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.

@noblegiraffe

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.

Specifically what is it you’re wanting those specific policy officials to do with this sense of shame you hope that they feel? Just refuse to write the guidance as the minister wants it? Book desks for their whole team months in advance to be in the office five days a week, in breach of their policies on flexible working that existed pre-pandemic, and hope that it somehow gets approved (and that it only takes desk availability from officials working on policy areas who wouldn’t be ‘utterly taking the piss’ by working from home those days) and then somehow let all the teachers know about it, so that when the teacher get given the guidance and told they’ve to follow it by their own bosses they don’t feel that it ‘utterly takes the piss’? Buy a bigger office for the department with their own wages?

So if you are now leaving your job, how will you feel if there is another lockdown, and you may now be in the privileged position of being able to stay at home?

DH WFH from lockdown 1 and is now going to be working a hybrid model of some time in the office and some time at home. Yes he has been privileged to be able to do that, although all the managers in his business, including him, took a pay cut to try and reduce the number of employees who had to go on furlough and ensure no-one had to be made redundant.

I have a voluntary role in education which I continued throughout and did still go into schools (although did start to do some of my role online too) so not sure whether I count as unpaid cannon fodder

Interesting idea for a thread. I work in a team which is mainly community based, but does provide a service into an inpatient unit. I was the sole therapist left on the inpatient unit working directly with patients. All the others switched to virtual consultations for community work.
I certainly felt like the team’s cannon fodder and I can’t get past that feeling 😢

I am so grateful that I kept my job through all of this. I really feel for those that were forced out of a job when the government shut them down.

The problem is I never wanted to be protected by others but had no choice and I am still not able to return to the office.

Whilst I realise I am in a good position relative to others this was not my choice.

Covid is the shit that keeps on giving.

@FrippEnos

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.

Do you just not know what civil servants are? Or how government guidance gets issued, or who’s responsible for it?

MiddleParking

Specifically what is it you’re wanting those specific policy officials to do with this sense of shame you hope that they feel? Just refuse to write the guidance as the minister wants it? Book desks for their whole team months in advance to be in the office five days a week, in breach of their policies on flexible working that existed pre-pandemic, and hope that it somehow gets approved (and that it only takes desk availability from officials working on policy areas who wouldn’t be ‘utterly taking the piss’ by working from home those days) and then somehow let all the teachers know about it, so that when the teacher get given the guidance and told they’ve to follow it by their own bosses they don’t feel that it ‘utterly takes the piss’? Buy a bigger office for the department with their own wages?

An unintentionally ironic post, a lot of these issue were asked about by teachers and their unions.

The response of the DfE was just to get on with it.

but it is interesting how you now think that its relevant where they were just not relevant before.

@Onandoff Do you think that being a bit inconvenienced at home is the same as putting your health at risk? Really? I stayed at home shielding disabled children not leaving the house other than the garden for five months then being incredibly careful. But yeah it was just a bit inconvenient my dh wfh.

@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?

True, it would have been much better if all of the parents of those children had been out and about at work as not to annoy those who had to leave the house for work.

Yes, exactly - what’s ironic is teachers of all people levelling weird, baseless accusations at civil servants (public sector workers with little agency over their own working conditions) who absolutely aren’t at fault, rather than the ministers they’re working to who absolutely are! I’ve not criticised teachers at all, except that specific one who wants my colleagues to ‘feel ashamed’ of themselves for doing their jobs properly in the conditions they’re permitted.

MiddleParking

You have clearly missed the point of my post. But nevermind.

Just think how easy it will be to outsource the jobs where you can wfh

If jobs are outsourced then the OP can complain about not only having to pay off the furlough costs for years but also benefits for all the people unemployed.

Very sorry about your mum, OP.

Keyworkers have had a hard time, some exceedingly hard indeed.

The pandemic has shown up many inequalities in this country.

@MiddleParking

Yes, exactly - what’s ironic is teachers of all people levelling weird, baseless accusations at civil servants (public sector workers with little agency over their own working conditions) who absolutely aren’t at fault, rather than the ministers they’re working to who absolutely are! I’ve not criticised teachers at all, except that specific one who wants my colleagues to ‘feel ashamed’ of themselves for doing their jobs properly in the conditions they’re permitted.

Do you work for the DfE?

I don't think it's a class thing.

I'm what you would probably call middle class. Self employed and unable to work from home, my business went under, the self employment help initially was awful and I went into a lot of debt.

My partners from a working class background, he was front line and has said that actually going out to work everyday has saved his mental health.

My Mum's partner were furloughed but struggled to pay for everything on 80%. They're now in a lot of debt as well and won't be able to retire and have to get the debt paid off.

My inlaws on the other hand are what they call typical working class. They aren't paid amazingly but were furloughed, they say they had a great time and saved a lot of money. They're now looking at retiring and travelling around the country.

@FrippEnos

MiddleParking

You have clearly missed the point of my post. But nevermind.

No, I haven’t. The ‘Department for Education’, as in civil servants personally, didn’t tell you anything; sorry that you and your pal have misunderstood the chain of accountability and think that they did, but that’s not the fault of those civil servants.

Do you work for the DfE?

No, a different department.

I am actually glad I had to go out into the world and work throughout. It gave some level of normality to my life and I don't feel overly fearful of the virus. However, I am lucky that even though family members in their 80s caught it none passed away so realise I haven't got direct trauma from it. Many of my friends that completely cut themselves off as could work from home and get food deliveries etc are still terrifed and have lost touch with realism. Quite a lot are suffering with mental health issues such as anxiety and OCD which they didn't have before. I had no choice but to just go to work and get on with it so the world opening up isn't so scary to me.

"I feel that those who went out to work should be financially compensated for the risk we took"

I feel that those who were forced to be isolated at home with no other face to face contact for months on end should be financially compensated for the sacrifices they made.

Fixed that for you.

It has been hard for everyone, but what "key workers" (and it was a VERY wide definition) seem to forget is that most of them were able to carry on much as normal whilst everyone else was forced to stay at home.

I'm a fan of civil servants. It was one of them who wrote that legendary tweet which still gets retweeted every day!

I was initially working from home, but for some people WFH wasn't viable so they had to come back to the office and since June last year I've had to go in 2-3 days a week to supervise them. We provide an essential service so there was no possibility of furlough. It's been a really strange experience working with 12 other people in a building that usually holds around 1000.

One of my DS is an ICU nurse, so, obviously, has been working flat out for the duration. I worry about the long-term effects on his mental health - yeah, I know some will argue medics signed up for this, but I don't think any of them expected to endure what they have over the last 18 months.

I'm not sure about the idea of tax breaks, and I do appreciate the support most people have given to key workers, but at the same time it would be nice to have some recognition of the risks we have taken.

And not only did I have to go out to work full time with a 20% pay cut, but I also wasn’t a key worker so my children didn’t get a school place. So DH had to work full time from home while I was out at work, homeschooling 2 kids and looking after a toddler.
Shit for everyone.

MiddleParking

You did miss the point but you clearly have a bee in your bonnet.

So I will leave you to it.

@FrippEnos

MiddleParking

You did miss the point but you clearly have a bee in your bonnet.

So I will leave you to it.

Again, no, I didn’t. But that would be great, thanks.

My son who is a delivery driver has been in work every day delivering food. However the lawyers in the family have been in a real physical office too or at home with small children trying to work whilst looking after them which is much worse than going out to work for sure.

One thing is for sure sole traders (like I am) on over £50k before tax got no covid grant help at all whereas employees on even £1m a year could get furlough money so there are certainly anomalies.