Working From Home - Impacts of Coronavirus

[SiliconWizard]

I'm just looking up every day at our freakish clear blue sky. From the garden. This is not normal for England.

Pollution levels are way down nearly everywhere with traffic and industry shut down. That may have something to do with it. Nice as that is, it won't last once things start up again.

Indeed.... but yes this is nice. It's particularly noticeable in areas that are extremely polluted of course (like in India). In some regions, people can actually see things in the landscape they had never been able to see before. Kind of sad in a way, because yes, this positive part of the crisis is likely one that is going not to last for very long, whereas other parts, like travel restriction, are likely to last a lot longer.

[SiliconWizard]

This thing spreads so quietly and so easily and has such a long incubation time that by the time you realize anything is wrong the shit really hits the fan and loads of people end up sick. It doesn't work to just keep doing things as usual until you start having a worrying number of sick people, by then it's too late and huge numbers have already been exposed.

Yes. The long incubation time (up to 2 weeks, but it's suspected to be up to 3 weeks, although currently specialists think the 3-week cases are re-infection cases, but we still don't know for sure) is a major problem. It makes this virus very "sneaky" and hard to deal with, because of the long latency. And between the first symptoms and the detection, that can still be a while.

[paulca]

I'm just looking up every day at our freakish clear blue sky. From the garden. This is not normal for England.

Pollution levels are way down nearly everywhere with traffic and industry shut down. That may have something to do with it. Nice as that is, it won't last once things start up again.

Indeed.... but yes this is nice. It's particularly noticeable in areas that are extremely polluted of course (like in India). In some regions, people can actually see things in the landscape they had never been able to see before. Kind of sad in a way, because yes, this positive part of the crisis is likely one that is going not to last for very long, whereas other parts, like travel restriction, are likely to last a lot longer.

Living on the East coast of Northern Ireland (Belfast Lough shore), I can usually see Scotland on a clear day.  It's about 40-50 miles away.   Usually it's only a soft blurry silhouette on the horizon line.

On Tuesday i looked out the window and could see much more of the coast of Scotland and beyond to the mountains behind it.

I got my old Lumix camera with a 10x optical zoom and had a quick look and could see individual buildings and ships along the coast!  Though I think the ships where closer.

With the naked eye I could make out the wind turbines on some of the hills.

[bd139]

It's like that in London. If you get to a high vantage point you can see much further than usual. Getting some decent photos as well as there is less ambient pollution at sunset.

[paulca]

It's like that in London. If you get to a high vantage point you can see much further than usual. Getting some decent photos as well as there is less ambient pollution at sunset.

Flat Earthers will have a field day posting rubbish curve calculation videos.

[bd139]

Don't give them ideas they are not qualified to process 

[2N3055]

Don't give them ideas they are not qualified to process 

Is there ANY idea they are qualified to process at all ?
I thought they just randomly generate words...

[Electro Detective]

How long do honeymooning 'Working From Home'ers think they can keep it up,

before the company eventually has no choice and gives them the boot

and or the 'niche' private work suddenly dries up or dita

and or clients can't pay and you're left holding the bills and private parts 

[bd139]

Well I’m on year 10 now so long time 

[thinkfat]

How long do honeymooning 'Working From Home'ers think they can keep it up,

before the company eventually has no choice and gives them the boot

and or the 'niche' private work suddenly dries up or dita

and or clients can't pay and you're left holding the bills and private parts 

What connection do you see between working from home and getting the boot?

Hint: there ain't one.

[paulca]

Just had a conference call with the head of delivery.  He said,

"Home working is here to stay, even after this.  Obviously it was always an option, but now we have proved to our clients we are fully operational with the building closed I don't see why we can't provide it as an option for all employees going forward."

[bd139]

Yeah that's not going to happen here. We were just moving into a new office block in the middle of this  . So they will want everyone back in after.

It's quite clear we don't need an office block though now.

