Alone Together, Ep. 7 with Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, Essential Workers

Laurie Patton:

You’re listening to Midd Moment. I’m Laurie Patton, president of Middlebury and professor of religion. In this special series, I’m checking in with our community to see how people are doing, so that we might get a better idea of what it’s like to be alone, together.

 

Today, I’m speaking with Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin.

Jodie Keith:

My name is Jodie Keith. I’ve been at Middlebury College for three years. I am the manager of custodial and support services and facilities.

Jacque Bergevin:

My name is Jacque Bergevin and I’ve been at custodial services for almost—this November will be 17 years.

Laurie Patton:

Welcome, Jodie and Jacque. It’s really wonderful to have you. I always start all of our podcasts with a basic check-in. So how have you both been doing?

Jacque Bergevin:

I’ve been keeping busy. We’ve been doing yard work here. I’ve done a flower bed. And then next week I’ve got to start on a garden. Normally I like talking to college kids this time of year, and I’ve been doing this for 16 years, talking to seniors and they’re like, they always ask me, how does an arts degree relate to the real world? How is that going to get me a job? And I always love those conversations.

Laurie Patton:

You’re missing those conversations. Jodie, what about you?

Jodie Keith:

It seems very odd to walk around campus a week before Commencement and not have any students here.

Laurie Patton:

Yeah. Tell me, are you working remotely, Jodie?

Jodie Keith:

No. I come into the office every day.

Laurie Patton:

Okay. And Jacque, same for you?

Jacque Bergevin:

Yeah. I come in for Thursday to Sunday. I come in for four days this week and then I’m off for eight days. Just trying to stay busy enough there so we make the COVID-19 pay, which was really nice of the College for doing that. I appreciate everything that the College has done for the employees here. And I really love that. I like the community of it. So it means a lot to people like me.

Laurie Patton:

Thank you for saying that. We share that perspective. You’ve been experiencing the Middlebury community for a while. Jodie, you’re newer to Middlebury. Where’d you come from before in your employment? And how does Middlebury strike you? Given what an intense community we are.

Jodie Keith:

Previous to this position I worked at Porter Hospital in environmental services. So it’s a little different atmosphere coming from a hospital setting to a college setting. Things actually—as far as the custodial piece is a little more laid back than what I was used to. I don’t think it will be anymore. I don’t think there are many other employers that do what Middlebury does for its employees, as far as supporting them financially through this process. The whole uncertainty of what’s going to happen.

Laurie Patton:

That’s so good to hear. It’s interesting that, because I’ve been spending so much time with Porter, we check in with Porter leadership every week and talk about how we need to coordinate what it’s going to look like in the future. And we know that custodial folks have been very involved in setting up our potential quarantine and isolation spaces, as well as the working well house that has gone really well. I think there are still a few people there and we know that custodial has been a big part of that. So we want to thank you for that. It’s fantastic. I was wondering if you could both share what the beginning of all this was like for you. When did you first start hearing about COVID-19? And if you can remember the moment when you found out that students would be leaving campus because of the pandemic.

Jodie Keith:

I first heard about COVID-19 on the news, when it was the outbreaks in China. And then kind of thought that this has happened before with the Avian flu and SARS and things. So, didn’t really think it would end up here like it has. And when I heard that students were leaving campus, that’s when I knew that things were really getting serious.

Jacque Bergevin:

I saw it on the news here—in China and—yeah, it started opening up my eyes that it was serious when the kids were leaving. Because I knew there that if we didn’t do something—I’m glad they made the decision. Because if you have a body of people together, it’s going to spread a lot more quickly.

Laurie Patton:

Did your experience of the campus also change? Like you’re doing a lot more custodial work for places that are more empty. So you’re probably experiencing the emptiness of the campus a lot.

Jacque Bergevin:

I’ve been checking bathrooms, disinfecting door handles. And then when I’m doing that there I’ve been doing extras, vacuum out chairs, doing light shades, garbage cans, just trying to do things there to keep busy because it’s always something to do. And there’s so much of it.

Laurie Patton:

You know, that door handle means something completely different than it did even two months ago.

Jacque Bergevin:

Yeah. As long as you wash your hands and you just do the proper hygiene. I told my kids, when they’re growing up, I says, you got to wash your hands, and being on a farm, you have to wash your hands.

Laurie Patton:

You kind of know that protocol, that there’s a line in a poem that I circulated about a month or so ago to the community about, we now know literally that—this is a paraphrase, it’s not the exact line—but we now know literally that we hold each other’s life in our hands. Right. And I think a farmer would know that, in a way that other people who aren’t familiar with the farm environment would have to learn through something like COVID. And Jodie, what about you in terms of thinking through different schedules and thinking about, that moment you found out, did you feel like all of the work that you would have to do would change?

