Terminology around the heroism of essential workers quickly surfaces during crises. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly nurses were lauded as heroes. In our fieldwork, we quickly discovered these essential workers resisted such labeling, but how it really affects them over time remains insufficiently understood. The present paper offers in-depth longitudinal mixed-methods research on how value statements may threaten essential workers’ wellbeing. First, it presents qualitative findings combining 40 interviews with archival data to understand how nurses and relevant stakeholders in hospitals perceived the valuing of nurses and nursing work. Second, it presents quantitative findings based on four-wave longitudinal data from 548 nurses on how experienced appreciation by the organization, job control, and support developed over a year and how this relates to work engagement and burnout. Importantly, we find that the labeling of essential workers as heroes and the promises around this label might represent a purely symbolic form of support that never materializes and results in what we label the patronization of work which may threaten the dignity and wellbeing of workers. For example, we find that workers experiences of appreciation, job control, and support begin to decline, resulting in risks of burnout increase and reduced work engagement.
