Of your not a key worker, has it made you feel like your job is a bit worthless ?

[Lardlizard]

I’m not slating anyone I do charity work, but all this upheaval really makes you Evaluate things

My dog what do you do for a job ?

All jobs have a value, even if it’s just paying taxes.

I guess what’s important is whether or not you find the job has value. This will change person to person. I am in the process of changing career because the job I previously had, although highly paid held little value to me personally.

I work on projects that can be delivered by me WFH. I did used to be in an office 2/3 days a week with some travel, but that has all stopped because if COVID.

I genuinely feel invisible. People don’t even think that there’s anyone who isn’t a key worker but has continued working just as usual.

I have family members who do voluntary work which encompasses commenting and reviewing clinical papers that include rapid reviews for COVID-19 related topics.

They're not key workers, they're not paid - they're doing important work.

“All jobs have a value, even if it’s just paying taxes.“

Not if it’s voluntary charity work !
Although the people that the charity is there to help, do get the help they need

I have been involved in scientific publications and the genomic data associated with coronavirus, so while I'm not a key worker I know my job is not worthless. It never has been, it's just usually way upstream of what makes the news.

My dog, I hear what your saying

Complete opposite. I am front line NHS staff and would love to work in private sector in a job where I am valued and not overworked.

Everyone was very complimentary of 'NHS Heros' when things were at their worst but the contempt I've read on here towards staff who are apparently doing nothing/working less during COVID/just lapping up the discounts/jumping queues/do not deserve anything because they were not on an assigned COVID ward (despite most being exposed to COVID regardless)/don't deserve a break/shouldn't be allowed abroad because of their responsibilities makes me feel awful. There is already plenty of it on this thread. Some will always take advantage but the majority have worked damn hard

I would much rather work in private sector with management who appreciate how hard I work and will most likely look for work elsewhere. Fortunately my skills lend themselves well to other work outside of front line healthcare so I am not restricted to NHS employment

Private sector management are no more likely to appreciate how hard you work @coffeechocolatecoffee

Depends where you go. I have friends who are extremely satisfied with their jobs with very similar qualifications to mine and their managers treat them much better than what I experience
DH also gets treated very well by his company

I am under no illusion - all work extremely hard but there is appreciation and flexibility which I do not get

Yes!!!! Massively I was loosing interest anyway and now WFH and not interacting with people has really left me feeling what's the point of this job. I think I'm close to redundancy though and would welcome it with open arms definitely want to do something completely different and more "worthwhile"

My job has been pretty essential during the pandemic, but everyone hates us!
The only time I’ve mentioned my key worker status is when my son was acting up over home school, and I reminded him he could go back to actual school if he didn’t buckle down.

I remember looking at the list and thinking DH and I were about the only jobs not on there :)

Anyway non-key workers are needed to pay tax.

Nope. I teach English (as a foreign language mainly to adults) and I think this is a crucial and valuable thing to be able to do, but it's not urgent enough to fall into key worker status, which I agree with.

I have lots of weird feelings about this tbh. I am technically a keyworker in that I work in a school and have been in regularly looking after vulnerable kids during lockdown.

However I’m not a teacher, I’m a librarian, and I don’t feel my actual job is essential in that sense of being necessary to keep things going like a teacher is. I never referred to myself as a keyworker or anything like that.

We’re a weird group actually as some schools class us as admin, some as student facing, so others I know in different schools have had widely varied roles throughout lockdown, and indeed a good number of private school Librarians have been furloughed.

Frankly if there are redundancies we’re often first on the chopping block so I know our job isn’t highly valued by other people anyway. Loads of people have assumed I can’t have worked over lockdown because “what can librarians do at home?” which is frankly an insulting misunderstanding of our job in normal times and a source of frustration when people assume I’ve been on a 4 month paid jolly with a secure job at the end of it (which frankly doesn’t feel very secure)

I think in my meandering way I’m trying to say outside of the obvious caring professions it becomes a lot more blurred what constitutes key work and how that is viewed by society and by an individual. I think the holding up of some people as in some way better than others was always going to crash down at some point because society is more complex than the artificial set up of lockdown.

@motherrunner exactly the same situation. Teacher for 24 years.

No, don't feel worthless, though it was very annoying in the early days that it was presumed if you were not working in a hospital or shop then you were sat at home doing nothing.

I probably could have been included as a keyworker but as I am at home it would have been a bit of a stretch to insist I was.

No, and I find people who try to claim some form of status due to the decisions they've made in their career incredibly cringey (or even worse, when their family does). I don't really need it, I'd do my job if I got thanks or not (people tend to look down on what I do or get sniffy about people in my industry) but the thanks my team get from our head and department and CEO is always nice.

No, because I work for a private company that contributes to the economy and also let us WFH on full salary thereby not costing the government any additional money in furlough.

Someone on my Facebook works on the ticket barriers at a train station and posts a lot about being their key worker (inc plenty of profile photos with that “I can’t stay at home...”). Sorry but I find them cringeworthy!

Their = a

I think that what has, and is, pissing people off is the assumption that if you aren't a key worker (and with my current freelance work I was counted as one) then you're just sitting at home on furlough.

That wasn't the truth. Many many people were working -are working - incredibly hard in incredibly difficult situations and have felt the impact of this experience on their mental and physical health.

I work for a national charity, I was put on furlough as not classified as key worker (but working in admin for retail).
Now, we are short on income and short on staff due to covid-19 guidelines. Yet we are still providing an essential service for our clients which includes the NHS.
So, to me the phrase key worker is absolutely worthless.
I hope our charity survives, the work we do is essential and everyone will be able
to benefit from it in one form or another.

I'm not a key worker but my work is still of considerable value to society. However I have found the whole situation has made me value people who work very hard more than before.

I think I have become annoyed about the bits of my work that involve pandering to prima donnas, it is harder not to be irritated by this when some people have had to risk quite a lot doing their jobs.

The treatment of social care staff, and outsourced cleaners etc has always made me quite , so that's probably intensified.

So many different scenarios quite interesting really
Most people will always do their best in whatever situations they are in anyway