Will your company survive, what risks/challenges are your work place facing,how are they dealing with the current problems/staffing/office/depot closures etc.
For us the phone hasnt run for a few days,and another project manager we work for,his phone has been silent, and hes always getting calls for work etc. We asked him if it was broke or needed charging,its been that quiet..
I'm a teacher, so work will survive, but we're all stressing out about exam season.
If they close schools for 3-4 weeks then we'll be alright, though I suspect most of our lazy Yr11s won't do a bit of revision.
But if schools close for 12+ weeks as seems to have been suggested (see what Northern Ireland have just announced) then do schools reopen for exams, or do they just get their predicted grade, or are exams put off until July/August, or even later?
How do colleges and universities accept students onto courses if exams haven't run?
Added to all that I teach DT, so we've got coursework deadlines at Easter, and that's 50% of the grade.
Doing my head in isn't the half of it!
I'm a cop. A huge amount of contingency work has been done last week in preparation for staff shortages as well as the potential for increased demand. Most specialist units have been split up into small teams working from separate sites to try to limit the chances of the virus wiping out whole policing units. We're expecting it to be a tough few months and working from home isn't an option in my current role so child care is going to be problematic when the schools shut, but having once been self employed I do feel fortunate that at least I'll have a job to go to once the dust has settled.
This is our company line
Subject: Coronavirus - notes from yesterdays call
Importance: High
All,
Following on from yesterday’s call:
• Ensure all key staff have the ability to access relevant systems from home (IT instructions attached) & contact IT as a priority if there are issues. Please ensure this is successfully tested at home.
• Prepare a plan to separate your management/supervisory teams into two groups
o IF the UK Govt declares a “lock-down” or there is any other significant escalation of the situation (such as closure of schools) we need to be prepared for a scenario where one group works from home for a period of two weeks whilst group two continues to attend the work place. After two weeks (the recognised period of contagion) the groups would swap.
• Wherever possible, minimise the number of people congregating at the same time in communal areas (canteens etc)
• Continue to stay up to date with advice and answers to FAQ’s, direct specific questions to HR
• Temperature checks for visiting drivers will be implemented in the not too distant future. Equipment is being centrally sourced & guidance will be given
Let’s ensure we are as well prepared as possible for any escalation. Any questions please call
Am nurse.
Work in nhs hospitals but no longer for nhs becuase of stagnant pay and poor work life balance.
Talking of binning us off in favour for third year students as they are more malleable.
Fine. Currently taking charge of shifts with 15 years experience but if you want to hand the reigns to people who are still in training then go wild.
All about numbers when it comes down to it.
I've got a lot of super Mario odyssey to play and a garden to do.
I work for a law firm, which will be fine - strenuous efforts now to enable lawyers to do their thing from home (I'm a trainer but next week I start a new (and temporary!) career manning the phones for lawyers struggling to log on from home). Client-related travel ok if essential, office-to-office travel only by executive authorisation, wall-mounted hand sanitizer dispensers on all floors, many spray dispensers on many desks, laptops aplenty and bandwidth upgraded.
Arrivesd at work yesterday afternoon, town hall had slapped a Closed until further notice letter on the front door. It's an English academy so was expected after they closed the schools and unis at lunchtime.
I'm self employed so hoping for a bit of a break from the Hacienda as tax is due soon, not to mention NI contributions, rent of the premises.
Might be able to retain some students using Skype or something but I'll be leaning on my other job for more work in the meantime. Not ideal but there are some poor sods about to be shafted by this.
Large corporate selling fmcg goods so likely ok form a job security POV, Brexit is another matter long term.
Social distancing in the office, home working encouraged. I've heard the same "two weeks home working then swap" from Us management. My outsourced HR operations team are in India, Mumbai and I've been pushing them to be able to work from home (they have desk tops and not everyone had internet access or even continuous power supply...). Think about that next time you outsource to India eh.....
I've been wfh for two weeks and loving it. Hated it in the past but moved the desk next to a window and OMFG what difference that made. Also bought a Bean to cup machine which.....is just lovely.
Oh and our VPN is overloaded due to all the home working .
My area (I work in a bank), have opted for a 2 week period of all of us working from home.
Other areas have been split up, and buildings brought into use for call centre operations to move away from relying on a single site.
We are considered medically critical, so will be going in on a rota basis, wfh all the rest of the time. Will have pairs of analysts going in to perform essential testing and apart from that wfh.
