A not so joyous holiday season for essential workers

As another holiday season approaches, frontline and essential workers are experiencing a deja vu situation. Most of them are gearing to spend another consecutive holiday season amidst the pandemic work pressure as the omicron variant spreads throughout the country. 

Many essential workers around the country report being demoralized, abused, underpaid, and exhausted as the pandemic continues. This time, it's worse than before as along with the pandemic the country also battles a labor shortage, especially in the healthcare and hospitality sector. Workers in healthcare, transportation, retail, and food services are among the many sectors where the already diminished work staff has to pick up all the slack. The effects of this are seen in the form of canceled flights, closed eateries, and short-staffed retail stores. An essential worker from Massachusetts compared his working pace to that of a freight train, the workers are working as much as they can physically and mentally. A supermarket in Cape Cod is currently operating with 50 workers while their required number is 150, its employees are currently managing 50 hours a week and picking up extra shifts.

If this is the case for retails, conditions of hospital staff can only be imagined. CityMD which is a private urgent care clinic chain in New York has been under pressure due to the rising number of covid cases among staff members. They've closed 1 in 10 locations this week. Most employees haven't gotten time to recover after the pandemic initially hit and they don't seem to be getting any break as omicron cases increase. Unions representing healthcare workers have said that most hospitals failed to fill staff vacancies or replenish the pandemic wary staff. To deal with the shortage, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention recommended allowing essential workers who've tested positive to return to work sooner than necessary as long as they do not exhibit any symptoms. West Virginia Governor, Jim Justice has outlined a plan to recruit and train more than 2,000 nurses over the next four years using $48 million federal funds. 

Source: CNBC