Warehouse work in hardware supply chain. Considered essential and life sustaining.

We have several gardening services in the neighborhood that think their job must still be essential.

EMT...essential

Not essential.

Well food was good while it lasted. I'm really going to miss it.

LTG : )

Work in a call center for a major telco. We can't work from home because we're union and non-management. Company has given anyone over 60, with higher-risk preexisting conditions, or that's had kids booted out of school with no other childcare options available to them up to 160 hours of paid leave at this point. It started at 80 about a week ago, and was raised to 160 yesterday. I'm in the latter group. My wife also works, and her job has not shut down, so I've split 80 hours over 4 weeks to cover the times she's working, though likely I could qualify on medical waiver as well due to my high blood pressure.

Over half of my call center had already taken leave and bailed on work, even people that wouldn't qualify for the leave, leaving us with basically skeleton crew to handle our stuff. Today is my first day I've taken. I'm still planning on working 2 days a week, because...I'm not a piece of manipulative worthless lazy trash like some of my coworkers, and we have near-zero exposure risk since the vast majority of our building is working from home. But I do need to be home for my kids.

I would ASSUME we are considered essential. There's things that only my department can solve that would otherwise hamper our tech's ability to do repairs and installations of services, and customer service can't reschedule certain jobs that were put on hold without us removing the hold first as well....but being as I'm in Texas....I have no clue, honestly. There's no official word on that. I know not all of our 300,000+ employees are considered "essential". I guess I'll find out in 4 weeks or so.

IT Director for a medical devices company. Essential for now and working 100% from home, but who knows what could happen if this downward slide continues. Girlfriend is a speech therapist and providing telehealth services virtually for now. Feeling very fortunate and our hearts go out to those impacted by this deadly virus. We’ve been helping others however we can. My girlfriend is American Chinese, but I don’t blame her for this mess. Crazy times
23CB0F01-9662-40B4-BF45-3C11289101EC (resized).jpeg

I'm having all my floors being done right now. Total mess in my house. I was out last week while they were working, I contacted my contractor yesterday and told him I want to hold off on any more work for right now until things settle down. He understood. I'll live in squalor (better than dying). If it were outdoor stuff, I'd let them keep rolling. As it is, I don't want people in my house. Who knows where they have been. This is almost like back in the 80's when the fear about AIDS. It was like you've had sex with everyone else your sexual partner had been with. Now it is like you've been around anyone who has been around the person you're standing next to.

That is some unsettling and scary thought.

I don't think anyone would blame her, including President Trump. You guys are a beautiful couple! (her mostly... )

I'm a machine shop owner and we are requested to stay open as we make a lot of critical medical fittings and regulator parts so guess I'm essential

Why on earth would you? =|

Non...but I might get pulled in a day or 2.

In Ohio, beer distribution has been included as essential under” Food and Beverage Supply Chain”.

https://www.fox4news.com/news/stay-at-home-order-issued-for-dallas-county

Guess I'm about to find out.

Insurance underwriter servicing our local agents. Essential. Working from home. Our company has amazing technology. Just like being in the office! I may never go back to the office again!!

I don't think my job is that essential, but apparently my bosses disagree.

Hey bud man, i havent drank in 6 years. If i have to stay at home and cannot go out to get materials to work on my house, i am getting some beer.
You, my friend , ARE essential.

Construction worker,

Told to work until the government bans us from working.

My boss/owner doesn’t give a fuck

Such an interesting thread, reading about the real world lives jobs and situations of the people behind screen names I see on a pinball discussion site.

So far my job is essential. Fortunately I work for a federal defense contractor that’s exempt from shutdown, although it would not surprise me if things change this week but ok for now.

My wife is a dental hygienist, her office shut down last week and will be closed for the foreseeable future. Staff didn’t even get paid for the last couple weeks they did work as the Dr has vanished which is very odd.

I run the kitchen of an assisted living facility, so I thank God I am in a spot that still has a job. I feel for those out of work though.

essential.. mailman gotta deliver all those bills........and the gov checks for everybody.....

I’m a field tech for Verizon. Gotta keep everyone’s Internet and phones going- so it’s business as usual for me. Don’t see us shutting down- we work in homes, businesses, government etc-

I'm in auto body, so for those who needs their car repaired we are essential. We've got work for the time being... But with no one driving, and the economy looking the way it is, I think the writing is on the wall for us...

On the bright side, I had a feeling a slow down was coming (never expected a F@%king pandemic) so I have a decent reserve in savings, But I really hope I don't need to liquidate that.

Scary times, I hope we start seeing some positive news soon!

I work for the fire department. First time in 15 years I have seen the stations closed to the public. Of course we are still running all the calls, but no visitors/walk ins.

Damn right you are! Production machinist and non here. GM doesn't need car parts.

I’m a custom remodeling contractor. I’m sure the govt doesn’t see my job as essential, but my current customer would probably disagree as I’m about 3 days from completing their bathroom remodel that I’ve been working on for over the past month. Plus I really need to finish so I can get paid. I don’t take money down and get paid after completion so I could really use that $30k check that is still owed.

Stay safe man. Not the same company, but same industry and very related work. I can only imagine the shitshow you guys are dealing with after seeing my stuff the last few days...

I work for a tea manufacturer (food and beverage) so I guess that’s essential. I haven’t heard any announcements from our state government. I’m working from home 2-3 days a week, but I wish I was working from home full time.

I'm in an essential industry. I can't work from home, but some of our folks can. Actual thankful that I can go to work, keeps me on a routine.

I run several distillation columns at a pharma company, making drugs for everyone. Essential. 3 on 3 off 12 hr days. Just got word all the 8 hr office folks are to stay home next wk. Not us.