Our dept will be sealed off from the rest of the site with separate access etc.
not in place yet but am expecting all non critical attendance at site to be stopped sometime this week
Work for a company who sell surplus/redundant medical equipment (mostly from the NHS). Two things have happened last week- demand has soared worldwide and supply has been pretty much stopped as hospitals cling onto everything they have in case it’s needed.
We now have NHS trusts calling asking to buy back equipment they didn’t want a month ago- some of it quite critical which is very rare indeed.
If this goes on for more than a couple of months I will be pretty twitchy as I’ve been there less than 2 years and we’ve just had outside investment who are very keen to see profit not losses!
We've been conducting continuity tests with various UK offices closing at short notice to test home-working and resiliience. Been unofficially told to expect a full shutdown next week some time. Long term who knows? We can work from home but it's going to disupt things massively still when people start falling ill. I'm sure the mental health aspect won't help either. As for the long terrm outlook regarding job losses etc I guess that depends on whether the govt gives the proper support to the economy. Doesn't look like it so far.
Network Rail Electrical Control Room Operator. We cannot work from home and we a very safety critical. No unnecessary site visits for tours/training and some additional cleaning going on.
NR are a bit exposed as once CV hits a Signalbox or ECR then it’ll do the rounds rapidly and I can see manning issues arising despite they’re best efforts.
Online company, so will prob be fine.
No changes at work yet, just lots of preparation for work from home.
Big issue is we are dependent on South Africa staff. No laptops, no stable electricity at the moment, bad health care system.
I’m a planner and manager for local authority social care.
Mrs S is a GP. We’ve told the kids they might not see much of us for the next few months.
We’ve both cancelled all leave up until summer. At the moment it’s nervous anticipation about what is to come.
I advise on Income Protection and Life/Critical Illness cover.
Have been very busy the last few weeks and doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
Can’t see us closing if anyone has any questions on covid 19 you can **** right off as 2 days solid of it I’ve had enough. 😂
Big IT company here. We've all been sent WFH unless absolutely impossible. We have people coding, and people travelling to clients and selling - travel is now banned both domestic and international, but most of it can be done remotely anyway since most of our clients are big enough to already be set up. I'm starting a gig for a US company next week, it'll be remote. So for me personally it's nearly BAU.
I work in finance in London for a large bank. I'm now working from home indefinitely. Company will survive, but it's more about what the company can do for others than itself right now.
Big respect to the public services guys trying to support the massive challenge. If we all survive I'll happily buy you a drink at any point afterwards.
We have been doing a bit of planning. Struggling to get equipment we need, expect demand to exceed supply, income to be up.
20% of key staff to be off sick.
Can you tell which business I’m in?
Porn?
My company provides an online platform to corporate clients, govt depts, NHS trusts etc.
Mostly WFH from next week I think, although comms have been terrible.
We're close to completing a major update, but WFH shouldn't slow us substantially. It will make me (writer) and some of the developers more productive I am sure.
Mental health social worker here.
1. Will company survive?
Yes - luckily no chance of needing to look for another job.
2. What risks/challenges are your work place facing?
As secondary MH service we typically respond to people at crisis. Our referrals for assessments are almost always at high risk of suicide, or ongoing involvement with people with serious mental health disorders. We need to meet face to face with the clients ... we may be able to write up the assessments etc at home, but thats not even half the job.
We all have very high case loads - if even 1 person from team is off its puts huge pressure on rest of us - so if there are a few people forced to be off then it will be difficult to see us managing.
3. How are they dealing with the current problems/staffing/office/depot closures etc?
Nothing has been said as yet. A form went around yesterday asking us to write down potential child care issues and individual skills; the rumour was that the CPNs would get moved to general hospitals if they were medically trained at phlebotomy or any other general nursing skills.
Civil service. No facilities to home work. No obvious plan been made discussed with us so far 🤷♂️
We are preparing to work from home ...
I'm self employed.
Took the day off with my wife yesterday and went sailing to prepare.. we might be doing alot more sailing soon if we can't work.
Motorsport based company, so looking a little daunting at the moment with various events being cancelled/postponed.
Self employed Decorator, I'll be right aslong as I dont get ill or get forced to stay home via lockdown. The bigger jobs I've got on seem adamant they'll still be going whatever but we'll see.
Can’t see us closing if anyone has any questions on covid 19 you can **** right off as 2 days solid of it I’ve had enough.
Amen brother. 7am can’t come soon enough...
Civil Service. Trying to hastily organise part time working from home. Work with lots of people but sadly many just don't get the catch it and kill it or hand washing.
Mrs S is a school principal. She expects work to close before Easter for about 4 - 6 months.
Newspaper. Advertisers pulling. Two weak ones collapsed owing us money. We may survive but in a very reduced form until things kind of normalise.
