Essential workers

The Quarantine Zone
1

There has been a lot of attention and love given to health care workers. And there totally should be! They are on the front lines of this and we are all dependent of their hard work and sacrifice.

There are secondary amounts of attention given to the more obvious essential workers such as grocery store employees, truck drivers and other first-responders such as police officers. These people are absolutely super important to making this lock-down work.

But there are a whole lot of essential workers who are getting pretty much no recognition or appreciation, and they should be! My son works for the local electric company, just think what would happen if the electric grid went down! My daughter works at a hardware store, so people who have a broken refrigerator or smashed window can get them repaired. I work with a bunch of CPS workers who are trying to make sure children stay safe even when they are invisible in the community. Waste water workers, public defenders, psychologists, hospital janitors… all of these and so many more are essential to keeping things going!

Post your story if you are an under-recognized essential worker!

2

I’m a teacher at a boarding school.

My last day of class was March 18. Up until this week I had absolutely no idea how any of my students were doing. I finally recieved the okay to start calling and texting them at the numbers we had on file. I got ahold of exactly one student. Out of 19 on my roster.

My stated purpose in calling them was to talk to them about the plans to go to online learning until campus opens up, maybe in July. Maybe later. The real reason I wanted to get ahold of them was to make sure they’re okay. Many didn’t have homes to return to and many of those that did didn’t have stable homes. So my job, on top of the monumental undertaking of putting our entire 2-year curriculum online, is to keep those kids’ spirits up and try to keep them motivated about returning to school next month.

I finally got the ok to use Facebook to reach out to them, which was much more productive – go figure! One student who nobody was able to get ahold of had been talking about suicidal ideation the day before she left. I’ve been worried sick about her but was able to get ahold of her today, much to my relief.

Right now me and a couple of coworkers may be the only people in these kids’ lives that actually care about them. I have no idea if my job is “essential,” but to me it is. Not for me, but for them.

3

There are migrant produce pickers, living in barracks, earning shockingly little, thousands of miles away from families, no path to citizenship.
Declared essential, now barely allowed off the farms. Without them, there wouldn’t be fresh produce in your stores, farms would be failing in huge numbers.

I don’t hear anyone clapping, serenading, or banging pots for them! No concerts or hero worshipping! I think it’s an appalling disgrace.

And those are the ones that are already here. Spring is in the air, without the insurge of thousands more? Farms will fail. Farmers will be doing what you can already see happening, plowing the crops under, pouring the milk away. In countries where food banks are overwhelmed and the poor will soon be going hungry!

Maybe the west is about to get a very harsh lesson in reality? Something has to change, for sure.

These people are not heroes! They are doing heroic things, it’s true. But they are being unwilling martyrs to capitalism. Minimum wage workers, stocking shelves, cashiers, truck loaders, deliver men, PSWs, fast food workers. Heroes are Drs, nurses, cops, emts, etc. They CHOOSE to run into burning buildings etc. And they are paid and respected commiserate with that sacrifice.

These workers have NO choice. They are so poorly paid, their jobs so insecure, and live one pay period from being unable to eat! They have no choice but to put themselves and their families at risk!

They’re NOT heroes! Calling them that is to make US feel better about exploiting their labour so cravenly.

4

Call we call them “draftees”?

(Disclaimer: I work in a grocery store as a cashier so I suspect I could be grouped with them)

5

I’m still working because we make chips that go inside various medical equipment.

I don’t “feel” essential because nothing has changed. The plus side is I work in the safest environment possible during a pandemic.

6

The guys driving down our rough dirt mountain track to pick up trash and deliver propane and packages are pretty damn essential for us. Folks keeping fuel stations and utilities operating are essential. When unemployment hits 20%, that means 80% are still working, and likely only a fraction of those work from home. Most Americans are essential for themselves and others. An administration that sees us as expendable is [expletive deleted].

7

I am essential. I work for a state legal entity that deals with child abuse law cases. The number of called in abuse reports have gone way down, probably because the abuse is happening behind closed doors and the kids are not ‘visible in the community.’ Most of our trials have been postponed, but I expect this summer to be VERY busy with trials.

8

Lancia, the state of Ohio has declared that teachers are in fact essential, but the schools are all closed anyway. And Governor DeWine has declared that distance learning has been so successful that no school in the state will make up for lost time, because no time at all has been lost. Never mind the kids who don’t even have devices capable of accessing the distance-learning materials. The excuse for them used to be “Well, they can just go to the library”, except the libraries are all closed, too. Never mind the schools who followed DeWine’s advice when he first ordered the schools closed, and treated it as an “extended spring break”. Never mind all of the things that can’t be taught via distance learning.

9

I have not lost an hour of work. My planned layoff next week for a month has been scratched due to sales increases. I fix machines that make food – cheese based appetizers specifically. My son has not missed an hour either. His plant makes flavored sausages for national retail markets. They are a place that is now a hotspot. He was tested a 2nd time yesterday. He gets his results tomorrow. My wife gets a $2/hr hazard pay thank you for working at assisted living. The main change to our routine is we can’t do our Sat date night . Home delivery is not an option and when we do take out, by the time we get home the food is cold. An “advantage” of rural life.

10

Bank call center worker here. Still having to go in, call volume is at least 10x normal (my call center handles prepaid debit cards that are, among other things, used to pay government benefits such as unemployment). No pay bump from minimum wage, which means that I and my “essential” colleagues have lower income working full-time than people on UI who are getting that weekly bonus that’s more than my state’s normal weekly maximum UI benefit. Just a bit demoralizing there, being “essential” and making less than the “unessentials” who get to chill at home.

11

I know a teacher that works with learning disabled kids. Since her internet is so slow (satellite dish, just like me, no other options. Video chat is problematic at best) she contacted the owner of a vacation rental in town that has good internet.

Since the B&B is obviously empty, she has contracted with them to just go there for a few hours a day, and use their better internet connection so she can continue to teach, or at least keep in contact with these kids.

A clever win/win solution.

12

I’m a night auditor. We’re still open and checking people in and out. People driving back home. A person who was there for their grandparent in hospice. People who have checked in for the night to get work done.

13

I agree with this. I work in a grocery store 40+ hours a week. I am not a hero and I don’t want to be called one. What I would like from people is that they shop only when necessary, bring only one shopper to the store (not the whole family), practice social distancing, wear a mask, exercise patience, and treat me and my coworkers with respect. We will do our best to get you food safely and with courtesy.

I would also be great if folks would realize that these “heroes” are mostly just decent people doing their jobs and who deserve basic rights like fair wages and health care in good times as well as bad.

.

14

I work for a non-profit, we help people on public aid find jobs. My state mandates, we are open 7 days a week. During normal times, on Sat and Sun we man a phone line. So this is what we do now, only a phone line.

I volunteered to work five days, since I only live ten blocks from the office and can walk it.

Interestingly enough, I haven’t had one call regarding unemployment, since mid-March. (Normally on Sat and Sun we only get one or two calls a day re: employment). All calls have been for information we don’t handle, so we refer them to other social service agencies that can help.

About 2/3 of the people are directed to us, through food stamps and other state run programs, which are besieged now, so the lack of people calling wasn’t unexpected, but it shows, people just yet aren’t worried about long term unemployment.

And yes, I do have a few places that are still hiring.

15

I consider the designations “essential” and “heroes” ridiculously overbroad.

My wife and I continue in our occupations unabated, providing far lower quality service via technology, but pretending it is sufficient/equivalent. Yay us! :rolleyes: