Key workers WFH vs Non Key Workers WFH

[ChickenPot]

Is there a difference?

Have seen a few threads of key workers WFH mentioning sending their children to school. However, having been WFH since March but not classified as a key worker this hasn't been an option.

Surely there's no difference? I assumed a key worker was someone who had to work on the frontline, aka not able to do their job from home and therefore allowances had to be made.

But if not, what constitutes as a key worker then?

Doesn't seem very fair on those who have been struggling to juggle keeping down a job alongside home schooling throughout the lockdowns. It's as though your job is important enough that you have to keep working throughout the pandemic, but not important enough for any help.

I would actually be in complete agreement with some of the posters here, you're a key worker if the country depends on you doing your job correctly.

Is it that simple though?

Lots of key workers rely on non-key workers to do their jobs. So the non-key workers are still required to work as normal but without any of the key-worker support in place.

Surely if they’re very little (enough to be calling to have their bum wiped) they would be in nursery as usual. Primary children other than the very youngest Reception can be in the next room and told to sit and draw quietly for some phone calls. Or on a device watching their teacher another educational resource for a bit.

@ConfusedDotty

My company insists we are key workers to justify cramming people into the office. We are not key workers, each and every one of us is set up to work from home, we all worked from home in the first lock down. It's just yet another greedy greedy business without any care for its staff.

Hats off to all the real key workers.

Yes I've heard of companies doing this! To ensure workers are in the office rather than working from home.

I'm still amazed how against working from home some companies are! I think in some places it depends on your manager too. So I know a few people who work in the civil service, and some offices are allowing work from home and some aren't. Those that are in the office have been called key workers, yet the people working from
home doing the same job aren't and aren't able to send their kids to school.

Perhaps HR workers are in care home or NHS?
My employer told us we were all key workers, even those not providing direct support to clients.
I thought I should go without last time. I saw 2 friends take places - one was a taxi driver whose partner was furloughed. The other was NHS admin with partner in non key worker role who got 2 days childcare from grandparents too.
So I won't feel ashamed to push for a space this time. No family support, both work full time and partner significant health problems.

@vanillandhoney

I would actually be in complete agreement with some of the posters here, you're a key worker if the country depends on you doing your job correctly.

Is it that simple though?

Lots of key workers rely on non-key workers to do their jobs. So the non-key workers are still required to work as normal but without any of the key-worker support in place.

I get what you mean.

I believe I probably fall into that category. It's tough. I think to justify it throughout the last lockdown I've been thinking of key workers more as those on the front line, and thinking I'm lucky I can be in the safety of my own home. It just feels a little different this time. Maybe because im so exhausted!!!

I’m a key worker WFH.

My work keeps A&E running. Staff, flow, pathways, performance breaches from the day before, monitoring covid sickness so we know staffing levels in the department.

No way in the world I could do that with my kids at home. I have done before and it was awful.

@ChickenPot I agree with you- there are some roles which, to me, do not justify it at all. My friend is in HR for a utilities company, working from home- and she’s a key worker. DH has a complex and very demanding role delivering key school and healthcare infrastructure- but he’s not classed as a key worker.

My other friend is a teacher. Required to work 1 day a week in the school. The rest of the time she’s going to be wfh setting remote work. Is openly saying that she will do this in the evenings when her kids are asleep, despite having a childcare place during the day. This has genuinely upset me- her DC is the same age as mine, and hers will inevitably benefit developmentally from the place, whereas my DC will struggle at home with 2 parents who are trying to wfh. Her husband is not a key worker and is also wfh.

I guess the issue is that cases can’t be assessed on an individual level- there need to be arbitrary ‘lines in the sand’. I am trying to not spiral into overthinking this, as I don’t want to fall out with friends or have a ‘them/ us’ mindset. Would rather direct my anger at our utterly useless government.

I work in IT and deal with the NHS on a regular basis, a lot of their IT staff work from home, without them the NHS would struggle. These are the people keeping the patient records and booking systems accessible by GPs and nurses, the whole lights on and computers working in the surgeries and hospitals.

The people I work with have out kids into schools, some don't.

Sit and draw quietly in the next room 🤣🤣🤣
I have to conduct hour long assessments with homeless people, already much tougher over the phone, while typing notes. My year 1 child would Def be barging in begging for attention after 20 minutes. It's not normal for children to be able to look after themselves for hours at a time.

I also think allof us have now adjusted our expectations of work phone calls during the pandemic. Only a dickhead would complain to a company because they could hear a child in the background. Ive been at work and had someone call me back because they were working from home and having a problem which they wouldn’t have had if they’d been in the office. We’re all much more understanding of this type of interruption, and more informal way of working, or should be. I know my mum seems to find it charming when speaking to her oncologist on the phone if he apologises for calling later than planned due to doing something with his daughter.

@CurlyhairedAssassin by DC’s nursery are probably closing to all but key workers due to staff shortages.

I’m not prepared to spend the day telling a 5 year old to shush, go away, be quiet, leave me alone. Older sibling is revising for GCSEs (or was) so she can’t watch younger ones. Our head is very strict on key worker status and was more than happy to take mine.

@TreesoftheField I get that in some circumstances you have a point. But other people are saying things like “I have to concentrate when writing my report”.

DH is a key worker working away for a few months, I am a non key worker WFH full time. Really nervous about managing home schooling, I've been told we are eligible as DH is a key worker and the ridiculous guidance only stipulates one of two live in parents to be a key worker, but I just don't think it's right. Sending them to school as key worker children would be to make my life easier, a non key worker, DH is away regardless so isn't impacted.

