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.

I feel very angry about how carers were treated in particular. I work in a school and several of the children in had single mums who were carers. They had to nurse covid patients in their final hours, whilst they wore home made masks and a plastic pinny - knowing they had to bring that risk home to their child, for minimum wage.
People needed to stay home for the greater good and it was hard in many ways for many people but this country needs to really improve pay, coditions and training for carers and raise their status.

I agree op. My colleagues and I have asked to be regraded to a higher level of pay. They are shedding staff and the top bosses are worried.
I've told them I don't want their thanks, and constant emails praising us.I want cold hard cash.

It sounds like the people in the OP are oblivious to what life has been like for many of us. I totally get it. I really don't know what the answer is though. I worked from home but if I could have done a key worker job I would have, (tbf I have been volunteering for free at vaccination centres) - financially I am struggling and worried about the future. I don't really want to pay more of the furlough debt than anyone else. And I don't want to see people turning against each other when its really the dodgy ethics of the uber rich that should be under the microscope instead.

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.

Well no sorry. Far too difficult to draw that line. And many working at home were stressed out their boxes trying to educate, care for LOs, vulnerable parents, incredibly long hours, poor online IT, permanently being at work with a computer in the living room.

What I would like to see is proper support for Long Covid patients and extra support for children who've lost parents regardless of how they have lost them, covid, cancer, other illnesses.
Scandalous that bereaved parents benefit only lasts for a limited time 2 years or something.

I feel really happy that I could carry on going to work and my kids could go to school. My life didn’t change much in the essential structure and that kept me sane. I was so happy to leave the house.

Everyone on MN seems to feel thrown under the bus/thrown to the wolves/cannon fodder. Race to the bottom as usual on here!

I was paid for going out to work as a key worker. The exact same rate as before the pandemic. I didn’t save on travel or parking until I had many months ill where I paid a lot for various prescriptions (thanks covid). My husband was paid £15k more than me for his less stressful, less risky job and received regular bonuses to raise morale through the pandemic. I got a sandwich once from the captain Tom NHS fund.
Now I’m told by many ‘friends’ I shouldn’t be getting any pay rise whatsoever since so many people are out of work. I lost 6 months of my life bedbound from Covid caught at work. Colleagues have died, others took it home to their families who died. But I don’t know of anything else I can do.

@NeverTalkToStrangers

As an office/home worker I absolutely did appreciate the additional risk that factory, retail, refuse, healthcare, transport, utilities and other OOH workers were taking on in order to keep society functioning. My contribution was by staying at home at times of high risk to lessen the spread of disease and pressure on the NHS. Not nearly as difficult a task, and with no personal risk to me, but still a useful contribution.

I’m not impressed by the OOH workers I saw on MN (not necessarily the OP) who took a “if I have to work outside the home then you should too” approach. WFH where possible at times of high risk benefitted everyone in society by preventing the total collapse of the NHS.

But its time has now passed.

I agree that it was incredibly useful for people to stay at home! I definitely don't want to say that because I had to work outside the home others had to but it's hard to stomach when people are moaning about going back into the office / going back to work after months of furlough!

I feel the same! It’s hard not to feel bitter about it. My neighbours were regularly sat soaking up the sun in their gardens whilst I was setting off to do a 12 hour shift working with Covid positive residents and having no PPE. Then I’d have people saying that I was fortunate not to be stuck in the house and my job would never be at risk and how I was still getting a full wage. Yes that’s how I felt, fortunate

OP, I’m one of the pampered still WFH.

I don't know if/how compensation could work but I have every sympathy for the ‘cannon fodder’ as you put it.
Risking themselves and their DC in some cases to stay working in shops, schools, hospitals, refuge etc.

I just wanted to say that while my experience has been very different, I hear you.

@RockingMyFiftiesNot

I get where you're coming from OP and I'm not a keyworker.

I've seen a couple of threads recently about people worried about them/their DP having to go back to working in an office and how risky that is..... now when most people are double vaccinated. Yet keyworkers like yourselves have been on the frontline throughout. It must be galling for you to hear people complaining and I'd feel like those people thought I didn't matter as much as them.
It would be good to see some sort of gesture made - like Morrison's closing their stores on Boxing Day. I'm sure they can afford to do this as most supermarkets will have benefited from the extra food shopping we all did. Would be nice to think the government might do something similar for public sector staff who went above and beyond.

