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I don’t mean to diminish marine workers specifically, but isn’t every job essential? I see this label used pretty much all the time now and my feeling is that i

I don’t mean to diminish marine workers specifically, but isn’t every job essential? I see this label used pretty much all the time now and my feeling is that in the end, it comes down to supply and demand. To their customer, any worker is essential to some extent, since they demand their labor to fulfill some need. But the worker is not infinitely essential since for high enough compensation, others would step in to do the job as well. So why have the label? It feels like it is used as a marketing device for change (like pushing for wage increases) more than anything.

CamTin 5y ago
My job is definitely not essential (I work in ops for a category of app where nobody dies even if it is unavailable for years at a time). "Essential workers" are the flipside of "bullshit jobs". If grocery stores aren't stocked, if docks aren't open, if crops aren't planted and harvested, people die. It actually matters. Nobody dies if the marketing department for a craft brewery can't work for a year, or if the design team for free-to-play RPG #20,345 fails to release a new kind of in-game currency.