Please can we now ban the phrase -'key worker'

[Hoppybunny]

Way back in March it was relevant and distinguishing, but now the economy is creeping back to life why does every other post on mumsnet need to mention that they are a key worker! Surely every worker needs childcare provisions/access to shops etc and this badge of honour needs to end?

@FreeFromDinoMeat

Yes of course.

Seems so unfair to me that a keyworker, working from home, is entitled to a school place for their children. Whereas a non key worker but still working, is not.

To be honest, the majority of my sympathy is reserved for those who have still been having to work but don't have the 'keyworker' badge and therefore no childcare. Of which there are numerous.

Before my husband was furloughed his job saw him being classed as a keyworker. Go figure.

I am a key worker and have called myself a keyworker.

I think it is a mark of respect for those on the front line, not my job by the way as I am far from the front line but considered essential, given what we have just faced and the endurance of those dealing with covid directly, I have no problem with it continuing actually.

**never called

I would like to say YABU but YANBU. There is a mum on my school WhatsApp group who starts every single sentence with ‘as a keyworker’. Go away Liz you work in IT!
(Which is very important sorry thank you Liz and all the key workers but also argh!)

• It's not a badge of honour.

It's stressful and exhausting ... and despite working all through the Furlough Summer, with no holidays, many of us are facing redundancy anyway.*

I feel stressed and exhausted in a public sector role when I’m not a key worker and so haven’t been able to access childcare for my 15 month old, but neither have I been able to use furlough.

Lockdown is stressful and exhausting for many of us.

'm a keyworker, but one that has been
able to work from home whilst homeschooling & in shielding group. I am frontline - emptying hospitals, critical response planning, keeping people safe in the community. I don't use it as a badge of honour but I could, whilst a proportion of peoples lives slowed (& they had their own worries) , my duties went crazy. I've worked late into the evenings, bank holidays (I didn't get an Easter) , extra hours on my days off mostly unpaid, in our team to damn well keep people alive and our NHS working as well as we did. My role is crucial as were the roles of my huge range of colleagues. Business as usual and then double it, for us.

Except some of us weren't at frontline risk of catching COVID19. That's why I don't mention it. There's a set of frontline C19 exposed keyworkers I think should be cheered. Those who kept our shops open so we could eat, our Nurses and carers who keep people in care homes, supported housing, and hospitals running and people alive In the community, our transport and supplies running, our fires out, our streets safe, they are the Keyworkers that we celebrated publicly and rightly so.

But please don't be under any illusions that everyone else in keyworker roles had it relaxed and easy if not working in a hospital, many of us were frantically working harder all the hours. I was and will say it as it is. No posts on fb , no self congratulation, I didn't stop, our senior management repeatedly thanked us for our fight in the battle. I'm exhausted and happily so. You might be tired of the phrase keyworker but it describes those that couldn't stop when the rest of the nation did.

I think it is a mark of respect for those on the front line

Don't be daft...I know people working from home in IT or banking who are key workers apparently.

Also seen essential worker badges for those with caring responsibilities. Sorry but everyone needs to eat and many of us also have dependants.

Seems to be a fight for relevance in Covid!!

The phrase existed before the crisis, in terms of Key Worker Housing and so on, and I think it needs to remain, sorry.

It gives people a god complex.

@pigeon999

I think it is a mark of respect for those on the front line

What a ridiculous statement.

It’s the special treatment for key workers that gets me. Not being able to get to the front of the queue in shops or discounts etc, that’s fine. But for example my sister is an optician and was told they can fix glasses for key workers. Wtf is that all about. Is no one else allowed to be able to see?

I find the term quite meaningless. I mean someone who works behind the till in WH Smith is a “key worker” but hardly in the same vein as a nurse on a covid ward or someone who works on the production line in a food factory.

