I feel it, too.
My husband Eric leaves at 6:30am every day because, in the stay at home order, he is essential. Eric does HVAC new construction. He goes to his job site every day and comes home. We are following the guidelines, lots of hand washing, social distancing, very few trips anywhere except work, but we both feel anxious and concerned.
Being essential is an incredible burden in times like this.
There are comments in social media and on the news about finally having time to do projects around the house, read books, take naps, not wear pants and figure out what’s important in life.
We are aren’t doing any of that, because we’re essential.
We have friends and family that are health care workers , first responders, grocery store workers and truck drivers. We are grateful, and indebted to every one of those workers. If they decided not to go to work, we would be in a much worse place.
As essential construction workers we don’t see the community gratitude for our work, and yet we are still going to work, because we’re essential.
I believe we are essential because we may need to mobilize soon to build out hospital space for the overflow of patients that are coming.
If contractor’s current projects were idled by stay at home orders, we would not have the workforce and support staff to respond and our entire supply chain would shut down. The only reason the supply houses are open is because construction sites are running. It will take tradespeople, material, equipment, support staff and cash to enact an immediate response in an effective way.
I’m writing to say thank for you coming to work every day. Thank you for being essential and taking all of the precautions to stay safe. Thank you for helping OCP stay ready.