To think NHS workers aren’t ‘hero’s’ for working Christmas Day?!

[Reindeerlighthouse]

Just that. I have quite a few Nurses on my friend’s lists on social media and a few of them have posted today about how they’ve been working. Que loads of ‘omg, you’re an absolute angel’ ‘omg, you’re a true hero lovely’ type comments on all of their posts.

Am I being dim? They’ve been rostered on, they’re just doing their jobs on a day they’ve been rota’d onto, why are they ‘hero’s’ for that? It’s literally their job. I’m not saying their job doesn’t deserve credit because it absolutely does, but I’m sure if they’d have refused to work Christmas Day they’d have been facing disciplinary action?

My husband has worked the last 5 Christmas days (not medical related) no one has ever said he’s a hero for working it.

AIBU to think ti really doesn’t make them a hero? Just people doing their jobs on a day they’ve been told to do it?

@WorriedMum231

Awww I'm so glad you've been temporarily vindicated.

TECHNICALLY though, I'm still right which brings me full circle...

You do not need apostrophes.

I think doctors, nurses, paramedics, firefighters and police officers are heroes every day. I took my son to A&E on Christmas Eve and watched all staff run to an emergency. It made me think, not just anyone can see traumatic events on a daily basis and cope with it. They are a special kind of person. I did think how rubbish it must be to do a night shift on Christmas Eve and spend the whole of Christmas Day in bed.

The difference with other people working Christmas Day is they are usually paid more to compensate.

"I just don't see what is 'heroic' about it."

This thread was about someone op knows posting on sm about working on Xmas day.

And friends calling her a hero.

Churlish to argue about semantics surely? A very unpleasant look, suggestive of envy really.

I was a nurse for 10 years and worked Christmas Day every year. That didn't make me a hero, it made me a normal person fulfilling my contractual obligation to my patients and employer.

My colleagues and I were professionally trained people paid to do a job, requiring cover 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Something we were all aware of when we chose our particular professions. We weren't the only ones working Christmas Day either.

All this patronising bollocks about NHS workers being "heroes" gives me toothache. In my day they called us "angels" and patronised us by pretending that when we weren't working our poor fingers to the bone for long hours on the wards (we didn't work longer hours than other professions and fewer than some), we were huddled in our cold little cell-like rooms in the nurses' home eating baked beans on toast, because we couldn't afford real food. All complete rubbish of course.

Like every other profession, some NHS staff are exceptional hardworking people who are completely devoted to their work; most are people who fulfil their contract of employment doing the honest day's work expected of them; and a few are lazy wasters that do the absolute minimum to avoid getting sacked (and sometimes not even that). In other words not "heroes" or "angels", just normal people. The same as everyone else.

And what about the rest of the year?

Anyone working Xmas especially in key worker roles deserves appreciation. They are usually the people caring for others in some form.

We’re not heroic for getting paid to our jobs, and we realised before agreeing to begin these jobs that working on bank holidays is a contractual obligation (generally).

This reminds of all that hand clapping patronising stuff of 2020.

Envious?

Of what?

Reading this thread it's clear that the disdain for NHS workers is something else. The term hero is used to enable people to fall over themselves backwards to explain why we are not heroes (and bingo to the poster who used tiktok, you totally got us with that). I never hear anyone say anything remotely as bad about the other people working Christmas day and who get called heroes.

You don't have to worship us or call us angels. Just an appreciation for the hard work the majority of us do whilst being away from our families on a day no-one usually wants to work (yes we knew it would happen but it doesn't make it easier), pay us fairly and treat us with kindness. As you should anyone working Christmas day no matter the industry they are in. I can't see what is wrong with that.

Envious of someone else getting appreciated for doing a tough job on Xmas day while you guzzle your wine and chocs. I know, it is pretty incredible and hard to believe, but this thread has evidenced just how petty and mean minded some people are about nice things being said about nurses.

I worked Christmas Day and I held the hands of lonely patients who had nobody, no visitors, no presents and no one to wish them happy Christmas. A couple were crying because they missed husbands or husbands and wives who had passed away.

I gave out Christmas presents to patients that our hospital trust had provided, helped them to enjoy a lovely Christmas dinner, sang carols and chatted to them to provide comfort.

I see myself as a hero, as I am doing a job a lot of people don't want to do, and I'm making a difference to people in the last part of their lives.

