CORONA VIRUS, Hows ...
 

[Closed] CORONA VIRUS, Hows your company/workplace doing

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 jree
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My Mrs (nurse) has been poorly so I've been told to self isolate for two weeks.
Is there anything wrong with me going out for runs and rides?
I'm alone in the middle of nowhere and it's good for my immune system.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 6:46 pm
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Boris says, exercise is OK. Although, that was yesterday.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 6:55 pm
 kilo
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Just received an email asking for volunteers to help in interviews for a large recruitment exercise next week, shortages due to a rise in sickness levels - honestly wtf is wrong with some people’s cognitive process

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 7:08 pm
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I work for a large gas distribution company in the office.

My department should all be able to all easily do our jobs from home however nobody is setup to do so due to our IT systems being dire and still in the dark ages. They are in the process of implementing access for working from home however everybody will probably be infected or dead by then...

There is also a lack of trust that people will be working..

Luckily I think my job is pretty safe in regard to the effect of corona virus...

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 7:13 pm
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Last day in my old job today. Got a phonecall an hour after I got home. Future employer not sure they can afford to take me on. Was a bit nervous about the economic impacts. Now bricking it. Some phone calls to make, maths to be done and negotiations. Spending going into lock down.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 7:13 pm
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Got the really big important project (delayed already due to Corona Virus issues) shown at a web-broadcast/invited audience event in London on Friday afternoon so thankful that we didnt have to wait any longer.

My other job (college lecturer) has moved suddenly to fully online tutorials so spent the day talking to students who due to CoronaVirus are worried/concerned/ambivalent/perparing to embrace the exciting new future where we can sweep out the old thinking and remake society in a new, better and glorious way (delete where applicable) .

One of my students has a (modern) laptop that doesnt have a camera or a microphone so simply cant do online tutorials. Hmmm...

Used Google Meet for the first time today, bit iffy in places but seems to work ok. Skype is its usual hi-res-pixelated-sound off-smooth-blank screen, where are you? oh there you are-jittery-sound-on self...Trying to sue Zoom for a group meeting tomorrow.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 7:21 pm
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UK Pharma R&D. Sites closed to non-essential non-lab staff. So WFH. Internet is terrible and the VPM poorly. Skype is not great at the moment. Still I just got 20% of my time to do my own research on CORVID-19 as part of my Senior Fellowship.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 7:24 pm
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Used Google Meet for the first time today, bit iffy in places but seems to work ok. Skype is its usual hi-res-pixelated-sound off-smooth-blank screen, where are you? oh there you are-jittery-sound-on self…Trying to sue Zoom for a group meeting tomorrow.

We're in the process of switching to MS Teams - appreciate it's just an evolution of Skype rather than something new altogether but it seems far more resilient. The call I was on this afternoon (everyone WFH) had full video, audio and file sharing with no issues.

Trying it on Skype yesterday (from the office with it's hard-wired internet) was a glitchy mess of echoing sound and pixelated images.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 7:52 pm
 kcal
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We have MS Teams - migrated across as part of Office 365 and all the rest.

Screen sharing very good, very helpful. Haven't really used all the facilities yet (channels etc). We are completely distributed - my boss is a mile away in same town, another guy is in Aberdeen and the 4th guy is in Philippines and it works absolutely spot-on.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 7:58 pm
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We should be on Teams but the lazy **** responsible kept putting it off.

Gutted for those of you moving jobs and now in the shit.

My best friend at work is being made redundant anyway as now interviews for other jobs are getting cancelled.

My work is doing the right thing regarding CV now, but the bad news is I need to include a load of CV related content in our forthcoming launch with no extension on an already tight deadline.

Very grateful to have a job and be able to do it though.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 7:59 pm
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All office staff now WFH. A few will be in tomorrow to collect laptops that weren't available today. One member of senior leadership team present per dayUs plebs on the shop floor have to stick with it. No non-employees to enter building under any circumstances. DHL drivers still think it doesn't apply to them.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 8:20 pm
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Starting a new job on Monday, still on at the moment, been out of work for 7 months so really need this. Supposed to have a second interview for another job tomorrow, been cancelled and the recruitment is on indefinite hold, so grateful I accepted the first job now.

