How to deal with friends claiming to be 'key workers'

[McDougal]

Just as the title says, really. I know a lot of admin staff in the NHS. A lot support inpatient services and have a real impact on keeping things moving. Others are PAs to managers who will be making decisions impacting upon patient care, but could do this themselves without a PA forwarding this communication on their behalf.

How do you deal with this? One friend is continuing to take her child to nursery as she's a 'key worker' when her husband is temporarily at home as his job has come to a standstill and I'm struggling to be sympathetic.

The PA is a key worker, their DC should be at home with the other parent. Schools need to stand their ground on it but the culture now is that they can’t, most Heads have zero say and are constantly hounded and shouted down by parents and have to acquiesce to their demand. This won’t change now so we will be providing childcare for any number of children because it suits the parent, putting wider society at risk.
I think you should call them out on it, but I wouldn’t blame you at all if you didn’t.

Oh right, her partner is at home. Have you asked her why he isn’t looking after the DC?

Also this situation is developing rapidly, I can also imagine a PA being redeployed and their roles/responsibilities changing. Staff at my consultant friend’s hospital have already been briefed regarding this.

I work in the NHS. My admin team have been an utter godsend this week. Admin staff are also met to making the NHS work. For example this week mind has been securing personal protective equipment for my team...I haven't had time to do it myself.

I suppose my issue seems small in the grand scheme of things at the moment but it seems to me like playing the system.

There is a partner at home capable of looking after the child. There has been limited communication as to who constitutes a 'key worker' but this seems to be a 'perk' rather than essential. Anyone forced to work during this time who would struggle with childcare, fair enough, but that's not the issue here. It's that 'key worker' is being bandied around so freely when schools should not be used as childcare apart from for those who need it to support essential services.

Honestly @McDougal what do you think the pa’s do all day, make cups of tea/coffee? 🤣

You see all those meetings. Any letters written about a patient etc. Those are all written by the manager. If your in a meeting and they start talking into a dictaphone, they don’t type those notes themselves.

When a patient gets through and is desperately sobbing down the phone, wanting an update. Who deals with all the follow up? Not the manager.

Many work much longer hours on a ‘normal’ day. Now, well I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes. And if it means that manager can get home and see their family before the next shift starts, leave the pa’s alone.

All NHS staff are looking at redeployment if their current role isn’t crucial. Even admin/PA. They may be used as porters, or admin for the influx of patients coming in

They need all hands on deck, she won't necessarily be doing her normal role.
The husband is taking the piss.

As much as it sounds like I'm having a go at PAs, I'm really not.

I've been there. I know how important they are in keeping the NHS running. My issue is having other options but still making use of school. It may not seem like it but I like my friend very much, really , but people's selfishness in the current situation is pissing me off.

Also, the area my friend works in is far from essential in the current climate. She may well be drafted in to another area but hasn't so far.

Yes, managers have had to take on more admin. We have one PA between 5 senior managers. In this current crisis we don't have time to go to the loo let alone sort out admin. My PA is fab, and everything would be so much harder without him. I agree that the WFH husband is the issue. He needs to step up and sort the kids so she can go to work.

Nursing staff who aren’t able to work front line are now taking calls.

If his job is on the line he can use this time to apply elsewhere. Lots of places are hiring at the moment. London ambulance service is looking for volunteers to handle calls. Supermarkets etc.

Maybe they are saying this to you because that would make two key workers living there.

Many people who can work from home have been specifically told, you have to work without distractions. Many are key workers who will need somewhere else for their child to go.

It's not free childcare, it's school and when people take a job they calculate whether they can afford to work - if they had to pay for child care it's likely they'd say no - the Gov do not want them to have to make this decision - rightly so! Of course they could make it about the number of parents but we need to "keep it simple stupid"!

Sil is on reception - I'd say she's a key worker, she's not paid a fortune (not enough to pay out for childcare) but her dcs are now old enough to stay at home, so they won't go in. We need all NHS staff - if we didn't they shouldn't have their jobs - wind your neck in, this isn't your fight. And move on from you friend - she deserves better!

I know someone who works in NHS procurement, she has been told by boss that she is a key worker and that she will be redeployed to wherever they need resources. So YABU on that front
However if her partner does not need to go to work (can wfh) then the children should stay at home

Give it a few weeks and this school babysitting service will spontaneously combust as more teachers and TA's have to self isolate.

What worries me is all these overly controlling busy bodies forcing their views on everyone else - the op is a perfect example - their controlling nature seem to be growing as fast as the fucking virus.

I would have thought that any NHS employee would prefer their children being looked after at home by their partner instead of school where they’re at risk of potentially contracting the infection, it is odd that she chose this.

But at the same time we don’t know her thought process to judge. There could be a reasonable explanation. I don’t think she’s necessarily gaming the system but I do think her partner should step up.

Thanks for those saying my friend deserves better. I'll bear that in mind.

Is no one else annoyed at those making use of 'childcare' when they don't necessarily need it? My friend may well be drafted in to a different area but, as it stands, hasn't and is going in on Monday on the full understanding that she's to get on with things as usual, when her area has practically ground to a standstill. She may well be sat in an office with nothing to do, fully able to work from home but not allowed to do so.

And..there's little point in any Manager of any team making a decision if no-one in that team is told about it.
Ergo: the NHS PA is a key worker.

I don't think name calling is necessary, Copper. I just sought other people's opinions as to whether I was being unreasonable. It seems to be a mixed bag so I'll support my friend as needed and hope to god her husband steps up.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You don't work in the NHS do you OP?

I worked in the NHS for a long time, Winged. I'm in awe of the sacrifices being made by our frontline staff but still believe that people, even in the NHS, aren't taking this seriously and are all too willing to send their children to childcare when they are able to stay at home.

What’s her partner’s job?

Engineer in manufacturing which has closed until further notice.

OP, you, like so many others since the announcement of the key worker list, seem so bitter that so many more people are classed as key workers than you presumed. Hospitals need admin staff or they can't function. Same as they need cleaners, porters, maintenance teams etc etc.

My problem with the situation you describe is that as her husband is wfh they are not in need emergency childcare. Your problem with it seems focussed on the fact that she is classed as a key worker at all. As others have said, if the shit really hits the fan, she won't be sat there twiddling her thumbs and she'll probably be wishing she wasn't a key worker after all.

@McDougal
I don't think name calling is necessary, Copper. Where?

Why isn’t her partner looking after the kids?

There are two types of people in life.those who looks for what they can take and those who look for what they can give.