To find people's duplicity towards key workers upsetting

[hibbledibble]

On one hand, it's 'clap for carers' and praising NHS staff as 'heroes'.

On the other hand, the amount of vitriol towards key workers who need childcare so they can do their jobs is shocking. In addition, the public that praises us, also ignores lockdown rules, causing even greater strain to the NHS.

I am a doctor, and I was redeployed during the first wave. It was horrific. I am still recovering now, and seeking treatment for PTSD. I have seen many of my colleagues become seriously unwell, and others have died.

We don't want claps (in fact, please don't) but decent, safe working conditions (including proper PPE), and sufficient childcare. I can't work from home, so my children (primary and preschool age) need to be cared for.

I admit I am taking this fairly personally as I have seen first hand the absolute horror that this virus has caused, and have been traumatised by it. My hospital is well over capacity, and people are dying waiting for ventilators.

don't forgot the furlough are scroungers threads

I am bemused at all uni lecturers being defined as key workers when most aren’t doing face to face teaching. Yes KW if teaching medics/healthcare students but not sure why they are otherwise.

What I find upsetting is the insistence that key worker can't WFH while educating whereas non-keyworkers can.
Post after posts of people saying they need to focus, they are on confidential calls etc.
What do you think non keyworkers do??

If keyworker was limited to frontline NHS and similar maybe, but having admin staff, accountants, etc included makes it a complete joke.

Plus now that (some) schools are effectively fully educating the pupils that are in, the non KW kids are really at a disadvantage.

I know several people who are now going to send their DC in because of this (KW but weren't planning on sending them). I am trying to see with my employer if they can classify me as KW. This is definitely NOT in the spirit of the lockdown, but if half the class is getting an education, my priority is to make sure my DC get it as well (and that I don't lose my job in the process).

@unmarkedbythat

Judginess over who is taking up key worker places seems to have replaced the "if you leave the house you are a MURDERER" madness we had in the previous lockdown. I wonder what will be people's focus to attack others over if we get another lockdown?

Is no one allowed to discuss on here anymore without being labelled by someone being snide about their motives?

I wonder if all the posters who claim to be so amazingly understanding to others are nice in real life? Or is it just posturing on an online forum.

People are scared and are understandably angry. It’s absolute cobblers to claim to be some saint who doesn’t at some point judge others. I think I prefer the scaremongering to the ‘don’t judge hun’ ones

@Pigeonsareclever Nurseries in Scotland are closed except for key workers.

@Bizawit I think your response has reinforced mine perfectly - thanks for that.

• What I find upsetting is the insistence that key worker can't WFH while educating whereas non-keyworkers can. Post after posts of people saying they need to focus, they are on confidential calls etc. What do you think non keyworkers do??*

The point is that key workers do jobs that are critical to the functioning of society, so if they can’t do them properly there will be a bigger impact than if non KW can’t do their properly. If my colleagues couldn’t do our jobs - which we can do from home but need to do focused analysis - it would be front page news within weeks if not days.

I agree with so much of what you have said, and I remain grateful to and in awe of frontline staff who have kept the country going and faced the awfulness of this virus head-on.

I have absolutely NO issue with children of frontline key workers who are going out to work having childcare at school. It's quite obvious it's needed. Same goes for vulnerable children.

I do object to families with one or more parent who WFH getting childcare at school. The more kids who are in school needlessly, the greater the risk of spreading the infection, including to the tireless frontline workers like you who have no choice but to go out to work.

I'm sorry you have felt and have been criticised.

I'm with @PattyPan and @blackcat86 - some people aren't prepared to think about what's involved in keeping a country running and what can and can't be achieved with young children at home. These same people would be the first to complain when it turns out that xyz IT project overrunning means that in three months time something goes disastrously wrong with the administration of an essential public service and it's all over the front pages of the daily fail.

People's ire isn't directed at Drs and Nurses using places in schools.
People are annoyed at Part time workers putting their kids in all week, and those that are gaming the system to be deemed a keyworker and get a place when they simply aren't.
As an example, all University staff are deemed keyworkers, even those in support roles and not directly in learning. That is just a nonsense and I won't be sending my kids in under the guise of keyworker.
Still, if this pandemic has reminded us of anything it's that self-interest reigns supreme and we'll be in lockdown far beyond February because of it.

[quote Moo678]@Pigeonsareclever Nurseries in Scotland are closed except for key workers.

@Bizawit I think your response has reinforced mine perfectly - thanks for that.[/quote]
@Moo678 if you think that then you very much misunderstood me.
I certainly don’t begrudge your child a place in childcare/ at school. I don’t begrudge any child a place at school. I think schools should be open personally (but that’s another debate), Given that they are not, I accept that your husband is a key worker and your child very entitled to a place.
I just thought your comment was ridiculously tone deaf and insensitive - gafawing incredulously at the suggestion that your husband might be expected to do work calls and take notes with a toddler running around. That is precisely the situation that other parents are in. HTH.

