Reality check on the hysteria surrounding key workers

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I know we are going through an unprecedented situation where only some people’s work is needed to be done to keep us going, hence key workers are being praised and thanked - rightly.
However, to think that somehow jobs done by key workers are more valuable than others, is just hysterical and la la land, right? Most are only able to stay at home right now because of those who drive the economy, i.e not key workers. Without the corporate sector, finance, banks, tech and leisure and entertainment bringing billions into the country every year, there would be no key workers, no NHS. And this will be a super controversial view, but how can we compare the value of a super market workers contribution to those that create wealth. My husband is a super market worker and I am a key worker too, I just do not get the irrational hysteria.
Only in rich countries, do people have this privilege of trashing wealth creators because they have a silent minority creating value to keep public services running. Like it or not, warm words or clapping on a Thursday night does not buy ventilators, build hospitals, fund R&D, create tech advancement, pay for teachers, keep food prices low as they are in the western world or fund 80% of wages paid during this crisis.

But everyone going out and doing their job, handling shopping, posting our letters, picking up our rubbish, going in to an office with colleagues is putting their lives at risk. Anyone not being able to self isolate and stay at home is.

Bankers aren't asking to be clapped but it's rough that the people investing your pensions, working hard to do deals to shore up markets and stop the collapse of the banking system are sneered at and told they're aren't needed and aren't real key workers.

Bankers are paid very well for the job they do. They are not risking their lives to pull in a wage barely above the poverty line. They also don't have the best reputation- we have not forgotten the last recession....

Risking your life for loads or not very much is still risking your life, is your life less valuable to those who will grieve because you have more in the bank?

I don't think so, everyone's life is just as valuable and people are risking the very same thing.

It's sad that you think someone's life is less valuable because something that happened 12 years ago which really wasn't the fault of the whole banking sector. There were many things in play which led to the financial crisis.

I don't think anyone's life is less valuable, his job is important. However he is not risking his life with covid 19 positive patients and a lack of protective equipment. Of course his job is important but the discussion was why certain key workers are being applauded. There have been deaths of Nhs staff, bus drivers.

Financial jobs can be more easily done remotely.

I don't want any harmed by this horrible illness.

No ones saying the people who aren’t able to work or are working from home aren’t important.

I don’t want to be praised or clapped for. I’m just grateful that people are being a little bit kinder when two months ago I was thought of as a minimum wage thicko who worked for the Asda.

@Tumbleweed101 put it better than me.

It feels like there is a whole swathe of people who think they are not valued or viewed as important because they have minimum wage jobs when that's just not true, for me anyway, but equally to be told that you and your job isn't important in this crisis because you earn more is ridiculous.

I've never sneered at a supermarket worker, bin man, gardener, cleaner, delivery driver or any other job that isn't paid a great deal but it's often accepted, especially on Mumsnet, that it's ok to sneer at those that are.

DH and I are both key workers. But working from home. We don't think of the praise as for us, because we're just doing our normal jobs remotely. We are not putting ourselves at risk by having to work out of the house. I think the praise is, rightly, aimed at those out there at risk of infection because of their jobs. Nothing wrong with supporting that surely? It doesn't mean other people's jobs or roles are less important. People are just celebrating those out there right now, putting themselves on the line.

@Bloomburger I think you are missing the point.

Bankers are rewarded with high pay for the job they do. Key workers often work for very low wages and little respect from society. I am a frontline NHS worker and 10 years of austerity, pay freezes, 'efficiency savings', pensions cuts and constant bashing in the media leave you feeling like you are not valued by society. We work hard and go over and above our jobs on a daily basis. As NHS staff we are paid more than carers, supermarket staff, cleaners so I can only imagine how they feel.

I'm not asking for praise during this time.

What exactly do you want for your DH?

I work in IT. I earn a lot more than many key workers (even part time I earn twice what a full time shop assistant earns).

If all people who did my job suddenly stopped, the world wouldn’t crash, and no one would die. Just some rich folk wouldn’t get richer and the companies we work for wouldn’t be able to grow. The
Impact wouldn’t be felt for some time

If all nurses stopped working, or carers, or Lorry drivers, the world would be negatively impacted very quickly

Just because people are praising a particular sector or industry doesn’t mean others are unimportant.
Nobody is ‘trashing’ anyone. Why does cheering on NHS automatically mean everyone is pissing all over other unmentioned sectors? Are ‘wealth creators’ so insecure that they need a sticker to prove their worth because the other children got a well done in class?

And this will be a super controversial view, but how can we compare the value of a super market workers contribution to those that create wealth. My husband is a super market worker and I am a key worker too, I just do not get the irrational hysteria.

^

This is what the discussion is about.

I'm not saying those in wealth creation (or just investing your pension so it's worth something when you come to draw it) are worth more than any others key workers but it seems that most people do seem to think that those in financial services or jobs that command a higher wage aren't proper 'key workers' at the moment. Those leaving the house to drive a delivery truck or get a tube into London to sit at a desk are equally exposed and equally valuable.

