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Risk Management (Editorial)

2 min read

THIS IS AN OPINION

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Labor Day is still a week away, but an encounter with a physician last week got us thinking about the risks and rewards of work.

He was discussing friends of his who had recovered from COVID-19 and doctors he knew who had been shaken by seeing the disease firsthand. Each of his friends had had wildly divergent experiences, ranging from being essentially asymptomatic to still suffering six weeks later. This doctor called the disease “strange,” and it was the first time we had heard awe in a physician’s voice when describing an illness.

This month, teachers throughout the state returned to work, whether virtually or in person. Their jobs are difficult in the best circumstances but during a pandemic … well, the families of the teachers we know have updated their wills and stocked their in-home pharmacies.

Meanwhile, restaurateurs and others in the hospitality industry are doing everything they can figure out to do to continue to make a living and keep their workers employed. They’re demonstrating great ingenuity while doing it. One example: the SoMa Outdoor Dining Room in downtown Little Rock (see SoMa Stays Social While Socially Distant).

And for almost six months now, health care and nursing home workers, law enforcement and first responders and employees at grocery stores and food-processing plants have faced every day the risk of an illness for which there is no cure so they could keep society functioning.

The rewards of work are many — money, for one. But the rewards also include joy for those lucky enough to work at something they love, satisfaction at providing a product or service that is good and useful, self-respect.

This year, however, the risks of work are much greater than usual. We can reduce those risks so easily and so simply by wearing masks and behaving responsibly.

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