Essential workers

[SaintsManiac]

You can feel thankful and guilty at the same time.

 

[sibesx2]

I'm essential. I make fourteen dollars an hour unloading trucks and stocking shelves. Customers are continuously ignoring announcements about distancing, still sneezing and coughing in our vicinity. I don't feel an ounce of guilt that I still have my job, no one wanted it when I took it and it's pretty thankless work.

I know these are rough times but 'essential' when my employer says it sounds a lot like 'expendable'. I wish I could work from home.

I also work in an essential store stocking shelves. The store has been packed with customers despite the stay at home order. Whole families come in just to get out of the house it seems. They visit in the aisles and browse for non-essential items. It was so bad that I took an unpaid LOA. I feel guilt only for abandoning my coworkers (not management, not the company and not the customers).

 

[SteveH]

I feel a lot of things, but guilt isn't one of them. I fret over my team members safety, making sure we're providing a needed service and keeping it all affordable. I limit how many of us are actually in the office on any given day, for our part time staff some are probably making more on unemployment with that extra $600/month they get. Its my full time staff I worry about, I know they are very nervous about losing their health care for those on furlough, but we're committed to paying it for as long as I can.

 

[wenrob]

Guilty, no. Fortunate, yes. In 31 years my DH has been out of work (plant closed) only two weeks. It’s a very stable job (power) but I would never say never. I worry about the folks in my life (my DD in particular stuck in Seattle and yet to successfully be approved for unemployment) who aren’t working. My hope is that I will be able to help them if/when they need it.

 

[PaulaSB12]

Do you ever feel guilty?

We are both essential and making crazy money. Honestly the guilt is getting both us.
I know we have major risks but feeling like we are benefiting is getting us.

We are donating back to husband’s Foodbank but still

No I work in food manufacturing and am really grateful to be in an industry that is still working and is a basic food stuff so that the place will be safe after as well.

 

[barkley]

my DD in particular stuck in Seattle and yet to successfully be approved for unemployment

washington state edd is doing updates to their on-line system this weekend to enact all the new rules that allow for more categories of unemployed/underemployed to receive benefits. if your dd was denied previously she may want to go on-line after the weekend to reapply b/c that's what edd is saying it will take to qualify under these new rules.

 

[Hikergirl]

I don't think anyone should feel guilty for being an essential worker.

 

[wenrob]

washington state edd is doing updates to their on-line system this weekend to enact all the new rules that allow for more categories of unemployed/underemployed to receive benefits. if your dd was denied previously she may want to go on-line after the weekend to reapply b/c that's what edd is saying it will take to qualify under these new rules.

Thank you. Yes, she was told via phone appointment to keep applying every week. It has to do with the quarter? She worked for a month and half before being furloughed, about a week and half before the country shut down so she’s in a weird time frame.

 

[Cubbiecakes]

My industry has been deemed Essential but my SOs is not. We are both working from home, but we each spend one day at the office a week just to have a little alone time.

Happy to be working; other friends are not so lucky... laid off or with salary reductions.

 

[olwyngdh]

The man went out today to get a container of milk. Asked him to get me a pack of mints from a nearby CVC in a strip mall if convenient.
He said there was a pop up food giveaway that wrapped around a nearby block there .
Lack of food is a something I never witnessed in this country before on this level.
This is not to say the cupboard was filled always when I was growing up. Just it wasn't so out in the open.

I remember standing in food lines for free Government food back in the early/mid 80s. I remember passing out from the heat while I was pregnant. I also remember being one of the volunteers helping when my situation changed.

 

[barkley]

Thank you. Yes, she was told via phone appointment to keep applying every week. It has to do with the quarter? She worked for a month and half before being furloughed, about a week and half before the country shut down so she’s in a weird time frame.

yup, it has to do with what period of time they look back on for eligibility. they say it's going to be crazy with the website and phone in's for the next several weeks but they are also extending phone hours/days and adding more staff. good luck to her-my dd will be applying this week since she's officially down to part time essential.

 

[LSUmiss]

No, I don’t feel at all guilty. I’m making my regular pay and, frankly, wish I could work from home.

DH is essential & I am working from home but that leaves me to try to work at home with a 2 yr old. So, no, don’t feel guilty at all. Do feel fortunate that we didn’t lose our jobs.

