The perfect definition of an essential worker

[Stinky The Clown]

I heard on one of the morning TV shows the perfect definition of an essential worker.

If you have to work today, you're an essential worker.

Think about who is working today. Think beyond the obvious. The guy putting the cell tower back to working. The entire train crew and station agents at your local Amtrak stop. The standby crew at the power company. The fast food workers at the Interstate rest stop. Air traffic control. Truck drivers moving late goods, even today, and eating a turkey dinner at a truck stop.

And so many more.

We should be thankful for them all.

Add to the list.

[Heartstrings]

1. Servers/cooks at restaurants open today.

Feeding those truck drivers, etc.

[FoxNewsSucks]

6. Not just the truck stop restaurants,

a lot of restaurants are open today and on Christmas day.

[Heartstrings]

10. Exactly!

My daughter was a server until 2 weeks ago when she landed a lucrative job as a travel coordinator (full benefits, 401K, $25. hour)…..this will be the first Thanksgiving she won’t be working AND will be getting paid while she sleeps in and grazes all day while watching football with our small (fully vaccinated) family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[House of Roberts]

2. Hospital call center employee.

One of my housemates goes in at 2. She'll miss the big dinner, but she gets extra pay and she's off this Saturday and Sunday.

[MiHale]

3. Happy Thanksgiving to all the volunteers...

across America that are willingly giving up a portion of their day to unselfishly help others.

[Tetrachloride]

4. Hotline call center or just me

My view is that i have been on call for 36 years.

[BComplex]

5. The people tasked with cooking a huge dinner for a whole bunch of family and/or friends

while everyone else sits around acting like royalty?

[FoxNewsSucks]

7. All the people working in gas stations, grocery stores and CVS-type stores

All are open so that others wouldn't have to be bothered to get gas or filthy cigarettes yesterday or before.

The grocery stores & chain drug stores will save those who forgot milk, or eggs or whatever last minute thing.

But many of these essential workers are really only essential because everyone else is too self-absorbed or lazy to plan ahead just a little. And they're probably the least-appreciated people, because those jobs really shouldn't require them to work today.

[twodogsbarking]

8. Payroll clerk.

[3Hotdogs]

9. My E.M.T.

son-in-law.

Thanks, Jon.

But the O.T. doesn't hurt. He will be home from his shift in time for Turkey.

[Rebl2]

11. Those

that work at hospitals and nursing homes.

[sarge43]

12. Most military and naval personnel n/t

[Wicked Blue]

13. Newspaper reporters

I used to work for a paper that published 365 days a year. it gets pretty lonely on holidays.

[jmbar2]

14. Retail workers who have to work Black Friday during the era of maskholes and Karens

No amount of money could make me want to work tomorrow. Thoughts and prayers for all who have to.

I'm observing "buy nothing day" tomorrow, but for those of you who have to shop, practice extra kindness.

[Sherman A1]

15. Grocery workers

And the rest of the folks in the Retail sector. Some may be off today, but they have slogged through the pandemic 😷 day in and day out keeping the stores stocked, at great personal risk to themselves and indirectly to their families for too often low wages, lousy bosses and crappy customers who treat them like dirt.

Those folks always were and continue to be heroes.

[denbot]

27. I thanked the self-checkout clerk and offered her sympathies for working today.

She said she didn't mind and volunteered to work today for triple pay.

[Tommymac]

16. IT Workers keeping the servers and routers running so we can converse here in Virtual world.

So prescriptions can be sent to pharmacies.

So traffic lights continue to work efficiently.

So banks can keep your funds and information secure.

So 911 calls are routed correctly.

So cell phones can be used to call all your friends and family to wish them Happy Thanksgiving!

[Skittles]

21. thank you

yup...I work all holidays

[Tommymac]

26. Me too

[Bantamfancier]

17. Vet techs and veterinarians.

Animals have no use for a calendar.

[MustLoveBeagles]

18. Happy Thanksgiving Essential Workers

You are appreciated.

[HariSeldon]

19. I appreciate the sentiment, but...

...as a systems thinker, I'd have to say that "essentialness" is not a Boolean condition, but measured by how long the average person can go without the provided service before experiencing lasting negative consequences, where lower values indicate higher "essentialness." This puts EMTs, firefighters, and emergency care medical workers at the highest level of essentialness, but then police, utility workers, other medical providers, followed by retail food workers, food transport providers, automotive fuel providers (retail and supply chain), etc.

In a short term situation, especially one planned in advance, only the "less than a few hours" level of essential workers should be needed. But there are essential services we, as a society, depend on that cannot be suspended for months at a time which did not need to operate today.

[Skittles]

20. I'm working today

and tomorrow

essential!

[ProfessorGAC]

22. I'm Nonessential

I don't do anything.
Well, not anymore!
You had to work today?
That sounds like a drag.

[Skittles]

24. I will be working all night

it's slow though

[ProfessorGAC]

28. We Got Both Days Off

And some sites would shut down on T day.
But, I'd get calls on both days, some years, asking for advice on potential quality issues.
I will admit that I told them to shut down a few times until their own technical staff had time to address.
But other times, I'd log into the process data network and looked at the possible causes. That said, I did so from my couch!
I don't remember actually going to work on those days, and definitely not the first 25 years.

[wackadoo wabbit]

23. And they should be paid accordingly. If you're essential, you should be paid SIGNIFICANTLY more...

than minimum wage.

If a job pays at only minimum wage or within $20 more, it just must not be that essential a job.

[denbot]

25. Me, former long haul trucker, now night dispatch for the same company.

I had my TG dinner on duty in front of my computer. Truckers run 24/7/365, and I now back stop for our company drivers and the loads our brokers have on outside trucks.