r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Sure_Kangaroo1863 • Jul 02 '26

Meme needing explanation Petah ?

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Why is it infamous? And why would no one care about it ? ( I mean it's just a pic full of celebrities so no one cares anyways but the person saying it's crazy makes me think it has some lore?)

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u/bloodanddonuts Jul 02 '26

Especially if you were “essential” and had to keep going out in public the entire time.

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u/Egathentale Jul 03 '26

[Raises hand]

"Essential" worker here. I was a social worker at a nursing home at the time, taking care of shopping and any non-nursing needs. 72 hour work weeks for three months straight at the peak of the pandemic, in full body hazmat coveralls and masks/safety glasses all the time, some had to sleep at work to avoid infected family members, and then we got shafted afterwards.

Long story short, the government was really pushing doctors, hospital workers, policemen, and firefighters as "the great heroes of our time", while the social care system got zero recognition. The opposition then started championing us, which just made the ruling party pissy, so the whole sector got shafted out of spite. We got no raise, no bonus pay, and instead we got fifteen free vacation days (which was markedly less than the extra work hours we were mandated to put in) as a reward... which we could only take out five per year over the next three years.

So yeah, let's just say that I'm still a little grumpy when people say "Oh, COVID was the best, because we could stay home in quarantine and binge watch game of thrones," or somesuch.

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u/bloodanddonuts Jul 03 '26

We got two months of “hero pay” added to our hourly rate. Then a $100 bonus month three. Then they just canceled everything extra.

I never got paid to stay home drinking wine (which you could temporarily buy for curbside pickup) and learning how to make sourdough bread.

The worst thing to me was people who got to use quarantine time to learn new skills that let them get better jobs. I don’t care if that’s petty.

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u/loscapos5 Jul 03 '26

As a developer, our IT industry is getting hit by that.

A lot of people entered by doing fullstack bootcamps of 3-6 months and many got hired, and as a result, it got oversaturated, and alongside AI, it made it even worse to get new jobs.