They should have stipulated both parents (where there's 2) key workers. I won't go as far as saying they have to work outside the home as I know some key workers are doing really intensive tricky tasks at home that would be difficult with children home, but the role needs to carry on.

Our head is very strict on key worker status and was more than happy to take mine.

I’m pretty sure this isn’t a discussion about cases like yours then?

I think it makes it even more confusing that schools appear to have different criteria they are working off too.

Some are being very strict, has to be both parents etc. But others not so much.

But if you go to your school and say you're a key worker. Do they really have the right to say nope don't think so, not in our eyes.

We aren't sending ours in FYI, it's shit, it's tough, and Christ is it exhausting. But we done it before, we'll just do it again.

I'm hearings some schools will have about 50-60% capacity anyway this time, so I'd say they'll prob get stricter if it carries on longer than the 6 weeks (cant even bear to fathom right now)

I am a 'keyworker' WFH as I have since March. Our Head teacher has said if you work from home, you need to keep your child at home.
DS dad is not a keyworker also, so would be expected to homeschool.
The school have said they only want children in school if the parents have absolutely no other option.

I don't disagree with your points that other workers need childcare too.

I'm going to be teaching a full timetable live from Weds (I don't work Tuesdays) and I will need to send my three year old into nursery to enable me to do that. I will still have my 8month old baby with me for two of my teaching days though, so that will be interesting.

Parents understandably have much higher expectations of online learning this time round, so my March 2020 method of uploading the lessons the previous evening, responding to queries whilst caring for my children during the day, then planning and marking as soon as they went to bed isn't doing to be enough this time.

I’m pretty sure this isn’t a discussion about cases like yours then?

Sorry I thought I was on a thread about key workers WFH

I got a keyword letter from my employer (transport) but I am able to work from home. I got another key worker letter from my Army Reserve regiment, due to my duties. But I didn't need to use them as my DH could cope managing house and child. Everyone's different. Not everyone is so fortunate.

DH and I both class as key workers but both can wfh. Dh is mental health crisis worker for juveniles, so will be conducting MH assessments over video call with kids already in crisis. Sometimes he needs to attend physical apts with very little notice if he is concerned. I'm a police officer who manages covid response for my division and also juvenile knife crime. A lot of my video calls are around organised crime activity with very sensitive intelligence and personal details. Neither of those are suitable for my almost 8 year old to hear. We live in a very small house. One of us works in kitchen and one in bedroom, so DS is likely to overhear us at some point. But school aren't sure we will get a place this time because WFH.

[quote CurlyhairedAssassin]@TreesoftheField I get that in some circumstances you have a point. But other people are saying things like “I have to concentrate when writing my report”.[/quote]
@CurlyhairedAssassin

If someone is writing a report for court, they probably do need to concentrate!

On another thread people were bashing a teacher who was upset that her child wasn't allowed to go into school despite both her and her partner being a key worker but WFH and I couldn't believe people's responses to her. Honestly, there are a lot of jobs that can be done from home but cannot be done properly or securely unless there are no other people around. I am a teacher and am pretty sure I would have a lot of livid parents complaining that the lessons that are supposed to keep their children occupied and productive at home are inadequate, if I was to have my toddler at home and interrupting all my live lessons. There are also a lot of other jobs that are the same and yes, I agree, it is totally crap for anyone not classes as a key worked. During lockdown 1 my son didn't go to his childcare and I had to work all evening, but then we started live lessons and at this point you have to accept that I CANNOT do my Key worker job if he is present. I'm not saying non key-workers don't face that issue too, but there it is, life is unfair. As a teacher I wasn't at home during lockdown 2, instead I was mixing with hundreds of people a day and risking contracting Covid-19 much more so than many others, so do I think it's fair that I now have childcare but can work from home - yes.

I agree, OP. Frankly I think anyone paying taxes at this point is a critical worker, and some discretion is needed to allow them to at least be considered.

DH cannot WFH (his sector is exempted from the Stay Home rule, but not on the KW list) - so it's just me here, doing a demanding full-time job while trying to home school my 5 year old, and if nurseries shut again it'll be even worse (I know, because I already had to do it all through Spring).

"Key" or not, others have important responsibilities that are equally impossible to fulfill with young children around. I cannot do my job and provide a decent level of teaching at the same time. My private sector employer is paying me to do my job, not school my child.

I think front line absolutely should get first refusal, that's a given - but this blanket policy that discriminates between desk workers to the extent I can't even APPLY, is wrong. It's reasonable to question this when we ALL have to keep working to fund the system at this critical time.

I’m a key worker WFH. I work in utilities and I was given key worker status for emergencies when I have to leave home to do something on site. DH is in financial services but not a key worker, even though he’s been dealing with furlough payments and so I imagine those people who he is processing furlough payments he would be an essential worker. However, the main difference between my job and his is that I could get a call telling me I need to go on site and DH isn’t going to get that. DH, as a non-keyworker, has worked really hard through the pandemic, I’ve always understood that a lot of people are doing jobs which keep the country running, even if they aren’t listed as a keyworker. There are so many different reasons why someone is given key worker status but can still work at home.

We don’t have kids by the way, so not taking a place. However, if I was a single parent, I’d have to take the school place as I can’t predict when I need to go on site.