Public employees, we appreciate you

By Yolanda Fisher

During Public Service Recognition Week, I’d like to say a big thank-you to the federal, state, tribal and local public employees who take care of our roads and bridges, handle the finances of our towns and cities, make sure our drinking water is clean, and perform countless tasks that are completely invisible to the public. You staff our public libraries, work in our health clinics and make up most of the ranks of our mental health professionals and social workers who labor thanklessly in public service.

To a person, we don’t appreciate you enough. We don’t understand the work you do or how you do it.

As a school food service provider in Texas, I know what it’s like to be underappreciated. Why, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we food service employees kept working on-site and delivering meals to students and their families via school buses, outdoor pickup stations and however else we could figure out to do it. Just as you kept cities and towns running, our school and college support staff kept public schools running. It is challenging to do the work we do, and it was especially challenging during the pandemic.

Like you, we paraprofessionals and school-related personnel are also public employees — but I would reckon that public employees who work for state and municipal governments may be even more invisible than school and college workers are! Be that as it may, you help keep us safe and sound. It is a thankless job. But we support staff see you.

We see you working as transportation department mechanics. We see you, accountants, clerks and IT professionals. We see you, marine biologists who work in our public fisheries, lakes, bays and streams. In a blizzard, it is public employees who plow the snow and put sand on the road. Even though I live in Texas where it hardly ever snows, I know you all do that. You are helping people who really need it.

I have said it before, and I’ll say it again: I love the work I do because I love to serve. Behind every kind of successful work is the hand of a person who toils behind the scenes. With hard work, motivation and selflessness, that person will find success. Such a person should always be respected.

And this week I want to say, on behalf of all our AFT paraprofessionals and school-related personnel, that I respect you. Thank you!

Yolanda Fisher is a food service manager at a Dallas Independent School District high school and a member of Alliance/AFT, an affiliate of Texas AFT.