Essential worker

This was a source of pride

Introduction

My intention in writing this blog is to share the experiences that I went through with my son, starting with the first manifestation of his illness and our journey through numerous subsequent episodes. Also to provide commentary as a parent and psychiatrist on issues that these experiences bring up, such as how the diagnostic process works in mental health, how to work with treatment providers and medication issues. My hope is that reading this may be helpful for people with mental health issues and also their families and friends.

Essential Worker

It’s hard to believe I’ve worked here for over a year now. I started before the pandemic thinking of it as just a temporary phase before I found a social work job. But then the pandemic hit and essential workers were an important part of the picture. Overall I like it here in the grocery section. I have my cart stacked up high with all the boxes and roam from aisle to aisle, depositing the boxes on the correct shelves. These are grocery items of all sorts distributed over the whole breadth and length of the store. It doesn’t pay as well as Frozen, Deli, Meats or Bakery but there’s more variety plus I’m not confined to a small space. Each day I go to the unloading area to help get the boxes onto the cart and then spend my time distributing them and also helping customers. The store is usually packed with customers wandering around looking for items. Sometimes if they look lost I ask them if I can help but usually they’re the ones who approach me to ask what is the aisle where they can find such and such. In the beginning a lot of people didn’t have masks and now probably around half do and half don’t. I always wear a mask. I was finally able to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine a few months ago. All of us essential workers got permission to get vaccinated, although it was months and months after health care workers. Given how much contact we have with the public we should have gotten vaccinated sooner. I know a couple of workers have gotten sick with COVID but fortunately none that I worked closely with. When people who aren’t masked come up to me to ask questions I try to be polite and just back off to a safe distance. I tell them I have to maintain social distancing. I don’t mention masks although I’m thinking why couldn’t they just wear a mask? And then I remind myself that this is Wisconsin with a lot of Trumpsters. I don’t want any trouble so I just try to answer politely and move on. Friends ask me if I get bored but actually I don’t. There’s always plenty of physical labor involved with lots of lifting and also constant motion around the store to all the different parts of the store. And people watching. I think of the whole store territory as being mine and maintaining it in a good state of preparedness. When people ask me what I do I answer that I’m an essential worker and it makes me feel proud.

I was happy that Bill enjoyed his work. It seemed easy enough that he could do it without being stressed and he didn’t seem to get bored even though it was menial work. In retrospect, perhaps he should have stayed in a position like this that gave him something meaningful to do without causing him anxiety. During one of my last trips to Madison, when Bill had recently been discharged from the hospital, I went with him to talk to his manager to see if he could get the job back, since he had abruptly walked off the job when he got sick. The manager stated that Bill was a good worker and that he would be happy to hire him back. Bill didn’t want to go into the store, perhaps out of embarrassment or perhaps because he didn’t want his mother in his workspace. However Bill had meanwhile begun investigating other jobs.