'I'm a key worker' is the most overused phrase atm

[Imakeyworker]

Like a badge of honour. I heard one woman say it to 3 different people in a shop yesterday.

Technically I am a key worker.

Should I be letting everyone know about it?

[Calic0]

Lol, I was thinking of starting this very thread the other day when I saw someone managing to crowbar in the fact that their DH was a key worker which had no bearing on the issue at hand.

I am a key worker. My DH is also key worker. Do we get extra points? Maybe a bumper sticker?

[Imakeyworker]

“I’m a key worker, anyone got any idea where I can get some yeast at the moment?”

Just one

THIS is what I'm talking about!
Exactly this!

[PineappleDanish]

DH is a keyworker too. He doesn't work in the NHS, or a supermarket. He is a manager in company which is defined as critical to the national infrastructure like roads, ports, airlines. He's been working in the loft for the last 8 weeks.

However, the "Dad's a key worker and we have the letter to prove it" comes in useful when the kids are being little shits and we're threatening to send them all back to school.

[Cooper88]

I use this phrase all the time........to my husband as a joke to explain anything I say but honey I'm a keyworker I get to do anything. (obviously I know that's not true and I don't break lockdown etc, literally go to work, come home and go out once a week to do the food shop). It's used as a piss take in our house, coz so many people seen to be making the biggest deal about key workers.

[Imakeyworker]

He is a manager in company which is defined as critical to the national infrastructure like roads, ports, airlines. He's been working in the loft for the last 8 weeks.

😂 Haha!!!

[Imakeyworker]

Cooper
You're forgiven! Crack on and put your feet up! 😂😂😂

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

My county council sent me a certificate to prove my key worker status.
It made me laugh. It's only so if we are pulled over driving to work we still allowed get there. Highly unlikely to ever happen.

[Reallybadidea]

It's only marginally more annoying than my colleagues constantly posting selfies of themselves in full PPE at work on Facebook. We have always needed to wear full PPE on a regular basis, but now it gets you lots of likes and and heart emojis

[Waffles80]

Was trying to sell my bike on Facebook marketplace. One woman who enquired was shaping up to be difficult. Wanted to try it out. Fair enough. Said I’d would be leaving it at end of drive and strictly sticking to social distancing; if the bike wasn’t suitable she could wheel it into our garage and I’d not touch it for a suitable time. She was a bit eye rolly about this.

I asked how she was getting it back,she kept asking me about helping her get it into her car. I’d said there was NO way it would fit in a car and NO way I would be able to help.

She then came up with some story about how she was going to be dropped off then cycle the 8 miles home on the bike she’d never ridden before. Then was banging on about us showing her how to attach the children’s bike seat.

In the end I said sorry, I was selling it to someone who lived nearer and would clearly be able to get it home without me having to make physical contact. She went bananas.

Went on and on and on about how she was A KEY WORKER and I was DEPRIVING HER OF A BIKE TO USE WITH HER KIDS.

Her Facebook profile told me she wasn’t a key worker!!

Both DH and I are teachers.

Sold the bike to an actual key worker, and gave her the kids bike seat for free.

[JudyCoolibar]

I only realised relatively recently that I'm a key worker. It never once occurred to me that i was, and I still don't really understand the logic of it.

[Imakeyworker]

DrMadeline

A CERTIFICATE?!
You just had to go one better didn't you?! 😂

[KillerofMen]

The main one that annoys me is pitting networkers against "bankers". Bankers are key workers under the gov definition. When people are demanding payrises for hero keyworkers they don't mean my husband, as heroic as his spreadsheets are...

That's a very pedantic thing to complain about it and I do agree with better pay for public services.

[mooching]

We didn't get any letters or certificates (I am a teacher and I would've loved a certificate!)

[UnaCorda]

There are always people who use (usually mundane) facts about themselves as a badge of honour. It's often "As a mother..." and currently it's "As a key worker..." I have a friend with a chronic illness who can't manage a single interaction without mentioning it. I realise it's not very charitable of me to say so, but I think it tends to be people with small lives and low self esteem who do this.

[BeforeIPutOnMyMakeup]

I'm not a key worker.

If I was in the role I was doing 3 years ago I would be. So glad I'm not as they wouldn't let me WFH as fear over data I had no access to. Funnily in the jobs I've had access to confidential data I can WFH....

[Hermanfromguesswho]

The whole ‘I’m a key worker. Does anyone know where I can get yeast?’ Is clearly to pre empt all the ‘that’s not essential, why are you shopping around’ type comments surely? It’s to indicate that they are out and about anyway for work...

[BananaPop2020]

As a previous poster said, those Facebook ‘frame’ things are SO annoying and ‘look at me’. Totally unnecessary. My husband and I are both public sector frontline keyworkers and there is no way we would use them. There is a real air of moral superiority about them.

[BeforeIPutOnMyMakeup]

@UnaCorda as someone with a chronic illness I think you are being fair.

[Makinglists]

I am a key worker but rather embarrassed to admit it. I work in local gov providing a statutory function but it's not frontline and I can do it from home. There is the potential I could be redeployed temporarily in a local emergency situation but that's unlikely as I'm part time and have a primary age child. I don't really tell anyone I'm a 'key worker'

[Weallhavevalidopinions]

Millions of us are. Most of us don't say it though.

Some people use it as an excuse/badge of honour etc.

The funniest one that still stays with me is the one about the really angry but also very silly lady that want to call some man a 'c*' because her childish husband was jumping from behind bushes at her 2 children late at night near a blokes house and he came out and basically told them to go away.... she was mumsnet classic weird - funny thread though because she just couldn't see how unreasonable she was at all

[Imakeyworker]

Waffle
Some people are definitely using it to push forward.

A person on a 'giving' site here advertised some free toys.it went something like this...

1st reply:
'Yes please, PMed you, when can I collect? Thank you'

2nd reply:
'In line please if they don't go.'

3rd reply (some time later):
'I'm a key worker and my kids would love these, it would make a huge difference to them atm'

Talk about guilt trip...

[LemmysAceCard]

A friend of DP’s is a key worker but she seems to confuse key worker with front line NHS nurse working on a Covid ward. Bangs on about what a hero she is, that hideous meme where all the marvel superheroes are bowing down to people in scrubs, because that is what she is talking about.

She works in the office at a rehabilitation centre which has no cases of Covid 19, or any suspected cases. And honestly if there was any whiff of Covid 19 there she would be off on the sick so fast. No way would she put herself on the front line.

She is raising money for the staff now as they are all heroes.

[Weallhavevalidopinions]

Oops stupidly click enter on my post above...

Basically her husband was a 'keyworker' so if he wanted to act like a total twat and mess around in bushes late at night they he should because he was a 'keyworker you know'

so funny

[Imakeyworker]

Unacorda

Very true!!

[AlexisCarringtonColbyDexter]

I used to think it was about attention seeking (I'm a key worker too) but having seen the vile threads on MN about "should i report my neighbour who goes to work every day, even though i have no idea what their job is and i'm a meddling curtain twitcher?" I totally get why people put a key worker highlight on their FB page. Its to stop FB bullying and passive aggressive notes being put on their cars harassing them about why they are going out.