Those of us who were ‘cannon fodder’- how do you feel?

[Onandoff]

I went to a gathering the other day with people who were privileged enough to still be working from home in highly paid city jobs. Their experiences were a stark contrast with mine. It was interesting to hear how protected they’d been, many still getting shopping delivered and only just resuming socialising. They hadn’t been on public transport at all. There was a general air of resentment at being asked to go back to offices and commute. They’d all saved money and were very worried about covid exposure despite being vaccinated. Apparently many workers have completely refused to return.

DH and I were the only key workers there and it brought home how exposed we’d been. Literally all of our family and colleagues caught it and some died or were left disabled. My mum died. In the hospital where I work 80% caught it in the first wave alone.

It’s been interesting to see through this that the jobs essential to society are (generally, appreciate some exceptions like medics) the worst paid. If we’d refused to go in or been redeployed we’d have been sacked. While the privileged middle class are still being pandered to despite vaccination.

I feel that those who went out to work should be financially compensated for the risk we took. At the very least we should be given tax breaks and not be expected to cough up for furlough costs.

Things I loved about the first lockdown:
No traffic on the road
Petrol prices were very low
Sort of grateful not to be stuck at home and have some normality
Seeing all my colleagues pull together

Things I hated:
Being spat at when I was on the door making people queue
Being threatened physically and verbally on a daily basis
Seeing my colleagues at breaking point because the public can't behave reasonably
Witnessing people's selfish behaviour and panic buying
Being scared that I'd catch covid and take it home to my family because we had no ppe
Leaving my kids for 16 hour shifts some days so we could keep ungrateful people fed

I'm in retail and I wouldn't recommend it during a pandemic because people are just rude and entitled.

This isn’t the nicest of threads is it.

@Wooollffff

A comment about civil servants.

It is untrue that civil servants are refusing to go back. I have managed to negotiate going back to the office 2 days a week, but that is only by claiming that WFH is affecting my mental health. Even so, my line manager has to send a form in once a week to state the reasons why it is ‘essential’ to enable me to do so. I am ‘reminded’ that I am potentially taking a space from a colleague with a greater need.

At the office there is a one way system, every other desk is taped off and only a few floors are open. Most meeting rooms, break out areas and lunch rooms are closed or heavily restricted. We have to wear masks when not at our desks.

I was speaking to a colleague based in Wales who is not allowed back at all. Many civil servants would like to go back but it is very difficult without jumping through hoops.

I'm not in the public sector, but work for a non-profit not in the UK and it's similar here. Some employers go further than their governments.

Of course, the bosses are able to designate themselves essential or not as they feel like it and to use the excuse that nobody else is there to go in themselves or the fact that they have their own offices.
I laugh at the idea that those working from home have the 'privilege'.

I had to continue working out of the house full time and take a 20% pay cut so yeah, I was a bit pissed off by it all.

I worked in our office throughout, as did another older lady. We still had to deal with visitors, post etc etc, and other randoms. At one point there were us 2 and the rest of our company wfh. Gradually more people have returned to the (new smaller) office. Some are ‘anxious/terrified’ about returning. What pisses me off are these people oddly aren’t anxious about the holiday to Ibiza they’ve been on, the leaving do for one of the lasses in accounts in the local Indian last Friday and their numerous social gatherings.
‘Oh there’ll be too many people’ only seems to affect them where the office is concerned.

A lot of this ‘reluctance’ is due to them giving up Childminders and breakfast clubs it seems.

@QueenHofScotland

This isn’t the nicest of threads is it.

Agreed it’s full of I had harder than you posts . I think we can all agree it’s been hard for everyone.

So you're saying that it's not true that civil servants are mithering about a return to work when we've also seen ministers publicly threaten them with pay cuts if they refuse to do so?

Is it true that teachers were refusing to teach and teaching unions refusing to reopen schools? After all, we’ve seen ministers stomping their feet in their tabloids about it a lot, haven’t we?

Public sector staff, in civil service and in teaching and in lots of other jobs, do not generally, have the power to just say “nah not doing that” when their contract says otherwise.

@noblegiraffe

Thinking DfE policy officials who happen to be writing guidance on classroom hygiene ought to feel ‘shame’ for your working environment because they work from home some of the time (in the way they did pre-pandemic, given the limited office capacity the other poster mentioned that long predates it) is laughable

Yes, I think they should feel shame for writing guidelines that utterly take the piss regardless of whose orders they're following, particularly if they, themselves are mitherers.

Oh dear. Well, I hope you’re not counting on it.

@Onandoff you sound very traumatised. I’m sorry you want to leave the profession, you’re not the only one. When this started I knew we would face an exodus of staff at the end; morale, pay and conditions were already rock bottom before COVID-19 hit, with demand through the roof and growing every year.