I do feel for people whose lives are going to be totally screwed by this.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 9:23 pm
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We’re in the process of switching to MS Teams – appreciate it’s just an evolution of Skype rather than something new altogether but it seems far more resilient.

we’ve been through this and Teams is indeed much more reliable.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 9:34 pm
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I really feel for those that have had their world come crashing down due to Corona Virus 🙁

Probably made worse from being in a job that is pretty much vital for the supply of a basic food stuff (Flour Milling) we have been flat out for the last 18 months and we are turning business down!
We are also recruiting at a pace I've not seen in 3 decades in this industry.

All teams are now split into sub groups that don't cross over and as a manager we are not permitted face to face meetings with other managers.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 10:32 pm
 rt60
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Around 70% of our work is at festivals and events, so have just seen the diary empty till around July over the last two days, mentally we are preparing for the whole summer to go.

We will tighten our belts and will survive ok, but the whole industry is going to be decimated, there have been lost of very depressing calls to friends across the whole sector. There will just not be the companies and more importantly the people available to put on events and everything that goes into them once this is over, as people will have to find other work.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 10:36 pm
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Not much impact for our company (Market-research/IT) as we've been remote working on/off for a number of years.

Found this an interesting read today - https://onezero.medium.com/coronavirus-is-a-preview-of-our-self-isolating-future-f5e73b046104

Ignoring all the horrible stuff and assuming we survive, I think forcing a lot of companies into this home-working scenario will open up some cool opportunities for employees in the future.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 10:49 pm
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I work in IT at a large bank (main products are CC and loans) of 1600 across 3 sites, and we're pretty safe in terms of job security - I'm certainly glad to be working for a big company right now though. If anything, due to our products, we'll probably thrive... Sad but true.

We have several hundred customer service/collections staff which can't WFH, IT and operations have been told if you can WFH, do so - us on the servicedesk are doing a WFH tester over the next few days as it's a little more complex due to our need to take 200+ calls a day. Still, I'd be surprised if we weren't on a skeleton staff as of next week or the week after, with most WFH and just a couple in the office to fix things in person than can't be done remotely.

If they close the callcentres though, that would change things.

Also, out of 1600 staff we've not had any confirmed cases, only a handful of people self isolating due to family members or travel. And I'd hate to think of the amount of stuff you could catch from our call centres, I feel dirty after touching equipment that's been there, and that was before the corona virus!

And MS Teams. Yes it is very good. Video meetings, channels and chats, we use that as our main infomation hub in the team and across IT. 200+ user teams meeting this afternoon, not a single issue.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 10:58 pm
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I’m lucky to work for a company that helps others implement Microsoft comms/collab - so lots of Teams these days, some Lync/SfB still. Not short of work right now. Our clients are mostly well set up for this sort of event, we do have some hurrying along their move to Teams just to get more traffic off their network/servers and on to Microsoft’s.

Have been totally home based for a couple of years, the team I work in is spread all over the place and working fine, no changes here.

Wife is still going into the office as she works with secure patient data and can’t even remote in to her office PC. Waiting on some solution or approval to bypass those requirements.

Headache will be if/when schools and nurseries close, I’ll be able to do the odd quick thing during the day else it’ll be limited to a couple of hours of work after the kids have gone to bed. Lots of my colleagues in a similar situation.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 11:02 pm
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So, one of my clients is a company that has had everyone working from home on secure telephony and cloud servers for ever. They’ve always been pretty quiet about it because it is a bit unconventional. But it’s meant that they have reasonable overheads, can pay well and employ people who work fairly flexibly  so there’s practically no staff turnover. They’ve cracked working together remotely - the office banter is on a skype chat and it feels like a team even though they’re all over the place, the phones work and it’s immaculately organised. I reckon the MD should do consultancy on how to set this up - I think he doesn’t know how good his business really is.

I work for myself so in between bursts of activity I have spent far too much time gazing in horror at the internet. Oh, and I’ve been chain eating Strepsils so remote meetings for a week then.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 11:28 pm
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Just had my hours and salary halved until future notice. I’ve got an interview tomorrow which has now been moved to the ZOOM app. Im starting to feel a bit desperate really as I know the other interview was on Monday. Not in a good place mentally at all.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 11:52 pm
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"I have spent far too much time gazing in horror at the internet."