Essential - CFO of 2 behavior health hospitals and a pharmacy. We have daily meetings on how to deal with COVID-19 for our staff, patients and doctors (and 99% of our patients come from an ER so we have an extra challenge to screen them) to keep everyone as safe as possible and still treat our patients. We are privately owned so have to really manage our $. We also are preparing for the latest legislation H.R. 6201 as it can really impact our staffing starting April 1st - excellent bill to provide protection to certain workers that cannot come to work yet will potentially be a huge challenge on staffing. Also figuring how to track all the COVID-19 expenses for hopefully some reimbursement down the line. I am getting trained to perform certain direct patient care tasks as it is all hands on deck. One of my biggest challenges is to try to keep the team's morale up as much as possible - everyone is justifiably scared - even my billing team who goes no where near the patients. Hats off and much appreciation to all direct care workers that are in direct contact with those that are/can be infected by this horrible virus - you/they are very brave people and we are lucky to have so many of you/them working tirelessly and with trepidation on PPE shortages and the like.

Essential. We make packaging for food and beverage companies. It's also recession proof.

Essential...airlines

It's been a scramble at my agency as well. The ITS dept had been able to work from home for years, but the rest of the agency - judges, clerks, lawyers, LOE partners, as well as rote administrative staff, etc - was strictly against it. Until about 10 days ago we were made to scramble and beef up the VPN tunnels, NAT routes, desktop policies, voicemail mobility, teleconferencing platforms, etc etc etc. as well as provide crash-course instruction to the userbase at large (3,000 people all told, spread across the entire state). Ironically, the ITS dept which had been productive for years from home, is now under more paranoid draconian rules to manage workflow and time... but really who's complaining? We still have our jobs and it's been an adjustment for everyone.

The ISPs opening up the pipes has helped tremendously. I've noticed at home, my internet is faster and even my VPN doesn't freeze as much it used to. Even though my wife is now alongside working from home and my kids are streaming schoolwork at the same time. Based on what I know of the house of cards that ties the internet together at times, that's nothing short of a miraculous achievement and the folks making it happen upstream should be commended.

IT is not life-and-death critical, nor faced with the frontline exposure and 24/7 grind of our healthcare personnel who are truly bearing a heroic burden. But we IT drones are doing what we can to ensure all the backend systems that run, um, everything... are up to the task and don't fail at a critical moment.

This is really a time for everyone to come together and appreciate everyone who provides a measure of stability in a world gone mad.

Essential so far.

I’m an electrician for an automation company. We build custom machinery for a lot of different applications, some of which are medical testing and packaging.

My wife is part Italian and likes Chinese food. I’m not sure how much of this is her fault. But I’m keeping a close eye on her.

It's hard to say it, but I'm certainly non-essential at this time. I run Parks, Recreation, and Forestry for my community. At this time my normal role would be planning programming for spring and summer. As a Department Head I've been in a lot of meetings planning for Covid-19. The biggest wrinkle seems to be the election. Lots of people coming in to vote early. Still going into work, so far, but I'm expecting to be instructed to work from home starting sometime this week. My intent is to partner with the schools to provide recreation ideas to parents and kids who are self isolating at home. We'll see.

I'm a first responder/LEO and the wife works in media. We have no choice but to deal with the public. Stay safe everyone!!

I'll be working from home the whole way through. Fortunately my job can be done from home and the project I am working on is fully funded. Starting to go a little stir crazy already though. At this point in my career, I like taking a walk through the building and shooting the shit with my friends a couple of times a day. Not to mention eating lunch together and giving each other a hard time constantly.

For all those front line people, stay safe. Without you we would be lost.

Essential, cardiac surgeon. Been busy with the usual bypasses but also handling ER cases now.

I have really enjoyed reading all the comments.

Made me remember the lyrics to a old school song I grew up with:

"I'm a jack of all trades, master of one, and the thing I master is called having fun".

Right now I am really missing the 80's.

Anyway, Thank You very much for all everyone of you does!

Hopefully soon all is normal again with very few fatalities.

I do hope one thing from all this lasts forever, and that is anyone that would prefer to work from home, can always work from home in the future. It would save a lot of energy and traffic congestion.

I have a feeling they will be mandated to produce hand sanitizer soon.
Stock up on liquor NOW while you can!

If the hand sanitizer hoarders cause the drinkers to go without...this would start a civil war.

Imagine what gonna happen when they try to tax our whiskey....

Amazon. I'm essential till all you people stop ordering.

All your jobs are Essential!
We cannot shut the Economy down based on fear. We need more accurate data.
And there are some legal challenges to some of these mandatory closures. Requiring a small business owner to shutter his business and stay home sounds a bit like depriving him of property and liberty without due process. This is not China, the government can not legally just deprive people of their liberty and property because the state feels it is necessary for the greater good. China can, because they are an autocracy. Which does allow them to respond at a national level very well to emergencies, to prioritise national focus and industries. Which, of course, comes at the expense of what we call personal freedom and liberty in this country.

Essential
I live in Hong Kong. I’m a cargo pilot hitting all the major Asian hubs (Narita, Osaka, Shanghai, Inchon, Guangzhou, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Manila, Singapore and Jakarta). I’ve been living in airport transit hotels since this started. I’m usually restricted to my hotel room, no gyms, room service food only and a constant threat of catching a virus. I’m inundated with masks, gloves, health declaration forms, constantly changing and unpredictable travel restrictions.

Our liberties are taken all the time in the name of safety, many of which that are way less dangerous. I am sure many of those rules you have no issues with. Yes it sucks, yes it is painful, and hopefully something drastic will change out of this. Long needed changes. We'll get through this.

I’m essential but on voluntary unpaid leave due to risk

Hope there’s demand for my field when this shit is over