We use lots of Cloud services and Google for email/phone/teleconferencing etc and have all worked remotely before so quite confident we can keep working as we have zero reliance on being in the office to do our jobs (and we have told all staff to take laptops home each evening for the last week just in case we have to tell them not to come in).
My worry is whether all our clients will still be in their offices, keeping our workflow going and paying their bills.
scientific services and research; some is safety critical such as providing calibrations for medical critical applications, others are going to be a pain if not delivered to schedule but nowhere near as immediate concern. Where critical departments are already starting to split workforce to prevent them all falling ill at once.
What do the teachers on here reckon about the exam situation - if as NI schools go into a 4 month shutdown shortly, that will go well into and past exam season? Rescheduled, but how does that fit with the start of A level courses, Uni, etc? Graded based on coursework / indicative grades? My eldest is 16 and is working her butt off currently for exams to start in a little over 6 weeks and while I keep telling her she'll be rewarded for her work now and in future and also that it isn't that important..... to her it's massive.
Brilliant thanks for asking.
Supplied 21234 laptops and provisioned all of them in 6 days, and distributed them to all users allocated. We’ve got a few been refused (looks like those thinking WFH means no work 💁)
Full support from employer and clients.
Boom!
Bring it on.
Amen brother. 7am can’t come soon enough…
It bloody can I’m back in then. 😂
Corporate events/ Funnily enough the contents of the order book evaporated last week.
I normally WFH 3 days a week/2 in the office or on site. As of Friday, the (avoidance of) decision was to follow government guidelines, so I'm still expected to do the 5hr return train journey next week to sit in the office with my thumb up my hoop...
My work provides online training/CPD for people in the brewing industry. As they probably get sent home from the plants, I'm hoping they might take the time to get some new learning/qualifications.
My work hired me to implement systems to make work from home the default option so they could get rid of a valuable central London office.
They're in place (O365) and we just dished out new latops and mobiles to staff this week (was planned before the virus malarkey) as I've set up all the access/security/data policies etc
I wish the guy who works for me well while he deals with all the teething problems as I am on leave this week and am going to canoe and kayak down the Spey for the rest of the week with my phone turned off. God bless.
Luckily, both myself and my other half work in the NHS so job security won't be an issue for us!
As for whether we're coping, as a service? Not even close!
Personally though, we're coping well as we both have a week off work from tomorrow so won't be giving too much of a shit about work until at least Thursday 😀
Difficult to say, we’re a company who repairs and refurbishes ex-Motability cars, and stores ex-Enterprise vehicles, with two more major repair contracts in the offing, which is clearly not a work from home line of work! We have cars and drivers coming in from all parts of the country, so it’s possible we could be affected. Especially when you consider the dreadful state many Motab cars are in when they arrive, the desire to immediately go for a change of clothing and a hot shower can be overwhelming! I’m not kidding, either, the one defining feature of Motab cars is the unique smell attached to them, a weird mix of gone-off milk, wet dog, cigarettes and other things best not enquired into.
I often think we should be issued with biohazard suits, and stickers to put on the cars...
Adjusted shift rota to 12hr working to increase available pool for cover, scenarios planned all the way to half the operational workforce down and the remnants forming 2 shifts living on site.
Army will probably arrive soon to free up police resources.
We'll still be here for the forseeable.
Construction company in the water industry. Latest chat is fair chance all construction work to be put on hold and as and when staff shortages kick in at the water company we will be redeployed to help run the water supply and sewage treatment works. Needs doing so fine with me although WFH bike riding would be OK too.....
Wife is a teacher so if the schools close we're OK for childcare, we're in a relatively good position compared to many (extremely vulnerable parents notwithstanding)
Police again. Company and job perfectly safe. There’s a poster about washing your hands on the work toilet door, and the rufty tufty boys and girls have had to shave their beards off so their face masks fit properly. Beyond that it’ll have to be business as usual.
Engineer in pharma, looking like wfh next week, Mrs is a nurse, really worried about what's coming her way. 😞
I run a private tutoring school/ language training Centre. The local government has closed all schools until after the Easter holidays so I expect we are going to be very quiet in the coming weeks. I can envisage a complete lock down if things get out of control which will naturally be very damaging for us. Fortunately we have cashed in one of my life insurance policies so we have enough to pay the bills. Currently our city has 16 confirmed cases though I found out on Friday that one of the local secondary schools was closed immediately because one of the teachers had tested positive and all the pupils were supposed to go into quarantine. Didn’t stop one of our clients sending their child to us though on Friday afternoon.🥺
