Essential as a euphemism for expendable.
Be glad, a doorman I know didn't get paid to stay home like everyone else because rich people need one last peon to look down on as they enter the building, plus his extra long commute got extra complicated and longer on account of this plague thingy.
It got so bad that this fella, an IRL friend (we even used to go to restaurants together) who had unfriended then blocked me on (EGADS!) FB because I didn't worship his new god, finally went anti-Trump, turning his new bunch of pals that had congregated on his daily posts of adoration against him. Dude even decided to forgive his former fave pit bull for the aforementioned trangression.
Alas, I was too busy not caring to accept.
I admit I did kinda felt bad, as they started harrassing even his ma.
But I guess I granted his wish, as I have declared him non-essential.