It's May at the end of the week?!

First I want to say THANK YOU to everyone for sharing your stories. It was so wonderful to see everyone coming together. I saw some of your faces, and even more of your work spaces, clients, and families.

As luck would have it, the day of the #UnitingBeauty social media takeover, my basement was at serious risk of flooding, so I was pulled away for WAY too many days last week in order to perform emergency flood protection in my back/side yard. I deeply apologize for my lack of responsiveness here and, well, generally everywhere, if you have been trying to get a hold of me.

My heart goes out to my GA and OK licensed professionals, as I know you all have been open for business as of last week. I know so many of us are ready to get back to work, but I am left wondering, what has it been like so far? Please, if you are back to work in any state right now because your state has opened your workplace, PLEASE leave a comment below. 

I'm pretty opinionated, (not that any of you would notice LOL) so I'm left feeling pretty frustrated with the states that have opened our spaces. I am frustrated because I have been reading the measures the professionals must take in order to be open, yet I feel like many are being put between a rock and a hard place. It seems like the only two options are to:

1) Choose to remain closed, potentially losing any unemployment benefits AND/OR losing clients because they decide to go to someone who is open

2) Open, knowing that you are expected to find, pay for and store all the necessary PPE and sanitation supplies or be fined and shut back down, all while only servicing a fraction of the clientele that you usually do per day, but also potentially affecting any unemployment benefits you were eligible for and maybe losing clients anyway because you can't get them in fast enough.

If I am missing a 3rd option here, please let me know. I choose to remain neutral as to each professional's personal decision to either work or stay home if their state has opened. It is more important for us to support each other in whatever decision that must be made for ourselves and our families, because we are all experiencing our own hardships that are only compounded by the pandemic. 

I do, however, stand firmly on the following:

• If ANY state feels as though it is safe enough for us to return to work, (and therefore strip us of our unemployment benefits)  I would sincerely hope that state finds a way to financially support our sanitation and client safety precautions.
• It's hard enough right now for the health care industry to find the necessary PPE for its professionals- should we, as an industry, be depleting those supplies?
• Should we, as business owners, be forced back into work under these conditions?

I'm sure this will get all types of conversations flowing in the the discussion area. I ask you all, PLEASE, be kind with your words to each other if you disagree; we are indeed all in this situation together

Until tomorrow (or maybe Wednesday) =)

Kristin

PS If you haven't already, head on over to @Uniting_beauty on IG and leave me a video message of what your life has been like during this. You can also shoot a video and email it to me at unitingbeauty@gmail.com