Seriously this. I quit news about 1.5 years after Brexit got too much and was perfectly happy. Now I'm a C19 junky clicking refresh on the live news and checking the threads here, instead of WHF and doing my online diploma.

 
Posted : 17/03/2020 11:58 pm
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I feel very lucky. I work for a global organisation, has products that are in demand in times of financial stress. Already had a fairly relaxed WFH culture and > half of meetings were already Skype/teams. Infrastructure was bolstered last couple of weeks. A few tests and we are now operating with most of the org except skeleton staff WFH.
Still feeling productive, missing the office though. Some things are better discussed in person but really that is so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
There was a global update meeting today, expecting knock-issues due to recession, but exec seemed genuinely concerned for the workforce and related their own (pretty significant in a couple of cases) personal challenges. I'm bowled over with their handling of it, tbh. I'm sure issues will pan out, that may affect me in future, but for now I feel very lucky indeed and also very proud of who I work for.
Not often I have been able to say that in my career.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 12:33 am
 colp
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I have a cafe.
We’re still open but I can’t see it lasting long.
I’m ringing my insurance tomorrow.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 12:45 am
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Just found out that company policy is not to pay ssp for less than 25 hours, over a 3 day period, I was meant to work 30 hours Monday, Tuesday and Saturday, so I'm screwed even though they said to stay at home.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 12:59 am
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I am diabetic so on the high risk list.

This week my office started a rota of day working from home, day in office, repeat - the other half of the department doing the opposite.

I was off on Monday and assumed that as the rota was emailed out just before Boris yesterday, that it was out of date and everybody would be working from home from today onwards.

Our CEO emailed out at 2pm saying that everybody should follow the advice and work from home. Brilliant!

However, our head of department has now decided that we are going to continue with the rota system - I’ve not been given a reason why and when I said I was concerned the reply is “everyone is concerned right now”.

Plan is to give HR a call in the morning and get their view before thinking of what to do. Thoughts would be appreciated...

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 1:21 am
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We are now on a site wide lock down as Astana and Almaty are being quarantined for a month. After the futile attempt to get home last week I will be working for the foreseeable future, realistically I do not expect to get home before June. Our staff who are on time off and cannot get into the country are being given trivial paperwork to do so they can be justified a salary.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 2:37 am
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Currently Offshore in Norway,flying back to the Uk tomorrow.
It's been an interesting week,no cases onboard,thankfully,social distancing at meals,your meal and cutlery is handed to you. All fruit and desserts are individually wrapped in cling film,you're not allowed,to touch any food produce or drinks,they also put ketchup on your food.
They have security stationed by the hand sanitiser,on entering the galley,during meal times,no food without sanitising.
The catering staff,are doing an excellent job,but it does feel,more like a prison,these past few days.
Lifeboat drills are banned,so that's a bonus.

The industry is carrying on as normal,Norwegian workers,are flat out,they've banned most foreigners but they are struggling,some companies are suggesting,you could go back to Norway,stay in a hotel, in quarantine for 2 weeks,without pay,and then go offshore,no thanks,i'm going home,probably for a few months,might get laid off, but i need to be home now.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 3:40 am
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I work for a large builder merchant as a driver. I've been given a packet of "BIG WIPES" multi purpose hand wipes.👍

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 1:59 pm
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I was nervous about starting a new job, those fears became reality yesterday. few phone calls today and I'm now on a three month unpaid sabbatical and likely to be starting on a 4 day week. The latter isn't a problem as its what I was doing. However, there's still no guarantee that in three months there will be a job.

I'm going for a bike ride now...

