"Payment is scanty, but this is not easy work"

Because of the coronavirus, many Russians lost their jobs and were forced to master new professions. Meduzacare talked to them

Against the backdrop of coronavirus pandemia in April 2020, unemployment in Russia increased by 23.4% compared to March of the same year. Entire sectors of the economy were not in demand-the offline focus, part of the services sector, tourism and other types of business were noticeably injured. People who could not switch to a remote mode of work were forced to look for new ways of earning and mastering professions that are not at all similar to what they did before. Meduzacare publishes several such stories.

The article that you read is part of our Meduzacare philanthropists support program. In June 2020, it is dedicated to poverty during the pandemic. All materials can be read on a special screen .

Elena Shalygina

A year ago, due to problems with my husband, I moved from Kirov to another city with two children, a cat and a dog. Shortly before Koronavirus, I got a sales representative in a company that issues a school uniform. My salary consisted of salary and interest on the sold form. I liked the work, I talked a lot with teachers, went to schools. Given that the season will begin soon, along with interest I expected to earn about 100-130 thousand per month. But only I collected the base and was about to deploy sales, as everyone closed.

Until April 12, we were sent home for a forced rest, for these two weeks they paid, of course, only a salary - 20 thousand. When the non -working days were extended, they told us: sit, but already without a salary, since there was nothing to get there to a salary. So I was left without everything.

Near the house I had a small grocery store in the basement. I am a sociable person, made friends with the saleswoman and the mistress of the store, she invited me to work as a saleswoman on weekends, from eight in the morning to nine in the evening. At first, when there was the hardest quarantine, she worked only in the store, but there was very little this money: they paid a thousand rubles for the exit, that is, only two thousand a week. In parallel, she still phoned all customers from the old job, gathered debts for the sold but not paid form. They paid me a small percentage from her, it was already quite a penny. For the whole month it turned out about four thousand.

Since both there and there they paid very little, I went to work with the courier to deliver food - at first I got a job to deliver burgers, then another one. As a result, my schedule was like this: from morning until two in the afternoon in one delivery, from three in the afternoon to two in the morning at the other and on weekends in the store for 13 hours. For the morning change of delivery, I was paid 600 rubles a day, for the daytime in the burger - 2000 rubles a day. I had three works at the same time. It was very difficult. I did not get enough sleep, I walked like a zombie.

The situation was complicated by the fact that in December 2019 I took a mortgage and pay 18 thousand rubles each month. My acquaintance works in Sberbank, I found out from her about the lending, but she dissuaded me, because it is not known what it could do. He says, then it all sooner or later will still fall on your shoulders. I advised to pay while I can. So I did not issue anything and continued to pay on a loan.

When non -working days extended and closed schools, I gathered the children, put it in the car and took Kirov to my grandmother in the village. They told me that everything was closed and they would not miss me, but I still took a chance, because I realized that I was left without money and with a mortgage. I did not know how to feed children in such conditions. I barely took it. Of course, at each gas station, they wiped their hands with alcohol, served several days in the city just in case before being taken to the village. But now they eat berries at their grandmother.

Thanks to these three works, I managed to earn ahead of me to pay a mortgage, and there was still a cat with a dog with a dog for bread and feed. True, there was not enough utility bills, debt was accumulating on them.

Now I have received an offer to work as a sales manager in a company installing plastic windows. I decided to refuse delivery, now I work only in the windows and on weekends in the store. They promised a salary of 20 thousand plus interest. While I am still learning to take measurements and get only a salary. In the future, I think, I will receive up to 100 thousand, now the season. I set a goal for myself - I have to earn at least 50 thousand.

Sergey Matveev

Since 2017, I have have two Old Boy barbershop in Moscow. Before the crisis, everything was fine with us: they worked in profit, expanded the premises, hired new employees, even came out in the first place in Moscow in revenue among all the network salons. When we were closed from the end of March and banned any activities, at first we were in shock. This is just a mess.

At first there was a hope that we would open soon, but then I had to somehow get out and come up with a new way of earnings in order to repay loans taken to the business. All talk about subsidies - by. We were reduced in one place in one place, and in another left in full, we had to pay for all months of downtime.

Banks refused my delay on loans, they said that the conditions were not fulfilled and I did not fall under this program [state benefits], since I took loans for business as an individual, and not like an IP. As an individual, I do not fall under any benefits, because I did not formally lose my work.