[Muttley Snickers]

I had to go to the medical clinic today to see the GP for prescriptions, specialist referrals and a medical certificate and expected the place to be packed with people. To my surprise there is normally a two hour wait to see a doctor but the place was completely empty and I was able to be seen straight away. It turns out that it's actually a good time to be sick.   

[EEVblog]

I had to go to the medical clinic today to see the GP for prescriptions, specialist referrals and a medical certificate and expected the place to be packed with people. To my surprise there is normally a two hour wait to see a doctor but the place was completely empty and I was able to be seen straight away. It turns out that it's actually a good time to be sick.   

Aren't some of them doing it online now somehow?

[EEVblog]

Yeah that's not going to happen here. We were just moving into a new office block in the middle of this  . So they will want everyone back in after.
It's quite clear we don't need an office block though now.

Probably a 5 year lease or something too 
I'm frustrated enough with the remainder of my two year lease.

[Electro Detective]

I had to go to the medical clinic today to see the GP for prescriptions, specialist referrals and a medical certificate and expected the place to be packed with people.
To my surprise there is normally a two hour wait to see a doctor but the place was completely empty and I was able to be seen straight away.

It turns out that it's actually a good time to be sick.   

Hope you're keeping well      but same deal here because there's hardly anyone sick enough to hit on the medical establishments

and or their newly embedded corona FEAR    is keeping them self imprisoned at home,
and doing 'social distance' phone consultations instead 

------------------------

Some may change their tune when long term "Impacts of Coronavirus' kick in

and companies decide it's not worth the drama weathering this unknown scaredemic, for how much longer ? 

and pack it in for the short or long term, or the bank makes that sudden decision for them 

Let's see where honeymooning 'Working From Home-ites' will be in 6 weeks time, much less 6 months
..or 6 years if the usual suspects drag this out, since it's going so well for them and no competition 


@ bd139, 10 years is good going mate and best of luck keeping it up   but these are different times and stranger agendas afoot
that whatever the deal is going down, you can bet it won't be doing the working battlers and small business any favors, as usual 

[EEVblog]

Just had a conference call with the head of delivery.  He said,
"Home working is here to stay, even after this.  Obviously it was always an option, but now we have proved to our clients we are fully operational with the building closed I don't see why we can't provide it as an option for all employees going forward."

Nice! 
Not unexpected for smart businesses.

[bd139]

Yeah that's not going to happen here. We were just moving into a new office block in the middle of this  . So they will want everyone back in after.
It's quite clear we don't need an office block though now.

Probably a 5 year lease or something too 
I'm frustrated enough with the remainder of my two year lease.

Even worse. They bought the building I think.

[paulca]

Yeah that's not going to happen here. We were just moving into a new office block in the middle of this  . So they will want everyone back in after.

It's quite clear we don't need an office block though now.

Same here, we moved into a new office in October.  Spend 100s of thousands on it to.

There are of course team social requirements that will bring people in again to be with their team, but I expect more people will, like me work from home one or two days a week.

[Muttley Snickers]

Aren't some of them doing it online now somehow?

Where possible they are trying to keep the regular outpatients away from hospitals because many might now be susceptible or vulnerable in those environments. From what I have seen some of the remote consultation procedures they are trying to implement are causing more of a problem than a solution.   

For instance, a few days ago I received text messages from an unknown mobile number with instructions to click on a dodgy url link to verify an appointment. I had no idea what it was about so ignored it and today a nurse called to confirm a video consultation with a specialist on Monday, I told her to stop sending dodgy links to people and she apologised and said the confusion was due to their computer experts.   

The Australia Post mail delays aren't helping much either. Without a word of a lie at 14:30 today the postman delivered some letters one of which was a notice from the hospital regarding a specialists appointment scheduled for 14:00 today, I rang the hospital immediately and explained that I only just got the letter and could not attend on such short notice.   

[SiliconWizard]

I had to go to the medical clinic today to see the GP for prescriptions, specialist referrals and a medical certificate and expected the place to be packed with people. To my surprise there is normally a two hour wait to see a doctor but the place was completely empty and I was able to be seen straight away. It turns out that it's actually a good time to be sick.   

