Working From Home - Impacts of Coronavirus

[EEVblog]

I didn't want to start another thread on the coronavirus, but I think it's important and reasonably on-topic enough and will certainly impact all of us on here in some way.
So I wanted to stick to the topic of the impacts on our work/businesses by this, and what plans you and your business might have.

For me, for starters, I'm fairly confident (let's say 80% sure) it's going to eventually close the kids school for a period of time, I think that's pretty much inevitable at this point.
And if that happens it's not going to be several days, it's going to be several weeks, absolute minimum. That means myself and/or Mrs EEVblog have to not only work from home, but keep the kids occupied as well. This will obviously have a huge wide spread impact on business, over and above the already present and other future issues.

And Mrs EEVblog works for a large government department in a large office building. Odds are probably similar of them have to shut down and/or ask a lot of employees to work from home. They already have a good work from home plan in place, so may not be a huge impact there. Their new building is all "hot desk" anyway, with no one having an assigned seat or cubicle, the idea is you can take your laptop and work from anywhere.

So we are probably ok, I don't see much chance of my content stopping, short of me or my family getting the virus. I don't have a lab at home, but I'm pretty isolated in my lab at the office building and don't have to interact with others much, so should be business as usual. And if it's bad and close enough to shut down schools then it's close enough to worry about going out anywhere really. My lab will likely be fine, but other places like shopping centres, post offices, gyms playgrounds etc could be out. So pretty much there might be a need isolate ourselves at home. So we have plans in place for that for say a month if needed.

So does your company or your own business have any plans for this potential impact?, or are you impacted already?
There are just countless stories of service companies like airlines and restaurants and other places being decimated. One airline alone has shut down half it's fleet and told 75% of it's workforce to take leave. And the whole thing has barely gotten started in countries like Australia and the US, and yet there is already famously panic buying here in Australia. Don't ask about toilet rolls...

[nfmax]

It doesn't really affect me, but I just heard this from my ISP (Andrews & Arnold):

https://www.aa.net.uk/etc/news/covid-19-and-usage-quotas/

Good guys!

[digsys]

Based mainly from home.
Definitely seen a huge drop in service calls / stalled projects and calls in general. Not that I care, I treat it like a re-run of xmas break :-) Catching up on unfinished projects :-)
Staff I usually contact have mostly taken early holidays, so there's no one to talk to anyway :-) I'll let you know how it goes in a few weeks, if this continues.

[NiHaoMike]

It doesn't really affect me, but I just heard this from my ISP (Andrews & Arnold):

https://www.aa.net.uk/etc/news/covid-19-and-usage-quotas/

Good guys!

I would go a step further and say that all ISPs should not be allowed to charge overages or unreasonably degrade service in affected areas.

[VK3DRB]

I can largely work from my private lab and office nearby on my own where I design electronics for clients . I am in the second week of self imposed isolation down due to certain reasons . One more week to go.

Here some tips if you are in an office with a lot of people:

Wash hands or use isopropyl alcohol after handling any communal test equipment (power supplies, CROs, DMMS, probes, keyboards etc), or eating in the lunch room, prior to touching your face. Do not shake hands with anyone, even after scoring a big pay rise or congratulating someone. If you cannot wash your hands for whatever reason, such as you have just visited an electronics store, when you get to your car use an alcohol based hand sanitiser. Cannot get hand sanitiser? Mix isopropyl alcohol or metho with liquid soap or hand moisturiser. Keep the alcohol content high, like 50% to 80% in the mixture.

Unless you are sick with coughing and spluttering, wearing a mask is a pretty much a waste of time because masks do not cover the eyes. Most big tech companies are now planning having employees working from home, but with many professions this is not possible... social workers, policemen, ambulance drivers, couriers, restaurants etc. Ericsson has banned all air travel by employees. Good time soon to buy airfares at bargain basement prices. Airbnb accommodation prices are plummeting.

[RobBarter]

I'm in the lucky position of working from home almost all the time (software development).  Normally only visiting a client's office for 3 days every fortnight.  That can easily be stretched out to a month or more if needed.   As long as the broadband stays reliable in my house (current 540MBs) I'll be ok.   If I have visit new clients for work though, that will be problematic

I do feel for people who will not be able to make a living though

[thm_w]

Told to work from home if sick (typical american ceo ), but its straight up impossible for me to accomplish anything there as I need to receive and ship parts.