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 2:04 pm
 Kuco
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I was told yesterday to WFH then been told today to self-isolate for 12 weeks as I'm in the at-risk category.
Unfortunately, I've also had to send 4 field team members home today as they fall into the at-risk category, though luckily they will still be paid.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 2:12 pm
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After the unexpected death of my previous employer the newspaper group was closed. A few of us took over one of the titles and over the last 20 months have really moved the paper forward beating the local rival.
Now this.
When a lot of your advertisers are bars, pubs, restaurants and theatre groups you sudden;y see be gaps appearing on the page plans.
I don't know how long we'll bother sticking out issues as the distribution costs are the same for 8 pages as 80.
Then if we do restart it who knows how many customers will have survived.
Pretty gutted.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 2:13 pm
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I'm field based for a medical devices company and across the course of last week most hospital trusts started restricting our access so the decision pretty much got made for us.

Looking at how insecure some peoples positions are with work I'm feeling blessed as our main product is ventilators so busier than we've ever been but would rather this wasn't the reason.

On the plus side I'm leading training sessions via ZOOM and getting so proficient that when this all settles down it may be the new way of working and cut down on windscreen time, every cloud and all that.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 2:45 pm
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Charity - beneficiary services and fundraising events decimated for the forseeable. Team have put as much as they can online, but engagement and impact will be lower for the group we help. We're just measuring the size of the hole.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 2:53 pm
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Team member prevented from taking monitor and keyboard home as they're not asset tagged, despite written approval from MD. Laptop is fine as it's tagged. Monitor and keyboard are cheap old rubbish.

Security suggested that she take it out a side door but then the risk is on her. Some senior managers are not behaving sensibly.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 3:26 pm
 Spud
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Civil Service and we're planning well, WFH, everyone has laptops. Those needing to contribute to response will be in offices, labs etc. We're a fairly adaptable bunch and I'm more worried about the isolation of everyone working remotely for an extended period. I did 7 weeks from mid-December after breaking a leg and it was tortuous near the end.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 3:38 pm
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Well, this is all looking a bir grim.

Current situation is the ship is 100Nm off the coast of Guyana. Normal trip lengths are 4 weeks. I've been asked to stay an extra week already, but Guyanese authorities have just stopped all international flights for 14 days.

No option to get off the ship for now, as all flights home go Guyana to Caribbean islands or Panama. All closed off except Barbados, but I'm sure that's going to change.

Going to carry on drilling until we can't no more because lack of logistics from Trinidad will bring it to a stop.

The best plan we have at the moment is keep working for another 20 days or so, then head to Barbados anchor off and see if we can formulate an escape plan from there.

Poop, going be a L...o...n...g hitch, probably 45-50 days onboard instead of normal 28. As work is 12 hours a day, everyday of the week, it starts to get a bit tiring after a while.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 3:38 pm
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Engineer/technical stuff in PU industry that supplies automotive market. My Mrs has symptoms so we've self isolated - had my CAD desktop and monitor dropped off so effectively catching up on outstanding Solidworks jobs. First time WFH - too many distractions!!!!!

Office staff who can WFH are now at home - enough shopfloor are in that production can continue but we know car plants are on stop so in a few weeks time it backs up to us and we'll go on short time/redundancies.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 3:54 pm
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Does anyone know about staff being told not to work for a period and this 'clashing' with annual leave? I need to take a few weeks off before end April and I'm anticipating most of the staff being told not to attend during that period. I know its exceptional circumstances but I'm a tad miffed about folk effectively getting extra time off whilst my leave couldn't be timed worse. I'm already carrying over leave to next year. Could I justifiably argue to carry over more than is normally allowed? Thanks

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 4:49 pm
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Just had to pay for $90k worth of SRAM stuff. Alas I blinked and in the 2 weeks since I ordered it the pound fell 10% against the USD. Thats not going to be helpful for the UK at all... bugger.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 5:15 pm
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Bike mechanic here.

We're f****d.

No one is buying and no one wants their bike serviced. Training sessions etc all cancelled.

On the bright side I did find a small container of hand sanitiser in the shed at home, that's gotta be worth a few grand on ebay...

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 5:15 pm
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boriselbrus, you must have some IPA knocking around the workshop, you could make some santiser to sell....

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 5:46 pm
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I work as a visa courier. I'm getting made redundant along with many others at my company.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 6:06 pm
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IHN
Member
More easily avoided here by not looking at the main CV thread.

