Essential Worker? (Read 2886 times)

oldfart

Essential Worker?
« on: August 24, 2018, 10:15:11 AM »
What is an essential worker?
Beyond the obvious police, fire, ambulance crews.
What, Me Worry?

drck1000

Re: Essential Worker?
« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2018, 10:24:00 AM »
What is an essential worker?
Beyond the obvious police, fire, ambulance crews.
We have mission critical and emergency employees. Neither of which I am. You have to be designated in writing for this positions. Many are agency and certain department heads.

The closest I get to any of those is being on our agency’s damage assessment team, but that work starts after the all clear.

Flapp_Jackson

Re: Essential Worker?
« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2018, 10:55:34 AM »
What is an essential worker?
Beyond the obvious police, fire, ambulance crews.

"Essential personnel" varies by state, city, agency and type of emergency. 

Police are on the list, along with safety workers, like fire personnel, hospital staff and city sanitation engineers.  Employees who are responsible for K9s and other animals are usually included, since animals need care and feeding.
"How can you diagnose someone with an obsessive-compulsive disorder
and then act as though I had some choice about barging in?"
-- Melvin Udall

oldfart

Re: Essential Worker?
« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2018, 11:08:28 AM »
"Essential personnel" varies by state, city, agency and type of emergency. 

Police are on the list, along with safety workers, like fire personnel, hospital staff and city sanitation engineers.  Employees who are responsible for K9s and other animals are usually included, since animals need care and feeding.
...
Would it be fair to say that any worker who is expected to fulfill a function of the city, state or federal government during an emergency might be defined as an essential worker?
What, Me Worry?

Rocky

Re: Essential Worker?
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2018, 11:18:47 AM »
Bartenders, Liquor store owners, strippers and those in the "Oldest Profession"  :thumbsup:
HURRICANE PARTY !
“I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.”
                                                           Franklin D. Roosevelt

Flapp_Jackson

Re: Essential Worker?
« Reply #5 on: August 24, 2018, 11:23:39 AM »
...
Would it be fair to say that any worker who is expected to fulfill a function of the city, state or federal government during an emergency might be defined as an essential worker?

If the function of the agency is included in the gov't emergency plan, then maybe.  All gov't managers are required to maintain emergency action plans tailored for types of situations. 

Gov't plans identify the agencies required in an emergency. Each agency identifies the positions required to be manned.

If additional workers are needed, the managers will recall them once they've had time to assess the situation.
"How can you diagnose someone with an obsessive-compulsive disorder
and then act as though I had some choice about barging in?"
-- Melvin Udall

2ahavvaii

Re: Essential Worker?
« Reply #6 on: August 24, 2018, 03:09:34 PM »
1.  an essential worker is someone who works in a position that directly involves the safety of human lives or the protection of property.  Prison guards are essential, hospital workers, road crews, parks personnel (clearing debris from water ways, etc),  even maintenance personnel, critical IT personnel, department heads or assignees, designated emergency representatives, groundskeepers, security, road crews, zoo keepers, school personnel, etc.

2.  Personnel deemed critical to running of the department are tasked with operating the department itself or performing central, critical tasks that should be ongoing after the event.  Examples might be communicating with the EOC (emergency operations center), paying vendors, entering into emergency contracts, performing payroll functions, getting the network back up and running, handling of personnel issues, directing essential workers to performing XXXXX mission of that department., etc.  In other words, even though the keeds aren't in school post disaster, DOE still needs to run, even though at a reduced capacity.  These employees have already been identified, and are not entered into the pool of labor. 

3.  In an emergency, non-essential workers not charged with critical jobs relating to the operation of their department are entered into a pool of labor to perform tasks related to recovery of the disaster event.  This pool of labor would be called, as necessary, for tasks such as running shelters, clearing debris, etc.   Obviously if there is enough capacity for personnel normally handling that function, that is preferred.  A 60 year old female clerk might be unsuited to clearing stream debris.

So essentially, there's 3 classifications of workers:

1.  essential workers
2.  non-essential workers, but essential to continued operation of department
3.  non-essential workers


...
Would it be fair to say that any worker who is expected to fulfill a function of the city, state or federal government during an emergency might be defined as an essential worker?

Generally, yes.   Even though having all  maintenance crews on call may be excessive and some might be idle during the emergency, it's foolish not to have them standing by.  Government resources are limited, and in a large natural disaster, they will be stretched thin.  You can go very quickly from having an overcapacity of labor to being "underwater" so to speak.
« Last Edit: August 24, 2018, 03:49:14 PM by 2ahavvaii »