{"id":166,"date":"2022-04-06T13:48:15","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T17:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/populistpublics\/?p=166"},"modified":"2026-03-24T09:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:12:08","slug":"weareessential-redefining-essential-work-during-covid-19-lockdowns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/populistpublics\/2022\/weareessential-redefining-essential-work-during-covid-19-lockdowns\/","title":{"rendered":"#WeAreEssential – Redefining Essential Work during COVID-19 Lockdowns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n #WeAreEssential – Redefining Essential Work during COVID-19 Lockdowns\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

By: Leslie Rao & Maria Urso<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it take to be considered \u201cessential\u201d in a pandemic? How is the term \u201cessential\u201d used by small businesses\u2014particularly those deemed as not essential by provincial health orders over the past two years\u2014as they navigated and coped with Covid-19 closures?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government of Canada<\/a> defines essential work as participating in critical infrastructure, which facilitates the \u201chealth, safety, security or economic well-being of Canadians and the effective functioning of government.\u201d The term, however, became a buzzword attached to conversations that addressed which businesses were allowed to stay open during lockdowns versus those that were forced to close during the Covid-19 pandemic. This developed as a measure of importance for the non-essential small businesses who were forced to close while malls, big-box and liquor stores remained open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We examined the hashtag \u201cWeAreEssential\u201d to understand how businesses reacted to pandemic policy and how the pandemic triggered a re-examination of essential work as an opposition to official government policy. We collected posts on Instagram that used #WeAreEssential between April 1 to June 30, 2021. This timeframe documents the pandemic\u2019s third wave in Canada<\/a>, as well as the aftermath when businesses waited for permission to reopen. It offered the opportunity to explore how the discourse in the hashtag adapted to the different stages of re-opening plans. Our Instagram dataset comprises 1788 posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two Dissent Expressions in Two Industries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClaiming to be \u2018essential\u2019\u201d and \u201crejecting\/redefining the meaning of \u2018essential\u2019\u201d are two expressions of dissent in the #WeAreEssential dataset. In particular, the former is the most common compared to all other observed expressions. Among 136 posts from users that argue they are essential by either adopting or rephrasing the term \u201cwe are essential,\u201d 125 are businesses\u2014even though they do not provide essential services as recognized by the government and public health authorities. Of the closely related expression, 44 posts involve \u201crejecting or redefining \u2018essential,\u2019\u201d in which 35 are generated by businesses. In contrast to those which claim their businesses are essential, these posts reject the official definition of essential or raise alternative interpretation of essential jobs and are more active in expressing opinions against the pandemic mandates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a clear example of this \u2018rejection\u2019 sentiment, a gym owner\u2019s post discusses a form of injury common among older adults: \u201c\u2026let me tell you why my deemed \u2018non-essential\u2019 job is actually very much indeed ESSENTIAL. Because this [injury due to slips and falls] can be prevented and or minimized!!!\u201d Although this message of being essential can serve to promote a service and attract clients, the term \u201cessential\u201d is used here not as a branding strategy, but rather to explain how balance training can reduce fall injuries. In this example, more attention is devoted to justifying why the business is essential<\/em>, countering the government-defined \u201cessential job\u201d as being too narrowly defined and, therefore, unreasonable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fitness industry (gyms, dance studios, etc.) most frequently make claims about being essential. This might be a sign that fitness-related businesses tend to more firmly believe their business and services are essential in comparison to other non-essential businesses. The fitness industry generates 101 out of 136 data-posts in \u201cclaiming to be essential,\u201d and 17 out of 44 in \u201crefuting or redefining \u2018essential.\u2019\u201d In contrast, the personal service industry (hairdressers, beauty salon, etc.) is the second most frequent with 16 posts in the former theme and 18 posts in the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For fitness businesses whose posts are coded into the two essential theme-based categories, many of them address the narrative that \u201cgyms are part of the solution to pandemic.\u201d These accounts argue that exercising is an effective way to strengthen physical and mental health, which would result in stronger immunity against COVID-19. Therefore, in their view, closing fitness facilities defeats the purpose of stopping COVID-19 transmission and they deserve to be recognized as essential work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personal service businesses justify their essential service primarily for mental health reasons. For example, a hair salon claims \u201cwe are essential to mental health,\u201d saying that “we don\u2019t just cut hair, we are a friend to a lonely person, a confidant, a sounding board, and a connection to how a person feels about themselves!” This argument targets the merits of self-confidence and the familiarity of beauty routines that many people were forced to give up due to the lockdowns, and therefore further exacerbated mental wellbeing