Topic: Corona Virus Panic/Discussion Thread

@Rudy_Manchego Been back at work a bit more regularly this week, getting used to social distancing and just getting used to the risk really. They reckon 1 in 6 people in London have had it now, I dunno that doesn't seem right but maybe it is. Bracing ourselves for the financial sh*t show to begin in 3-6 months....

@Rudy_Manchego Still going. Not much changed here but it’s nice to be able to take the dog to some different places now at least.

Would love to go to the beach but I’ll be avoiding that for now, especially over a sunny bank holiday weekend. In North Devon this week so many people had parked on double yellow lines to get to the beach, the parking attendants ran out of tickets!

The big downer for me though is that our house move is on the verge of collapse. Our sellers were planning to move counties but had problems with the place they’d found and the husband’s job has been axed. They’re still looking to move locally but I think it’s not going to happen now..

@andreoni79 Any updates on government support? And are Italy looking to open up to tourists any time soon? I know some parts of the EU are looking into it.

@kyleforrester87 17% according to the antibody tests. It's probably higher as the returned samples were aggregated against the overall sample size - but only 90% were returned. In a strange way that's good news.

The rest of the country though is just over 5% which is really low. Models were expecting 10-20% by this stage.

@Thrillho Could be a blessing in disguise. House prices are going down. It usually starts at the top and works its way down the house market, so depending on your budget you should be able to save in the long run - if you can hold out!

@kyleforrester87 We technically can work from home at the moment so will look at opening the office up in June I think but as you said, all about planning for social distancing. Been doing things like getting hand sanitizer, swapping our bins for pedal bins. Also installing hot water tap for coffee in our kitchens rather than kettles etc. Then we will do staggered returns.

We are sound for the moment but yes, next 3-6 months will see a lot of belt tightening.

@Thrillho Yeah not much has changed for us though I can see people just completely ignoring guidelines. Someone on our road this week had a bbq with friends and their kids, all sat around a picnic bench and I just can't see why you would do that. I know we are opening up for people to socially distance and see family etc. on one to one basis and so on but that doesnt mean have a weds night bbq and drinking sesh with your besties and their kids. I'm not even one of those die hard you must 100% follow the rules but come one... I mean a BBQ?

@Rudy_Manchego Yeah if you can work from home you really should I guess. Personally I found my health getting much worse being at home (physical, and to a lesser but still noticeable extent mental) and I think I can work from the office in a safe way so I'm happy to do a bit of both.

Some people are really digging working from home so fair play to them, long may it continue.

@kyleforrester87 I'm in the same boat - I can work from home and it is OK but I find it more stressful and I seem to be working far harder. I want to go back in the office but my wife isn't keen and we are doing a few days in and out on rota when we open up. THe majority of the people at my work want to keep working from home for as long as possible.

Turns out I like people which comes as a big surprise.

@themcnoisy Maybe but we spent so long looking and finally found a place we loved. I’m lucky to be in a stable job (good old medicine!) so price dip wasn’t going to be a huge problem for something that would have been long term.

@Rudy_Manchego For me, being able to come to work through all of this has made it much easier to cope with as I’ve been able to chat with people and maintain some semblance of normality.

@Thrillho Boundaries to countries of the Schengen area will re-open on june 3rd. The company I work for is specialized in summer holidays for students, 75% towards UK and USA so this is a big problem. We already had plans with different colleges in London, Oxford, Brighton, Edinburgh, NY, LA and Miami and about 3000 reservations. All gone.
At the end of May I should get a first tranche of help (AKA money). Maybe.

I haven't posted in this thread yet but have been lurking, read every single post. Hope everyone is doing much better now.

Still working 40 hour weeks here, sometimes 50 hour weeks if they offer reasonable overtime shifts.

At least I should be grateful knowing my job isn't going anywhere (I work @ an Amazon warehouse).

Must admit I am jealous of those of you getting all the free time from job layoffs/temp ones to work on your gaming backlogs...

@KidBoruto yeah my job is still in full swing (retail work) although the 4am starts took a bit of getting used too

I feel sorry for people who lost theirs though because of this situation, the Universal Credit service in the UK is terrible and barely works and i wouldn't wish it on anybody

I was furloughed when the lockdown started. I haven’t done any work for a couple of months. I assumed everything would just restart when it was safe to do so. But the energy supplier who we fit smart meters for has sacked the main contractor and I haven’t heard anything from the subcontractor that I work for yet.

I assume I will just remain furloughed until either the scheme ends or my employer find someone who wants us to work for them.

@FullbringIchigo Agreed - I know a few people who are self employed and struggling.

@Ryall We have furloughed some people at my work to offset the loss of contracts etc. and I think a lot of companies are furloughing people as long as they can until they can guarantee work.

@KidBoruto Wow you guys must be so busy as everyone is ordering online now?

@Ryall it depends. If your employer hires more than 100 people the redundancy rules are different as you will need 5 weeks notice for redundancy in mid September if it happens. Where as a company with under 100 staff can furlough staff until the end of october - make them redundant on Halloween. Strangely better for smaller company staff in this instance.

Hopefully it doesn't happen bro and you get back sooner, rather than later. I'm either back on the 4th of June ish or the following week depending on our initial marketing drive and enquiry levels.

Also worth knowing - you accrue holiday during furlough. The time we have been off so far (since 23re March) is a week paid holiday or there about. So there is that as well to be added in the event of 5he worst happening.

@owais7ali_YT Thanks. Next year I'll have again that job if the 2021 season won't be affected by the virus, so it all depends on what will happen this winter and if they will find a vaccine.

@KidBoruto just seen your comment. I understand being jealous of people having time off, except its not a holiday and many won't ever return. No one asks to go on furlough.

There's an underlying anxiety to the situation. I've mentioned my personal situation a few times here and took furlough due to an extraneous issue. I'm as safe as anyone could be on furlough - however even I have a slight nagging anxiety that with being away, the owners may make the wrong call to cut. That's only natural and no one with responsibilities would be comfortable. (though it does have benefits like playing more games).

I normally work from 7:30 AM to 6 PM, but recently they've been staggering start/end times for everyone. My new hours are 7 AM to 5:30 PM. Still working four 10 hour shifts weekly though.

Crazily insane busy. We had around 130+ people staffed yesterday, and that was just in our one department (Ship Dock)! I remember when we were lucky to have around 30-40 people for a day.

Every day feels like peak for us (Holiday time) with the amount of constant volume slamming down on us every hour.

Understandable of course and I did not mean to be rude. I do truly feel bad for everyone jobless right now, money is unfortunately very much a necessity in our world, for the foreseeable future.

@themcnoisy back to work on the 1st then!!

@kyleforrester87 depends. Could be the 3rd or 4th, work through the latter part of the week (wed/thur - sunday).

Good news though!

@themcnoisy 👍🏻

@kyleforrester87 Just started a decent turn based RPG called Adventure time pirates of the enrichidom (or something like that) with my daughter. That will last us a week. I'm pleasantly surprised, it's a good package with some great features.

I think right now, after 2 months, anyone with 2 or more young kids will be feeling a ton of stress. Fortunately my oldest 2 (18,15) can look after themselves. My 12 year old is being the most hard work ever and my 4 year old thinks im her PA. Losing the will to live. Think I'm getting dressed as a princess tomorrow just to make her happy.