Non-Essential Essential Worker

Yesterday was my first day back to work after spending two weeks at home under the Families First Paid Sick Leave. I work at an automotive dealership. Our sales department has been closed since March 20th, but under the governor’s plan, our service department has remained open as an essential business. I work in the accounting office finalizing car deals. No sales means no deals, and no deals means I only have about 30 minutes of actual work to fill my eight hour day. Boredom ensues.

Don’t get me wrong, in these uncertain times, I am extremely grateful to have a job to go to so that I can support my family. At the same time though, I’m a little bitter. I’m not at all thrilled with the fact that I have to get up early, leave my comfortable couch and fuzzy blanket behind, and put myself in danger of catching the covid-19 virus just to sit in an office and twiddle my thumbs all day. Not only that, but it’s incredibly frustrating to go to work knowing that you’d make more by sitting at home and collecting unemployment! Please don’t come at my with that entitlement bullshit…I pay taxes and I pay into the unemployment system. I have every right to claim it in times like these. I have absolutely no problem with going to work to earn a living. I don’t expect anyone to hand my anything I haven’t earned. But, I believe the pandemic is real, and I’d much prefer to follow the stay-at-home order. If we all just did that, we could get back to normal a whole lot quicker. Opinions are like assholes, everyone’s got one. That just happens to be mine.

So here I am, sitting in my office freezing my nips off for no good reason. I’m not sure why they think this air conditioner needs to run when it’s only 45° outside. It kicks on every ten minutes just to make sure I don’t thaw out. I’m not a fan. I spent two weeks at home and didn’t gain a pound, but now I find myself bored at my desk and mindlessly polishing off an entire bag of Reese’s Pieces Easter Eggs. Damn that clearance candy aisle anyway!

I’m jealous of my daughter. I know she’s at home napping in her nice warm bed. My son is content to spend his days playing Xbox. I don’t play video games, but I’m jealous of the fact that he can entertain himself however he likes. I would’ve been quite content to hunker down at home for the rest of the month. I probably wouldn’t even have cared when the stay-at-home order got extended into May. Instead, I am stuck being a non-essential essential worker. Our service department didn’t notice I was missing for the past two weeks. I’m sure they’d be fine without me for another two or three.

I am thankful for all the real essential workers: the first responders, medical staff, grocery store employees, gas station attendants, mail carriers, garbage collectors, truck drivers. The millions of people who have continued to go to work every day through this pandemic deserve to be recognized, respected, and compensated accordingly. Be nice to them. They are putting themselves and their families at risk so that we can all get through this trying time.

I don’t know how long this will last. I don’t know when things will be normal again, or even what that normal will look like when we get there. All I know is these are crazy times we’re living through, and I miss the good old days. You know, like January 😂