We've stopped all our normal work (in all sorts of schools and nurseries, x10 staff every day, length and breadth of uk).
We took a decision last week to go online. So far my feet have barely touched the floor. It's not income generating yet, but may well be.
All the while sites are open (and we get paid) we’ll keep on building.
Same here, I always wfh but carry out surveys on site mostly in London, only affect so far is one job has been given a bigger window to happen because the German installers on part of it won't be able to get to site. Got a full diary for next week.
My lad just called after he got a call from a manager.
He works in an office but it's linked to the fashion industry.
The company are losing millions. His job is safe... For the moment but they have just sacked 30 from his office.
His gf (they have an 11 day old baby...) works at the same place but is on maternity leave lift have a job to go back to, who knows?
Bugger.
.
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.
There's always a couple. No matter how many times you email video/audio conference etiquette guidelines around, there'll be someone eating crisps or walking through a station or trying to dial in from a poor reception area.
The call has been scheduled for a week you imbecile, prepare your quiet/good reception area and ****ing use it!
I work for a small (<50) company that works primarily within the construction industry. I work on site all over the south of the country.
As of today we have had one email about CV from our office to say all site workers are not to come in to the office anymore but just keep working on site as normal. No advice for site work, no plan on what we should be doing. We have people working for us in the at risk group and they have no communication as to what they should be doing now either. The construction industry has its head in the sand and no plan whatsoever.
When I asked my boss what might happen if I need to share time off with my wife to look after my kids who aren't in school anymore he wasn't happy with me.
On the conference calls most systems allow the organiser to set up auto mute for attendees, normally hidden In the menus somewhere. You then have the problem that people then forget to unmute. Also our work system beeps every time there is a new joiner, not to bad for a small meeting but a pain on larger company wide calls, also can be turned off but no one ever does it.
Apparently some (Zoom I think) have a press to talk system, ie press spacebar to talk. We use teams and webex so not checked for that yet.
Just had my first client cancelation citing the virus as the reason.
Annoyingly, there is no direct reason for the virus to bring a halt to the project in this instance - with a few tweaks to method, it could have gone ahead just as effectively as before.
I do think it's important to remember that fear will kill the economy even quicker than the virus, and that what we need to do is find imaginative and safe ways to continue life, wherever possible, not just close it down altogether.
(I hope this doesn't sound patronising to anyone in an industry where no such flexibility exists - which I realise is going to be the case for many people.)
WFH here, hate to say it but ms teams is working really well.
But, I have a nearly 3 and 5 year old, every time they hear me speak they charge into the dining room asking me what’s going on and insist on saying hello to the laptop. Was funny the first couple of times, Very old now.
Getting quite stressed about how we will cover child care and work as two working parents. My work has said it’ll be flexible and I can work whilst the kids sleep. I suppose that is nice of them, but the reality is this isn’t going to be a couple of weeks, it’s looking like it is going to be months and I’m not sure I can do 6am to 7:30pm doing kid stuff and home schooling followed by trying to fit a 7.5 hours shift in, as well as sleeping, cleaning and eating. Wife and I are going to split the care but that still means can’t cover full hours.
Other option have been told is a change of contract to part time working. Lots of focus on government giving money to business but what about normal people who’ve been screwed by this?
How our other employers handling the situation where child care is an issue
science research. Most office based staff (HR, Finance, etc) were wfh since last week, but science was attending as needed either to work or to keep equipment topped up so they could run remotely.
We've now decided to close more down so we can ensure running of critical services - eg: work for NHS to keep their scanners operational - which has been met with good grace but is compromising some long term experiments and we don't know how long it will take to restart them. But in comparison to the human cost, no-one's objecting.
Most of our income is for commercial projects or grant funded R&D and most of our partners are in the same boat, so we are in most cases going to be able to insert a pause in the project to deal with it, in the meantime we are doing as much analysis, modelling, writing up, etc as we can. I think we can keep pay coming for all in that period and then as above hope that science can restart without too much deterioration of experiments. But when it's open ended, who knows how long that can go on.
