Who Wants to Talk about Key Workers (Not NHS Sorry)
In the News
Who thinks fire people, post people, etc.etc. are important too! No hate plz, just supporting key workers AS WELL
hey everyone, no offence meant to NHS workers, they are brilliant but we need to recognise keywords like postmen/women too!
belleshowsdogs thank you. For long I have felt other key worker like myself have been overlooked. It’s quite sad to see only NHS staff members been praised.
dammy yeah, I felt like #clapfortheNHS excluded key workers. Thank you so much for being a key worker, you deserve support too! Stay safe!
Thats why we should carry on with the claps on Thursdays but extend it from clap for the carers/NHS to all key workers and those that continued to work during these times! (In my opinion)
MsLamboLova12 Yes, we should try our hardest to include everyone, the NHS definitely deserve applause but so do the key workers, we all need to work together in these times 
Hi, i just seen the chat, I've never posted anything before....
At first i felt the recognition the NHS was getting was really heartwarming and remains well deserved.
I work for a local authority and on 24th March, myself & all my collages were sent to work from home. its not easy to do my job from home, so not much i could really do, i actually spent the afternoon cleaning my house.
I was aware that other departments were not given this option & were more then understaffed . I honestly i couldn't sit at home (likely bored) knowing this so at 8am on 25th March i volunteered to help another department.
i became classed as a key worker, went from working 7 hours a day to 10, no extra pay. i am and out most of the day, its hard even to find someone to use the toilet without needing to spend 20 mins in a queue
There seems to be a lot of privileges for the NHS, shops offering discount, deals money being raised, getting to skip queue at shop..... Its started to feel like a bit of slap in the face. There so my key workers providing essential services & deserve some recognition .
This is not to take away anything from the gratitude the NHS deserve , its just how i feel
ClearDay I'm sorry to hear your story, you definitely deserve recognition for your hard work, as do the other key workers and the NHS. Well done you for volunteering to work when you had the easy way out but didn't take it. That's a very selfless thing to do and I completely agree that the promotions, discounts, skipping queues shouldn't be cancelled, they should be EXTENDED to ALL key workers. I hope that things turn a corner soon! Stay safe and thank you.
There are lots of key workers all lower grade pay scale. Dustmen, cleaners and shop workers spring to mind. I appreciate they’re not dealing with the sick but just as important to society and all at risk.
Yes definitely! I completely agree and ALL the people helping our society through these times deserve support.
Absolutely agree. I'm a DWP employee and we've been training up trainers to train over 1000 staff so far to help process benefit claims. Just to give an idea universal credit (whether you like it or not) usually gets about 35000 new claims per month. In April it got 1.5 million. My colleagues processing these have worked around the clock to try and get people paid. It's been insane.
But also I think the postmen, delivery guys whether mail or my takeaways are doing great keeping going where they can. Bus drivers too. I've had conversations with some on the rare occasions I have been out about the dangers they've faced and one poor woman debating whether to quit.
NHS are great and deserve support but definitely there are any other workers who do too
Thank you so much for working hard to keep our country running in these difficult times! You and your colleagues are amazing. NHS are amazing I agree but all key workers like yourself deserve a round of applause too! Thanks again!
I'd also like to thank staff that work in supermarkets and high street chemists for all the work they've done under difficult circumstances.
Yes, I completely agree and from what I've seen they have very little protection from the public.
I worked in Biochemistry and even though I wouldn't have been involved in the testing of Covid specimens, I feel like the lab staff that are doing them at the moment are very undervalued.
Yes they are definitely essential and shouldn't be undervalued, they deserve praise too!
I've ended up in many 'heated debates' on here about not ordering too much during Lockdown to take pressure off Royal Mail workers so fully behind you on that. I thanked a bin man for his service the other day and he just grunted so some of them are quite modest about it.
I've tried my best to stop online shopping and putting everything on my wish/watch list so I don't forget what I need when everything goes back to normal. Great for reducing your carbon footprint too!
I think a lot of key workers aren't making a fuss and that's so admirable!
Back in April, the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents thousands of postal workers, estimated that 20% of Royal Mail staff were off work. That's about 26,000 postmen and postwomen who were either sick or self-isolating, at a time when parcel deliveries have soared (and business post collapsed) as more people shop online during the lockdown.
That's about 10 times the national average sickness absence rate of 2%. (1.7% in the private sector and 2.6% in the public sector in a normal year). So yes, those who did go to work would be busy.