OP you sound really bitter.

I agree, it’s some weird kind of jealousy/resentment about appreciation and respect for people that we all absolutely rely on. Get over it OP!

I don't think it's envy from anyone. Not from me anyway.

I just think it's ridiculous and patronising and possibly a little embarrassing that adults react in the way they do at times.

I appreciate what they do and that it's in very tough conditions at times. I respect them as I would respect anyone. I'm grateful the NHS exists for various reasons. But heroes? No, I do not think they are 'heroes' and I don't know anyone who works within the NHS who expects to be treated or regarded as such (admittedly, I only know nurses and GPs and not surgeons).

But I find the hero worship a little embarrassing.

As a pp said, there are those who go above and beyond, those who fulfil their contractual obligations and those who do the bare minimum to secure their continued employment. As in any profession.

But working on Christmas day does not make anyone a hero 🙄

I mean, they’re hero’s, but so are so so so many others who don’t get credit for it. I’ve worked 12 hr days on xmas day as a carer getting paid minimum wage as so so so many do.
Loads of people cooking and serving others Christmas dinner. And so so many others working.
All amazing people who don’t get the credit that NHS workers do (who still also absolutely deserve the credit every day!)

Well I wasn't 'guzzling wine or chocs' if that helps.

Is it only NHS workers who are heroes for working on Christmas day or does it apply to everyone who does so? Carers? The police? Waiting staff in pubs/restaurants? Or is it just doctors and nurses?

No one wants to work on a day when they'd rather be at home with their families with the majority of other people.

Many people do and thats a bit crap. It doesn't make them a 'hero' though.

I disagree that they're 'heroes' at all tbh but the rest of your post I agree with completely.

I wasn't a hero when I was washing and dressing an elderly resident who had just died as her family were travelling to visit Christmas Day. It was just my job, and as I had no one who particularly needed me at home, no real need to be home that particular day.

You weren’t working with the sick and dying and helping people at their most desperate and vulnerable though, were you? Ask yourself, why does it bother you if someone posts nice things about nurses working on Xmas day on social media. How does that affect you, to the extent you feel driven to grumble about it? That is what I don’t get.

I actually think this narrative exists in the UK to placate the NHS workers so they don't complain about low salaries and poor working conditions. It's a job. You go to work, you do it, you can't wait to go home to be with your family. But because we make them work shit hours and pay them nothing, we elevate them to some kind of hero status.

Nurses are not heroes. It is not heroic to work a shift on Christmas day. Thousands of waitresses and taxi drivers also work Christmas day. They're not heroes, they're also just stuck in shit jobs.

It's more to stop a criticism from public of failing national healthcare system imho.
"NHS is not great anymore"
"So you hate nurses, k"
Everything around NHS is so emotional (on purpose) I am sure someone must have written a paper on it in psychology or marketing

No, I wasn't.

But two days before Christmas I was supporting a woman and her child after her husband was arrested and taken into custody for a serious violent incident in the home.

I'd probably describe her as a hero - traumatised herself and having to soldier on through the festive period and make Christmas as nice as she could for her children. A situation she couldn't have anticipated nor prepared for.

And she won't have been alone.

I would prefer to reserve 'hero' status for people who are dealing with situations that no one should have to deal with. Not for people doing their jobs. Not people who have simply checked a roster and found out they've been put down to work on 25th December. Whatever actions/duties they perform that day are no more or less worthwhile than they are on the 12th Feb or 16th June or any other day in the year. That's not to say I don't think they are not worthwhile but that they are not more worthwhile because they are happening on Christmas Day.

Like I have said, recognising that the conditions in the NHS aren't great or that medical staff work hard is one thing but elevating them to the status of hero just sounds ridiculous.

I agree.

I think the gripe with a lot of people is the term hero

hero to me is someone who throws themselves in front of a moving car to save someone

I have enormous respect and gratitude for good people doing amazing , necessary and worthy work in various jobs and all walks of life
just because I don’t use the word hero doesn’t de value there work to me

Exactly.

But why does it bother you if someone does use the term hero, to big up their friend for doing a tough job at Xmas? Don’t you like the idea of maybe making someone’s tough day a teeny bit better through a bit of recognition and appreciation? Seriously, what do you lose by someone else being nice?