Yeah, I stuck my head in there briefly. Makes the Brexit thread look like the Oxford Debating Society

To be fair the CV-Conspiracy thread has been taken over by the Brexit thread loonies .. its difficult to tell the two threads apart now. But I do think the Coronavirus is less anxiety provoking for them because there are facts to rein in their wild thought disordered views on Brexit.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 9:30 pm
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Project Manager for a big multinational Engineering/Defence contractor here - i can WFH short term, but my current job role does benefit from face to face contact with the rest of my team, and also time spent in the factory where we build the stuff we design.
Today was the first day most of us de-camped home for the foreseeable - the global IT network groaned and crashed - apparently it wasn't designed to support almost everyone working remotely via VPN..
If this goes on more than 4 weeks our business will suffer but we're working on big projects for the UK Navy so it'll still be there on the other side of this.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 10:00 pm
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JCB toyota and Nissan all close down uk bases, Merseyrail half all train services, buses going to be only accepting cards and passes soon not cash,schools closed from friday indefinately.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 10:59 pm
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Last day out visiting contacts today. Property inspections cancelled with details to be taken by phone. Proper judicial meetings to be confirmed.

Not enough laptops for us all to work from home. Can do general research on the home PC and use work mobile to contact people, but need to go in one or two a week.

Our obscure corner of the civil service links to one of the high profile issues around government support in this crisis, which may actually help us get the data we need. Mentioned that to a contact I met today, was interesting to see them finally realise how the info they give us feeds into the system and then supports their clients.

 
Posted : 18/03/2020 11:14 pm
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Civil service update - our parent department has sent the majority of its staff to work from home as they have laptops or tablets.

This has crashed their internet capacity.

Which has also crashed it for us in the office, as we decided to share IT services last year.

Great efficiency saving that was!

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 11:31 am
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Well, this is all looking a bir grim.

Current situation is the ship is 100Nm off the coast of Guyana. Normal trip lengths are 4 weeks. I’ve been asked to stay an extra week already, but Guyanese authorities have just stopped all international flights for 14 days.

No option to get off the ship for now, as all flights home go Guyana to Caribbean islands or Panama. All closed off except Barbados, but I’m sure that’s going to change.

Going to carry on drilling until we can’t no more because lack of logistics from Trinidad will bring it to a stop.

The best plan we have at the moment is keep working for another 20 days or so, then head to Barbados anchor off and see if we can formulate an escape plan from there.

Poop, going be a L…o…n…g hitch, probably 45-50 days onboard instead of normal 28. As work is 12 hours a day, everyday of the week, it starts to get a bit tiring after a while.

seadog , feeling for you on that one. thats harsh.. Take care of your mental health , Take time for you/and your crew as needed. In these times a time out for safety has never had more potential to save lives as folk get more frustrated.

How ever - its also good to focus on tasks(drilling) to keep mind off the facts of the matter.

seeing the trouble we are having getting equipment and supplies to send to the UKCS i can only imagine how it is out of trinidad.

We were informed today that anyone who's not presenting symptoms may be drafted in to go offshore to meet demand - another well thought out knee jerk plan.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 11:37 am
 mos
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Off-Site construction. Looks like we've got an order for a 24 bed ward to be completed in 12 weeks.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 11:44 am
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big multinational engineering firm...

work from home now the default position, with time in office as and when needed

red team, blue team, never the two shall meet

distancing rules being laid down for any in-office time

the WFH is for us desk jockeys; production staff going to the red/blue rota, with distancing rules.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 11:48 am
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Whose missed their first VidConf because they were washing their bike then??

🤷‍♂️

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 11:50 am
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Despite my initial cynicism, my company have played a blinder in looking after us. Operations closed down initially until the end of April, But on full pay still.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 11:52 am
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much like others, those who can work from home unless you need to run something in a lab.

production and service staff have spread out to occupy the vacant areas.

not sure what it'll do to the order book, but given we have had a 4-8 week lead time on most products for as long as I can remember, hopefully we'll be building as much stock as we can for when things get back to normal.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 12:10 pm
 MSP
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Getting towards the end of first week of working from home, and with living alone, I am starting to feel the isolation already. Some predictions are that this will need to go on for 12-18 months.