But some hope as well. One of our critical projects is on the kind of 'pregnancy test' sensor BoJo was talking about yesterday, detecting antibodies from a fingerprick of blood. We've had it working albeit in small scale for another disease, in simple terms 'all' we need to do is modify the sensor part to bind to Covid19 antibodies and scale it up. Under normal times this would be a long term project but throwing people and time at it..... those 'experts' that Gove et al have given up on trusting are currently working their arses off for us.
How are other employers handling the situation where child care is an issue?
Our company has already got decent flexi hours but the Finance Director said yesterday that so long as the work got done he didn't care when it was. He openly acknowledged the fact that in the office, people don't of a solid hour of work - they get a brew, have a quick chat with a colleague, nip to the cafe. 2 mins here, 5 mins there.
So he said that trying to enforce anything would be pointless, just asked us all to be sensible and if people needed extra help with childcare etc to just talk to him and Head of HR (who was also on the call) and they'd see how it could be worked into flexi time, holiday or unpaid leave.
But he was really relaxed about it, just said don't worry, no-one is going to have every minute of their day audited.
Possibly because he's got 3 kids himself! But he's a decent guy, genuinely looks out for his team.
I'm on the critical workers list, but as far as I can see if my wife and I work smart we can look after him and still do a relatively normal level of work.
I have to be on site at least one day a week (will depend on how many others catch the bug) but as far as I can tell if we don't have to take up a school space that someone else might need or cause staffing stresses then it's fine with me.
work is fine with the whole covid thing, we are a pharma drug release lab so have to keep working
I've two buisness.
First is a village shop, my wife and I run it with two members of part time staff (one normally does 4hrs a week and the other 10). We have had a massive increase in demand. Much like the supermarkets, to the point where restocking is proving impossible. Everyone working from home or in self isolation means the stock is flying off. We are managing to cope with some items, milk, meat, fruit and veg, eggs etc. Better than the supermarkets. But some items are now impossible to restock so when they are off the shelves they are gone.
Ive increased the staff hours to cope, but I can't afford to do this indefinitely - we are still a very small shop so paying some one £9 an hour for a day takes any profit away from the shop. This week trade has increase 3 fold but I've actually made a loss because of the amount of additional staff hours.
Buisness two is a Rural taxi, this was going well untill this week and I think I did my last trip (for the year) yesterday. All bookings have been cancelled until mid April, 99% of the remaining bookings are to airports for holidays/businesses so I can't see them happening at the moment.
Thankfully the buisness has no outgoings as I paid for the car and insurance in full. So Its now repurposed as a delivery vehicle for the shop for the isolated, elderly and infirm.
How our other employers handling the situation where child care is an issue
continuing the existing HR policy of 'don't be a dick'. i'm currently doing early shift ~6am-3pm so my self-employed wife can keep her stuff ticking over in the afternoons now schools out for the foreseeable.
Central London site has been told to wfh if that is possible, some people here me included. Don’t need to use public transport and in a quiet restricted access office. I now have a secure set of office all to myself so may set up an indoor audax later
Dropped to 50% pay via unpaid leave for the next few months. Since I have four weeks leave over the next two months anyway it won't change my life too much (apart from the lack of ready cash and the bike holiday in Mallorca being canned).
Other people have it much worse. On the bright side though apparently I'm a "key worker". I'm assuming I get some sort of special lanyard or credit card or something that lets me jump the queue at the petrol station.
I do think it’s important to remember that fear will kill the economy even quicker than the virus,
But what do we do?
At the moment my job is safe, I was very close to committing to spending £5k on the house, but just in case I’ve put it off for the time being. This means that a small local company has lost the work (for now), I feel bad for them & feel guilty. Hopefully they’ll still be around when this all settles down.
And that’s just one example from a private homeowner, I presume this scales right up through the whole industry.
I feel like a complete outlier at the moment, in that pretty much nothing has changed for me. I run a small engineering consultancy from a shed at the end of my garden with my other Engineer also working from his home. - We very rarely see each other and have operated a cloud based file sharing system for some 5 or 6 years now. Our on-site sub-contractors (most of whom are self employed) and testing laboratories appear to be managing at the moment, so fingers crossed. - I've seen / heard very little about the wider construction industry being significantly impacted yet ??
