8 More Days We Should Celebrate ...

I’m sure we all get annoyed with shopworkers who seem unhelpful and disinterested in their job, but as anyone who’s worked in retail will know, it is a hard and often poorly paid job. Staff have to put up with rudeness from customers while doing an often physically demanding job. Those employees who do everything they can to help deserve praise.

Would you want to spend your working life clearing up the mess that other people leave behind, often deliberately? One of my pet hates is litter, and it really annoys me when someone has the attitude that ‘people are paid to clean up’, so they can drop what they like.

Now, carers are people who deserve huge kudos. Whether doing a paid job, or caring for relatives, it’s demanding, not well paid, and takes a very special person to do this work. I know I couldn’t …

How many services wouldn’t exist if it were not for the willingness of volunteers to give their time for free? With so much pressure on public funds these days, voluntary organisations fill a huge gap that makes a difference to so many lives.

Again, this is a job that is definitely a vocation, and takes someone special. Nursing is incredibly hard work, and during the course of several hospital stays I met some truly dedicated and caring nurses, who really made a difference. They deserve so much more recognition – including better pay.

It’s very easy to ignore the fact that someone is keeping public and work spaces clean. Usually we don’t even see them working, as they’re busy before or after our working day. Cleaning might be a low-status job, but where would we be without them?

In these days of instant ‘friends’ on social networks, the word has become somewhat devalued. True friends, who are there whenever you need them, are very hard to find. So if you have some, it’s worth acknowledging how important they are. National Friendship Week, anyone?

It seems that people just love to fight, and concentrate on differences rather than the one thing we all have in common. We are all human! If there is one ‘day’ I would seriously like to see implemented, it is this – a day when we can encourage acceptance and foster friendship.

Have you ever thought that there should be other days commemorated, or does it just smack of a cynical marketing attempt to you?

Top Photo Credit: color_me