“Why do we have non essential employees anyway?”
That is a misnomer, at least NASA. I’m a contractor working for NASA. “Essential employees” are those who are supporting in-progress manned space flight or tests that are in progress that cannot be stopped without costing large, sometimes enormous, sums of money.
I work in the calibration facility, and we have 3 people deemed “essential” as contractors. If a priority calibration came up to support human space flight operations or one of the few “critical” tests in progress, they would be required to go to work and perform the calibration.
Other than that, our lab is closed.