I understood the term re people who’s kids got to go to school was “critical worker” anyway

I don't mind the term key worker so much. The problem with it is that so many people are now using it when they aren't key workers.
I find "front line" very irritating though. I don't like any kind of war language. I think that needs to stop.
I've seen friends on my facebook page claiming to be key workers when I know they aren't and people saying they are working at the COVID-19 front line when they aren't. And yes, I do know that for a fact. In my opinion, if the term "front line" really has to be used then it should apply only to those actually treating COVID-19 patients and other staff on those wards who would come into contact with them.

I don't even know what counts as a key worker but there's a lot of people doing their best to do their jobs in challenging and less than ideal conditions and seemingly falling under the radar while a small sector of workers seem to be getting a lot of praise and offers of discounts, special shopping hours etc.

Oh that's just another of those wartime analogies that this government keep wheeling out for their base voters.

Yes, they're probably disappointed they couldn't use the Primark poster favourite, "Keep Calm and Carry On". It was probably coming, until they realized how many of us it was killing.

I like it. Remember just a few weeks ago that many of these "key workers" were labelled low skilled workers by Priti Patel? When actually, it's these very people that kept us going over the past three months.

My niece is a care worker in a home. Her cousins - architects, civil servants, dentist, designer, advertising, insurance sales - all looked down on her choice of career. One of the best things to come out of this crisis is the recognition that care workers are important.

for all key workers.

Yep. Minds me up too and I've apparently been a key worker throughout but actually just doing my job. I really feel for all the furloughed and redundant people. We just need to get going again now. Save what's left.

One of the best things to come out of this crisis is the recognition that care workers are important.

I agree, but it won’t last.

Well said Redintheface and BridgetReilly

It's sad people are tiring of the word keyworker. It is a term used prior to coronavirus and really pared down to what roles were essential to society that couldn't stop (not to businesses)

If it reassures PPs many keyworkers I know, myself included, who could WFH, did so and did not use up spaces at school that we could have used. We've been in the same boat as some non keyworkers battling through it, multi tasking. Because we did not want to ad to strain of other key workers or groups that needed school places. Time for schools to have some type of list of who needs a school place for their DCs' sake broadened. We have school spaces available in nearly all our local schools but little school work above that which can be done from online work set, going on. Time for schools to get properly virtual whether DCs are in the classroom or at home. Let's have the same access to some taught lessons.

I didn't jump any queues and ordered my shopping online through shielding criteria. I don't know any people that worked the system and am sad to hear some did, that others felt didn't need it.

That doesn't mean keyworker phrase is redundant though.

Totally agree. I'm a key worker but definitely not a key worker. Every single person in my company is apparently. All it's meant is that I was able to travel to the seaside, work there and stay over

I agree that not all key workers are quite the same but you can't really compare the roles of people like paramedics, police, front line NHS, prison staff, home carers etc to coffee shop workers, gardeners, chip shop workers etc can you.

One set are crucial to avoid the breakdown of society as we usually know it. The other is nice to have.

My DH is a key worker. He has and is still working solidly in a pretty crucial role. The pandemic has taken quite a toll on him. I'm proud of him (and worried about him) and I'm not going to water down the importance of his work.

But I do think it is nice to demonstrate we see the importance of jobs that have previously been low status but are vital for society

This is how I still find it a useful concept. It reminds me that many people who may often be paid less than me are doing work that is much more important, and I hope we can hold this in mind in future decision-making.

I sonny have a problem with the term being used for proper frontline staff. What I do have an issue with, is the number of people who consider themselves key workers but whose jobs don’t seem very different from those not labelled as such. Our village school hasn’t been open to addition Reception, Year one and year 6 children due to the large number of key worker children requiring spaces. While some of these are essential key worker’s children, other’s include the child of a local company’s accountancy worker, the child of a private fund manager and several children whose parents work for big finance companies in the city (we live in a commuter village). These are no more key workers than all the people who work in HR etc, some of whose are managing the well-being if staff etc, and not the wealth of the rich!