Johnny You don't know that. 'Probably'. Johnny, I know people who work for the Royal Mail and I'll repeat their words again: "it's like Christmas". The social distancing and other measures just weren't there early on and even now, there isn't enough physical space to always get it right. You gain all the likes on here from shopaholics who put their needs to spend endless amounts of money before the health of others but the fact is, every single one of you ordering **** left, right and centre put immense and unnecessary pressure on those workers. Off sick or not, the workload was increased by inconsiderate and selfish consumers. Send me stats, links to the Royal Mail website, whatever. None of it means anything Johnny when I've heard it from the horse's mouth.
Johnny How about the people clicking 'like' on your comment come out of the woodwork and explain why? It just reminds me what a bunch of selfish and narrow minded people use Latest Deals. I don't know if you noticed but I'm sick of the attitude. "We're supporting business" will be the next phrase to come out. That's a load of bull as well because nobody was buying piles of crap they didn't need in the boredom of lockdown just out of the goodness of their heart. If their thinking went that far, they'd be considering the people in those delivery offices and warehouses too.
Dennab What I can tell you is that the DHSC figures for April showed that about 6.4% of doctors and 8.1% of all NHS staff in England were absent due to Covid-19 either through sickness or self-isolation.
That‘s a lot less than the Royal Mail’s 20% absent.
I’m curious. Why do you think the Royal Mail absence figure is more than twice that of the NHS?
Johnny I'll tell you once more. Stop diverting attention away from the fact that millions of people sitting on their arse at home increased pressure on warehouses and delivery services across the country. Your facts and figures about absence are not relevant for the point I am making. The pressure was on those workers regardless. Please stop sending me copied and pasted figures from the Internet because we're all capable of looking at Google and trying to sound clever. I respect your knowledge of retail eg. when the Boots sale is about to start but with this, all your analysis is worth absolutely nothing. I know what I have been told by actual people who've had to deal with the selfishness of our Great British public.
It seems you don't like statistics that don't match your own point of view. Just be aware that when you take a very small sample (from the people you know) that you also need to be careful that you are not seeing the wood for the trees. A wider perspective can be good.
The reality is that Royal Mail has been struggling as a business for years. Three years ago Royal Mail put parcels at the heart of its 5 year turnaround growth plan, focussed on positioning the group for a future dominated by online deliveries.
Covid 19 and the boom in online shopping is an amazing gift on a plate for a parcels business, and many of Royal Mail’s parcels competitors have been quick to seize the opportunity by both horns to rapidly expand their businesses in the last few weeks.
Sadly Royal Mail with 20% of staff absent have blown it. Covid 19 has accelerated the death of the high street by around 5 years and online shopping has grown by around 18% in the last 3 months alone. Saying Royal Mail doesn’t want more parcels is like a Chicken farmer saying he doesn’t want his chickens to lay eggs.
I just hope enough Royal Mail staff realise they need to grab this opportunity fast to avoid losing even more parcels business market share to their hungry competitors, and in order to help secure their own jobs for the future.
Dennab So you don’t like my question? Or you don't know the answer?
- 8.1% of all NHS staff in England were absent due to Covid-19 in April either through sickness or self-isolation.
- 20% of all Royal Mail staff were absent due to Covid-19 in April either through sickness or self-isolation.
Why do you think the Royal Mail absence figure is more than twice that of the NHS?
Johnny I don't know the answer and I don't care. It's not a competition and not something to be analysed. My original concern has bugger all to do with your percentages and everything to do with the selfish nature of humans. You're masking one problem with another. How many times do I need to say that?
Dennab If I was at Royal Mail and I saw those those numbers I would care a great deal. I'd definitely want to know what was going on and why.
If my Royal Mail staff were genuinely twice as sick as NHS staff, I'd want to find out why very rapidly, and what could be done about it. Even more so if the high absence ratio was having an impact on other staff's ability to cope with rapidly growing parcel volume.
You don't care? Blimey, that's a surprise!
Johnny I've said this before and I'll say it again. You're like a politician. I've explained in very simple terms what I considered to be an immediate and short term problem. You have successfully ignored that and brought up long term problems that have **** all to do with that. You know I'll happily have a discussion about business but it's not relevant. Stop provoking me.
Dennab Royal Mail have 20% of their staff off work and can't cope with the volume of parcel deliveries, despite the collapse in business mail volume. And you don't think there's a connection? You think that's not relevant?
If you think I'm provoking you, I apologise. That's not my intent.
So I'm moving on now too. 