I’m a doctor and entirely understand why you feel this way. It wasn’t just continuing to go into work in a pandemic, it was the lack of PPE and other compromises that were knowingly made with the health of staff who were dealing with people with COVID-19 that grated. The fact these issue continue to be unaddressed is just a further kick in the teeth. The financial disparity between keyworkers and others through this period is easy to focus on and does need addressing, but it’s about more than the money. It’s about recognising the gambles taken with the lives of staff, sending them out to see people under-supported and under-equipped and making changes now so people can feel safe in their jobs again rather than expecting healthcare staff to risk their lives and be heroes. The problem is those changes aren’t happening quickly enough and people are already leaving.

I worked face to face with Swine Flu and Ebola patients during those pandemics and with other deadly infections diseases (Marburg, CCHF etc). I had better PPE, better support to do my job, better financial support for my family in place if I died and so felt more comfortable doing this. I can’t say the same for the PPE and precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic, and terms and conditions have eroded so much in the past 20 years that the risk faced is no longer worth the money. We might start out in the profession with a vocation, enthusiasm, and willingness to put medicine and the patient first. But at some point everyone considers whether the sacrifices they are making are worth it. Many were planning to leave before the pandemic. COVID-19 is enough to convince many more that the answer to that question is ‘no’. While I’m not leaving immediately, I’m actively considering changing my working life and moving away from frontline work.

I hope things within the system change or we will lose so many staff. Forgive me if I am speaking out of turn, but perhaps find some emotional or therapeutic support for yourself. It’s unlikely to hurt and may help you come to terms with the awful things you’ve experienced.

I agree with you, OP. I feel very angry at how we’ve been treated and I do feel like cannon fodder. If businesses still use ‘Covid’ as an excuse for bad service, I vote with my feet. It’s usually because their employees are still WFH and I have no patience left.

grasstreeleaf

That's inaccurate. The offices often don't have capacity for everybody coming into work.

Yet schools are open for classes of 36+ pupils. Plus teacher + TAs (if available) can you not see why some sectors are pissed off?

@GoldenOmber

So you're saying that it's not true that civil servants are mithering about a return to work when we've also seen ministers publicly threaten them with pay cuts if they refuse to do so?

Is it true that teachers were refusing to teach and teaching unions refusing to reopen schools? After all, we’ve seen ministers stomping their feet in their tabloids about it a lot, haven’t we?

Public sector staff, in civil service and in teaching and in lots of other jobs, do not generally, have the power to just say “nah not doing that” when their contract says otherwise.

Wouldn’t you think a teacher would have more sense than to just believe what their mate or the odd rogue minister says about a particular group of public sector workers?! It beggars belief.

@FrippEnos

grasstreeleaf

That's inaccurate. The offices often don't have capacity for everybody coming into work.

Yet schools are open for classes of 36+ pupils. Plus teacher + TAs (if available) can you not see why some sectors are pissed off?

Not at policy advisors, no

Some people appear to think that furlough was just a nice holiday. It wasn’t. They need to understand the realities of the situation in which many of us found ourselves.

I was furloughed for a total of 8 months between April 20 & April 21. The reason for this was that my job, my colleagues’ jobs, and the entire industry in which we worked ceased to exist overnight, through no fault of our own. Tens of thousands of people in our industry were made redundant, and many will never find work in it again. I am one of the fortunate few who managed to cling on and next month I will earn my full salary for the first time in 18 months. I had many sleepless nights worrying about whether I would still have a job when normality returned.

Oh dear. Well, I hope you’re not counting on it

The DfE should be very aware that the conduct of the DfE (not just Gav) throughout this pandemic has caused/exacerbated a huge rift between the teaching profession and the government department that is in charge of it and should be seeking desperately to build bridges as I'm assuming that a good relationship between a government department and the workforce is necessary for the smooth enactment of policy.

To hear that the DfE itself may not actually give a shit isn't entirely surprising.

@SurferRona

But *@Birminghambloke and @EmilyEmmabob*, the infection data doesn’t actually bear out an increased risk- though it seems intuitive to us that it should... JVCI had a lot of evidence and carefully considered occupational risk as part of the vaccine rollout. Age was the key risk then underlying health conditions for catching covid and having serious health consequences. Occupation did not. In fact, isn’t it the case that with heightened concern, mitigation and protective measures as knowledge grew of covid in occupations better protected them? Versus the general population I mean. And I still think further protection steps could have been taken, especially schools. Transmission was (and still is I think) predominantly driven by in home contact, in households and families. Generally not in workplaces which had to remain open. As PP said, this has been a lottery. I’d like to see social carers paid more, and know what a tough time teachers have had too- a tough job made so much worse in pandemic, even those who were teaching remotely. But we will all need to pay for this- including the Amazons, and big supermarkets who benefitted.