during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Normalizing \u201cEssential\u201d in Popular Discourse         <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of \u201cessential\u201d on Instagram is a snapshot of a prominent clash of interests between small businesses as an economic community and the government as the authority to manage the health crisis. The conversation around essential work has become more popular with the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Google Trends<\/a>, the term essential reached its peak popularity in Canada the week of March 22, 2020, with an increase of 90% from the week of March 8. This increase parallels the introduction of pandemic measures in Canada. Since then, there are spikes in popularity for the term \u201cessential\u201d that correlate timewise with new lockdown policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be understandable if the claim on essentialism is just a sign of the income struggle among small businesses during the lockdown. However, essentialism has been integrated by many anti-masker and anti-mandate groups. The organization WeAreAllEssential<\/a> (WAAE) argues for all types of businesses to stay open, positioning all industries as \u201cessential.\u201d WAAE has organized several anti-mandate protests, including a protest in February 2021, where businesses across Canada opened regardless of provincial pandemic policies. Hugs Over Masks<\/a>, another prominent Canadian anti-masker group, uses \u201cFreedom is Essential\u201d and \u201cWe Are All Essential\u201d in their campaigns<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the pandemic, these groups and prominent anti-maskers have been criticized for their connection to the far-right. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network<\/a> has outlined the antisemitism, racism, homophobia, and transphobia of prominent figures like Chris Sky<\/a>, amongst others, who represent and propel anti-mandate movements. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh<\/a> has explicitly stated that groups and individuals protesting public-health guidelines as having common ground in an \u201cextreme right-wing ideology.\u201d This association between anti-maskers and far-right politics has only been furthered by the \u201cFreedom Convoy\u201d occupation of Ottawa<\/a>, which was host to white supremacists, Nazis, and individuals who wished to overthrow the Canadian government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be inaccurate to assign the label \u201canti-masker\u201d or \u201cfar-right\u201d to anyone who claims essentialism. Many of these businesses may be unaware of the connotations of the phrase \u201cWe are essential\u201d beyond its popularity in arguing to reopen their businesses. However, it is important to note how language used by anti-mandate groups is adopted and used in normal populist discourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While our focus was on those who took up \u201cessential\u201d to situate their own business as an important service, we encountered 917 posts in our dataset that deployed the term \u201cessential\u201d or \u201cWe Are Essential\u201d as a marketing tactic alongside promotional content for their brand. These posts have little to do with either the pandemic itself or essential work defined by the government, but leverage the momentum generated by #WeAreEssential to advertise services and products on the platform. This use of \u201cessential\u201d might potentially contribute to the normalization of the anti-mandate expression in popular discourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In comparison to the amount of promotional content, explicit criticism of pandemic policies is rare in our dataset, but it might not necessarily signify an absence of resentment. Rather, by including #WeAreEssential these posts on Instagram, even without making explicit comments towards the government and covid mandates, are aligning with ongoing movements in opposition to closure mandates. Consequently, these posts increase the visibility of #WeAreEssential as anti-pandemic discourse, while the seemingly non-political slogan and content allow the essential expression to be diffused and accepted easier by the wider public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current research does not specifically cover businesses\u2019 avoidance of commenting on the pandemic issue, but, hopefully, the current findings could serve as an exploration of businesses\u2019 pandemic discourse in response to pandemic policy and hint for further investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A complete break down of our methodology is available on request.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Leslie Rao & Maria Urso What does it take to be considered \u201cessential\u201d in a pandemic? How is the term \u201cessential\u201d used by small businesses\u2014particularly those deemed as not essential by provincial health orders over the past two years\u2014as they navigated and coped with Covid-19 closures? The Government of Canada defines essential work as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[56,53,55,57,54,45],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","tag-weareessential","tag-covid19","tag-essentialism","tag-instagram","tag-pandemic","tag-social-media"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/populistpublics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/populistpublics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/populistpublics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/populistpublics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/populistpublics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/populistpublics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/populistpublics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions\/178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/populistpublics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/populistpublics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/populistpublics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}