To be fed up of the "I'm a key worker" line now

[Chishelled]

Fair play, I do understand that not every key worker is pulling this out at opportunity and that not all key workers are acting like entitled selfish twits, plus the fact DP and I (although only on day two) are both NHS - him as a doctor and me within mental health.

Our entire local facebook page is full of "I am a key worker, I need to get petrol, people are being so selfish" BUT why do key workers expect to be prioritised for petrol now, particularly when many of the ones posting work in our local hospital which is a 20 minute walk away??

It's just all adding to the scare mongering and hype by trotting out the "I'm a key worker, I need petrol priority...[it's going to run out again], plus plenty of people are having to commute back to work due to the end of furlough and the fact that offices are well and truly reopen - are their jobs seen as lesser?

I propose on the spot fines for anyone who uses the phrase "I am a key worker" to get preferential treatment from this point forwards [unless of course we go back into Lockdown again]

@Chishelled

All we've had is grief since March 2020

Really? Did you miss the very public out pouring of thanks for all the key workers that happened, did you miss all the donations / freebies, discounts, tickets to events, priority areas to watch events?

Yes I guess I did miss that part, I was probably busy getting spat at, physically threatened or verbally abused because I wouldn't let idiots stockpile like they are doing right now. On top of that I'm in Wales so had our supreme leader Drakeford stop us from selling anything he didn't see as essential which set us up for another round of abuse. Like I said I'm fed up with the key worker situation and it's going to fall on people like me and my colleagues to be the ones to check who is a key worker and decide if they get fuel from our forecourts and why should we put ourselves in that position again because the public have caused this situation? And yes I blame the public because I know from my job that our deliveries are still scheduled as normal and we've never had a shortage until now.

YeOldenamechange

"slack cow" you sound absulitey horrible. I thiught the police were supposed to have empathy these days FFS

@vivainsomnia

This isn't meant to be oneupmanship between different keyworkers - I imagine the palliative care nurse and the dying patient alike are going to be struggling if there's no food in the shops either

You can't be serious typing this, surely! The palliative person who doesn't receive daily care will likely be in significant pain and dying even sooner.

How can you compare this with getting an urgent food shop? Most people have some food in their cupboard. If not, their neighbour will. There is some way before we all have to worry about starvation.

Why is it with people obsessed with the need to do their weekly shopping and filling up and thinking they will die if they don't!

You've missed the point entirely.

It wasn't about my weekly shop. It was about me delivering the products my business makes to local shops. So that other people can go in and buy them and eat them...

I was a key worker throughout most of the pandemic - not from the UK, though, and currently om maternity leave. Where I'm from, being a key worker absolutely only means showing up for work when everyone else is asked to stay home, and getting a vaccine ahead of schedule. Nothing else in terms of excusing bad behaviour or getting preferential treatment.

I am classed as a key worker as I work for the NHS and im totally with you YANBU I do admin and was lucky enough to WFH during Covid so if we havent get enough fuel in my department we are just working from home again. If people need they should be able to get it its not a competition of who is most in need as the days go on more people who have waited will need it!
Personally I am hoping its better on Friday as Im due to part exchange my car on saturday and take home my new one both cars will need fuel to do this so if this saga is still going on I will shamelessy use my day off friday to top up my current car and stick some in a jerry can for new car to ensure i can get it home (unfortunatly due to all the queues the dealer cant fill it up and I get this as its a waste of their working day where as im off friday and can queue if needed)

I agree, being a key worker does not necessarily equate with needing fuel over everyone else. I am technically a key worker but am definitely lower priority than someone who may not meet technical key worker definitions but has to care for elderly relatives, as I can work from home.

If everyone just bought fuel based on their actual needs as and when required rather than whether they were 'entitled' to it there would be enough to go around anyway.

I sound horrible 😂 from one comment. Jesus Christ liars. I don’t think I’m obliged to “have empathy” whilst commenting on MN just because of who my employer is.

Direct your ire at NHS directors. I'm a keyworker, as is my team, but not frontline so can easily work f/t from home but no, I now have to drive 1.5 hours of a round trip to sit in an office 2 days a week - we are expected to be in, so I queue at the petrol pumps and take petrol other people need.

My DD, otoh, is a paediatric nurse on a complex care ward that is already short staffed. She has a 1 hour commute each way, and if she or her colleagues don't turn up then very sick children get even sicker, will be in even greater pain, or worse. My frontline colleagues have had a hellish 18 months and are still in the middle of it, with patients complaining bitterly. I don't begrudge them (or any other frontline worker) petrol, no.

I think KW status has just been overused. Yes there are a few people who absolutely have to go to work in order for the country to function e.g people who work at nuclear power station, police and paramedics, people who work at water board or in food distribution. But what was the point in making teachers keyworkers for their unions to then insist they didn’t work?! Journalists? Religious workers?

