NYC mayor's comments on protecting non-remote workers prompt people to defend 'low-skill' jobs
Mayor Eric Adams' remarks about "low-skill" workers set off a firestorm of responses.
Sometimes it's surprising how quickly politicians can step in it, even when they're trying to say something legitimately important or helpful.
In trying to convince the public that people who can't work remotely need the support of other New Yorkers during the current wave of COVID-19 infections, New York City Mayor Eric Adams artlessly referred to cooks, messengers, shoe shiners and Dunkin' Donuts employees as "low-skill workers" who "don't have the academic skills to sit in a corner office."
To be fair, he was trying express support for the workers he seems to insult, but it came across all wrong. His remarks set off a firestorm of responses from people who have worked as service workers and who took issue with the idea of those jobs being "low-skill."
"There’s no such thing as a 'low-skilled' worker."
Naturally, different jobs require different skills, and "academic skills" could mean a lot of different things. But "low-skill" has an insulting ring to it
Adams tried to clarify his meaning in an interview on CBS This Morning, saying, “The goal is we need to open the city so low-wage employees are able to survive."
If he meant "low-wage," he probably should have said so. And that correction doesn't really address the "lacking-the-academic-skills-for-a-corner-office" thing.
Some people pointed out that "low-skill" or "unskilled" jobs are an actual category of work, meaning that they don't require any specialized education or long-term training. However, that wording minimizes the skills that are required to succeed in many of those jobs, so perhaps we should reconsider that wording altogether.
What Mayor Adams really meant was that people who work in jobs that can't be done remotely still need to be paid during the pandemic. Is encouraging office workers to go into the office in the middle of a raging pandemic so they can help keep those people employed the way to go? Questionable, but everything is questionable right now.
What's clear is that while his intentions may have been good, his delivery definitely needed some polishing. Don't insult a large swath of your constituents by saying they don't have the brains for a corner office. Not a good message, not a good look.
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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.