I am selfish for not wanting sixth formers and students to work in supermarkets

[Peaseblossom22]

Around us the parents of lots of year 12s and 13s are all bragging about how they are now working 40 hours a week in Tescos . What is the point in them being out of school if they are just exchanging one Petrie dish for another ? I don’t want ds bringing home the virus I have asthma and anyway surely they have just left physical school not school in general . Apparently though I am told it is his public duty . 🙁

If this is the case they should provide accommodation as well .

This seems to be a problem unique to this country because no other country has gone mad stockpiling food And therefore other countries are tuning supermarkets with skeleton staff not recruiting hundreds of young people who think they are invincible and are therefore not as careful as they could be and will spread the virus willy nilly

Another reason we are not seeing much stockpiling in our are is that many people, perhaps most, cannot afford to buy much in advance.

MN can be quite oblivious to the diversity in the UK. It’s not just the food supply chain. My friend works for a medical supply company and their factory is going full blast. Another friend is a domicillary care worker who is one of the 1.5 million with underlying health issues, so is having to stop work. She is very worried about the elderly she cares for. Bin men, cleaners, all sorts of people keep our country moving.

There is no ‘one way’ and a delicate judgement has to be made on what controls the public will accept and respect. And a need for people in lower risk categories to look towards helping out.

Actually there is ‘only one way’ we cannot base our response to this on the hope that everyone will do the right thing .

"Queing in their four wheel drives in the supermarket car parks" - You are sounding like a Daily Fail headline writer now.

I agree with the majority. More food is going through our supermarkets. Yes, some people are buying ridiculous quantities, but many of us aren't stockpiling, but will actually be providing a LOT more meals at home in the coming weeks than has been the pattern over the last few years.
Families where dc have school meals, where adults get something at the canteen at work or go out for lunch or grab a meal deal at the supermarket will all be eating at home. Families that regularly eat out at the pub or local curry house won't be doing that either. All sorts of people 'eat out' in all sorts of ways throughout the week and all those people will now have to be sourcing that food via the supermarket. So the demand is going to be much bigger even without anyone stockpiling.

Then, supermarkets themselves will have staff off either ill, or self-isolating. So they need staff now even to bring up to normal levels, before adding in the extra demand.
Teens and those at University are normally the ones who work in leisure and hospitality and entertainment and retail - all of which have closed. It seems a pretty sensible suggestion to me, to use that readily available workforce, if they choose to put some structure in their life, having had their schooling / university life taken away as well as their work hours.

I'm personally fine with the young people wanting to work, their last school days having been stripped from them so abruptly. All credit to those who want to find a positive replacement for school too, in a field where large numbers suddenly need to be recruited.

On a more general note this idea of 'germ spreading' and finger pointing is pretty ugly. Especially the idea which is gaining traction of health care workers being spreaders of disease. I have two DC currently on the front line in the NHS and neither can find food after their long shifts and one has certainly been exposed to the virus for far too long without any protective gear. Less of the criticism if you want then to keep working (which they are doing still, all hours).

I would love my 15yo to get a job.
75% of us are expected to get this virus, manage at home, recover, carry on with our lives. Sometime in the next 2 yrs.
If you are not in the minority of very vulnerable people, we are supposed to try to delay getting it and protect the vulnerable, not expect to never get it & live in constant dread of getting it.

"research coming out of Lombardy is saying that the superspreaders are not young children but young workers [on public transport who don't realise they are ill]"

source for that claim?

I have yet to find a cv19 superspreader story where the spreader didn't know perfectly well that they had at very least an annoying cold.

Someone needs to do this work.

It's probably best that it's fit young people.

I agree as few people as absolutely possible should be out in the workforce but for the jobs that need doing and where there are currently shortages, this is a good solution, provided their living arrangements don't make it unsuitable.

I do absolutely agree with Peaseblossom though about the completely vile stockpiling of food by revoltingly selfish people.

The supermarkets aren't recruiting them for fun, they are needed to keep our food supply going in an emergency that means they are probably down to under 50% of their usual staff due to staff having to self isolate if symptoms in family. Everyone should consider their own families circumstances and risk, but we need essential workers including new essential workers. I also hope there will be a drive for volunteers to deliver the food parcels for the shielded at risk people.

You are sounding like a Daily Fail headline writer now. Right now, it's hard to tell the difference between MN and the Daily Fail.

And it's absolutely right that teens should do something positive with the oceans of time they suddenly have. I bet many teens are saying "Ha, you've no reason to limit my screen time now!"

I am as far from the Daily Fail politically as you can get. I just think we should prioritise vulnerable groups and basic supplies and not recruit into customer facing jobs loads of young people who live in mutigenerational housing and will therefore spread the virus far and wide.

This is only for a few weeks , if we have to manage with basic food for a couple of months in order to limit the spread then I think that is a price worth paying . We need to take drastic measures here , I have no problem with teens working but we should all be aiming to limit social contact and supermarkets are like a giant soup . Limit people in them and only a couple of check outs open. This is happening in other countries why do we think we should have 24 hour open supermarkets by right.

I will be encouraging my teens to volunteer driving and delivering medicines, running errands for local elderly etc They already volunteer locally in our community and later when the emergency peak transmission period over to do other jobs. My other son works for NHS anyway .