Yesterday I rang the small 3PL place that does our fulfilment for our bike stuff just to see if there was going to be any issues at there end. They are rushed off their feet sending out paper, printers, monitors etc for those now working from home. There's only 3 of them there so it's a very small 3PL company with serving small businesses but as an example, one of their clients sold 1500 monitors in 1hr!!!!
So some businesses are doing great, even if most are not.
First is a village shop, my wife and I run it with two members of part time staff (one normally does 4hrs a week and the other 10). We have had a massive increase in demand. Much like the supermarkets, to the point where restocking is proving impossible.
Obviously home working and schools being closed means a lot of food that was been eaten in workplaces and schools is now being eaten at home. Seems like the suppliers that are/were servicing those markets - workplace catering and restaurants - would be wise to find a way of getting their goods to the wider public.
The government have announced £2.9bn monies to free up hospital beds, of which the Local Authorities will receive £1.6bn to provide the adaptations and care staff to enable these already sick/frail older people to move into their homes or care homes ... if only it was that easy!
Recruitment of carers was a huge challenge before coronavirus ... I imagine it is almost impossible now; where are these potential carers going to be found? and care/nursing home places have always been few and far between, and from what I have seen the last two weeks, more of them have stopped taking new admissions anyways.
When all this is over I hope it leads to a greater recognition and value placed on carers. Rightly so the public recognise NHS staff who get on with their job without whinging; but at the moment care staff are given very little value in society; typically paid the minimum legally allowed; often given poor work contracts and conditions, and even now the likes of Domino Pizza who offer free pizza to NHS staff do not extend this gesture to them.
Gotta say, the company I work for has been outstanding, about 80% (of c.5000) now wfh - spent the week manning a helpdesk specifically set up to help people trying to connext from home, which has been really fulfilling. Email from the CEO this morning saying they will be as flexible as possible, 5 paid days of emergency leave available for those who have to care for dependants, anyone who takes leave for caring purposes will get another day's holiday for each four they take, and a discretionary fund to support those facing financial hardship as a result of the pandemic. I read that and it makes me so happy to work for this company - then I read what everyone else is going through, and it makes me desperately sad.
Then I read about the Britannia Hotels letter, and it makes me very, very angry.
I've just read on Twitter that Britannia Hotels have just sacked a pile of their staff, just terminated their employment.
Two of our suppliers have sacked half their workforce day 1.
I suppose in these odds times lots of rules are being ignored - but how are they doing it? No warning, no redundancy, no anything, just pack your bags so to speak.
My statutory redundancy, notice period and a couple of weeks for all the usual HR process is enough to keep us going for a few months and frankly the only thing letting me sleep at night at the moment.
P.S. the suppliers who did their staff like that, they're not getting any work from me after this is all over.
When all this is over I hope it leads to a greater recognition and value placed on carers.
Will you extend that hope of recognition to teachers?
Will you extend that hope of recognition to teachers
Only the ones who don't whinge about the unfairness of having to do their job.
Only the ones who don’t whinge about the unfairness of having to do their job.
That's funny, I've not seen any of that on here. In the meantime, I give much thanks, appreciation and recognition to all carers except your miserable ass.
I'm not saying it's the right thing to do, but I'd imagine organisations like Brittania Hotels would be in a pretty precarious cash situation in March at the best of times. If you were the finance director, faced with running out of cash in a few days what would you do? If you let it fail, then nobody is getting paid anyway.
I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do, but I’d imagine organisations like Brittania Hotels would be in a pretty precarious cash situation in March at the best of times. If you were the finance director, faced with running out of cash in a few days what would you do? If you let it fail, then nobody is getting paid anyway.
Aye, but to make them homeless at the same time? FFS if the hotel is empty they could just let them stay. It appears that McDonald hotels have offered those fired work at their hotels in Aviemore.
We represent a foodservice wholesaler who has just switched from supplying pubs, restaurants, cafes etc to doing home delivery. Take up has been strong and he only launched it on Social yesterday. There's hundreds of foodservice operators out there with staff, vehicles and stock that should be doing the same in the not too distant future - especially with the fresh food.
That’s funny, I’ve not seen any of that on here. In the meantime, I give much thanks, appreciation and recognition to all carers except your miserable ass.
