So recently I'm reheating food in the microwave at the staff room, and 4 teachers are having a whine. Students and staff are taking a lot of time off these days. "Don't they know that COVID was over", "we've all had it and we're fine" said white people with well to do parents. Maybe they didn't see me come in or they forget that I'm seeing long COVID every day when I come home. I just gave it a second stare before continuing on, I don't need to fuck with my livelihood. My meals are eaten outside, away from liberals, with a book; and my life is way better for it. Sometimes I chat with the maintenance or cleaning people and the convos are way more genuine, without all the weird bragging that middle class people like to do.
I swear to God, just immediately they dropped the names of 3 other young teachers who have new chronic health conditions. One has persistent low energy, another brand new allergies and asthma, yet another has to go back and live with her parents as she can't cope with work and illness. Everyone's stressing about using up all their sick time.
The less I care about the opinions of comfortable white liberals, the happier I am. Amen.
Just to preface my comment, I’m not trying to broadly paint an entire industry.
That said, I’ve been seeing those types of sentiments a lot more from education and medical personnel. I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that society labeled them as hero’s when they were never allowed to fully quarantine. Big “got mine” energy, but in an almost more vindictive way because it is minimizing the importance of someone else’s health, which as a healthcare worker is wild to me.
Also, yea, more often than not, the people spouting off like that are staggeringly white middle class yuppies who are still of the mindset that “bad things only happen to other people”.
It’s aggravating and disheartening and has lead me to a similar situation. I still don’t eat in restaurants, I won’t take my mask off in my office unless it is fairly empty and I am well distanced from other people. Eating lunch out in the courtyard or even in my car has brought me so much relief from the anxiety. Also, my disdain for the general public has also helped immensely in holding to my convictions.
Yeah I agree, the same thing is going on in the social service sector.
The convo by OP could have been from my workplace. It's superiorly disheartening, most of all because we work with the most vulnerable people. And so do teachers (kids immune systems aren't matured) and medical personnel.