and benefits since before the shut-down began, have taken it into their own hands to share information about possible employment with each other.

“There’s a sub group that’s recently formed this year to start advocating for better wages, and hopefully benefits, but it’s such a diverse crowd,” he said. “Some people were talking about online tutoring, some people were mentioning applying to Costco or applying to Amazon. Nothing necessarily solid.”

It’s frustrating for Summers to be left without pay. Even though subs work part time, he emphasized how important they are for schools to operate.

“Day-to-day subs, we’re just on our own,” he said. “We’re left out [of] any further compensation, and it really shouldn’t be that way because school districts do need day-to-day subs because a lot of teachers call out for doctors appointments, family issues. If everyone was doing long term, there’d still be that void there.”

For now, Summers has settled on waiting it out and hoping that he can return to his normal schedule again soon.

“It’s just a matter of holding on until things change.”