Essential Employees

[Hikergirl]

My dh is considered essential, however the only thing is company is essential for during a Pandemic is themselves. They are large enough to have some pull and get themselves on the State's approved essential list I guess.

 

[Kittyblue]

DH and I are working from home, but our work really isn't much more than justification to keep us on the payroll. I really wouldn't label us as essential.

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

I was reading that some fishing boats in my state were coming back last week with little to no knowledge of the shutdowns and cratering prices. In particular, one boat had a malfunctioning radio so they weren't checking out the news until they got close enough to shore to pull in a TV signal and find out. The prearranged buyers weren't showing up since they wouldn't be able to sell to restaurants and markets. I saw something about one boat deciding to unload its catch to individual buyers at the dock.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/medical/article/Fishermen-return-from-sea-with-big-catch-no-15147954.php
This report said that one boat dumped $80,000 worth of squid since they couldn't sell it and they couldn't store it.

I deal mostly with inshore fishing, but I called everyone of my suppliers and boat owners two weeks ago and told them to stop until I call you. Restaurants started slowing last week, and this week they pretty much quit. Everything I had I started freezing, I’ll let a few boats go out once, maybe twice a week, and this will give those workers an extra week, two, or maybe three but after that I’ll have to just stop. I can’t continue to purchase thousands of dollars in product per day from boats, pay someone to process it, and simply freeze it with absolutely zero income coming in. This is an absolute mess. Some of my customers aren’t sure if they will be able to make it.

 

[JoanneAZ]

I am a bedside nurse in a hospital providing direct patient care so, yup, I’m essential. We don’t have many covid-19 cases in my state (Arizona- just over 400) or my hospital right now. The numbers of those tested and pending is growing rapidly, however. We have been instructed that we are not to wear hospital issued masks in patient rooms unless that patient is in isolation. We are allowed to wear our own masks, if we choose. I understand why we’ve been told this but, I admit, it does make me a bit uneasy as I am in a high-risk group. Our state health department has said that our Covid-19 cases probably won’t peak until mid April and our hospitalizations won’t peak until mid May.

 

[spiders]

Air traffic controller. I don’t like going in but I also don’t like going in on Christmas. At the end of the day, I knew it was a 24/7/365 gig when I got in and it is what it is. Like every job, there’s positives and negatives.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My husband's industry (power/infrastructure) is considered essential but the building here with all the engineers and admins all employees are work at home at this point actually for over a week now.

The building remains open in case you need to work on something that can only be done there but they have advised you not to go into the building unless it's truly required.

 

[Colleen27]

My husband is in limbo as far as essential/nonessential. It seemed to change day by day this week, They closed his plant on Monday and sent everyone home, but he wasn't even off a full day before he got the call that he was to report as usual on today and for the rest of the week. Production is closed down right now, but his boss wants him there because having the building completely empty is risking an escalating issue should they experience a roof leak or a power failure or a broken pipe or anything like that. So he's working on projects they can't tackle when production is running and just sort of keeping an eye on the physical facilities at all three of the plants he works at. I don't feel like there's much risk in him continuing to work - at this point, he's alone in an empty plant that was disinfected after they sent production home, and his parts suppler switched to contactless delivery a week or two ago. His assistant chose to take the layoff rather than continue coming in during the shutdown order.

 

[ten6mom]

Yes, essential (police dispatch); no, cannot work from home.

Husband: Essential (IT manager for a credit union tasked with making sure the people in his organization who can work from home have the ability to do so), and currently working from home.

One of my dispatcher's husbands was laid off yesterday

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I am essential. I work for a financial institution. My employer feels that it is unnecessary for us to work at home. To ensure that we are safe, they did put up some posters reminding us to wash our hands.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

No, I'm not an essential employee. I'm working from home, although I can access the office for a brief period if necessary. But business has slowed down about 10% the past two weeks.

