Front Line Workers Owed A Dose Of Gratitude

We’re about to enter the fall of 2022. There are declarations that this pandemic is over. If not a fact yet, there is evidence enough that we dare to hope. The N-5 Covid variant has been around longer than any other previous versions—which mutated and emerged recently for their own survival. So, we hope and pray that this Covid monster is on its last legs.

It may indeed be the right time to forget the pandemic and move on to life’s normal worries and nothing more than the seasonal flu. I suggest, though, that we have one more obligation. A nice one. How about a big thank you to those front-line folks who risked their lives day in and day out, beyond the point of exhaustion in many cases, for the rest of us in America who were encouraged to stay home?

The pandemic revealed to most of the country how invaluable the lowliest workers are to the survival of most Americans. While many white-collar workers hid safely from the virus in their homes, some of the lowest paid employees in our economy were busier than ever. They were deep into the tasks of delivering groceries to those at home, transporting Amazon orders along highways, responding to emergencies, enforcing the law, fighting fires, providing energy and growing food. Most of all, health care workers—doctors, nurses, administration and custodial workers at our hospitals and clinics—bore the brunt of the emergency, risking their lives and working long hours to keep up with the demand for care. The lives of the privileged depended on the willingness of the less privileged to risk their lives so all of us could eat and feel safe.

All of these efforts inspired new respect for workers who have long been overlooked. It was a bit of a paradigm shift for many who thought the knowledge economy was all that mattered. As it turns out, our survival is founded on the physical labor of people who do the work others educate themselves to avoid. That includes large swaths of workforces within knowledge-based companies, all the corporations that feel they have risen above manual labor and the old industrialism that once powered America’s rise in the world. Tell that to the Amazon worker who fulfills those Internet orders with good old arms and legs.

The pandemic was a much-needed wake-up call to these workers’ invaluable role in our daily lives. I hope it will last long after the idea of masking in public becomes merely a memory.

Increasingly, these foundational workers—are getting the respect they deserve. The most crucial factor in this paradigm shift is whether business leadership embraces the fundamental value of the human beings who keep their organization running. The transition depends on the willingness of leadership to adopt a new, long-term model for success that requires investment in workers to the extent that allows them to flourish economically and personally. Many are recognizing this need and treating employees generously and respectfully. It’s called stakeholder capitalism. Stakeholder capitalism is taking root in the private sector—with its emphasis on the fundamental value of every worker—and both government and influential NGOs are joining the movement. And this is a welcome, needed trend.

We must learn from the past and build a process for work based on what we’ve discovered during the pandemic. One beneficial outcome of this awful disease is employers’ willingness to let some workers do their jobs remotely. In a larger sense, America has become far more aware of our mutual dependency on one another: every citizen counts. We know how much we need everyone and how, in a crisis, we all depend on one another.

This fall, as has been the case for the past two years, we don’t know what lurks around the corner. But we can approach the uncertainty with the new knowledge that it takes all of us to do our part to keep the nation whole and our daily lives interrupted. Before we move on from those frightening times that emerged over only a few months, let us all pause to express our gratitude and deep appreciation. We send our gratitude and appreciation to those who helped pull us through that hell of illness and death. Let us keep those thanks coming as we move ahead to sunnier days.