Just lost my job thanks to COVID-19, who else ?

[MapleLeaf]

I was just was told that my 5 days a week became a 3 day work week. But, get this, the two days that i am off i get payed full for the next 8 weeks. Something to do with the gov. After that i will have to burn vacation time. I have accumulated 300 hours of it so i am good for another few months.
As long as i keep this up i get full benefits also.   This may be the best summer I have had in 40 years   Almost as good as a sabbatical.

[thm_w]

I was just was told that my 5 days a week became a 3 day work week. But, get this, the two days that i am off i get payed full for the next 8 weeks. Something to do with the gov. After that i will have to burn vacation time. I have accumulated 300 hours of it so i am good for another few months.
As long as i keep this up i get full benefits also.   This may be the best summer I have had in 40 years   Almost as good as a sabbatical.

I agree, always nice to work less hours. That offer is about as good as you can get.

Allowing you to use vacation hours however doesn't make sense to me, unless they want the building shut down 2 days/week. That or they have the cash to burn now knowing you'll be working full hours when its over.

[Electro Detective]

Before people start sinking the boots in on businesses, think about this: 

Decent business owners cop it many ways:

concern for their own families,

doing the right thing for their employees,

staying in business without going under and losing their homes,
with little to no 'career downgrade' opportunity for a low paying employee job, to put food on the table.

undecided on whether to keep going till things may get better eventually/gradually/too long,
or pull the plug, close shop asap and cut losses before everything gets wiped out.

...meanwhile the rent and outgoings, bank payments/interest and employee wages need to be paid


So go easy on the decent battling businesses folks   

and pray those businesses run by assh0les will get what's coming to them 

[nctnico]

Before people start sinking the boots in on businesses, think about this: 

Decent business owners cop it many ways:

concern for their own families,

doing the right thing for their employees,

staying in business without going under and losing their homes,
with little to no 'career downgrade' opportunity for a low paying employee job, to put food on the table.

I had a conversation with a relative the other day. Their business had to close but they are hellbound on keeping the employees as they will need them more than ever to chew through the backlog of work that is accumulating. I hope the bank takes it easy on their to postpone interest payments.

[TomS_]

I have two friends that have been furloughed in the UK, although one of them was brought back in relatively quickly.

He and myself are both stuck in Australia at the moment due to the resulting flight cancellations, and me personally, I am forcibly unable to work (I could to an extent, but they wont allow me to) while Im stuck here. My day job is network engineer, so mostly working at command lines etc, and that in theory can be done from the beach. There are some internal rules that prevent me from working in this situation though, as strange as it seems there may be some legalities involved (specifically about being in a foreign country to where I am employed and I surmise because Im not here for business reasons).

My airline managed to get me rebooked onto a flight in early May, and Im sort of half expecting that I may be furloughed aswell. The only silver lining I see so far is they said I would continue to be paid.

So not exactly lost it yet, but I feel like Im on a knifes edge, definitely not exactly enjoying my "extended holiday".

[donotdespisethesnake]

Before people start sinking the boots in on businesses, think about this: 

Decent business owners cop it many ways:

concern for their own families,

doing the right thing for their employees,

staying in business without going under and losing their homes,
with little to no 'career downgrade' opportunity for a low paying employee job, to put food on the table.

undecided on whether to keep going till things may get better eventually/gradually/too long,
or pull the plug, close shop asap and cut losses before everything gets wiped out.

...meanwhile the rent and outgoings, bank payments/interest and employee wages need to be paid


So go easy on the decent battling businesses folks   

and pray those businesses run by assh0les will get what's coming to them 

Yeah, I'm just worried for all those shareholders who might lose their dividends.

[Wilksey]

Turns out in my place some are being furloughed, some are being made redundant and the rest are taking between a 10% and 30% pay cut (people in the higher salaries are 30%), and they have in no uncertain terms stated no annual pay-rise this year.

As far as I know consultations are already taking place for redundancies and everyone has been told by Friday gone who they were, those who have been furloughed have already been notified - i've heard nothing so I'm guessing i'm one of the "lucky" ones with a pay cut and working from home (i'm in the lowest pay cut percentage for those wondering  , no chance of that payrise now!)

So, is it fair in that case to do 10% less work? 

[Zero999]

I've been furloughed since 27^th March. Fortunately I'm on full pay, as the company has topped up the shortfall from the government subsidy, but I'll lose 4 days annual leave, which I'm not bothered about. I've not been into work since the 18^th March, as I was coughing quite a lot on that day and was told not to come in for at least 7 days, then the manager told me not to go in, until further notice.

The company will reopen in a couple of weeks time and I'll be back on the 21^st. The manager emailed everyone telling them they're making changes to the working environment and procedures to enable us to stick to the 2m social distance and provide everyone with gloves and hand sanitiser.

I'll probably have more money this month, than normal, simply because I'm not socialising so will save more. I think I'll donate most of the money I've not spent to charity, although I can't be too generous, in case I lose my job.

[james_s]

We recently had a company wide 10% pay cut which they have assured us is temporary depending of course on the length of the downturn in the money coming in. I can easily absorb that cut even without the fact that by working fulltime from home I'm not spending anything on transportation and not eating out for lunch. There was also a handful of layoffs, from what I saw it was a mix of low performers who were already on the potential chopping block and some good people who were unfortunate to be on teams that were hard hit by the current conditions. I've been impressed so far with the candor of the CEO and other execs, unlike other places I've worked I get the impression that they're being as open as they can and making a good effort to do what they can, having talked to our customers and analyzed everything they can, preparing for the current worst-case predictions. Unfortunately I suspect things will actually be far worse than the worst case predictions we currently have but I'd be very happy to be utterly wrong. Apparently they are continuing to provide the medical insurance for those who were let go for a couple of months which is more than most companies do.

