VIRAL VIRTUOSOS
[ Latin virtus “virtue”, “excellence” or “skill” ] BY COLLETTE SAUNDERS
Everyone gets smacked from the left field some time! When you do, and if you haven’t yet then you inevitably will, it will take all the values, foundations and grounding that you have put in place in your life to recover. This year, so far, saw Covid-19 tentacles reaching so quickly and so deeply into, not just our day to day life but into the financial, the personal, the mental, the physical, the belief systems, the political systems. They threw us on the ground and said, “Now get up and start that again”. During these past months and the outpourings and the stories shared to me I’ve learned, as we all have, the value of connection. Sad it took a pandemic to wake us up to what is valuable. As systems came undone, we could only watch as our control was taken away from us and we had to rely on our Government to keep us safe. Thank God we are an Island in the middle of the Pacific and could isolate and social distance the entire continent. We are the lucky country and we stand by each other. I spoke with Andie Lister, owner of @stagefourbarbers in Docklands, Melbourne. As one of the broad population who firmly believed the hair industry should have been shut down, she felt we were forgotten. She endured 6 weeks of chemo treatment and impending surgery, then she and her staff were dealt a double blow. She wanted her team to respect the way she handled everything and decided to close, re-opening when it became safer to do so. The clear anxiety expressed by her team was evident with their honest communication in the lead up to closing.
As a business owner, the strength and honesty of the employee to employer relationships shared is something she is very grateful for. It was breaking her heart to think that she had worked so hard even through her treatments, and that this virus could possibly take down her business. Now re-opened in a freshly painted shop - that she painted herself - she is a living virtuoso. Katrina Bishop owns two Tommy Guns Stores in Adelaide as well as a Price Attack store. Her businesses were closed for 5 and 6 weeks respectively.
The saddest thing she told me was that her most loyal and hardworking employees, her temporary visa holders, were left with no income support. She believes closing was the right thing to do. It gave time to absorb and re-evaluate how to trade going forward. Her visa holding staff had to find other casual work to survive, and now that trading has resumed, she is working rosters so that they can do both jobs and maintain a decent income. She wants all barbers and hairdressers to remember, when every day feels a lot like Groundhog Day, to give ourselves credit for the role we play in mental health and well-being, and the personal level on which people connect with their Barber. Stacey Cox @staceycox_barbering says that the biggest impact for her was her anxiety levels. When the doors of the shop in which she works, Ryan & Co Barber in
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Brisbane, were closed by her employer she couldn’t have been more relieved.
She said she tried to not let it affect the client’s service, but with everyone talking a about Covid-19, it was difficult to put it to the back of your mind and get on with the job at hand. Now back operating, the shop is working at reduced capacity, and they are following covid-19 safe guidelines and wearing PPE for each appointment. She feels safe and feels they are doing the best they can to ensure confidence and safety. Renee Houston @houstonandco_ barbershop opened her shop in Ipswich on 14 September 2019.
Stocked with the best, polished and ready to go she hit the ground running, but like all of us who didn’t see it coming, closed on 28 March 2020 for 5 weeks. She did work for one week in PPE prior to closing. She found it extremely fatiguing, uncomfortable, and breathing was difficult when combining constantly spraying the