I have an issue. Lemme tell you about it.
I have friends, good friends, loyal friends — your salt-of-the-earth kinda people.
They, like many others, have families at home; careers outside of the home. Life pre-pandemic was already a lot for so many of them.
And, like many others, a global virus that is actively crushing physical lives, affecting mental health, and squashing the economy as we speak has just put another layer on top of that for them.
I (virtually) see so many of my friends in tears daily, for they are public-sector employees. Expected to work at home, from their home, as if they were still sat in their office.
Their ergonomic chair has been traded in for a dining room table chair. Their organized desk has been traded in for their dining room table. Gone are coffee breaks and lunch hours; schedules are a thing of their past.
They’ve traded in co-workers for hungry toddlers, appointment books for colouring books (that they use with their children between Zooms), and commutes to clear their heads has been swapped for mid-day bathroom meltdowns.
And they feel guilty, so guilty.
If I hear once more “I hate to complain because I know I’m lucky to still have an income...” well, let’s just say it’s not gonna’ be pretty, Telegram, because hard is hard, and emotions are valid.
And my friends? The ones I hold dear?
They feel like they are failing.
Failing in their careers.
Failing in their relationships.
Failing in their parenthood duties.
The midnight oil burns for many of them, as it’s easier to complete tasks when the children are put to bed, and the rest of the world is sleeping. But they are in turn trading in their health, their sleep, their well-being.
All because they do not feel like they are doing enough.
I worry about my friends.
Daily.
Yet you, Telegram, give permission for a Brian Jones to voice his opinion on the matter. I could tell you that opinions are likeable to something else (as everyone has one), but that would be mean, rude, and disrespectful.
Kinda like this remark, a quote from Jones himself:
“A laughable explanation is that government employees are working from home, when possible. Please. Civil servants move at half speed even when they’re in the workplace.”
Dearest Telegram, I hope in rebuttal to this degrading article, you will now post an opinion by a 32-year-old mother who is a public-sector employee.
One who is sat at her kitchen table (business on top; motherhood on the bottom), doing tasks for this province in between preparing snacks and wiping bums. Paperwork clutters her table, but what odds?
There’s no time to prepare a decent meal anyway.
People feel like they are failing, Telegram.
And shame on you for fuelling that fire.
We are not in the same boat during this global pandemic. The waters for some are rougher than the waters for others.
I get it.
But now, Telegram, is also not the time to sink another’s ship. The article that you posted was disrespectful to every civil servant on this island, and I cannot help but think that there’s probably a good chance that it wasn’t approved by a woman.
But that’s another topic for another day.
But again, that’s just my opinion.
Everybody has one.
Heather Delaney
Summerside
