The holiday season is here! It's a time for decorating, baking cookies and sipping way too much eggnog. But as festive as the season is, it can also bring out the worst in people.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, people have become increasingly impatient with the essential workforce. Now, as we head into our second COVID Christmas, here is a friendly reminder for us all to be kind to workers this holiday season.
The holidays are when friends and family gather to celebrate the festive season. It's the one time of year where we all try to be a little kinder and more patient with those around us.
Many of us were unable to gather with loved ones last year due to lockdown restrictions. Now, in the wake of the Omicron variant, it appears that this year could look very similar.
These essential services include things like frontline healthcare workers, grocery store employees, as well as retail workers. Suffice it to say that the last two years for these fine folks have been a living hell.
For some, this means putting restrictions on the number of people who can enter the store at any given time. While others have been forced to only offer delivery or curbside pick-up.
Customer service industries and jobs have always been thankless to some degree, but with the possibility of another lockdown looming on the horizon — things have gone from bad to worse.
"I work a retail job that has been forced to only offer curbside pickup," Reddit user unbirthdaygurl said. "They told me my job was [expletive], I was [expletive], and I would only ever be as [expletive] as I am now while I desperately tried to explain it was government mandated[sic]."
According to an article written by the American Psychological Association, 54% of essential workers claimed to have relied on unhealthy habits, such as drugs and alcohol, to get them through the pandemic.
Among the many mental health disorders, acute anxiety, as well as depression, are the two main culprits. As a result, experts have cautioned that this could result in an increased suicide rate.
In a recent article published by Columbia Magazine, a sample pool of Wal-Mart employees were asked what changes, if any, would make their working lives better. They echoed the immortal words of Aretha Franklin, saying that it all comes down to respect — R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Although sociologist Adam Reich is quick to point out that many Wal-Mart employees are barely making ends meet. “But more fundamentally," he says, "there is a baseline of human dignity that associates feel they’re being denied.”
If you're feeling frustrated, you had better believe that the 18-year-old kid at the checkout is feeling that tenfold. Essential workers aren't the cause of COVID-19, and we'd do well to remember that without their hard work and tenacity — we'll never find a solution.
