11: Mikayla Vanscyoc

Sales Associate, UPS Store

Throughout the pandemic, Mikayla Van Scyoc worked as a sales associate at a UPS store while also earning her undergraduate degree in psychology at Penn State Berks. She worked through the entire shutdown for anywhere from 25 to 35 hours a week, while also attending virtual classes. The rest of Mikayla’s household also worked through the whole pandemic, with her parents both working in health care. Fortunately, though, Mikayla never contracted COVID, and only knows about three people who did.  

Before COVID, the pace at Mikayla’s job was steady and fairly tame. The customers were mostly kind, and the workload was not punishing. But during the pandemic, when her store instituted a very firm mask mandate, her customers became incredibly volatile. Many were not compliant with the mask mandate, even though several people Mikayla worked with her high risk. Mikayla was only occasionally screamed at by customers before, but now she estimates that she is verbally abused by customers at least once a day. But when faced with a hostile customer, she tries her best to still be kind because when someone acts that way it just makes her think, “oh, you really need someone to be nice to you.” At Mikayla’s store, the lines are out the door every day. Since people cannot go see their families, they are sending packages to keep in contact. She feels like she no longer has a second to breathe when she is working. But Mikayla’s manager has really helped her to get through this incredibly difficult time.  She tries very hard to work with her employees and to do nice things for them to keep their spirits up. 

Studying psychology in school has been useful for Mikayla at her job. It helps her to understand her customers and their attitudes, especially when they lash out. All of her classes for the past year were online, which was a significant challenge for her because of the lack of interfacing with her professors and peers. During the classes on Zoom, most students kept their cameras off, so Mikayla didn’t even really know who her classmates were or what they looked like, which was hard because she really likes to be around people and engage with them. The pandemic has really made Mikayla realize how much everything can change in a split second, and she has learned to try not to take anything for granted, especially interactions with other people.