Yes it was really galling to hear it. Also my friend the other day who has been furloughed on full pay for the last 18 months or whatever, refusing to go back to her workplace until mid Sept as she wants another couple of weeks to settle her (secondary starter) son into school. My poor DD was on her own, coping with bereavement and isolation, homeschooling on bloody ‘teams’ for months doing GCSEs while me and DH travelled in every day working our arses off. And we’ve been having to listen to people living lockdown and all the ‘family time’. Yeah I’m angry.

I wouldn’t say I was thankful. Do you think that being a bit inconvenienced at home is the same as putting your health at risk? Really?

Yes really, the risks were different for all of us and I found the boredom of lockdown incredibly difficult despite being able to go to a job I love every day. I would have lost my mind if I could only get out of the house for a walk. When covid went through our school it was horrible, but the worst anyone suffered was a week of illness and it wasn’t that bad for most. I appreciate we were lucky, but I’d take the risk of a mild illness over months of isolation any day.

This was entirely the government's stupid decision once again and now it's causing people to compare and resent. The government should absolutely have protected those workers who couldn't work from home rather than using them as collateral damage. It's appalling that so many key workers have only very recently had their second jab as they were forced to wait until their age/risk allocation whilst others were protected at home. Those who could not work from home should have been prioritised for vaccinations, at the very least.

I do believe that many key workers should be financially compensated for the risks they were forced to take and this should be in the form of tax reduction so they are not responsible for recovering the costs of furlough. Of course they were paid their usual wage but they were also forced into a huge risk.

The way all of it has been dealt with is disgusting and I will never trust the government again. It saddens me to see people arguing and insulting each other on here about who had the worst deal during Covid. Everyone had a shit time, but some were clearly at more of a risk than others which should be acknowledged rather than argued against.

As a 39 yr old teacher I was definitely thrown under the bus by the government.

I fell out badly with both of my siblings due to their avoiding me and my family despite saying they wanted to support us. Me and my near adult children are all v exposed, they work from home and the only exposure is via their smaller children at school.

Those of us who work in a covid-facing environment have had to develop a different attitude to risk. Or go mad.

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.

Thats not how life works in a democratic society. I don't really want to "cough up" for universal credit which I don't claim. My friend without kids doesn't want to "cough up" for school costs for other people's kids. Someone with private health insurance still has to "cough up" to fund an NHS which they don't use.

I do appreciate the risks that frontline workers took and continue to take.
But my dh and I going into offices unnecessarily would have don’t nothing to help frontline workers and would have increased the pressure on them.

So we worked from home and kept our children home to leave space in schools for frontline workers’ children.

We may have been safe from covid but we both literally worked through the night to keep our jobs while trying to also keep our children safe while they were awake.

Each of us did what the public health advisors advised. In fact what was legally mandated. None of us should be criticised for it.

@keiratwiceknightly

I fell out badly with both of my siblings due to their avoiding me and my family despite saying they wanted to support us. Me and my near adult children are all v exposed, they work from home and the only exposure is via their smaller children at school.

Those of us who work in a covid-facing environment have had to develop a different attitude to risk. Or go mad.

I’d forgotten that attitude. People refusing to let their child talk to mine on a walk as I was too risky being a keyworker.

I think what is probably very upsetting is that you were genuinely risking your health and your lives at that point, and that has been very quickly forgotten. Many many people in jobs like hospital cleaner or taxi driver died way before their time. There was no vaccination, and proper PPE was not available except to those engaged in particular procedures in hospital, so cleaners were walking around with a tiny paper mask on which we now know does very little.

People want to forget and move on, and that's very very hard when so many people made genuine sacrifices. It must have been terrifying going in every day OP.