The rules around public sector furlough are complicated and many are not able to be furloughed due to the public funding model.

People are more than happy for front line key workers to have places. What grates is sahm's with husband's who works in finance etc that has somehow shoehorned themselves into the key worker category. This kind of 'keyworker' is outrageous and the situation is devastating for full time working parents who are trying to homeschool.

I think people on this thread are being very hard on families where there is one key worker. My DH is a healthcare worker who put in at least 80 hours per week in the first lockdown, he had to make some tough decisions which took its toll on his MH.

I was working FT in a nothing special middle management role. I literally could only do about 2 hours work a day based on 3 kids under 5. My boss was great, but I was made redundant because he had to cut one FTE and I was an easy target given I didn't have much of a workload. I understood the rationale and was happy with my package but if I really needed/ wanted that job I would be gutted. But it sounds like people in this thread are saying the non key worker should drop everything so their partner can give 200%. Or should I have a said to my DH he couldn't do all those hours so I could work?

Now I am a SAHM i obviously wouldn't consider sending them in but I don't think a lot of the working parents need a break too. You have no idea what their family unit is going through

Oh and all the bloody clapping... every week like clockwork my neighbours were out and making posters for our family..... yet not a single person offered to help with food shopping or dropped a meal in even though DH was apparently "their hero"

@Bizawit

I think it’s a really difficult situation for everyone. I think there are a lot of jobs which can be done in evenings / weekends / short snatches of time while the toddler watches TV. Is it fair that parents have to do that - no - it’s crap.

I think it’s also crap that any parent should have their calls interrupted by a child. I occasionally try to do educational meetings or non-clinical stuff on my day off and it’s rubbish. But I think there is a difference between talking to a suicidal child, or a rape victim or someone who is about to be made homeless vs someone who is trying to process the return of something bought online or put together a new advertising campaign (just the first examples that came into my head). So I think if there have to be priorities made then those working in these sorts of roles should be prioritised not for the sake of the employee but for the sake of the patient / vulnerable person on the end of the zoom call.

I don’t mean to belittle the hardship of all the non-key workers who are juggling childcare and working from home. I was grateful to have the stability of my hospital job during the last lockdown even if it was the hardest year of my professional life.

I think we are in an untenable situation where there probably isn’t a right answer. There was a really good piece on newsnight the other night highlighting that following lockdown rules is a privilege that many families can’t afford. I sympathise with those in this situation. But it’s hard when I am classed (and fairly so) as a keyworker not to feel judged by the things you read on here. I don’t need my personal sacrifice or the risk I take to be recognised - we are all making sacrifices at the moment but it’s hard not to feel judged by many of the comments made. I probably should not come on threads like this.

When someone on our village FB site thanked everyone for clapping and said it was great to feel appreciated for her efforts fighting the virus I stopped supporting.
She works in a well known 'chemist' on the perfume counter!! But as the shop also sells paracetamol, she considers herself at the frontline in medicine.... selling gift sets of Joop.
It just takes the shine of the genuine and real key workers.

I won’t be clapping either. Clapping is an attempt to keep everyone compliant, we are all in this together bullshit.
Yet we have seen time and time again that politicians lie, they ignore the “rules” and keep our children out of school.
I’m grateful for all that medical staff do, in the same way I’m grateful for supermarket staff. But more than them, I’m hugely sad for people who have lost their jobs, their homes, their businesses and their livelihoods. I’d clap for those people but I imagine they would just prefer to have a job.

@muddyellowdog

People are more than happy for front line key workers to have places. What grates is sahm's with husband's who works in finance etc that has somehow shoehorned themselves into the key worker category. This kind of 'keyworker' is outrageous and the situation is devastating for full time working parents who are trying to homeschool.

Nailed it

OP this is really not targeted at you. My school has seen about a 300% increase in the number of parents claiming to be key workers since March. I don't think they have all retrained as doctors and nurses. It is people using the term 'financial services' loosely on the whole.

Oh and all the bloody clapping... every week like clockwork my neighbours were out and making posters for our family..... yet not a single person offered to help with food shopping or dropped a meal in even though DH was apparently "their hero"

Why on earth would they? Would would be odd, were you incapable of shopping or making meals?

@smariewrtr What you describe is not specific to your husband being a KW though, is it? If you DH was the higher earner working crazy hours you would have done the same, wouldn't you?

So is an accountant doing tax returns a key worker role?

@Backbee

I was at home with 3 kids under 5 and at the time there were no online shopping slots. On our neighborhood WhatsApp's so many people told me how amazing DH was (he is very vocal on Twitter) we got homemade cards from kids calling him a hero but not a single person offered to get shopping ( even when I said it was my biggest challenge).

The point is people call NHS workers hero's but actions speak louder than words.

Lots of people were in the same position, if you were both working or he lived alone then sure that'd be great, a lot of local places offered free meals to those. But you were at home, with children like loads of people, did you think to send meals and help with shopping to local families who had both parents working and juggling homeschooling?