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?

op
i hope ur never in hospital
on a
xmas day when u can see the effort ALL staff make to look after their
patients and their families on xmas. for a nurse to be there for someeonee
who would otherwise possibly be at home alone, with not one family or friend to visit makes them hero's to that one
person.

you sound so mean u actually need to go get some xmas spirit and maybe if u feel it's just another day for just another worker then maybe you need to do some
volunteering on
xmas day and see exactly how people working on xmas day are actually so precious.

well done to your husband what a hero ( this is what u secretly want to hear right?) although i'm thinking there might be a reason he works every xmas day?

@Vistada no I meant, they should be acknowledged for working Christmas day! They certainly made my Christmas last year better, I was 300miles away from home with no visitors. Most patients local patients have family visit.

This

The government's drive to paint NHS workers as heroes is why they're rewarded with applause and platitudes

Spot on!

Its a ruse designed to distract us from the underfunding

If they don’t get overtime, they are heroes. Folk in other walks of life expect overtime

Exactly....

Yes, they are Marketing Angels 😂

Heroes are what my belly is full off right now

You mean that people were going out to work in COVID riddled environments, some actually died, but a bit of clapping upset you.

Opening up your window and clapping once a week is very far from walking to the promised land. Such low standards for yourself, but lots of ragging on hardworking frontline workers.

I think you’re deliberately being obtuse.

On balance, all else being equal, your average CEO is not working Christmas Day (which was kind of my point 🤷‍♀️) and generally working his/her ass off for relatively little money.

I did say I was ignoring a degree of nuance- because that’s the sort of thread this is; surely you can see that? OP is bemoaning a trend, not something that is true about every individual nurse 🙄

And I felt on balance that having a problem with people celebrating the efforts of nurses was a dick move.

You seem to think differently. Fine. But your torturous arguments about CEOs of huge corporations being just as deserving of praise is just disingenuous.

Listen, as I’ve said, I teach in a private school. I see the future rich-boy CEOs every day of my life. Believe me - most of them couldn’t cut it on a medical ward over Christmas!

Again, not once have i said theyre not hardworking, you're reading my posts and taking what you want to take. we're not going to agree here

NHS staff, hardworking - yes, heroes for doing the job they're paid to do on Xmas day? No.

And yes the clapping was bloody ludicrous, it became virtue signalling nonsense

I must be an accounting angel 😜 masses of NHS workers don't work Christmas

Complaining about sentimentality and hyperbole on social media is a bit like going in for a swim and complaining that it's wet.

I absolutely don't consider myself a hero or buy into any of the angels/hero/vocation stuff.

However I have just worked another Christmas as a nurse and it is lovely when people show appreciation for people who have to work over the Christmas period, particularly those in jobs devoted to helping others.

I absolutely hate working Christmas. Every year I kind of volunteer because I like NY off as our friends often go away and working the entirety of the week before is usually the only way I can get a few days off over NY. But every year I'm so jealous of people who get to stay at home for a week having a lovely time with their family. I very rarely say this out loud though because as my husband reminds me.. I chose this profession What a bad choice that was.. not just at Christmas.

It's just a turn of phrase. The problem is people like you and the OP are taking it literally and it's riling you up unnecessarily.

Yes, we're not going to agree. I guess some people can't appreciate anything.

I don't think they need special thanks just decent conditions and a fair wage.

Well, yes. But seeing as they don’t get decent conditions or a fair wage at latest reckoning, could we not have a thread taking away the extra thanks they get?!

I wonder how many NHS workers who worked hard through COVID, had NO idea if they’d catch it and what the effects would be, and risked bringing it home to their loved ones, thought “You know how I’d like to be remunerated? I’d like people to clap on their doorsteps at 8pm on a Thursday

The clap was BS, that 2 minutes would have been better spent emailing MPs asking why the fuck HCPs were not given adequate PPE and why they were being underpaid and under protected. This is the problem with people today - happy to virtue signal for 2 minutes and think that ticks the “I’m a Good Person and people can see me Being Good ” box because they can be seen to do it in public. Ask them to bother their arse to make an ACTUAL difference in the world and not put it on social media or get the neighbours’ attention - nah not worth their time

I think the nurses and staff are the heros of an underfunded NHS.
They help save lives in ridiculously understaffed and under resourced conditions.

Shall we not mention that because noone has said anything like that about your DH?

I quite enjoy working Christmas. There used to be a nice atmosphere. My ward is very fair about everyone taking their turn. And no one takes the piss. I hate working Boxing Day though. As all the kids the been kept at home over Christmas, come in really unwell.

I'm not here to debate the clapping. It was virtue signalling. But the PP seems to think it was 'making pilgrimage' to NHS staff. Which goes to show any little rubbish, whether it is calling them 'heroes' or clapping for 2 minutes once a week is just too much for some people to bear.

The rate is just our normal Sunday pay that we can get any old week - it certainly isn't a shed load and I don't know any NHS worker who wants to work Christmas Day just for the pay - not when that rate is available every single week

So your definition of worthy work is: works on Christmas Day for little pay

And no one else is important? Some nurses are on VERY good wages so they mustn’t be heroes.

But your torturous arguments about CEOs of huge corporations being just as deserving of praise is just disingenuous.

Erm, I haven’t made any argument about ‘CEOs of huge corporations are just as deserving of praise’ let alone a torturous one. I countered your claim that Tesco’s CEO is not working a job that means something to people.

I also feel like you really don’t like wealthy people. Doesn’t bode well for a private school teacher

Maybe they are, maybe they’re not. Are all the companies that kept the NHS in PPE heroes too? (Clue: they’re not.)