All work is essential if you need it to pay the bills. Public sector workers will get paid anyway! Buy however much petrol you like (but don’t store it at home!). And don’t get me started on ambulances - when have any of you ever seen an ambulance at a petrol station?! They have their own fuel bunkers at the depot.

[quote Chishelled]@Mummyoflittledragon most people who work in hospitals work 9 - 5 roles or 7 - 7 roles; they aren't all on shift patterns at all.[/quote]
The post I quoted said doctors and other key workers

Most doctors - and by doctors I am also including surgeons and so forth - certainly don’t work those shifts... or nurses for that matter. A lot of key workers have shifts around the clock due to the importance or nature of their work. The post I quoted was not discussing support staff. My question was therefore totally valid.

I have an NHS ID card as am a bank immuniser. Thing is, as bank I pick up shifts all over the region which can often take me over an hour to get to. I need to drive. I would pull the key worker card if I needed to get petrol to enable me to get to a shift - otherwise my card stays firmly in my bag.

Yes I’m sick to death of nhs key workers particularly, some do admin and you’d think they were brain surgeons

@Lalliella

YABU. Key workers need to get to work. Other people may want to but don’t need to. Key workers should be prioritised. After everything they’ve done for this country during the pandemic, being able to queue-jump at petrol stations is the least they deserve.

What bollocks.

What key workers have done over the past year and a half is amazing, we’d all truly be fucked without them. But first dibs on petrol for them is a bit short sighted in the sense of: what about teachers teaching our kids? Bus drivers keeping our public transport moving, refuse collectors keeping our streets clean, lorry drivers getting to their depot so they can deliver all our shit to the shops for us to buy?

Not to mention the number of people who might be missing their medical appointments because they can’t get petrol for the car in order for them to attend.

@SweetBabyCheeses99

I think KW status has just been overused. Yes there are a few people who absolutely have to go to work in order for the country to function e.g people who work at nuclear power station, police and paramedics, people who work at water board or in food distribution. But what was the point in making teachers keyworkers for their unions to then insist they didn’t work?! Journalists? Religious workers?

All work is essential if you need it to pay the bills. Public sector workers will get paid anyway! Buy however much petrol you like (but don’t store it at home!). And don’t get me started on ambulances - when have any of you ever seen an ambulance at a petrol station?! They have their own fuel bunkers at the depot.

Lots of emergency vehicles get fuel at petrol stations. Maybe the larger city stations have their own pumps, but smaller stations certainly don't. Neither of our two local police stations have their own pumps, and one is the divisional headquarters. Likewise we have a combined fire/ambulance station that doesn't. Seeing emergency vehicles at petrol stations is pretty normal around here.

@hulahooper2

Yes I’m sick to death of nhs key workers particularly, some do admin and you’d think they were brain surgeons

If they didn’t do the admin, then the life saving operations and treatment wouldn’t happen.

Special treatment of "key workers" is only justifiable for very short term in dire emergencies, i.e. maybe a day or two when things are very bad, i.e. maybe during Storm Desmond when entire towns/cities were without power and flooded. (But then petrol stations were closed due to not having power or being flooded!).

Everyone becomes a "key worker" as the days pass. On day 1, a "non key worker" isn't essential and won't be missed. But by day 7 even the most "unimportant" worker being absent will start to present problems. By day 14, those problems will be multiplying.

Only if these workers can’t work from home

Ergh I HATE it. I thought it had gone away and now it's back , just made me remember the old Facebook template people had 'I can't stay at home I'm a jet worker' oh fuck off Janet !!!

There was a scheme in 2000 when there was the last limited availability of fuel, that could be brought back.

YABU to object to the use of 'key workers' as a phrase, just because a few exploit it.

@hulahooper2

Yes I’m sick to death of nhs key workers particularly, some do admin and you’d think they were brain surgeons

I am sick of people thinking that hospitals are run by doctors and nurses. They are part of a team. They can't do their job without everyone else being there.

Unless you think an overworked nurse should also be doing all the admin, transporting patients, collecting blood/drugs, cleaning the wards, sorting payroll, dealing with HR issues, preparing food, cleaning linen, testing biopsy samples, fixing any IT issues etc etc.

Lalliella

YABU. Key workers need to get to work. Other people may want to but don’t need to. Key workers should be prioritised. After everything they’ve done for this country during the pandemic, being able to queue-jump at petrol stations is the least they deserve *

Yes, like my "critical worker" sister who worked from home throughout the pandemic.
Not all key workers are working outside the home.

Awwww don't scrap the phrase I just became a key worker last month I'm dying to use it (jokes) 😂😂😂 I live across the road from my work and Don't t drive so it's all good 👍

Before covid most of the middle class muns on here wouldn't have given low paid key workers the time of day

@Cuddlyrottweiler

YANBU we need all workers. All people need to get to work.

We really don't though