I always considered myself a bit of a loner, but faced with the reality it seems I was wrong. I don't think I can hack the mentality of this level of isolation for more than a few weeks before my attitude changes to "**** it"

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 12:18 pm
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Y’a need coping strategies then.

Plenty online if you need em.

I’ve been WFH for 15yrs, popping into the office once a week... but that feels like a massive waste of time.

I suspect many will look at their families and ask themselves “so, what is it you actually do”?

As a social experiment the results will be interesting reading.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 12:23 pm
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I suspect many will look at their families and ask themselves “so, what is it you actually do”?

and the opposite...

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 12:30 pm
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How does one go about applying for government assistance?

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 12:33 pm
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Grants available April and loans from 23 March 2020 apparently. The type of assistance (grant or loan etc) and the amount depends on the nature of your business:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 12:51 pm
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Our company closed all pubs and restaurants at 3pm yesterday. After Boris told people not to come it was a waste of time even opening - the majority of our lunchtime trade is the older crowd so we were empty.

There are a few key staff in today doing stocktakes and shutting everything down for the foreseeable. There was a firkin of Purity Gold already tapped so they're disposing of that whilst they're working as I told them under no circumstances are they allowed to let it go to waste.

The promise of loans at 'attractive rates' from the government isn't going to help. When the hospitality industry has been decimated, why would anyone want to burden themselves with yet more debt?

Hopefully some good news comes of today with financial support from the government as 34 of us wondering how we'll be paid. Too many don't have a reserve of cash to see them through and for the benefit of us all we need the company to be financially viable when we come out the other side.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 1:16 pm
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My boss has organised a daily check in & our weekly lab meetings as normal via zoom

https://twitter.com/trevoragraham/status/1240222845361364992?s=19

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 1:35 pm
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I'm still in the office but so far today 3 out of the 4 conf calls I've been in have had dogs barking or kids screaming in the background. A colleague who is WFH says he has to go out and sit in his car to get some quiet during meetings :p

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 2:34 pm
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My boss has organised a daily check in & our weekly lab meetings as normal via zoom

We're using MS Teams, so far so good. CEO today suggested that next catch up call should be video rather than just audio.

Could hear the thought process of everyone else online thinking "hmm, might need to get out of bed for the next call..."

😂

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 3:21 pm
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We're up to 400+ users wfh via citrix vs the normal 40ish peak on a Friday.

As I'm in IT, MS teams is already fundamental to us working together, we've got a big chat group so it still feels like you have people in close contact.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 3:25 pm
 dazh
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Just heard from my brother who's an electrician/electronics engineer, his factory is shutting down for two weeks minimum, everyone can either go on unpaid leave or use holiday. After that who knows? Apparently the canadian owners decided not to take up the offer of a loan from the government to pay wages. Well done tories.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 4:18 pm
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Currently in the office on the Cambridge Science Park, view out the window is very much 28 Days Later, absolutely deserted.

We're a new start up (as in less than 1 month old), so everyone busy working away on things....

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 4:56 pm
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@crazy-legs there's some great tales and footage of less than competent use of the tech just recently. One chap had his porn-stream relayed to the office, tech support suggested that he not re-broadcast his desktop! Another is footage of a chap on the bog during a conference call complete with moving pictures (no smell-o-vison).

Today one of the places we book rooms at has told me that they close this evening until further notice. Managerial staff attending on shortened hours to deal with further cancellations. Holidays are in a mess.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 5:36 pm
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Well, just had an email from our biggest client dating all non ‘essential’ work would be stopped from tomorrow.
Trying to see what that means for us as we are following a PPM schedule rather than doing reactive works so it looks very much like we are included in the shutdown.
Doesn’t help that our contract manager is off until Monday so I don’t seem to be able to speak to anyone who can give us a concrete answer.
Small ray of light in that we are midway through a leak prevention job that should take us through to next Friday but now I’m really concerned that we will have nothing after that.
A few other planned jobs coming up but nothing really substantial and clients with new works in the pipeline have all gone very quiet.
Dreading tomorrow’s toolbox talk with the lads...

