This collaborative project, between myself and Aggie Wildgoose, looked into key workers recent experiences of pointless during the pandemic. when we set out we thought that everyone was supportive of key workers and understood the curtail roll they played over the last few years across all job rolls. We wanted to ask if this was actually the case and create a publication on the interactions between people. However, though we found there was an increase in pointlessness and understanding in some areas, many felt that there were more extreme examples of people being impolite.  

This publication is a set of two. The first, Politeness Is Key, presents the accounts of 5 key workers indifferent areas. Ranging from Hospital lab workers, cares, and receptionists to school teaching and supermarket working. the second, The Key to Politeness, is a small field guide of thing that would make the lives of key workers easier. It was a great insight to an area we didn’t know much about and to share the real experiences of these people, tirelessly working over the last few years and we hope it would remind people that these jobs aren’t operated by robots.

Key To Politeness politeand helpful actions:  

. Its possible to raiseconcerns in a polite way

. Understand that these peoplein the jobs are over stretched

. Most of the time, theperson on the end of the phone isn’t the one you should be angry at

. Being passive is moresoul destring than being irate, a kind word goes a long way

. It’s hard to be availableto everyone all the time, so please be patient

‍