Depends on where you live exactly. Many doctors have just shut down and only do phone or online for the time being. Not that great depending on what your condition is.
If you're "lucky" to have a clinic nearby where you can go, that's already a lot better. Not everyone does. But the fact the place is almost empty is not particularly a good sign, as nice as it is for those who go there. It means many people are just staying home instead of getting a medical consultation they might actually need.

Over here, it has actually started being a source of concern. If I'm not mistaken, I think there has been 40% less medical consultations since the confinement for GPs and 60% less for specialists. So people not sick because of the Covid-19 are actually worse off. As to hospital consultations, of course they are severely restricted as well to emergencies basically.

So if you have a chronic and stable condition, or just something very mild, this is alright. But if you have something new which doesn't look like an emergency, but could still be concerning, ahem. Less so.

[Muttley Snickers]

From my own experience we have it pretty good over here health care wise. I was self employed and kept reasonably fit and healthy for over three decades and rarely if ever got sick or saw a doctor, but when I turned fifty everything failed all at once which now means I am reliant on our health system and the diligence of others. One of the most difficult aspects of being self employed and suffering serious illness is having to tell your long term loyal customers that you are no longer able to provide a service or be of assistance.

[james_s]

Hope you're keeping well      but same deal here because there's hardly anyone sick enough to hit on the medical establishments

and or their newly embedded corona FEAR    is keeping them self imprisoned at home,
and doing 'social distance' phone consultations instead 

So are you suggesting it's ok to do nothing and we'll just lock down once the exponential growth really starts climbing out of control and hospitals are filling up? What part of "that's too late" do you not grasp? Have you watched what has been happening in New York? Do you think the area where you live is somehow fundamentally different?

I thought it was overblown too but I was convinced once I started seeing the numbers grow explosively, and now I'm watching the exact same pattern happen in places all over. People blow it off because there are only a few infections, hospitals are below capacity, etc and then it blows up. Some hospitals near me were real close to having to start triaging and pulling people off ventilators when things started to flatten out, now they're finally getting under control.

Speaking as someone living in what was the epicenter of the infection of the entire nation I can say that by the time you realize you've got a problem, it's too late. You are not invincible.

[nctnico]

Some random ramblings about last week... a customer is hiring so I had to be part of job interviews using video conferencing. I also went to the customer's office for a face-to-face interview with one of the candidates. It was really nice to see some familiar faces in person again. Doing a job interview at a big table with the chairs far apart and taking turns to avoid crowding the room was also new.

The low amount of traffic on the road was also very welcome. Like it is holiday season. Usually I go to that particular customer by train. Looking outside the window at the traffic jam which -more or less- extends from where I live to where my custome resides. Since public transport is a no-go I went by car but without the usual traffic jams getting there was a breeze. Not saying the road wasn't busy though.

Today I went out on my bike. At some point I had to wait for a bridge which was open. Normally people would bundle up in front of the barrier (on the seperate bicycle road) but nowadays (nearly all) people wait in line so there is enough distance between everyone. Kinda interesting to experience but it is also nice to see that people adhere to the distancing rules.

[james_s]

Just had a conference call with the head of delivery.  He said,

"Home working is here to stay, even after this.  Obviously it was always an option, but now we have proved to our clients we are fully operational with the building closed I don't see why we can't provide it as an option for all employees going forward."

I've been working from home 2-3 days a week for as long as I've been with this employer, now I'm home fulltime. Eventually I'd like to get back to going into the office a couple days a week but I dread ever having to go in every weekday. I'm really hoping that one positive thing to come of this whole mess is a lot more companies finally realizing that there's no reason to require everyone to be in the office every day, many people can work productively from home or wherever and with the tools we have available these days it's easier than ever. Commuting every single day is a waste of time. Working from home I work more hours on average yet feel less tired from it. Each day that I'm home is ~2 hours I don't spend killing time on a bus.