I don't want to clap

[OrlandoAlice]

I do support the NHS, I'm massively grateful for everything NHS workers are doing at the moment and to everyone who still has to get up and go out to work and keep things going during this crisis. However the clapping just seems a bit pointless to me. As a one off it was fine but to make it a weekly thing feels forced and I resent feeling emotionally blackmailed into doing something so redundant. The Doctors and Nurses I know personally find it cringy and would rather people follow the advice, donate, or volunteer.

It was nice as a one off but after that shows not one hot of anything.
Anyways,most of us will either still be at work or trying to rest in-between shifts.
If you really want to help then stay at home,please.The number of infected is rising rapidly so if you don't want to be one of them ,stay in.

Of course you don't have to do it.

I think its nice personally. Not just because it is for the NHS, but for some people in isolation its probably the only time they get to see people and feel part of something all week. It brings a sense of community spirit.

We are all going through a really tough time and for some people this may just brighten up their day for 5 minutes.

Give blood instead. They need blood donors.

Oh it made me cringe
A chance for celebs to instagram pics

I send my dear friends (two doctors and one nurse) regular messages thanking them and sending my love; and I thanked the receptionist at my GP when i arranges an appointment; and thanked my GP

For me - I much prefer personal thanks and if I didn’t have this opportunity - then I still wouldn’t stand on my door step and clap.

Holyhead - i agree people should keep themselves fit but people hate joggers round where I live at the moment. You can't win

* It's interesting how many NHS workers on this thread have stated they find the noise stressful, especially if they are trying to sleep before a shift.*

They won’t be listened to unfortunately

Doctor here - totally agree with you. I don’t mind if people want to do it be don’t feel obliged. Many of us are at work at 8pm anyway. My neighbour clapped effusively last time but also plays loud music at night and keeps me up when they know what my job is, and I have explained and asked them not to. Makes their clapping feel fairly disingenuous when it would be more useful to let me work having slept properly.

This.

I see so many stories about how people shout at people in the GP surgery, in A&E, bitch mightily about the NHS, and even people who berate NHS workers for getting priority in shops when they get off their shifts ... but I bet they're all clapping right now. Hypocrites, the lot of them.

Also work for the NHS and find it cringy. I hated it last week and not looking forward to it this week.

Agree re the sleep, my DH is a (not NHS) keyworker currently working unsociable shifts and the neighbours keep him awake enough without fucking banging pots and clapping

If people could be polite to everyone having to go to work and cut them some slack for reduced services etc instead of abusing the staff who have no input into decisions like that, it would also be better than clapping.

My DH is a dr and he said it was nice but he would rather people lobbied the government to make sure everyone working in hospitals has adequate ppe as despite what the government is telling us it really isn't the case! Medics are dying as a result of this and with two siblings working for the NHS this scares the shit out of me.

Oh, and don't even get me started on all the people who continually vote for the Tory party who has deliberately gutted the NHS over the last 10 years and tried to force all those 'foreigners' out of the country even though they know they are essential to the NHS running! they voted for this ... and now they clap.

It's nice last week

And at the end of the virus it would be nice

It shows that they plus other essential workers are appreciated for there time. At such a awful point in life.

i wonder how many of the people out clapping voted the tories in once again. personally i'll keep voting for parties that want to prioritise the NHS and will most probably give the clapping a miss.

I was very moved last week but agree it has strayed into virtue signalling.

My daughter is a nurse and she won't be clapping and nor will anyone in this family! She thinks it is cringeworthy and I will, no doubt, be boil washing her nursing tunics!

Once was ok, nice thought ..but no more it's bit sad imo

I agree OP. I am not clapping. If we were really caring about the NHS and NHS staff we would have been pressurising governments for the last 20 years to sort out funding so that NHS staff are not working in buildings not fit for purpose , with outdated and inadequate resources, having to fund their own training, being paid a pittance and unable to offer the level of care that other European countries (eg Germany) take for granted. As grateful as I am for the excellent overseas staff in the NHS we should not be running our system by depleting other countries of their trained health workers, the NHS is not a supermarket or factory running on Just in time logistic precepts, we have had a hand to mouth NHS for too long and now the cracks are really starting to show.

So I won't be clapping, but am prepared to pay a bit more on my income tax ,or top up my contribution through an insurance scheme, if it was going towards the NHS and not some bloody vanity project like HS2.

I'm in the Nhs and I think it's cringey to do it every week. It was a wonderful gesture but move on.

It's herd solidarity.

I'll be clapping and it's not virtue signalling, I am genuinely appreciative. I am also signed up to volunteer for the NHS, and plan to give blood.

HTH

My poor cousin is a nurse and had Only been asleep for an hour when the clapping started last week, her neighbours also cheered, were banging pot kids together and set off fireworks.
They then stood around laughing and chatting to each other.
She lay in bed sobbing as she just needed some sleep

The real purpose is that it makes people who are wholly out of control, feel like they have some use.

So while I agree it’s pointless for the NHS/frontline workers, it serves a purpose for many. And it gives them hope. Some people need that, some people don’t. Just like some people find comfort in religion and some people don’t. So let it be.

To me it's ironic and not in a good way that a lot of these people who are out clapping.... are likely the same people that stripped the shops bare in the last few weeks in a me me me attitude

I agree, it's strayed into cringey, virtue signalling now and is just too try hard to be doing it every week... although I'm sure the fuckwit opposite me will have their shitty fireworks out again this week, and every week after because any excuse and they are letting them off for hours on end. I'm sure any shift working NHS (or other key workers) are equally unimpressed.

I'm bemused as to how what was 'stand at your door/window and clap' turned into 'do everything in your power to out-do everyone else and make sure you video it for social media'

I'm a nurse, and the clapping thing makes me cringe so much. As it does most of my nursing friends.