What Are Essential Workers?
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Essential workers helped us continue to have access to necessary resources during the height of the pandemic as we faced stay-at-home orders and shutdowns in 2020. Health care employees, transportation, and food service employees are just a few of those critical professions. Although they come with job security, the drawbacks have left many jobs in those sectors unfilled in 2022.?
The phrase “essential workers” became more well known in the U.S. in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic.
Although some professionals lost their jobs and certain industries were at a standstill, essential workers had to keep working despite stay-at-home orders to provide critical services, like health care, grocery store and food delivery services, and more.?
Essential workers are defined by the CDC as those who “conduct a range of operations and services in industries that are essential to ensure the continuity of critical functions in the United States.”
States add or remove essential worker categories based on what works for them, the CDC reported, but the following are the general essential worker sectors:
“The pandemic helped us define [who essential workers are],” Talroo vice president of marketing Martha Aviles said. “Everything from healthcare workers, grocery store workers, anybody that is in food services, fulfillment and distribution, people that have to deliver packages, truckers, all of those are essential.
“They help the economy go round and they serve us whether it is nurses with our healthcare or a grocery store clerk. Without them, we can't really function.”?
I chatted with Aviles and career strategist and executive career coach Natalie Carol Micale to learn more about essential workers.?
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Being an Essential Worker
Society praised essential workers during the height of the pandemic, but now the vibe has shifted. Those professions are still valued, but people aren’t as vocal with their gratitude now that the world has reopened.?
Still, being an essential worker has benefits.?
“[Essential workers can see the impact [they] make on the economy and how important it is,” Aviles said. “If you look at labor statistics and the U.S. Bureau of Labor, there is a shortage of essential workers. So, a big benefit is you get to choose what job you want, because there is a shortage. You get to decide what job best fits you and the needs you have for yourself and your family. And I think that that's a huge benefit.”?
Job security is also an upside of being an essential worker, but the duties of those professions can take a toll on mental health, Micale said.?
“There are a lot of altruistic [benefits], but the problem with that is that it really wears off,” Micale said. “Working as a healthcare executive and leading a team of people who really were doing the nitty gritty stuff every day you come in, you get your paycheck, have your bosses and your leaders cheering you on and telling you how great it is, but that benefit [subsides] over time.”?
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Those effects are a reflection of job shortages in essential worker industries. Eleven million U.S. jobs went unfilled in March 2022, according to Harvard Business Review, and the majority could not be performed remotely.?
Most of those professions fell under essential worker sectors: healthcare, hospitality and leisure, retail, manufacturing, and transportation and warehousing.?
Not even raised wages (on average between 7-10% since the COVID-19 pandemic began) have lured frontline workers back.?
“We surveyed essential workers and learned they really want flexibility,” Alves said. “They definitely want to provide for their families, but they want flexible schedules. That has been a top priority. And then things like benefits, whether it's 401(k), health, insurance, etc., so they can take care of themselves mentally and physically as well.?
“They are willing to sacrifice a little bit if they have more flexibility so they can be available for when their family needs them. That is why gig workers, for example, think DoorDash, Uber, Uber Eats, is such a booming little micro-economy. Because people want to be able to work when they want to work versus like a traditional nine to five.”
What Essential Workers Need Right Now
Essential workers need support and leadership from employers willing to discuss solutions to burnout and disgruntled/overworked employees, Micale said.?
“Talk to your leaders [if you are an essential worker],” Micale said. “That is the biggest thing. There were a lot of situations where I had to walk into really uncomfortable rooms and wade through horribly uncomfortable waters to say the things that everybody was thinking but didn't. I knew I had to do that because my team was too worn out.?
“If you are the essential worker, before you get to that point, if you can recognize that you are starting to [experience] compassion fatigue, and? you are no longer able to clearly see the higher purpose behind all of it, talk to your leaders about it because I can guarantee you they are also feeling that way.”
Speaking up can lead to discussions about change, Micale said.?
Essential workers help our society function, but they need support and change to attract new talent and fill the voids in those industries.?
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What Are Essential Workers?