I applaud your recognition of carers, and even though I am not a carer .. I will take your appreciation and recognition of my role supporting them to do their crucial role in society; Thanks.
DT78 > very similar boat here, as are many friends.
Own company guidance so far has just been "be flexible, be patient, help each other if we can". I suspect many companies will take a few weeks at least to think about formalising anything. I've already chatted to my boss about my situation and will be offloading a few bits of work to more junior people.
Wife's job is more important - not been in post for long, and isn't frontline but helps keep NHS services going. So I'm scaling back to let her work as much as needed. She's still waiting on getting set up to WFH (handles patient data, so restrictions on access) but hopes to be within a week. Even then, I think only 50-60% of normal workload will be possible for me, maybe a bit more for her.
This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint - I think lots of parents have done a bit of WFH for a day or two when kids are ill or other cover fails. You can make it work, catch up in evenings/weekend, etc but it's not sustainable longer term. I suspect I may formalise dropping hours later (and I'd been toying with the idea of going to 25-30 hours pw around kids/school anyway) but I'm not going to initiate that conversation at this stage. We're lucky to be able to afford to, and the usual nursery bill is more than half my take-home anyway.
We have cancelled shift change now, if you are on site you can leave but no one can come in. We are getting pretty good incentives to stay as we don't know how long we will be stuck in country for, international flights from Astana and Almaty are being stopped until at least April 15.
I will take your appreciation and recognition of my role supporting them to do their crucial role in society; Thanks.
Not for the first time, that's the wrong end of the stick you have hold of.
Cant really think of anything to say.
When all this is over I hope it leads to a greater recognition and value placed on carers.
Will you extend that hope of recognition to teachers?
How about we extend teacher's pay and conditions to care workers 🙂
The home where my mum is has had to shut the door and non essential visits out - visiting family are big part of the place being able to tick over happily and the effort they must be making to keep people safe but also settled must be extraordinary. The wider carehome 'family' is really important - we're all friends to everyone and the eyes in the backs of the staff's heads. I know homes where family members keep on visiting long after their own loved ones have died just to continue to part of that community and play that role and the staff and residents being isolated from that is going to be tough.
The idea that staff and space can just magically appear from somewhere just because you say £number seems extraordinary. It maybe shows just how far from most peoples thoughts the care sector is most of the time that the suggestion could be made.
I certainly think care workers and the broader NHS staff should be valued, renumerated, resourced and supported far more highly. Not saying that in a "add £number = X more staff" way, just that it seems roll on massively dependent on good will and workers putting themselves to the sword to try and make their targets. It ain't right, not by a long stretch, but as opined elsewhere, we have the government we deserve. 🙁
Well I'm signed up for 7 day residential working if the worst happens. So far attrition seems to be me and a few others from the same town so it's okay so far. Would be better if we were generating but the site still needs babysat.
My bosses have now discovered that my corner of the agency are key workers. They are surprised by this, having taken no interest since we merged 10 years ago. Bit of a panic to find us laptops as they were hoping to close the office next week and put us out to pasture....
maccruiskeen
SubscriberHow about we extend teacher’s pay and conditions to care workers 🙂
The idea that staff and space can just magically appear from somewhere just because you say £number seems extraordinary. It maybe shows just how far from most peoples thoughts the care sector is most of the time that the suggestion could be made.
I recognise that I have banged on about carers being the overlooked and undervalued sector a fair bit in numerous threads on this coronavirus, but it is still an area being overlooked in all this. I hope at the end of all this carers get the recognition that they fully deserve, and this is reflected in their working conditions and wage packets too.
I just find it frustrating that public sector employees who are employed to serve the public are using this coronavirus to get time off work, or whinge and complain that they have got to do their job. I am not just aiming this at teachers who are reportedly 35% down from staff self isolating already, because in my own social work team of 5, within 5 days three have already isolated themselves ... its ridiculous and blatant that people are taking the pi$$.
Just been announced where we are - as of April, pay cut to £150 per week (£4 per hour).
Expected to work for as long as there is work - which I guess may last about a month at best.
No immediate financial hardship for me (if this all happened a or two month later, I'd be pennyless with half a house and a non-paying tenant in it), but long term implications.
Post virus will obviously be looking for new work.
