Remember essential workers even as pandemic ebbs
One of the positive things that did occur during the COVID pandemic was a long overdue appreciation and recognition of the many workers behind the scenes that make our country run everyday.
During the pandemic truck drivers, grocery workers, delivery drivers, nurses, sanitation workers, warehouse and distribution employees, construction and others were heralded as essential workers and deserving of greater respect and appreciation from the public. Many in the media spoke and wrote about the importance of these individuals and how thankful they were that these people were out there working throughout the pandemic to support the rest of us. On the public’s part many put up signs in their yards or outside their businesses to express their appreciation while others did kind gestures like providing food or small gifts to these essential people.
Elected officials and community leaders even got into the act and honored these individuals with days of recognition and sought to provide services to assist these individuals in various ways.
This was a welcome change for these individuals who had been taken for granted for many years. Prior to the pandemic they were a faceless mass to many of the public. They performed essential jobs that few understood and even fewer genuinely appreciated. To some extent, this was because many in our society had never worked in these jobs nor did they even know or interact regularly with many people performing these jobs.
Consequently the value and importance of these jobs was little understood and the skills and challenges to perform them was unappreciated,. In fact many of the public’s only interaction with many of these workers was when they wished to complain about something.
All of sudden we knew these essential workers’ names. We sought to understand their job and came to recognize their importance. People realized that products didn’t magically appear on our shelves. The public began to understand all of the people involved in making our nation work each day. The focus on these individuals also personalized them and the public saw them as proud individuals performing their jobs during a difficult and dangerous time. The public came to know that these workers had families and were engaged in their communities.
They realized that they were baseball coaches, scout leaders, church deacons, and PTA volunteers who contributed to their communities in many other ways.
Unfortunately as the pandemic has ebbed and we seek to put that dark time behind us, so too has the public’s appreciation of these “essential workers.”
These critical people have once again begun to fade into the background. In the grocery stores, shoppers again seem to view the staff as a prop for the produce or meat.
Customers once again have little patience if something takes a little longer for a package to arrive to their home because a delivery driver encountered bad weather.
There appears to be little of the same interest in the welfare of these individuals as well as public expressions of appreciation or even a simple thank you to the workers performing these jobs.
I’m hopeful that it does not take another pandemic for us to remember just how important these essential workers are and to appreciate their efforts in keeping our economy moving and allowing us to enjoy the quality of life we do.
Please take a second out of your busy week to thank one of these individuals, ask them about their job and family, show some genuine interest in their lives, and most importantly thank them for their contributions.
Greg Fulton, a 40-year Denver resident, is the president of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association, which represents over 600 companies directly involved in, and affiliated with trucking in Colorado.
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