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 5:49 pm
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WFH now using Skype, Zoom (Pro), Microsoft Team and WhatsApp or whatever that is available to communicate properly .... 🤔

Constant update from friends in the far east via WhatsApp due to lock down and friends are bored as WFH is not the norm there. Oh ... and the escaping of super spreaders from hospital quarantine and now placed on wanted list. 😒

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 6:08 pm
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Work for a construction company (office bod). I'm WFH as mrs & son are high risk- a few other high risk identified colleagues are wfh and other staff are rotating/ on shift to reduce bods in the office. The factory has split into shifts as well. Message from constructors on site is that its BAU- a couple of major clients have even said they will try to accelerate builds if spare capacity becomes available.

One client has shut their London sites (doesn't affect us) due to the higher cases there. All the while sites are open (and we get paid) we'll keep on building.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 6:09 pm
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sons pregnant girlfriend works for EE. now that pregnant women are deemed to be in the vulnerable group, i assume shes now 'officially' advised by PHE not to go to work? (shes on sales desk so meets public all day).

she asked her HR dept who said of course she can take time off, but its unpaid. this doesnt seem fair so thought id ask if this is actually a legal stance? shes a single mum and cant afford unpaid time off, so in a way this would mean feeling forced to go in to keep afloat. is there no SSP for pregnant women taking government advice?

thanks

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 6:20 pm
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How far gone is she - could always start maternity leave early if she's passed a certain number of weeks. Would cut down on time with baby post birth tho

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 6:22 pm
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only 12 weeks im afraid.....

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 6:29 pm
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We have had the decree that all non essential business have to close as of today. Only food shops, chemists and DIY stores can stay open. All sports clubs and private schools have to close. No idea how long (one can only hope for a couple of weeks) but it looks like at least until after Easter. The government have set up a small business loan where small businesses or lone traders can borrow up to 50,000 euros interest free, AFAIK, and a deferral of payments of up to three years. I have heard along the grapevine that there is a distinct possibility of a lock down starting next week.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 6:49 pm
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I work for a medium sized outdoor retailer, run two shops in a National Park. It's been quite steady trade this week, I think a lot of people are escaping to the hills.

We are currently still open for business, although I have 30% of the team self-isolating as they're high risk. I expect we'll have to shut the shops soon, once Boris decides, as we're obviously non essential. I just hope we can weather the storm and all have jobs to come back to. Obviously working from home is tricky in retail...

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 7:46 pm
 colp
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Boris is still resolutely protecting the insurance companies by refusing to formally close us in the hospitality business.
In today’s news conference he swerved the question and reiterated that people should avoid going to restaurants etc.
I spoke to our insurance yesterday and they are refusing to discuss a payout until the government close us down.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 7:53 pm
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I work in the training industry, this week the number of cancellations has increased steadily. We work with unemployed people as well as the employed and delivering training is getting more and more difficult. Thus we’ve got to take 14 days annual leave - better than SSP I suppose.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 8:04 pm
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Boris is still resolutely protecting the insurance companies by refusing to formally close us in the hospitality business.

As has already been pointed out several times, insurance only applies in specific circumstances, and government advice on a pandemic will not be one of them.

In the same way that if your house is blown up by terrorists or an invading army, you won't be covered on your house insurance. Some risks are too big - the entire hospitality business for instance - for insurers to pick up the tab at a premium that anyone would even think about

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 8:06 pm
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Forgotten how much large number of attendees on conference calls irritates me. Today’s call had some heavy breathing, loud keyboard bashing and one person apparently on the beach complete with the sound of seagulls in the background. Even when I asked for people to put their line on mute unless speaking it continued irrespective. 12 weeks of that to look forward to.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 8:10 pm
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Civil Service here. Management and Unions have been unable to agree the WFH policy so still have to attend the office.

Seriously considering going to work until I'm ordered to stay home.

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 8:15 pm
 colp
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As has already been pointed out several times, insurance only applies in specific circumstances, and government advice on a pandemic will not be one of them.

Haven’t read the whole thread but thanks for the patronising tone.

My policy has a list of exclusions for business interruption, pandemics aren’t mentioned.

I’m definitely covered if someone drives a forklift into the building, now where’s that bloke who did the hotel in Liverpool?

 
Posted : 19/03/2020 8:24 pm
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