I just find it frustrating that public sector employees who are employed to serve the public are using this coronavirus to get time off work, or whinge and complain that they have got to do their job. I am not just aiming this at teachers who are reportedly 35% down from staff self isolating already, because in my own social work team of 5, within 5 days three have already isolated themselves … its ridiculous and blatant that people are taking the pi$$.
Oh good-oh, glad it's not just teachers you're bitching about, without you knowing anything about any of their personal circumstances. Have a look at how much lower pupil attendance has fallen - there's millions of people you know nothing about that you can complain bitterly about there.
We're closing the pub tmw and we're all, owners and staff, going on half pay or the least we can get away with. We have finite cash reserves, so just hoping we won't be closed for longer than the cash lasts.
Son has been made redundant as the firm has folded.
Looking like several of our suppliers won't be around at the end, certainly with no apparent help coming anytime soon.
Mrs M is a special needs key worker for children so mainly WFH at present with skype meetings etc and some home visits to parents if they are healthy and happy to have visitors.
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The railway (my work) is thinning out its service as demand drops/driver shortages and engineering work is beginning to suffer with staff shortages but as I control the power supplies I have to be there. Our site is on lockdown with no unnecessary visitors and we are contingency planning shift patterns for staff sickness and isolation etc </span>
I just find it frustrating that public sector employees who are employed to serve the public are using this coronavirus to get time off work, or whinge and complain that they have got to do their job.
There are bell-ends everywhere in life. Besides you there was the guy who walked around the supermarket today coughing loudly and violently over everything, including other customers.
Should everyone in the shop be self-isolating now for two weeks? Wind your neck in a bit and see the bigger picture.
timraven - can you offer home deliveries as other pubs have done?
I suppose it depends on your job, but at our place you are still expected to be working if you are self-isolating, unless you are genuinely sick....
It's a stressful time for all of us Mooman, try to do something positive to make yourself feel better instead of taking it out on other people.
Flaperon
MemberThere are bell-ends everywhere in life. Besides you there was the guy who walked around the supermarket today coughing loudly and violently over everything, including other customers.
Should everyone in the shop be self-isolating now for two weeks? Wind your neck in a bit and see the bigger picture.
As you demonstrate yourself - bell-ends identify themselves everywhere.
But taking the opportunity to get off work - or whinging when they got to do their job is taking the pi$$. I expect that a large portion of front line NHS staff have older family members or young children too .. but they are getting on with the job.
I think it is you who needs to wind their neck in - who is saying people shop isolate if somebody is coughing in a shop: yep bell-ends everywhere!
My employer is discouraging those who can work from home from doing so.
Got to love the retail motor trade. Profit before people every single time.
I just find it frustrating that public sector employees who are employed to serve the public are using this coronavirus to get time off work, or whinge and complain that they have got to do their job. I am not just aiming this at teachers who are reportedly 35% down from staff self isolating already, because in my own social work team of 5, within 5 days three have already isolated themselves … its ridiculous and blatant that people are taking the pi$$.
I have had to send 4 workers home this week due to being at risk, and everyone one of them moaned and tried their best to stay at work. I'm also in the at-risk category and luckily I can WFH but would much rather be sitting in an office as I'm not looking forward to another 11 weeks of this.
Also, bearing in mind the 4 sent home has previously been working flat out for long hours for months dealing with flooding incidents without complaining once. So don't tar everyone with the same brush mooman, maybe be more specific at who are aiming your comments at.
Currently battling to get a scarce laptop so that if we get sent home or I have to self isolate then I can WFH. Of our team of 10, only one is currently "unable" to work and it was the one we all expected
Wife is a Community Nurse, so busy as. Currently off loading as many patients as possible. Many care homes choosing to take on as much CN delivered care as possible. At a cost of course, but better than the cost of C19 ripping through.
My company design & mfr devices for life science suppliers, ventilators being one of them. One item we’d normally do 25k a year, orders for over 50k this week. All stops being pulled out. We are also working alongside one of the consultancies that’s looking at a Heath Robinson ventilator. 20k of them needed in 2-3 weeks. My team support design & Developement. Design are working from home, half the lab are self isolating but supporting as much as they can. I’m doing Tue/Thu in office, home Mom/Wed/Fri. Biggest problems this week were getting clearance for CAD desktops to go home. Oh & the world shortage of VPN licences.