I began to reason where you can make money now. At the same time, it was extremely difficult to find a job, at least in the first months, when there was hard quarantine, because a lot of industries suffered. It occurred to it that the delivery of products will probably be at the peak now. I chose a company that seemed the most attractive in terms of the possibilities of earnings. I went there to work as a courier driver in my personal car.

Of course, the first few weeks were hard. There were times when I needed to bring products by 60–70 kilograms, and the apartment was on the top floor of a five-story building without an elevator, and all this had to be spread by hand legs. Now I have already entered the rhythm and everything is fine. My acquaintances for quarantine have become fat, but, on the contrary, everything became fine in a few months of daily training. Oddly enough, I liked working as a courier. Probably, I was lucky: I got into a good place, the team turned out to be very friendly and pleasant.

We have a piecework payment system - that is, the more orders you deliver a day, the more you can earn. I thought that this is the best option for me, and in the end I did not lose. At the peak in April, when there were most orders, I earned about 100 thousand, which allowed me to pay loans.

I plan to work as a courier for several months after the opening of our salons, because, most likely, financial indicators at first will be much lower than before. Our population was clearly not enriched in a few months of self -isolation.

We were lucky, we were able to go afloat, but I know the examples of those who closed and sold the salons, especially if they had a very high rental, which was not reduced at all, and one owner who no one can help, and he himself did not find a job. Since we have several partners [in business], it was easier for us. Nevertheless, we are adults strong men, and, for example, some girl, the owner of a beauty salon, well, she will not go with a courier to carry 60 kilograms. And where can she go?

Konstantin Antonyuk

When the pandemic broke out, I had two businesses: renting and selling games for events and the production of aluminum tubes. The rental of games in fact immediately got chopped down, and we expect that the business will get up for the whole season, because all the events were canceled and the number of orders is incomparably less compared to the previous season.

Now we do not buy any activity from us. There are simply no large city events and holidays in which we used to participate, providing our activity, I think this year will simply not be. For example, we regularly participated in VK-fest, and this year it went online. In fact, from events this summer, we only remained voting for the constitution and parade [as of May 9].

At first we had high hopes for tubes, we wanted to release an antiseptic in tubes, and in March we even managed to hold out due to this, but then the demand fell. Those clients who took containers under the antiseptic disappeared along with demand. Our main clients who took containers for cosmetics, food or catering have disappeared. Someone went bankrupt, someone turned the development of a new product in a new package. When people do not have money, the market is collapsed.

Our indicators for the rental and sale of games reached almost the zero, I transferred all employees to the half -time, and myself, in order to accumulate on salaries to employees, now I am engaged in cargo transportation at our official van. I help people with crossings on Peter and the Leningrad Region.

Work behind the wheel reminds that it is better to work with your head. And also, since everyone could not work for two months, a lot of people with freight transport appeared on the market, who disappeared by regular customers from the business (shops, restaurants and other retail). Everyone who used to work with regular customers went to Avito, YouDo and other services for small orders. Accordingly, the proposal began to exceed demand, and the price tag collapsed.

Roughly speaking, if earlier than 1800 rubles for transportation without loading and unloading, we never went anywhere, now I go for 1,500 rubles with loading and unloading. At least somehow they correct the situation only tips-when people leave a little more than we agreed. Another thousand and a half I spend on payment and promotion of services on YouDo. Since there are almost no orders, catching and finding an order is a direct adventure. And this is given that I already had a fairly high rating and positive reviews on YouDo. As those who first go to the sites find orders, I can’t imagine. Payment, of course, is scanty, and labor is not easy, takes a lot of effort. So we ride with my storekeeper, and now the driver.

Although we are considered a microbusiness, I can say that no support was provided to us. By formal signs, our activities related to the rental of games are considered one of the injured sectors in the field of entertainment, but since this is not our main OKVED [type of economic activity], even in the MRO we were denied and we did not receive any benefits. At the same time, we pay all taxes and social payments on time, because we do not want to have any problems with the state. After all, delay on TV, but in reality then go prove the tax that you are not a camel.

I managed to close the cargo transportation, God forbid a third of the monthly expenses of the company, since in addition to salaries there are still renting premises, obligations to suppliers, advertising costs that we cannot stop, car service, taxes, payment of services like 1C and Bitrix and bank account maintenance. At the same time, for example, Alfa-Bank exactly at the time of the beginning of the epidemic raised the cost of service by 30–40%, referring to the economic situation, although almost all services are online.