Just to say, I agree on all you say. A well written post. The reality has been counterintuitive. My workplace had no cases. We all took all precautions. My risk assessment processes were exemplary (supported by following exemplary guidance and models) and everyone kept to these in work/on site- and importantly, possibly more importantly (exactly as you say), did not breach guidance outside of work/ in own home lives.

Being in work throughout continued my sense of purpose, when all else was so uncertain! Plus, I was doing what I normally would, just in more surreal circumstances. The commute was great with little traffic on the roads.

@LaurieFairyCake

Lovely to see the remnants of the hell that is Thatcherism alive and well on this thread

Turn all the people who work against each other rather than focus on the 1-2% who've literally made millions/billions in the case of Amazon's Bezos

Vote Tory get Toryism.

@QueenHofScotland

This isn’t the nicest of threads is it.

It's rather grim and downright nasty in places.

I worked at home while homeschooling kids, I had to close my business as it was impossible, I didn’t qualify for furlough or any help whatsoever from the government. My dh had to continue to work throughout, he also runs his own business, no furlough, no help except a loan that took 5m to show up and we used to pay overdue tax as no one was paying invoices. So we’re more in debt now than ever, living on savings since January 2020.

I was jealous of key workers as their children were still in school while my 8 year old developed depression, anxiety and intrusive thoughts homeschooling during lockdown. Key workers still got to go to work and get paid, as limited company owners we worked for no money to keep our buildings from going under. Key workers got free services such as fee mobile phone tariffs, we got to face the prospect of bankruptcy and losing our house and livelihood. Many small business owners have lost everything.

No one had it easy.

@Knittingupastorm

I genuinely just laugh at the people trembling at the thought of going back to the office fully vaccinated who have no clinical vulnerability, I think "what a twat" and move on.

How compassionate. I’m not one of those people but if they are “trembling” as opposed to just fussing, then they will be genuinely scared and almost certainly wish they weren’t.
They may not be being rational, but it doesn’t make them twats either.

18 months stuck at home is going to have mental health repercussions for many, or at the least trepidation/anxiety regarding returning to normal.

DH and I are emergency services (not healthcare) and there were times we did feel irritated with furloughed relatives complaining or being dramatic but at the same time, going out to work was a welcome distraction
Particularly now that some of said relatives do not think they require the jab NAH ITLL BE FINE.

MiddleParking

Not at policy advisors, no confused

Even when the policy advisors are at home, and telling people to work in environments that do not have the same mitigations as other keyworkers?

And lets be honest about these "policy advisors". Some of them were un elected pressure groups that should have be told to get to fuck.

I've been furloughed since Mar20. On 80% of my basic salary with no shift allowances so overall around a 40% cut in income. I've struggled to pay my mortgage. My savings are all but gone. I'm starting unpaid leave in 2 weeks as furlough ends. How much extra tax should I pay?

@Unfashionable

Some people appear to think that furlough was just a nice holiday. It wasn’t. They need to understand the realities of the situation in which many of us found ourselves.

I was furloughed for a total of 8 months between April 20 & April 21. The reason for this was that my job, my colleagues’ jobs, and the entire industry in which we worked ceased to exist overnight, through no fault of our own. Tens of thousands of people in our industry were made redundant, and many will never find work in it again. I am one of the fortunate few who managed to cling on and next month I will earn my full salary for the first time in 18 months. I had many sleepless nights worrying about whether I would still have a job when normality returned.

I think there were different groups of those furloughed. Those, like yourself, facing anxiety caused by uncertainty. Facing a different future. It’s been truly awful. Some though with guaranteed jobs and having some temporary ‘time off’ to save businesses salaries. Within these businesses some continued to work, ‘carrying’ workload of furloughed colleagues sunning themselves in their gardens. Resentment occurs even within organisations.

There is real inequity within roles and groups within this pandemic. We see these with the blanket NHS vaccination priority, where those WFH were vaccinated ahead of front facing colleagues. The only fairness was age or underlying medical condition (as it should be).

ODFOD

If you are jealous, go and find yourself one of these cushty jobs. Don't blame other people for your lifestyle choices.

You make a lot of assumptions too

Lots of low paid workers, such as charity workers, also worked from home throughout, certainly not just the 'middle class'

And those who work in offices are not all 'middle class' either

I know plenty of people who caught covid who weren't key workers, including two people who have worked entirely from home throughout and have no relatives in this country. They are one of those couples you sneeringly refer to as still getting their shopping delivered - that's still a risk too, didn't you know?

I lost my aunt to Covid, she was shielding and her family were also WFH and trying to keep away from her but she still got it. Its not just key workers who get it. So I find your reference to key workers being 'cannon fodder' very offensive. We have all suffered in different ways.