NHS workers and discounts/perks/free stuff

[Lemonblast]

Have seen mentioned on a number of MN threads that healthcare workers shouldn’t be getting discounts/takeaways/perks of the job because at least they still HAVE a job.
And it’s boiling my piss.

Whilst there are many, many individual circumstances and situations, please can people remember that many healthcare workers also have husbands/wives/partners who may be furloughed or have list their jobs? Loss of overtime pay and mileage has affected many families INCLUDING those of nurses abd carers. Many healthcare workers may have lost or seen reductions in child support payments.

If people want to continue arguing that healthcare workers don’t deserve any perks, they may wish to target the schemes ( Blue Light etc) which have been operating them for years.

But most importantly please stop asserting that healthcare workers and their families AREN’T taking a financial hit.

Agreed

I'm a nurse and I'm ok because DH's private sector wage is better than mine. But I know lots of healthcare workers who have struggled for years on a shitty wage, and still do heaps of unpaid overtime.

If the HC worker is the biggest (or only) earner in the family it's tight. HCAs are particularly poorly paid, especially in London. All the HCAs I know who work in my zone 2 hospital commute for 60-90mins twice a day to get to a 21k job. It's not a living wage in London when supporting a family.

The benefits of annual leave, job security and a decent pension don't make it necessarily easy to live on a low wage for decades.

Yes they do have jobs. I work in health care and speaking to a lot of colleagues, most have partners and adult children who have lost jobs or are now on furlong so are now down to one wage. These perks are thank you for the work that the health care works are doing at this difficult time. The NHS has a recruitment issues at the best of time let a lone in a pandemic. Some of the perks is about staff retention and attracting new staff at this time.

Please also remember that although schools are open for key workers, wrap around care isn't, or it's not in my area anyway. I have a lot of friends who are having to work extra days and at weekends because they can no longer work a full shift in the daytime. The knock on effect travel expenses, extra fuel etc as well as not being available on days previously is pretty major.

Everyone is impacted by this, no one should assume that some people are not.

Doesn't bother me if nhs workers get perks, discount or anything else. I couldn't do their job at the best of times and defiantly not now. These small things might make a little difference to a nurse after a hellish day of risking their health and their family in a hospital where so many people are dying alone

Exactly Whatnow.