Financially and economically, yes — I am considered an "essential" worker (911 dispatcher) but mentally, not really as of the last 2 weeks or so. I was able to weather the start of it just fine, but it's starting to drag for me.
I already worked the night shift prior to pandemic but I definitely did take for granted how much even my tiny bits of being able to get out and about and my tiny bits of sleep schedule overlap (i.e. the slim time frames in which my sleep schedule overlapped with normal people and business schedules) helped.
I hate that I feel on edge when I go grocery shopping. I already thought grocery shopping was kinda unpleasant even prior to pandemic and now I extra dislike it — it's the one thing in my life that's pretty much necessary but also the highest risk of exposure.
To make things worse, we've been understaffed going on for a year and a half — my center isn't exactly the most competitive regionally on pay and our recruitment process is like 5-6 months, so the vast majority of our candidates usually find other jobs while they're waiting to hear back about this one. It's a known problem but it's been very difficult to try and cut the bureacratic tape. It's also been bad for retention as we're trained at my center at the same level as the neighboring centers, but we pay so much less, so a lot of people just eventually make lateral moves for increased pay (but same exact workflow, just difference in call volume). ONE of us getting sick right now does actually potentially mean 24 hour shifts, I'm not kidding. It hasn't happened yet but we're that low on people. And the current economic collapse is starting to suggest that we can't open up a new hiring process (even though there would likely be a lot of candidates).