I do feel for people who will not be able to make a living though

Yep its a terrible situation, and having to pay to get tested (in some countries) ensures no one will bother. I suspect a lot of people that get sick "early" could lose their jobs.
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-treatment-medical-bill-hospital-costs-2020-3
https://qz.com/1809382/us-health-care-costs-could-help-coronavirus-spread/

[tszaboo]

So does your company or your own business have any plans for this potential impact?, or are you impacted already?

We bought about 1000 masks, hand sanitizer. We have one person stuck in the Italian zone, another who had to cancel his flight home. Ordered stuff is getting delayed. I had to wait weeks for a quote, because the factory was shut down.
Meanwhile I'm recovering from some cold or pneumonia or something. Of course not the corona. But this is not the best time to sneeze and cough, even if its just common cold. In any case, if there is an outbreak, I'm staying home, cause I dont need a second infection after this one.

[nctnico]

Well, I work mostly from home anyway. Over here many companies do extra cleaning and urge people to take care of their personal hygiene (washing hands). Today I visited a customer and they have put signs over the washing basins which show how to wash your hands properly. Too bad the water is too cold to follow the entire procedure but the idea is there.

Realistically: Currently a relative small number of people get infected and in China they managed to stop the spread. In Europe the biggest problem is Italy which seems to be the source of most of the infections. I try to figure out if people went to Italy recently or had contact with people from Italy and avoid contact with those people. The current approach to prevent the virus from spreading seems to work; I don't expect shutdowns to last long as they are mostly a precaution c.q. means to keep people seperated.

Though I'm contemplating to postpone a holiday and am planning from some down-time so my project schedule doesn't suffer too much in case one of my family members and/or me gets infected.

[EEVblog]

Wash hands or use isopropyl alcohol after handling any communal test equipment (power supplies, CROs, DMMS, probes, keyboards etc), or eating in the lunch room, prior to touching your face. Do not shake hands with anyone, even after scoring a big pay rise or congratulating someone. If you cannot wash your hands for whatever reason, such as you have just visited an electronics store, when you get to your car use an alcohol based hand sanitiser. Cannot get hand sanitiser? Mix isopropyl alcohol or metho with liquid soap or hand moisturiser. Keep the alcohol content high, like 50% to 80% in the mixture.

I have a bunch of small atomiser spray bottles with a 70% isopropyl/water mix.

[BravoV]

Wash hands or use isopropyl alcohol after handling any communal test equipment (power supplies, CROs, DMMS, probes, keyboards etc), or eating in the lunch room, prior to touching your face. Do not shake hands with anyone, even after scoring a big pay rise or congratulating someone. If you cannot wash your hands for whatever reason, such as you have just visited an electronics store, when you get to your car use an alcohol based hand sanitiser. Cannot get hand sanitiser? Mix isopropyl alcohol or metho with liquid soap or hand moisturiser. Keep the alcohol content high, like 50% to 80% in the mixture.

I have a bunch of small atomiser spray bottles with a 70% isopropyl/water mix.

Similar, just freshly bought these 5L of ethanol (ethyl alcohol) as the chemical material shop is in the route on the way home.

It will be diluted to about 70%. Reference -> CDC Chemical Disinfectants

[sassywren]

I have been home based for more than a decade but guys, right now, there are AMAZING summer travel deals, I've just ordered tickets for 2 different Asian countries, tourism is going to be down and this is going to be the best summer to travel in a long time!

This is not a joke... I got the tickets...  It's just a cold for most people, I'll take the 3.5% risk, I think I take more risk when I drive in rush hour traffic on the freeway... xD

[Halcyon]

The biggest disruption so far hasn't been the virus itself, rather the reaction by the public and the over-hyped media stories. The lunacy of "panic buying" toilet paper is one such example.

I think regardless of COVID-19, your business or organisation should have a disaster recovery and business continuity plan.

Dave, think of it this way: If your lab was to completely be destroyed, how would you continue to work? As for the kids staying home, treat it like the school holidays.

[andy3055]

Everyone is talking about how many die every year by influenza and the need to be calm. But most don't realize the fact that so many have died from this stupid thing at this alarming rate with respect to time and not the percentage of infected to dead. Even the WHO took time to declare the seriousness of it just 2 days before when it was forced to do so!

The alcohol content is supposed to be a minimum 40% for killing the virus. Using alcohol alone creates another problem in that the skin gets dry/damaged which in turn makes one susceptible to infections via the skin surface. Hence the recommendation for hand sanitizers like the gels containing a minimum of 40% alcohol. I was able to get some with 70% alcohol for my travel and hope the shelves will be re-stocked in my hometown stores by the time we get back on the 10th. Boy, am I glad to be retired!

