Not all Hoosiers are experiencing an altered work-life due to COVID-19. Some have continued without a hitch and others have been trapped in their own homes and forced to adapt to unnatural circumstances.

When Melissa Abshier created Kid’s First Therapy Services in 2005, she never imagined taking her work completely digital.

She said nearly 75% of her patients do not have access to stable internet services in rural Kentucky. As a result, Kid’s First has seen an 80% drop in weekly insurance billing. After much delay, the company was finally approved for federal support on Tuesday.

When she is able to meet with some patients, treatment still includes floor exercises, singing and temper tantrums. It is not uncommon for the rest of her family to hear the occasional “baby shark doo doo” being sung downstairs, immediately followed by screams.

Abshier said parents are becoming more involved in their child’s treatment, but they seem to respond better to in-person sessions instead. She said she is unsure when in-person treatments will resume given many of her patients have compromised immune systems.

As for her overall state of work, she said things could not be any more complicated. Everything about her day to day life has changed, and she fears the regression of those patients she cannot see every week.

Although human services still remain questionable, mother nature has made work life for other Hoosiers quite lovely.

Hadley Ocheltree clears and maintains public trails, collects data, fights invasive species, and holds a key to a large portion of Indiana University’s private land in south central Indiana. She has been the assistant property manager for the Indiana University Research and Teaching Preserve (IURTP) for nearly two years, and recently was labeled an “essential” employee.

Before the pandemic most of her work was done in the shadows, out of view for the normal member of the IU community. However, as spring arrived and many Hoosiers started to feel ants in their pants while attempting to stay home, Ocheltree said that the public trails at Griffy Lake Nature Preserve have become a hot spot for families.

With the increase in foot traffic, Ocheltree must not only maintain a clean and safe four miles of trail, but she also must keep a closer eye on details like trial markings, visitor maps, and sign-in boards.

On the other side of the Pfau Indiana University Golf Course is the second half of the IURTP Griffy property and home base for research and operations. The field lab opened in April of 2009, and according to their website, was the first LEED-certified building at IU Bloomington.

If life were normal, the field lab would be hosting classes, workshops, and field trips for students of all ages. However, due to COVID-19 all operations (and even most research) have stopped.

For Ocheltree, work-life has made minor adjustments but seen no major changes overall. Unlike people, nature cannot be quarantined.