Johnny I feel like you're trying to defend the actions of Joe public and shift the blame to either the Royal Mail themselves or the workers. The Royal Mail has had its problems for years. We all know that and of course it matters. Those problems would be there regardless of the current situation though. I suppose one analogy I could use would be going out for an unnecessary journey during the thick of it in lockdown. We could argue "but Police numbers have been reduced so its the government's fault". However, it wasn't a huge task to keep our cars off the roads and reduce the chance of incidents while Police had better things to deal with was it? Apply that to the Royal Mail. I am questioning why people were incapable of making a small change to their lifestyle just to help things along a bit. Just because a company, organisation or group of people are not doing something right, it doesn't mean we can't do our bit to help. That's all.
Ive said the same for a long time, taking absolutely nothing away from the amazing work the nhs do but they are not the only ones who are keeping this country going. If it wasnt for the police there would be chaos, if it wasnt for shop workers we wouldnt be able to buy food, if it wasnt for delivery drivers the whole country would stop because nothing woukd be delivered even to the nhs. My other half works for a big delivery company and as a family we have hardly seen him hes working so much and dealing with a lot of stress, they are delivering a lot of essential items including food, medicines, PPE, clothing, cleaning equipment etc etc. Doctors and nurses are absolutely amazing for what they do but the gloces and masks they wear, the dressings and equipment they use comes from somewhere so someone has to make it and deliver it, then theres the cleaners, the shop workers who without them doctors and nurses wouldn't eat. It frustrates me that nhs workers get diacounts and help from an lot of places (not that they dobt deserve to because they do) but other key workers dont and i think a lot are as important as nhs workers for the reasons ive explained. Our country works the way it does because we have an economy and various businesses, organisations and charities work hard it is not just 1
Completely agree! The NHS are very deserving of praise but so are Key workers like your partner. It is so stressful for so many workers and the last thing they need is to feel under appreciated. We need to support them and cheer them on! I think discounts, freebies, etc etc should definitely be extended to ALL key workers. The NHS are obviously very important and I think because people automatically assume they are involved with coronavirus they are getting more attention (which they completely deserve) but Key workers are important too and they deserve to be treated so.
joannecroston I've seen some businesses offering their discounts etc to 'key workers' generally but agree more should do that. I heard some or all of the supermarkets were paying employees a little extra money. I hope your other half is staying healthy and manages to bring those stress levels down in time. I have limited my online buying to virtually nothing during this period to help relieve pressure on people in delivery and warehouse jobs because as you have highlighted, they have been under a lot of pressure.
belleshowsdogs thankyou. He is a manager so gets a lot of the stress from the massive volume of parcels to the employees calling in sick or isolating, he even missed his fathers day with our daughter because he was at work dealing with covid testing kits which hos company collect and deliver but hes not had any pay rise, he works so much and is still working emailing answering calls etc when he gets home sometimes until 9pm at night then he will go to bed and be up at 4.30am again the next day. We are grateful that his job is so secure as we have a family to support but i hate the lack of balance at the moment and it worries me that his stress levels are higher and hes not getting enough sleep. Our daughter is missing out on time with her daddy and im missing him because we never seem to get any real time together anymore but i know how important his job is to so many i just wish a lot more people were aware of how hard key workers are working and the sacrifices they are making as well as their families x
My partner is a key worker and has been working since the start. He hasn't had a day off even though he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes the first week of lock down, he gets up at 3.30 and doesn't get home till after 7 pm, he doesn't get any recognition or extra pay or even a thank you!
Thank you so much to your partner, it must be difficult for him and hopefully he will get a break soon. Thank you to you as well for supporting him at this time. Stay safe!
I've been really grateful for all of the services and it's true that some have gone without celebration. 15 weeks is a long time, first isolating then shielding. Over the weeks I've built up a good relationship with the refuse crew and left biscuits and jars of coffee, our two posties have been amazing I've regularly left bottled water and snacks and we talked at a distance. Small gestures, I know, but it shows my appreciation. Our local council has a prescription delivery scheme which meant I didn't have to go to collect/return and risk the rest of our household. I don't think we will be able to thank or recognise all the vital workers until we see a return of some normality so it's really important to make a list and follow through when possible.
Thats a lovely idea, If you don't mind, I'd like to do that this week and take by your example. Pass it along, as such. Im sure you made their day! Stay safe!
Yeah as an IT System Admin for a large food manufacturer I've been super busy. Can't wait for my two week leave I got booked in September.
I hope you enjoy your leave in September, thank you for doing your part on behalf of the country
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