Hope all you guys will keep safety in mind than discounting the risk.

[bd139]

That's not even the major risk. If it mutates into something neurotropic or more effective at infecting people then we are properly up shit creek. The key focus is to eliminate it before that happens. At the moment healthcare provision across the planet is quite frankly not cut out for this sort of load so that'll collapse first, care declines, people die (of this and other things) and then there's the logistics problem of disposing of lots of dead bodies which is arguably going to be difficult with our current social protocols. We couldn't even manage the foot and mouth outbreak here in 2001 as an example.

As for me, I work from home. Only risk is the kids at school and they're well equipped with proper hand sanitizers personal and school provided and have strict policies in place already including proposed shutdown protocols.

The biggest risk here in London? Public transport. Dirty as fuck on a good day.

[richard.cs]

then there's the logistics problem of disposing of lots of dead bodies which is arguably going to be difficult with our current social protocols. We couldn't even manage the foot and mouth outbreak here in 2001 as an example.

Take a look at the "excess death plans". This one is London-specific but all areas of the UK should have one: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/gla_migrate_files_destination/London%20Excess%20Deaths%20Framework%20v1.pdf
Section 9 covers this, but there is doubt as to how practical it is.

[Rerouter]

Thinking things over, I've got maybe 3-4 days of in house only work for perhaps say the lead in to things going bad, another 12-14 days of stuff that can be done at home, and then the rest would break into R&D and gap filling,

So if things went south, I could last about 3 weeks before I would have to consider taking leave... and then things get fun, because I deal with a lot of buses and transport trucks, so literally industries with the highest risk of catching and spreading, the doors will probably stay closed for longer than other industries.

[Zucca]

Italian here, now you all will be at risk because my italian post is here!

I was in the north italy region last weekend. On Monday I was back in Germany.
Germans told me to work from my German home for the next 14 days.... Yuppieeeee

IMHO too much panic. No sense.

[EEVblog]

I think regardless of COVID-19, your business or organisation should have a disaster recovery and business continuity plan. Dave, think of it this way: If your lab was to completely be destroyed, how would you continue to work?

Easy, I just need a computer and a camera.
Sure, losing the lab would be huge, but it wouldn't hit my business financially much, and certainly wouldn't stop me making content. On the contrary, it would provide ready made drama material like my flood did.

As for the kids staying home, treat it like the school holidays.

It's not that easy, during the school holidays you usually plan all sorts of full/multi day activities for the kids, so you often just drop them off and pick them up just like at school.
Having to stay at home with the kids for 2-3 weeks straight would be very different.

[EEVblog]

And it just hit the first school in Sydney. Shut down tomorrow of course, but I expect they'll do a full 2+ week shutdown, because no one will want to have their arse on the line, and this will go all the way up to the health and education ministers etc who will back them.
Absolutely guaranteed other schools will get hit, just a matter of time.

[Zucca]

Dave can you tell me if the corona is spreading less in region like Australia where the temperature is higher than the north planet?
There are rumors high temperature will block the virus...

Thanks

[tszaboo]

IMHO too much panic. No sense.

No, what humanity does makes sense. In fact, I think we are not doing enough.
Not because death rate. Because this thing is very infectious. We dont want this to join to the club of influenza, common cold, and others, that has outbreaks every year.
But in all seriousness, they are working on vaccine for common cold. I would take that.

[RobBarter]

I just disinfected my keyboard for the first time in ages....and locked myself out of my account 

[angrybird]

This all really just comes down to how fragile and unreasonable society has become.

A hundred years ago, the hazards were much greater, people died from outbreaks in much larger percentages of the population, but people pressed on, unafraid, and built what we have today.

Nowadays, everyone is afraid, weak, their emotions get triggered by almost anything, and the internet has given so many people this mistaken idea that they know anything about anything and they are just ready to hand out that opinion on a moments notice...  When people like this become the rule makers, you get the world that we have today 

I agree with our Italian friend, it makes no sense.  This is what I love about Italians, very strong, independent minded people, I love my trips to this country so very much.

Good luck to the rest of you but I've booked tickets to multiple Asian destinations this summer and I'm going to very much enjoy the reduced crowds at all the hiking and birdwatching destinations *HAPPY DANCE!*

[Zucca]

I love my trips to this country so very much.

Right know you could have a luxury room at the Canal Grande in Venice for about 80€, regular price before COVID19 was 253€.