I tell you what though, I’m impressed at how people’s attitude changes when asked to help out with the medical side. Every one of my team have been brilliant.
I won’t lie, I was close to tears when they’d all gone yesterday. I was actually looking forward to seeing them all on MS Teams this morning. This crisis has brought us closer as a team, without a doubt.
Rest of the business likewise, biggest issue is reminding folk to keep their distance.
I’m not looking forward to another 11 weeks of this.
11 months, if not more.
🙂
I have a feeling that I will be WFH until the end of the year. 🤔
I wonder if at the end of this a lot never go back to working in the office. After a time people are going to get used to it, the infrastructure for it will be improved and a lot of companies who’ve seen it work well will see it as a cost saving
I wonder if at the end of this a lot never go back to working in the office. After a time people are going to get used to it, the infrastructure for it will be improved and a lot of companies who’ve seen it work well will see it as a cost saving
That is a concern with all my colleagues as it can end up as some form of cost saving exercise.
I wonder if at the end of this a lot never go back to working in the office. After a time people are going to get used to it, the infrastructure for it will be improved and a lot of companies who’ve seen it work well will see it as a cost saving
Undoubtedly, but as someone who previously worked from home for 5 years I predict a significant mental health issue off the back of it. We are social animals, we need to work with other people around us. You can have as much Skype, Slack, Zoom, Whereby, Hangouts as you like, but we still need some social interaction outwith our families.
I'm a Civil Servant.
Been home based for over 10 years.
Normally 50 hour weeks with a bit of travel.
In current circumstances still doing 50 hour weeks with no travel, helping get and keep our IT running now that we have 20-odd thousand staff wfh.
Bloody lazy civil Servants.
Waves at Kuco as I think we might be distantly connected.
I wonder if at the end of this a lot never go back to working in the office. After a time people are going to get used to it, the infrastructure for it will be improved and a lot of companies who’ve seen it work well will see it as a cost saving
Undoubtedly, but as someone who previously worked from home for 5 years I predict a significant mental health issue off the back of it. We are social animals, we need to work with other people around us. You can have as much Skype, Slack, Zoom, Whereby, Hangouts as you like, but we still need some social interaction outwith our families.
I have to agree.
I've been 'selling' home working as the answer to city over-crowding, travel costs, pollution local and global etc etc to anyone who'll listen to me for years.
We have what's probably a gold standard of home working this week. Dual Screens, VOIP phones, HD Webcams, headsets, all data is cloud based, 300Mbps broadband.
Yeah, obviously there's lots to be fearful of, but **** me, my Anxiety has been off the charts this week with no one to talk to.
Going back to this:
I just find it frustrating that public sector employees who are employed to serve the public are using this coronavirus to get time off work, or whinge and complain that they have got to do their job. I am not just aiming this at teachers who are reportedly 35% down from staff self isolating already, because in my own social work team of 5, within 5 days three have already isolated themselves … its ridiculous and blatant that people are taking the pi$$.
Only one member of staff if my school as been off; everybody else is pulling together to support the most vulnerable. We have had loads of e-mails from parents thanking us for our support. We had already organised and contacted parents about distributing meals, long before Govt announced anything. We are providing 7-7 care for key worker children from Monday and I have not heard any member if staff moan at any point. Your post shows clear prejudice.
Yeah, obviously there’s lots to be fearful of, but **** me, my Anxiety has been off the charts this week with no one to talk to.
Have you not spoken to any of your colleagues about it? As you would if in the office?
We've been messaging and having several calls a day to discuss these interesting times, along with our day-to-day business.
Probably had more significant conversations in this scenario than if we were in the office with everyone else around.
so. 80% of salary paid up to 2.5k for those that cant work. was there any criteria? does child care count? if that is the case that is lifting an absolutely huge amount of stress in our household.
yes I know many are in worse situations, but I was really worried that after a month or so either my wife or I would have a breakdown
My (very initial) reading of it is that it may be to stop employers laying off staff in the industries affected by restrictions, e.g. hospitality, travel, events etc.
is it industry specific?
No mention of that, but inference is people unable to work.