 

[MomOfDisneyPrincess]

I am considered an essential worker, but I cannot realistically work from home, so nothing has really changed for me. The only exception is that I am not working overtime and only 5 days a week. That makes me happy because I can spend more time with DD13. I don't like leaving her at home by herself, but that's what life looks like right now. I am thankful that I still have my regular monthly income and that my job is secure.

This is a very different experience for me than the aftermath of 9/11, when I lost my job as a direct result and was unemployed for 14 months due to the contracting of the economy. I was able to go back to school and change directions in my career. It's a huge relief to be in a more stable place during this current crisis. Again, very thankful.

I think the only reason someone should feel guilty would be if they were price gouging on essential products, or any product for that matter. If you are just doing your thing and you happen to make "good money", there's no shame in that and you are not doing anything wrong.

 

[barkley]

I am working from home but that leaves me to try to work at home with a 2 yr old

if ever asked for a promotion or other job opportunity how well you work in a distracting environment or under immense pressure you have a spectacular example

 

[NYCgrrl]

I remember standing in food lines for free Government food back in the early/mid 80s. I remember passing out from the heat while I was pregnant. I also remember being one of the volunteers helping when my situation changed.

In the '60s, we were on welfare for awhile. I remember our check being put in the wrong mailbox and the building kids teasing us about it courtesy of the super's son. Oh goody. Eyeglass wearing nerd and on the dole, LOL.
No food stamps then it was USDA surplus so when the bricks of cheese showed up in the 80s, I recognized them. Fortunately, I was never pregnant during my life's downtimes; your making it through then shows true strength of character .
When I got old enough to collect recipes I asked my mother how to make her bean soup which was fantastically delicious. She said she didn't know since it was made from hunger and whatever was on hand. It amazed her since she hoped her children had forgotten that time in our lives. Still trying to duplicate the soup.

 

[olwyngdh]

When I got old enough to collect recipes I asked my mother how to make her bean soup which was fantastically delicious. She said she didn't know since it was made from hunger and whatever was on hand. It amazed her since she hoped her children had forgotten that time in our lives. Still trying to duplicate the soup.

I am lucky to have a lot of my Grandmother's recipes from the Depression and her cookbook from the 40s with the rationing adaptations in the back of it. Your Mom's bean soup sounds like my Dad's tomato soup--I have no idea how he made it, there is no recipe anywhere, and the difference between it and campbells is like the difference between hamburger and Kobe beef. All I know for sure is there was onions and celery in it in addition to Mom's home canned tomatoes.

 

[Pyotr]

I don’t feel guilty at all. I feel lucky.

My mom and sister are both laid off from their jobs.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

I am lucky to have a lot of my Grandmother's recipes from the Depression and her cookbook from the 40s with the rationing adaptations in the back of it. Your Mom's bean soup sounds like my Dad's tomato soup--I have no idea how he made it, there is no recipe anywhere, and the difference between it and campbells is like the difference between hamburger and Kobe beef. All I know for sure is there was onions and celery in it in addition to Mom's home canned tomatoes.

I have a family cookbook from the 1930's

You may all enjoy a peek at this blog: https://the1940sexperiment.com/100-wartime-recipes/

 

[babydoll65]

Not exactly sure how to feel. Both my husband and myself are essential but I deal with this virus head on. Working in a dialysis unit, we are exposed to this daily but because myself and my coworkers have not showed any symptoms, we do not qualify for any testing at this time I'm grateful that I have a job to go to but at a very high cost. Working 17 hours a day/four times a week, I'm very grateful for my days off, no guilt whatsoever.

 

[wildride]

Not exactly sure how to feel. Both my husband and myself are essential but I deal with this virus head on. Working in a dialysis unit, we are exposed to this daily but because myself and my coworkers have not showed any symptoms, we do not qualify for any testing at this time I'm grateful that I have a job to go to but at a very high cost. Working 17 hours a day/four times a week, I'm very grateful for my days off, no guilt whatsoever.

I get it. My DH job is pretty enclosed not much contact with anyone. It's a cold warehouse at a foodbank so lots of distance. I work with the public so lots of exposure. We are doing 2 full days on - 4 days off, but tons of OT right now.