Hazards of the job

Priscilla Brown, an executive assistant at the National Capital Planning Commission, found herself shivering in the chilly night air outside D.C. General Hospital, waiting to get a prescription for antibiotics to fight off anthrax bacteria that may have ended up in her office mail.

"I thought my job was safe; I'm not in the Postal Service," Brown said.

But Brown and thousands of other workers in the Washington and New York City regions -- many of them low-paid -- are finding themselves unlikely warriors in America's battle against terrorism. And some, in recent interviews, are rethinking whether their jobs are worth the newly discovered stress and risk.

Security guards nervously watch for any signs of unusual activity outside their buildings. Administrative assistants say they fear handling the mail and feel they're taking the risk of anthrax exposure for more powerful co-workers. Flight attendants say they've been left with potentially troublesome passengers while pilots barricade themselves behind doors reinforced to deter hijackers.

Flight attendant Anne Taylor, 50, of New York, a 27-year veteran of United Airlines, said that although she loved her job, she's begun to consider other job possibilities. "I don't feel I've taken a calm breath since this has happened," she said. "I feel like I am always knotted up."

A 12-year Postal Service employee, who declined to be identified because bosses didn't want any negative publicity, said she can't afford to quit. "But we're scared of getting sick or hurt," she said, so she's adopted a fatalistic attitude. "A friend said, `If it's my time to go, it's my time to go,' " she said. "It's God's will. I'll just put the gloves on and keep on working."

William Martel, a professor at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., said recent events have propelled ordinary people into the kind of hazardous duty normally associated with combat troops or police.

"When you go into the military, you pretty much know what you are getting into because of the training you have had," Martel said. But these office workers are "people operating in risk-averse circumstances who are forced into high-risk times."

Robert Reich, former secretary of labor and now an economics professor at Brandeis University, said: "Some people bought into lines of work that require courage, like firefighters. But none of these people thought they would be fighting a war, that they would be on the front line of global conflict."

Many of these newly perilous jobs are poorly compensated and lack prestige. According to a 1999 Bureau of Labor Statistics report on national compensation trends, the most recent available, security guards averaged $6.42 an hour; health aides, $8.20; janitors, $8.06; and administrative support workers, $11.53.

Beginning flight attendants at most major airlines earn about $17,000 a year. The starting salary for Capitol Hill police is $36,000.

"It's unfortunate when you consider that these people are putting their lives on the line that they are not getting a large premium for it," said labor economist Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women's Policy Research.

Martel said employers may need to re-evaluate pay scales. "We are good in this society at calibrating risk and status with pay," Martel said. "We may see society recalibrate pay to reflect these new levels of risk."

Doug Jensen, director of the reward practice at the Hay Group, a management consulting firm known for its national wage studies, said "there's been some talk" among employers about raising pay in some job categories. "When people are asked to put themselves at risk, it usually commands better pay," he said.

Security guards are most likely to see pay raises, Jensen said, because "it's a marketplace with a short supply" and one in which established workers "are a hot commodity."

Workers who handle mail may also find themselves with the opportunity to ask for more money now, Jensen said. But they may need to be judicious about their requests because rising unemployment rates mean that more people are hungry for work, even at the bottom of the pay scale.

Copyright 2001 Cowles Publishing Company
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