We have shut up pubs etc but frankly people are cheek but jowl in many supermarkets

The source for the Lombardy research was the EU MP for Lombardy who was interviewed on I think Newsnight last night , or it could have been the world news .

Dd is year 13 and lost her part tine job (teaching dance) last weekend. If it wasn’t for the fact both me and her dad have medical conditions (meaning dh can’t drive) & she has been far more useful to us at home including helping to get computer equipment set up so we can work at home then I think she’d be applying.

DD is Y13 too. She already worked in a nice supermarket 10 hours per week. She has increased her hours now. I’m also being re-deployed to the shop floor of a supermarket.

It’s all very interesting , ds is upstairs online in a maths lesson and I have just seen one teacher who has said that she expects to be teaching year 13 right up until when study leave would have happened . She was quite shocked when I said that in many schools year 13 are doing nothing and are out getting jobs .

They need to clarify the assessment regime ASAP before it all runs away from them . It can’t be right that some schools are expecting to teach and others not

My lower sixth former has no work to do apart from reading books for her A level English. Her health and social care course hasn’t set any work. That may change of course. She’s decorating her bedroom!

What I don't understand is the number of MN posters who seem to want their individual decisions validated by having them imposed on everyone.

I quite understand that OP, because of her health issues, does not want her DS leaving the house. However equally, I can quite understand others being content that their DC use some of their spare time going out and getting a job if it is going to save them from going stir crazy. At the end of the day, none of us will be safe until most healthy people have caught (though not all at once) and recovered from the virus, whilst enabling the vulnerable to self-isolate.

Even if the Government did implement rations, people would need to man the supply chain, pack them and deliver them. In my mind it would be better that willing and healthy teenagers did this, than those with vulnerable people at home.

I also think that the Government can only do so much. They need to stay in line with social consensus, otherwise people will ignore them. Social consensus is moving surprisingly fast, and the world already looks very different than it did a week ago. My observation is that it is often MNetters who claim to be left wing who demand more central control. et they are often the first to complain when a Conservative government tries to impose.

OP essentially answered her own question. Her DS will not be looking for a job. However that is not a reason why others should not if they and their homes are low risk.

Actually @Needmoreslerp I was not asking about my ds as you said we had already made that decision I was asking if it was a good idea in general to have year 12s and 13s working in supermarkets.

My OP stated ‘sixth formers and other students ‘ NOT my sixth former .

I still think it is a bad idea and that we should limit contact as much as possible, this means closing supermarkets as much as possible . As you say this may mean jobs are needed in packing and delivery but these involve less social contact .

I happen to think that this is a situation where it is absolutely not every persons own decision, a few people’s wrong decisions could have catastrophic consequences. Policy should be central and everyone should do the same .

We need those with no jobs or those who cannot work in cafes and restaurants to get the jobs if any are going! Not younger people who would have been at school. MY DN and DN think they will do this. Other people need the jobs to feed families. They do not. As usual it is selfish to think of oneself rather than those in need and I hope the supermarkets recruit adults, not students even.

Some of these young people will be helping to feed their families if they have parents who can’t work who are on SSP or freelance.

@comefromaway, that may be true and in those cases fair enough but I have to say most of the ones I know of are from families with two high income parents and are ‘ saving for next years ski trip’ we live in a pretty affluent area as I say the most common car in the car park at the weekend was a land rover evoque.

As bubbles says these jobs Should go to those who have lost their jobs not to teens who crucially live in multigenerational households .

Comefromaway : yes the freelancers should have the jobs or those where businesses have closed. Most DC do not need jobs in this situation and should be doing school work. Not work adults need.

most of the ones I know of are from families with two high income parents and are ‘ saving for next years ski trip’ we live in a pretty affluent area

Yes, but hardly typical, even of Mumsnet.

Many teens already have part time jobs, and I have never heard a moral objection to that. Many now won’t have school work, and even if they do, won’t be doing that 14 hours a day, nor will they be able to go out and socialise, so a job seems a good idea.

Perhaps in your atypical extraordinarily affluent community there is a shortage of jobs. However elsewhere people are getting sick, 1.5 million have been told to stay home, and new people are needed. Even student DD has received an email inviting her to go back and do an admin role. A carer I know, who has COPD, has struggled to find a replacement to provide basic care to elderly people living independently. Things are not normal, things are not OK. You are lucky that you are not affected.

We are affected but I don’t think spreading the virus this way is sensible . Admin work is probably good , ds May do deliveries, or fruit picking but supermarkets already rammed and will spread it further and faster through communities

The first raft of jobs should have gone to people who can prove they've lost their job due to corona. We're about to add thousands upon thousands onto the unemployed list, paying them hopefully 80% of a reasonable wage. Makes more sense that of jobs need filling thst they get them. Not kids bored at home with Mom wanting to buy X Box games who would otherwise be in school

I still think it is a bad idea and that we should limit contact as much as possible, this means closing supermarkets as much as possible

but supermarkets already rammed and will spread it further and faster through communities

If you close supermarkets as much as possible, then that means that everyone will have to be in them at the same time - 100% against the advice being given. I'd rather people were able to space out.