Nashville Standard

COVID-19's blindside of the U.S. economy has crushed the confidence of at least one Nashville-area furloughed national parking and driving company worker who believed hard work will always pay off.

Byonca Patrick, a furloughed talent acquisition specialist in Premier Parking's corporate office in Nashville, said her stimulus check from the CARES Act did cover her March bills; and bills don't stop coming just because there's a pandemic going on.

"This whole thing has showed me how temporary things are, that everything you depend on can get ripped from you at any time," Patrick said.

Patrick said has been unable to obtain unemployment benefits and she's all but lost touch with her co-workers who also face an uncertain future.

"I haven’t really seen any of my co-workers since I’ve been laid off but I’m sure there's a lot of people in the same boat as me," she said.

Premier Parking's future also is far from certain. In late March, after the company's nationwide furloughs started, a Premier Parking official described to a Tennessee news outlet the company's wobbly position and called for government assistance.

Before the pandemic, Premier Parking employed more than 2,000 associates in more than 600 locations in more than 40 cities across the nation, providing services at concerts, sports and other events.

Those events were postponed or canceled, drying up Premier Parking's business as the company's potential customers are largely stuck at home waiting out the crisis. Few or no customers left Premier Parking with no choice but to furlough of hundreds of its employees. These workers are among millions laid off in the U.S. because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Non-farm payroll employment fell by 701,000 in March alone, with leisure and hospitality jobs falling by 459,000, according to a report issued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.

Patrick, who only recently moved to Nashville from Orlando, Florida,  was furloughed March 18.

"This pandemic has been a nightmare for me," Patrick said. "I’m new to Nashville. I was working for Premier Parking for three months before all this happened."

Trying to obtain unemployment benefits in Tennessee has been another nightmare, as it is for many of the more than 30 million nationwide who have filed since mid-March, overwhelming state employment security offices.

"I have no income coming in and my bills are still due," she said. "It’s been very hard on me and I’m not sure what to do."