I'm all for clapping for the NHS, I've worked for the NHS, I don't though think that the nurses/doctors etc are underpaid for their work outside of this crisis and I believe that they should be financially rewarded for their work during this crisis but without those in the financial sector you'd be hard pressed to find the money to do that. (Actually you'd be hard pressed with the state of the economy for the next god knows how many years to find it anyway!).

🥱

What on earth are you banging on about??.

It's the workers in factories actually producing products, working in warehouses picking orders, and so on who create the wealth. Corporations extract value from the labour of the workers but hoard the power and the wealth created.

It's similar to the hysteria surrounding pop stars, footballers etc - the only real difference being that key workers are actually SAVING lives.

Everyone's important - I get that - but at this present time I'd rather have a nurse/doctor save me than an electrician/plumber.

OP, have you ever been spat at whilst at work? Sworn at every single day in work? Considered it a good day when you weren't called the C word? Have you ever been physically threatened with violence? Had a car almost run you over because they don't want to wait behind you? Worked outside for 9 hours in the cold, snow and rain?

DH and I are both public sector workers. Both experienced all of the above and much, much more. Both told that it is 'just part of the job' and that people are allowed to treat us in such a way because 'they pay their taxes'. And we do all of this day in, day out to take home a pittance.

I have respect for anyone out there who is working every day. But there are people out there who have been very snobby for a long time about what people do for a living. They are suddenly realising that the world can turn for a little while without their job, but the world will instantly go to shit if the bins aren't collected or the supermarkets close.

Bankers working in call centres handing mortgage holidays are not highly paid though, not by a long way. I don’t work in Retail, but the bank I work for has seen an increase in the calls it handles each day jump from 5,000 to 25,000. These are people working in the call centre, they are low earners too.

There is a huge difference in pay between bankers staffing call centres and those in the investment bank. In the same way there is a gulf between the salaries nurses earn and consultants working primarily in the private sector.

Interesting a PP says bankers aren't key workers.

You know that bail out package offered to businesses, who facilitates that?

You know the Mortgage Holidays that have been granted who facilitates that?

You know all the food and drink that's imported on bills of exchange, who facilitates that?

The bereavement teams at those banks who will sort out paperwork and provide support to those who have lost loved ones.

The bank staff who three weeks ago took 3,000 calls a day and now are taking 25,000 calls a day.

You may not like the "bankers" but they have a part to play.

I think another thing that has caused this response for 'key workers' and NHS in particular, is that these are people who were already at the brink.

Poor morale, overworked, underpaid, staff vacancies, lack of support from government, and many, many NHS workers were already strongly discussing if not actively looking at other options.

Now add a life-threatening pandemic into that mix, with lack of PPE, and it tips the balance so strongly in favour of just leaving the whole damned thing behind, that the clapping and thanks etc. does a little to appeal to the people who do at least still have some capacity to stick it through.

NHS numbers are already depleting even further through sickness (and sadly ongoing deaths). Stress levels peak even more, and the more people leave, the more this could all feedback into a spiral that quite literally ends in catastrophe.

I think in reality it's not so much a question of appreciation (although that is a lovely sentiment) as shoring up what little morale there is left.

fluffymulletstyle I don't want anything for him. But I think it's unfair when he is leaving the house each day and not being able to self isolate, which is hard for us all as one of my DC is on the highly vulnerable list for him to be told he isn't a real key worker because he is paid well.

I'm not saying he should be applauded, and he'd hate the thought if it, I just want people to stop trashing his contribution to the crisis because his is based around the economical impact.

Dylaninthemovies I'm not sure what part of IT you work in but if the trading systems crashed and there wasn't the IT support to sort it out immediately it would cause a huge problem which would impact the system very quickly. It wouldn't be about making huge companies richer, it would be about investments, pensions etc losing money very quickly.

@Bloomburger I agree. Our IT teams have done a phenomenal job getting most of our trading systems up and running remotely.

@Bloomburger

'I don't though think that the nurses/doctors etc are underpaid for their work outside of this crisis'

I get your point- wealth creation is important. I don't think you get mine.

They are asking student nurses in their 3rd year of study to join the workforce early to help. They will be paid at band 4. That is less than £22k a year to put their lives at risk, newly qualified feeling well out of their depth in the middle of a pandemic. They will have paid 3 years of tuition fees and student loans for the privilege. Some of those student nurses will become sick themselves with covid 19, some may die, many will have ptsd from what they witness.

Yes, your husbands job is important. I'm not disputing this. But understand their are people who won't get to worry about their pension as they won't live to see it.

totally agree shoring up what little morale there is left and encouraging HCPs to go on fighting the good fight.
That and thanking them and lower wage earners like supermarket shelf stackers and bus drivers for putting their lives at risk to put food on our tables every day. I don't think there's hysteria at all, and to be offended that bankers etc are left out of the loop on the gratitude front misses the whole bloody point of the focus of the gratitude frankly.

edwinbear if you could arrange it for DH I'd be very grateful.

Of course it's possible to have an economy without X profession. And we should reorganise our society considering some of those jobs as inessential.

You might as well say environmentalists wouldn't be able to go on protests if those bankers weren't funding their benefits. But of course they wouldn't need to go on protests if the bankers weren't investing in the wrong things in the first place.