'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?

Lemonblast

"Tabbymumz you’re the one who jumped on her post and picked it apart sentence by sentence"
Your point is?

"Again, I ask you the question... If I'm sleeping and shopping on my days off, while my DH is in work, who is supervising my 2 year old? My 7 year old?"

Take them with you, like single parents have to. I believe I already said that.

My point is that you’re a nark with too much time on your hands and a chip on your shoulder

At 8pm before you tear that apart too.

"You are probably out on your doorstep clapping at 8am. You are a hypocrite."
You have no idea. You do not know what I am doing, so you cant call me a hypocrite. You could say "if you are out clapping....

@tabbymumz and I believed I explained that I wasn't willing to do that. My 7 year old has chronic lung disease. He is already at risk due to DH and I working. I am not willing to expose him any more than I have to.

You are a deeply unpleasant person with no compassion or empathy for other people. I feel sorry for you.

10storey ignore it. Not worth your energy. Keep your chin up and hopefully we’ll start to see a semblance of normal life soon. Thank you for all that you and your DH are doing

@10storeylovesong - I defended you. I dont think you should take your kids shopping but I do think you and your dh should be using you badges. You are clearly in need - so use it. The people who have a choice are the ones that shouldn't. Like me and my colleagues- we do not need it.

Agree OP.

I did snort and eye roll recently when a parent on a group chat for a hobby said their DC would participate in an activity later as both parents were “working on the front line” don’t ya know

Thank you @lemonblast. I genuinely can't understand what people get out of being so unpleasant. I have spent the whole weekend trying to drag myself out of a funk that I can't seem to get out of. I do my best to help other people and am working so so hard, as is my DH.

After the whole Flack thing, the Internet was full of #bekind, but no one is. No one is willing to look at the lives of others and see how just a word of kindness, and if that's too hard for some, to just not be unkind, can be the difference. I feel on the knife edge. I was driving home from another horrendous shift at work on Thursday thinking I could just swerve my car into oncoming traffic.

Lemonblast

"My point is that you’re a nark with too much time on your hands and a chip on your shoulder"

Wow, that's quite a step. I'd wonder why you think that, and why you think I have a chip on my shoulder? Or are you just a bit of a keyboard warrior?

The poster said she'd had to eat stale bread as hadnt been able to get food. She then said she'd had 3 days off with her children.... so I questioned why couldnt she do shopping then. Her answer was that she didnt want to drag 2 children round a shop?!

"You are a deeply unpleasant person with no compassion or empathy for other people. I feel sorry for you."

Actually, I think it's the other way round. You have done an awful lot of drip feeding here. All I did was ask questions about your post that didnt add up at all.

@tabbymumz I've explained why I don't want to put my at risk child at even more risk that he already is.

10storey stay strong. There are many, many health and emergency service workers who are really feeling the strain at the minute. But we’ll get through it. No matter how shit it gets. We’re trained for it and we’re making a difference. Don’t let some random crap on an internet forum get to you. Do you have any help/support at work from an offloading angle?

@lemonblast no, I'm a supervisor, so I spend a lot of my time listening and empathising to the problems of my staff, and putting steps in place to help them. I've asked for help, mainly around flexibility of shifts, and been told to get on with it.

10storey that’s tough.
We have been lucky enough to have a helpline set up and staffed by trust colleagues in the psychology dept. Also quite a few local voluntary groups have been doing online support/Zoom sessions for healthcare staff ( am almost too scared to say the words frontline/key workers )
If you have the tome or the energy I really think you should start asking your seniors for more support. They have a duty of care to ALL staff.

10storeylovesong

"@tabbymumzI've explained why I don't want to put my at risk child at even more risk that he already is."
You have now, yes...initially you just said you didnt want to drag them round the shops...the dripped came later.

Dripfeed

I might have made some stickers!!!!!

Not really!

@tabbymumz I didn't realise I had to justify my reasoning to you. The funny thing is that a lot of people have reasons for doing, or not doing things, that they may not want to explain to people for fear of people being unpleasant or sneery. Maybe we should treat them with empathy and compassion regardless?!

10storey, please ignore. Sounds like you are having a horrific time. Do whatever you need to do for your family, including jumping queues. I hope things get a bit easier for you soon.

There are so many interpretations of "key " workers! Apparently all the supermarket staff are ,so according to DH are half of Commuincation workers WTF? I tend to think of medical staff on a Covid ward personally!

"10storeylovesong

@tabbymumzI didn't realise I had to justify my reasoning to you. The funny thing is that a lot of people have reasons for doing, or not doing things, that they may not want to explain to people for fear of people being unpleasant or sneery. Maybe we should treat them with empathy and compassion regardless?!"

All I did was ask questions. If you come on aibu with a story that, I'm sorry, to me, didnt add up, you are going to get people who ask questions. Which is what I did. Politely. I asked you why you didnt make some use of the school places. I'm still sure why you dont, but that's your business. I asked you why you didnt shop in the 3 days you had off, and why you are eating stale bread. I didnt call you names (like you did me) and I didnt drip feed a story (like you did), and I havent called you unpleasant (like you did me). I would ask please that you are polite and nice, like I was to you.

Communications workers are pretty critical in almost all situations.
If telecoms go down, emergency services are screwed, bank transactions go to pot, life safety systems can fail.

Unless you mean the PR type communications. In which case fuck 'em.

@tabbymumz you didn't actually ask me about the school places. If you had done, I would have told you that my youngest son's nursery is completely closed, so we had no childcare for him. We debated about sending our eldest, but again, didn't want to put him at further risk if we didn't absolutely have to and it didn't really make much difference as one of us has to be home for the youngest anyway.

You don't seem to get my point. I will try to make it clearer. I'm not sure what makes you feel you have to listen to the account of someone who is openly struggling and pick holes in it, but empathy and compassion are available to all of us. You could have asked those questions in a much less accusatory manner. I would happily have answered you. Have a read of the Betari Box theory.

If I told you all the aspects of my life that are difficult right now, and that affect my decision making process, it would have been a deeply personal post and very long.