@Jigsawtrain

I was paid for going out to work as a key worker. The exact same rate as before the pandemic. I didn’t save on travel or parking until I had many months ill where I paid a lot for various prescriptions (thanks covid). My husband was paid £15k more than me for his less stressful, less risky job and received regular bonuses to raise morale through the pandemic. I got a sandwich once from the captain Tom NHS fund. Now I’m told by many ‘friends’ I shouldn’t be getting any pay rise whatsoever since so many people are out of work. I lost 6 months of my life bedbound from Covid caught at work. Colleagues have died, others took it home to their families who died. But I don’t know of anything else I can do.

Your story is awful and sadly typical. It’s infuriating. Hearing about people claiming tax breaks for WFH while not needing childcare or paying for commuting. My journey to work also took twice as long and was crowded as they took out so many tubes during the initial months. If people don’t go back to work our commuting costs are now also going to rise hugely. Someone yesterday was telling me of some city firms laying on free food and drink, paying bonuses etc to ‘entice’ the poor precious ones back to the office. Please sack them, I’ll happily take their overpaid jobs and they can train to do mine.

@Fitschkels

I feel really happy that I could carry on going to work and my kids could go to school. My life didn’t change much in the essential structure and that kept me sane. I was so happy to leave the house.

Everyone on MN seems to feel thrown under the bus/thrown to the wolves/cannon fodder. Race to the bottom as usual on here!

Do you not think that the staff looking after your children whilst you worked felt at an increased risk whilst you were 'enjoying' going to work? It's not a race to the bottom at all, it was genuine fear that you should acknowledge and appreciate rather than criticise.

@museumum

I do appreciate the risks that frontline workers took and continue to take. But my dh and I going into offices unnecessarily would have don’t nothing to help frontline workers and would have increased the pressure on them.

So we worked from home and kept our children home to leave space in schools for frontline workers’ children.

We may have been safe from covid but we both literally worked through the night to keep our jobs while trying to also keep our children safe while they were awake.

Each of us did what the public health advisors advised. In fact what was legally mandated. None of us should be criticised for it.

No one is criticising you. It’s the whinging now from the WFH-ers that I’m criticising. And I’m asking that those of us who took all the significant health risks are financially compensated.

I’d forgotten that attitude. People refusing to let their child talk to mine on a walk as I was too risky being a keyworker

I had this. DH’s ‘friend’ refused to come close to us on a walk as I was teaching the children of front line nurses/doctors and was risky to her.

Yet she was always banging on on FB about being front line NHS herself, yet worked solely from home for 18 months and was entitled to the vaccination months before I was!

I'm glad I got to go to work TBH - I don't work in healthcare and was able to largely distance in the office (though not in people's homes) and I felt ok about it. I would have been much worse off if forced to WFH for 18 months. However I was fortunate to be vaccinated early in January and have not worried about catching it since then. I do think it's pretty piss poor to be moaning about going back into offices at this stage of the pandemic when very few people are actually dying given that essential workers were out there when over 1000 people a day were dying and we had no vaccines.

OP I understand where you are coming from, but I think your anger is misdirected. It is not the fault of those who were able to WFH or were furloughed that they were in that situation while you had to go out of the home to work. We were dealing with a novel virus. What else could have been done? If everyone had gone to work as normal, there would have been many more deaths and huge disruption. The pandemic has not been easy for any of us, although some have had it worse than others.

The only people I am angry with is those in government for mishandling and then exploitation the situation for the financial gain of their buddies.

We should not be turning on each other as it benefits no-one other than the government. But, as per usual, it seems that is what is happening. By the time the next election comes around, people will still vote Tory and key workers will continue to be poorly paid and over worked.

Everyone on MN seems to feel thrown under the bus/thrown to the wolves/cannon fodder. Race to the bottom as usual on here!

Yep I agree, its been shit for lots of people in different ways, but don't base your opinion on a few people, 1000's of us are just getting on with it.

I feel fine about it. I work in a factory although not classed as a key worker, but my industry was never instructed to close and I can't WFH. Never been scared of Covid and much rather carry on going to work and DS going to school than be locked away at home. Made life feel normal.

I recently caught Covid at work, was like a cold and DS caught it off me, we are both fine as I expected.

I do eye roll at people who go on about not wanting to return to work as it's "unsafe" and bleat on about how them WFH is protecting key workers. I'd have more respect for people if they admit they enjoy WFH and it's more convenient for them than acting as if it's a selfless act to protect others.