 

[indimom]

I'm a nurse, so essential. DH worked until this week and is now off work and staying home. Our daughter is also home and finishing her college courses on line.
I knew that potential exposure to disease was part of the job when I went to school, I just use all the precautions I can, and move on.
This corner of Indiana has a major manufacturing plant for medical equipment and when I drove by yesterday (on the way to a patient's home) I saw that the parking lots were packed full. I heard they turned their 3 shifts into 2 12-hour shifts working 7 days a week. I do worry a bit about those employees. They didn't sign up for the risks, but are doing their part to make sure equipment is getting where it needs to go. I assume they are trying to minimize spread, but it's bound to happen with so many people working together 24 hours a day. I hope the small local hospitals can keep up if it does spread through that community.

 

[Tattylou]

I'm a Licensed Mental Health Counselor - mental health services are essential. I'm doing all my sessions via telehealth from a home office at this point. It is actually a very, very busy time for my work - people really need support. I've been working a lot.

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

I’m a nurse for the health department, working primarily with schools. My job, during this time, allows me to be on call at home while doing a few shifts at the department reaching out to positive COVID patients for data, containment and support reasons. The shifts will grow as the number of cases do.

I left bedside nursing over a year ago, but wonder if we all will eventually get called back. Understaffing is an issue at most hospitals already. My heart is with the nurses, techs, docs, security staff, etc. dealing with this fluid situation.

At first, I saw many discussions and articles about how we have to rethink our work commitments in this country (i.e. too many people go to work sick or send their kids to school sick for fear of being fired, very little down time, insurance tied to jobs, listening to politicians and pseudoscience over medical doctors and experts). We really have to prioritize our mental and physical health and I liked that this seemed like an opportunity for that.

Seeing so many people, including our leaders, disregard that and have more concern for the economy over lives (mostly corporate earnings, it appears) is disheartening to say the least. You want to “open everything up” without closing off the spread of this virus? That is insane and selfish.

 

[tvguy]

I am an essential employee. I normally work from the office, but I am working from home now. So I don't normally spent much time out in the field. In TV News we cover violence and toxic fires, things that hand washing won't help This pandemic a lot less life threatening than what we may encounter during a normal pre-pandemic day.

 

[TheDisneyNurse]

I’m a nurse. Right now, I have no contact with the COVID patients. I’m an oncology nurse, so for the time being they want to keep us away from them to protect our patients as much as possible. I feel safe, but I also know if hell breaks loose, they’ll have to send us to those floors. I try not to leave my unit when I’m there— it’s literally sealed in with glasses doors. Who knows who I’ll encounter in the cafeteria or elsewhere.

 

[C&Jx2]

I would have been in about eight weeks (senior nursing student). My husband is a CO so he is.

 

[mombrontrent]

Essential workers here:

Dh is a truck driver, works for a food delivery company, obviously he can’t work from home

I’m a manager at a grocery store so obviously I’m going in and working harder then ever since it’s been so busy. I surrounded by hundreds of different people everyday, I touch all the products that they all have touched. I’m really not scared I just make sure to constantly wash my hands. I’m personally not scared to catch it myself because if I believe what I’ve been told up to 70% of us will get it anyways. I just don’t want to be a carrier. I’m getting bonus pay right now so that helps motivate us grocery store workers to keep working.

dd17 is a cashier at the same grocery store, we have plexiglass set up at the cash registers, they wear gloves and sanitize a lot. She’s not scared, just glad she still has a job and something to do while most people her age are bored and sitting at home.

 

[dclpluto]

My dh is considered essential, however the only thing is company is essential for during a Pandemic is themselves. They are large enough to have some pull and get themselves on the State's approved essential list I guess.

what does your husband do? In my state New Jersey the shutdown is only for non Essential retail. If your not in retail you are allowed to work.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I work in healthcare so yes I'm essential. I'm at work. I'm in NJ which is such down. Our hospital gave us a placard for our cars so we don't get pulled over or get a ticket. My admin suite is directly next door to a covid testing site. I have to walk through the waiting area to come and go. We may start rotating who stays home and who comes in but right now I prefer coming in. At this point it is what it is.

My SO is considered "life sustaining" in PA but his building shut down completely when Philadelphia shutdown. So he is working from home. He works for a major health insurance company.

We are both extremely thankful since we know about 10 people who have been furloughed or layed off.

 

[kiddo76]

DH is an essential employee. He's in charge of overhauling submarines. So, yeah, not a lot of social distancing going on there.