Jodie Keith:

It was kind of gradually trying to make sure the students items were packed up, and it was inventoried so that we knew where things were. We consolidated them to a couple of rooms in each hall, in case the dorm did need to be used. But I oversee the mail center, which changed because we didn’t need everybody over there. There wasn’t a ton of mail coming in and the students packages, if they needed to be forwarded, trying to figure all that out. I also help with the event setups and oversee those for the facilities piece of it. So those stopped happening, obviously, and didn’t have that piece of my job anymore and haven’t for a little while. So it seems quite odd. We looked at what buildings were going to be occupied going forward, which spaces needed to be cleaned on a daily basis, and how they needed to be cleaned. So trying to get all those lists together about who wants to work, who wants to continue to work, and get them all some hours in, and fair rotation.

Laurie Patton:

My guess is you’re doing a lot more, Jodie, in scheduling differently.

Jodie Keith:

Yeah, we got through the first couple of weeks and then things started to change a little bit. And every day, we just adjust the schedule. And when the governor said, we need to be disinfecting occupied buildings three times a day, we added more staff for a schedule to do a disinfection later in the evening.

Laurie Patton:

Jacque, is disinfecting every hour part of your protocol as well?

Jacque Bergevin:

Yeah. Handrails, doorknobs, light switches, toilets, anything that anybody could touch, whether it’s a back of a chair, anything that has hand oils.

Laurie Patton:

What are the things that you would like people to know about your work? You hear people say things, like, the College is closed. I’m like, actually it’s not closed. It’s being taken care of and people are coming to work. And I think of you all in particular, and I’m wondering, are there things that you’d like folks to know about the work that you’re doing now?

Jacque Bergevin:

I don’t see a lot of people there. I saw one person today at the library.

Laurie Patton:

Right. And that must be such a new experience for you. Given how much traffic you saw before.

Jacque Bergevin:

Before they shut down the campus, I went to New Hampshire. I was going to go pick up my son and I went to a visiting center and three girls from Middlebury College pulled me aside and they said, “Hi,”—because I had my custodial jacket on and my hat—”Oh, we love you.” I love the conversations. I love it when they just, they’ll ambush me like that. And when they have the Reunions, hopefully I get to see them down the road there and ask them how everything’s going.

Laurie Patton:

Well, you will be seeing them at their own graduation. I have an anticipation that if we are open for graduation next year, we’ll be going from famine to feast again with so many people around. Jodie, what about you? What would you like people to know about what everyday life is like now?

Jodie Keith:

I mean, my routine pretty much has stayed the same. I get up and go to work Monday through Friday, as I always have. There’s just less staff here. It’s a lot quieter, just in the Service Building.

Laurie Patton:

Is there a particular moment or memory from this spring that you’d like to share that really speaks to you of what COVID-19 has been like at Middlebury?

Jacque Bergevin:

The squirrels on this Middlebury College campus are looking really thin right now. They’re missing the college kids. I tell ya, they’re looking a little thin.

Laurie Patton:

It’s so true. All right. Well, thin squirrels. That’s a really wonderful image. Jodie?

Jodie Keith:

Campus being quiet. Once in a while when you work a Saturday morning and it’s like—the campus is empty and it’s like that all the time now.

Laurie Patton:

I love that image. It feels like it’s always Saturday morning at Middlebury.

Jodie Keith:

Yeah. Commencement, Reunion, and Language Schools are always a pretty stressful time, really busy. So coming into that time of year and not having that work is really strange.

Laurie Patton:

Yeah. It’s a spring with thin squirrels, lots of Saturday mornings, and wondering where the work went.

Jacque Bergevin:

The calendar doesn’t have RTO on it. Crossed out for a couple of weeks there. It’s strange here, because schedules there that I have to go by with the College. And now it’s like, okay, I don’t know what we’re going to do for Language Schools this year. I hear that we’re doing remotely. So it’s going to be a different summer and a different schedule. I’m just hoping there that we can get back to a little bit of normalcy if we could.

Laurie Patton:

Well, you both should know we are doing everything we can to have some kind of normalcy in the fall. Obviously we’re going to have to follow the orders of the CDC and the state.

Jacque Bergevin:

We have a diverse community of Middlebury College students all over the globe.

Laurie Patton:

That’s right.

Jacque Bergevin:

And it’s just—it affects us all. If those numbers are bad in some states there, it may affect us in certain ways. And if people adhere to the rules and listen and try to be safe there, then we might just make it through it.

Laurie Patton:

For the past work that you’ve done, for the present environment, and also for the future work, we’re just really grateful for what you do for Middlebury. Every time I walk through the campus, I think about the work that you all do and just want to express my appreciation and how fun it was to talk to you this morning.

Jacque Bergevin:

I think, you’re a hoot. So I’d love to talk to you again.

Laurie Patton:

All right. Let’s do it.