Literally why am I a key worker?

[Esmerelda01]

I'm feeling so frustrated today.

I work for a large multi national retailer which is currently classed as an essential shop as we sell predominantly food.
My role is absolutely not key, I dont contribute to feeding the nation, to getting the food on the shelves, to checking the quality or assisting in the logistics of it arriving. However the entire company has been classed as key workers, all 16,000 of us which just seems crazy.
Dh is a key worker and cannot work from home (he works in Fire protection predominantly in care homes).
There's so much pressure coming in rom all angles regarding not sending dc to school if you WFH. I wfh 80%, of the week but work will not allow me to look after / home school my 6yo as they say there is no requirement due to my KW status.

I feel like such a fraud. The worst thing is the school know what job I do at the head office and that I work from home and I feel pathetic.

Work have now told me I am to lie and say I've been moved to one of the teams that feed the nation if my status is queried.

I feel physically sick all the time, like im putting dc and his teachers at risk, at what the school must think of me and at the fact that my company are being so inconsiderate.
They told me if I really want to have him off I can take unpaid leave - what for the next 3 months?! We have a mortgage and bills to pay.

The whole key worker thing needs a massive review. It's just a massive joke the whole thing.

@Esmerelda01

I have been set up from home in the exact same position for 10 months. If I suddenly move to an area of the house where she won't be in the background its going to be extremely obvious. Its not a case if "absolutely have ti talk to people". I have on average 4 meetings on teams per day during my working day. Many 1 on 1s, some with more in but we don't switch our cameras off. I could probably get away with hiding it for a day or 2, not 6 weeks or more.

Do you really think people will notice? Blur your background. Say the WiFi is better in this spot. Seriously, people go from meeting to meeting and see background after background. No one will care that your laptop faces a different way, or probably even notice it.

Use a virtual background. I work in education (non school) and that's what we do on calls. You see me but nothing in the background including kids, cats etc.

In this case as the work can be done at home the child should be at home. In a wider example it simply isn't possible to limit keyworker status to those directly employed in the process of food production, as a number of other roles are essentially for keeping these employees safe, paid, and willing to work. Those processing the ever changing (due to shop floor workers working overtime to cover self isolating colleagues) payroll and the HR teams are certainly just as essential to the continued operation as those who are directly involved in food production, transportation and sale.

There's an office looking one or you can create one with eg company logo

This is bollocks.
Of course you could arrange things so she isn’t on screen during your Teams meetings. Like thousands of us are having to do.

And fwiw our school was very accommodating to begin with. A friend of mine, key worker working from home for the council, was given all 5 days but then 3 of those taken back off her as school had ended up with too many. Your work cannot expect your dc to have a full time school space when you work from home

I'd also be having 'wifi problems' and having my camera off as much as possible.

I really feel for you OP.

But also feel angry that the government gets the blame for everything when things like this are going on . It’s your employer that should feel ashamed.

Could you tell school the situation and suggest that they could say they don't have room for your child because of too many key worker or vulnerable children needing places?

Name your employer on here @Esmerelda01

This is an anonymous forum. Then someone from HQ can come on here and deny it and you will have the result you want. Nobody's going to come after you.

The question isn't Why are you a keyworker, because the simple answer is you are not. The question is why are you colluding with your employers fraudulent pretence that you are a keyworker?

No but I have to take unpaid leave if I choose not to send her

But how do they know? Just keep her at home while you work - unless you have back to back calls all day? But if you just get on with work from home, I can't see the issue. She's not so little that she needs constant supervision.

Take a photo of the usual scene you're sitting in front of and use that as your background.

OP I think you're being very thoughtful in thinking of the wider community not just yourself.

I've moved three times in my house for various reasons. Nobody cares

@Unsure33

I really feel for you OP.

But also feel angry that the government gets the blame for everything when things like this are going on . It’s your employer that should feel ashamed.

Yet it's the government who has supplied no narrative, let alone sanctions, to businesses that are contributing to the increased transmission of the virus by making staff to into the workplace when they can wfh.

And the government who created the list of 'key workers' and 'vulnerable children' which is so broad it includes nearly every job and nearly every child in the country.

The government should get the blame. Hoping that even one of the psychopaths in the cabinet might feel shame is pushing it though.

@BargainCunt

Name your employer on here *@Esmerelda01*

This is an anonymous forum. Then someone from HQ can come on here and deny it and you will have the result you want. Nobody's going to come after you.

I don't think this is good advice.

It can be scarily easy to identify people from even small amounts of personal info.

Seems unreasonable from your employer tbh.

I work for one of the big banks - financial services are on the list, however, we are not all key workers. My employer recognises they have a responsibility to limit the number of people with that designation therefore only specific cohorts of employees are given key worker letters (branch staff, some call centre staff, few very business critical head office roles)

Yep name and shame OP.

Perhaps the OP has read the numerous threads on mumsnet slagging off keyworkers taking up places at school when they don't 'need' to. Plenty of them on here sadly.

As someone who has the job of caring for them and educating them, I’ll happily slag of parents who send their children to school when they don’t need to. The OP does need to though, if she’s been classed as a key worker then that’s that, it’s not my place to judge. I might privately be of the opinion that the government has given shit guidelines, but I’m not too stupid to understand the difficult position that many parents are in. I save the slagging off for the parents who I know for a fact are sending their children in based on having one key worker parent when the other is a SAHP.

The problem is that your work is correct, you can't work and care for/homeschool a 6 year old. Across the nation there are unhappy employers because they are paying workers in full to wfh but the staff aren't able to give it even 50% attention, meanwhile young kids are being borderline neglected and certainly have way too much screen time and not enough supervision. It's an impossible situation brought upon by this virus. The best solution all around is to limit are non essential contacts to none and take the vaccine when offered - don't feel guilty about the school place, just ensure you do everything that is in your power to help eg stick to the rules

Some schools aren’t allowing key worker kids go to school if parents are wfh regardless of key worker status. So you could tell your work that.

Work have now told me I am to lie and say I've been moved to one of the teams that feed the nation if my status is queried.
Your employer cannot make you tell a lie. You are solely responsible for your own behaviour.

Could you keep them home and just not tell your company?

And if they hear your Dd in the background tell them your dh is home and homeschooling? They can’t prove anything. They should be a bit more understandable. Ok, so you might only be working at maybe 80% capacity but could you put a few more hours in at an evening or weekend to make up for that?

I have a similar issue with the vaccine rollout. My company has a number of frontline employees in health and social care who can't work from home and who should absolutely get priority for the vaccine. Then there are lots like me who only work from home not in a frontline role. And yet, we've had an email from senior management telling us that they're pushing for ALL the staff to gave priority for the vaccine regardless of their role.