Dunno what it might mean for people laid off, or for self-employed.
Fantastic move by the government; that will certainly avoid a lot of stress for many young families with mortgages. Hopefully a similar scheme will be available for the self-employed etc.
I wonder if they will extend it past the 3mths if things do not improve as much as they want?
Next week working in an empty house available soon for rental, also an elderly customer rang about a side gate he wants making for outside, also offered my services driving vans for anybody local, got to keep busy, helping people, possibly litter picking later in week as well.
So if you get furloughed (my new word of the day)what do you get paid? Your full salary and the government pays up to 80% of that back to your employer or the lesser of £2500pm or 80% of your salary? Makes a difference as to if I put my hand up.
so. 80% of salary paid up to 2.5k for those that cant work. was there any criteria? does child care count? if that is the case that is lifting an absolutely huge amount of stress in our household.
I would imagine a savvy employer would do this to those that are going to struggle to make it in for childcare reasons and keep on those without dependants.
Effectively a civil servant here. Was meant to be on leave this week but cancelled as knew the shit was going to hit the fan. First emails at 5am and last around 9pm every day this week, been relentless.
Really am a Civil Servant here. Work in corporate but sounds like going to get deployed into operations from next week to deal with the fallout. Quite pleased at being able to do something helpful tbh, although highly likely I'll pick it up as a result! Hand sanitiser at the ready 🙂
Had a nice day out today at least for what may be my last AL for a while (OT, but who doesn't like an outside picture to lift the mood)
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And from the top
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Also civil service with the possibility of ops again,
Hand sanitiser at the ready 🙂
Screw that, I was looking for my body armour and pava this afternoon
I was looking for my body armour and pava this afternoon
So MOJ or DWP 😀
MOJ are stopping trials and it’s the great giveaway in benefits, people will be bringing them cakes and toilet rolls!
Could be worse... I left my employer today to head back to the UK
Yesterday we laid off 1100 workers with zero notice. No severance or package.
I'm glad I got out (for other reasons)
I’ve been pleasantly surprised how good my work is. I’m self-employed and started a new 3 month contract on Monday. On Tuesday they told everyone that can to work from home. Yesterday I got an email from them saying they were extending all agency and temp contracts to the end of September. Quite a relief given the piss-poor support for the self-employed from the government so far.
Seems like to company are making some genuine efforts to get relief crew out, and get us home from Guyana in a couple of weeks time.
Although a lot of things have to connect up successfully for this to happen. All balancing around UK, Barbados and Guyana airports staying/being open, affordable small jet charter flights being sourced, and various authorities giving us the go ahead.
😵😫🤞
The 80% thing as I understand it:
The govt will pay a grant of 80% of your net salary up to 2500 for each employee not working at the moment.
It's not clear how not working is defined but furloughed is - you are basically sent home and are not allowed to work.
80% is what a company can claim, I assume they have to give that to you if they get it, there's no obligation to top it up further.
Where the company is overstaffed but operational you would assume they would see first who wants to go home for the duration, on 80% pay. For companies shutting down entirely depending on their generosity & cash position they may pay up to the full amount and take the hit.
For the self employed I think you have a tough time ahead. The while furloughed thing is basically the govt washing its hands of the complexity of figuring the mess out. It's binary - can't work 80%, can work no help. How would you figure out a self employed's ability to work? It's tricky and other than maybe some sort of minimum benefits pay and relaxing the payment on taxes it's hard to see how else the govt can intervene easily.
Seems like to company are making some genuine efforts to get relief crew out, and get us home from Guyana in a couple of weeks time.
Although a lot of things have to connect up successfully for this to happen. All balancing around UK, Barbados and Guyana airports staying/being open, affordable small jet charter flights being sourced, and various authorities giving us the go ahead.
Fair play to them seadog.
Fingers crossed for you. Overstaying is crap at the best of times.
Our neighbour and friend set us his sandwich making company in Manchester several years ago.
He delivers using bicycles. Of course he's had to shut down. He's left with a lot of sandwich fillings which are perishable and £2,000 worth of crisps. All of his friends, neighbours and family are going to buy as much stuff as we can.
It's taken years of hard graft to get a good client base and he employs several staff. Worrying indeed.