Since my team is road, I continue to pay salaries to all my employees, but I pay more from my own savings, and cargo transportation is just attempts to reduce the costs of my personal pocket and save my own savings.

Zhanna Zavyalova

In winter, we celebrated the decade of our travel company, specializing in cruises, and boasted of unprecedented indicators: we sold a record number of vouchers in a month. Things were going so well that I, as the owner of the company, decided to open a new office in Moscow. In February, she already capitalized in Moscow with all things and with great plans for the future.

But then Coronavirus intervened. At first it seemed something unreal, and then once-and everything was covered. All urgently began to cancel the vouchers, and the cruises were most affected. We literally could not do anything, the entire tourist sphere rose. We sat one and a half to two months, and I realized that now I just had to wait a while. Although you do a somersault ago, in Moscow with tourism you could not do anything at that time. All boundaries closed at once, and a lot of effort had to be made to find the opportunity to earn.

It was very difficult for me to accept this and realize it, because tourism is a matter of my life. I fell into depression. I was covered with fears from all sides - not only about coronavirus as a disease. It seemed to me that everything, I couldn’t do anything else. Our clients, who sold out the tickets from us in January, at one moment fell upon us with claims and demands to return the money. Nobody knew how it would be [compensation] - vouchers or deposits. The money was flowing, there was no arrived, and I was scared.

Gradually, when we raked the claims, I took a pause in business, began to try myself in other types of activities. I returned from Moscow to Tyumen and signed up for an online business course. The realization that people are moving during quarantine was already giving me strength, but probably the environment was the decisive factor. I plunged into a society that does not sit still during quarantine, does something and earns money.

There was a task on our training: first sell something that you do not have, and so you will understand if there is a demand. Demand should be not only in your head. I began to test niches - anything, from disinfection from ticks to the sale of clothes online. Then I thought, thought and decided that at any time people always want to eat, and when everything is closed, especially. Moreover, in the regions, a delivery network is not as developed as in Moscow.

I came up with a menu, painted a picture and asked on Instagram if it was interesting [to someone]. I suggested bringing the diet for the whole day - breakfast, lunch and dinner. And they started to throw off the money. Several people bought a diet from me, I paid the [service] delivery from my money. At first she provided a service with the help of strangers and existing services. When I realized that this was in demand, I organized my production: I found a dining room that will cook, organized the phone, registered Instagram, designed everything beautifully, hired a courier and began to deliver dinners.

I felt for demand: we have many oil companies in our region that continued to work even in coronavirus. People were hungry for lunch, they are tired of eating shawarma and burgers, and I focused on home food - with good oil, with greens, everything we love. First, they transported at a cost of one office, the other, the third. Slowly they began to order more, we began to grow.

I was not interested in feeding the offices for 30–40 lunch [per day]. I understood that if I will feed a hundred people a day, there will already be a normal profit. I heard me, and the contractor called from one office of the oil company, said: “Listen, you feed so deliciously, let's feed us too.” They send people to the field, and the workers first need to sit 14 days before the watch so as not to bring coronavirus there. Then they return [from the deposit] and sit still 14 days after the shift, so that they don’t bring anything home either. There are 80–100 of them. The contractor asks me: "Could you feed them every day, twice a day, 112 people?" I say: "Of course, they could." And we did not have such a production, but he said - two days later we need to feed them, make an account. I am issuing an account, they take a lot of money to me, and I begin to feed.

The most decisive factor was the speed: if you think at least a little bit and stop, then flew by. Do as you can, do with whom you can. We need a courier - [you say that] so far there is little money, but these are such things. Please, here is a courier. We need an assistant - I wrote on Instagram that an assistant is required, ready to work for experience until we earn money. There was an assistant. First, I paid the courier 500-600 rubles a day, then, when they began to earn more, they began to pay a little more people, and new jobs appeared. Now we are negotiating with the second observator - this is another 100 people. Surprisingly, the last month I earn more on this than before in tourism. But I understand very well that this is a temporary story.

I had a revaluation. This is the most important quarantine insight: it is not necessary to love something in order to earn money on this, as I loved tourism for 10 years. We must love profit, be true to your dreams and just do your job well. The whole life is cool, but if it does not bring money, you need to look for something else.

Anna Chernova