I still hold out hope that this pandemic will finally be the catalyst needed to fix our horribly broken and incredibly inefficient health insurance industry which is exactly that, an industry focused not on providing care but in earning a profit. While deficient in the best of times, a global pandemic really puts the glaring faults in the spotlight, millions of people losing their healthcare in the middle of a pandemic is a colossal and inexcusable failure that harms us all and costs incalculable amounts of money and lives.

[nctnico]

I'll probably have more money this month, than normal, simply because I'm not socialising so will save more. I think I'll donate most of the money I've not spent to charity, although I can't be too generous, in case I lose my job.

I strongly suggest to hold on to your money. If you want to help then donate your time by volunteering somewhere.

[james_s]

I strongly suggest to hold on to your money. If you want to help then donate your time by volunteering somewhere.

That's my inclination too, however I'm annoyed by the fact that people holding onto their money out of fear of an economic crash creates a self-fulfilling prophecy because the economy WILL crash if everyone does that. If everyone continued with life as normal as possible under the circumstances we could adapt and keep spending money to keep the economy going despite having to alter our behavior but it's in any individual's own best interest to not do so.

[blacksheeplogic]

That's my inclination too, however I'm annoyed by the fact that people holding onto their money out of fear of an economic crash creates a self-fulfilling prophecy because the economy WILL crash if everyone does that. If everyone continued with life as normal as possible under the circumstances we could adapt and keep spending money to keep the economy going despite having to alter our behavior but it's in any individual's own best interest to not do so.

The government here placed everyone they consider non-essential under house arrest. The only safe workers are those on the government pay roll. There is no continue with a normal life here and few outside of the government pay roll can depend on the jobs they have. It took almost no time for the government to take there kind of actions. Expenditure has to be prioritized towards the basics and keeping the mortgage paid. There will be a huge number of people without an steady income in the coming months so it's not about keeping the economy going or avoiding an economic crash, it's about how do you pay your mortgage and put food on the table in the coming weeks.

[james_s]

How to pay your mortgage and put food on the table is exactly what the economy is all about. I know a lot of other people in the tech industry and they're all working from home now. Stores that sell food, pet supplies, hardware and supplies for the trades and various other essential businesses are open, restaurants can still serve takeout. All the usual mail order suppliers seem to be up and running still. I've continued to buy and sell on ebay, though I've disinfected the items I've packed and washed off stuff I receive. My friend's machine shop is running because they make aerospace and some medical stuff, they're busier than usual due to other shops being closed. My partner manages an animal hospital and they're much busier than usual for the same reason. There is still plenty of economic activity that can occur. My own life is not THAT different than usual since I'm kind of a homebody anyway though I've relied more on mail order than usual and instead of going to the store every 2-3 days for groceries we bought a month or so worth of food at Costco. Unfortunately since my partner is working I'm not protected despite barely leaving my house however I suspect we already had Covid several weeks ago. The symptoms checked most of the boxes but it was very mild. Whatever it bug I had was mild enough for me that under normal circumstances I don't think I would have even taken a day off work. We wouldn't have gotten approved to be tested even had we asked so unless I get something later that is confirmed to be Covid I'll never know.

[Electro Detective]

That's my inclination too, however I'm annoyed by the fact that people holding onto their money out of fear of an economic crash creates a self-fulfilling prophecy because the economy WILL crash if everyone does that. If everyone continued with life as normal as possible under the circumstances we could adapt and keep spending money to keep the economy going despite having to alter our behavior but it's in any individual's own best interest to not do so.

The government here placed everyone they consider non-essential under house arrest. The only safe workers are those on the government pay roll. There is no continue with a normal life here and few outside of the government pay roll can depend on the jobs they have. It took almost no time for the government to take there kind of actions. Expenditure has to be prioritized towards the basics and keeping the mortgage paid. There will be a huge number of people without an steady income in the coming months so it's not about keeping the economy going or avoiding an economic crash, it's about how do you pay your mortgage and put food on the table in the coming weeks.

I wouldn't want to be a poolitician, bs authority/expert or news media clown facing streets of angry Maories very soon.. 
when they finally realize they got taken for a ride by assh0les they trusted,
with no jobs, no prospects, no decent food on the table for their families

and insult to injury > STILL no dunny paper! 

[james_s]

In hindsight I suppose we should have probably locked down EVERYTHING except for emergency services for 2 weeks early on and isolated it but in practice that is not likely to have flown. My worry now is that this half assed patchwork of lockdowns is going to cause things to drag out on and on as hotspots flare up and the virus keeps spreading.

On an individual basis the risk is low, most of us will be exposed sooner or later, most will have minor to moderate symptoms if any at all and the vast majority will recover without complications. The rate at which it has been spreading though is unlike anything I've ever witnessed and that's going to result in some very sobering numbers of deaths despite being only a very small percentage of the population. I read last night that New Orleans is running out of refrigerated storage for corpses and morgues are filled to capacity.

On the bright side, I suspect flu deaths will be noticeably low for a few years after this as Covid culls the herd and wipes out many who would have died of the flu in the next couple of seasons.