In the wake of the layoffs that affected about 177 civil service employees on Eastern’s campus, the ones who were not laid off are still feeling the effects of these staffing cuts.

Many have had to work longer hours, take work home, and know the stress of taking on the duties and responsibilities for multiple positions, with different tasks for each of them.

According to an article in The Daily Eastern News, some employees have foregone their lunch hours, come in early, stayed late and more to keep up with the new influx of work they have.

It is nice to see that others have offered to pitch in and help, as many have done during this incredibly stressful time.

However, as people are being stretched thin, there will be things that are just not able to get done, no matter how much everyone tries.

People were laid off who had a special set of skills, who were perhaps the only ones who knew how to do certain jobs in each office.

Though many will try to fill this void, it will still be hard and will take time and patience to recover from losing such valuable employees. All of this does not even include the emotional toll losing friends and seeing people without a job has had on the campus community.

As Jean Toothman, office administrator for the English department, said in The News, losing their office manager was like losing a family member.

“The two of us together were unstoppable. What one of us couldn’t do, the other one could,” Toothman said.

Throughout the years, co-workers in each department spent countless hours with each other, getting to know each other’s lives in and out in many cases.

Not being able to see someone every day at work after seeing them at the same desk for years has to be hard.

Another thing to keep in mind is that many who have taken on new responsibilities are not getting paid more for their extra work. In fact, in the case of one nursing professor quoted in The News, she is getting paid less because faculty members are taking a pay deferral.

It is important to note that even with all this going on, the employees are still taking everything on and making sure the university operates as usual.

Nursing professor Sue Gosse said while they are muddling through, it is important that the quality of the programs does not get worse.

Even with all the hard work people are putting in, it is still a challenge to keep these programs up and keep the same quality of services that there was before.

This is a challenge that will only continue, or even get worse, as the state continues to toil without a budget.

There is no bones about it-people are suffering without an appropriation.

The daily editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Daily Eastern News