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March 28, 2024, 06:15:59 PM

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who else is still at work

Started by kittens, March 22, 2020, 11:19:38 PM

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Gregory Torso

I assume the post office will stay open because (a) they are inexplicably still open in Italy, (b) smiths is cunts and (c) covid risk grans need to buy a stamp and a postal order for two pound fifty made payable to the cats protection league

bgmnts

Good to know they aren't trying to stamp out the post office though.

BritishHobo

Still in. All wondering if there'll be some decision today, but I doubt it. Doing basic admin in the definitely unnecessary part of a sort-of necessary organisation that they're determined not to close. Still seeibg customers. We were told over a week ago that hand sanitiser had been sourced, but it's nowhere to be seen.

monkfromhavana

Quote from: BritishHobo on March 24, 2020, 07:50:26 AM
Still in. All wondering if there'll be some decision today, but I doubt it. Doing basic admin in the definitely unnecessary part of a sort-of necessary organisation that they're determined not to close. Still seeibg customers. We were told over a week ago that hand sanitiser had been sourced, but it's nowhere to be seen.

My girlfriend is in a similar situation at UPS. She works in credit control, so in no way is frontline and has nothing to do with parcels being delivered etc. Office is full, not letting people work from home (they're still dragging their heels about getting laptops or letting people take desktops home). They say everyone at UPS is a key worker, which is bollocks. If girlfriend chooses just to go home, zero pay.

alan nagsworth

Quote from: BritishHobo on March 24, 2020, 07:50:26 AM
Still in. All wondering if there'll be some decision today, but I doubt it. Doing basic admin in the definitely unnecessary part of a sort-of necessary organisation that they're determined not to close. Still seeibg customers. We were told over a week ago that hand sanitiser had been sourced, but it's nowhere to be seen.

Somewhat similar situation for me. If anyone here can offer advice on what I should do, it would be appreciated, although I'm expecting everyone to be as much in the dark as I am following yet another fucking vague bullshit announcement from our government.

I was off on annual leave yesterday and during that time the woman who sits next to me in the office called me to say she's off sick (she is the fourth person in our office to be off sick now) and she sounded absolutely dreadful. Definite symptoms on display: the cough, the shortness of breath. I emailed the head of HR to ask what the situation is in light of these developments, as my anxiety is peaking out pretty regularly at the thought of having to even leave the house, let alone get travel across two tube lines for 7 miles to get back into the fucking office just to sit about doing 8 hours of menial admin copy-and-paste work.

This was his response:

Quote
I would firstly like to reassure you that we are doing everything possible to manage risks during this very difficult time.  We really appreciate your hard work and effort.

Today we have decided to have people in the office sitting far away from each other. We also supplied a mask to all team member in the office today. Shall you need one please let me know and we will try to supply more.

Should you wish to self-isolate without symptoms, we can offer you to take unpaid leaves. Alternatively if you have holidays left, you can take a few days off if you feel you need it. Should you have the following symptoms: a cough, a high temperature, shortness of breath then you should self-isolate and would be receiving SSP from day one.

I'm just completely appalled and dismayed that they think those measures are an appropriate response when our country is about a month into this thing.

For my own safety and job security, I've decided to take the rest of this week off as paid holiday leave, but as it stands, I still can't see any sign of office closure on the horizon. Boris's announcement last night has STILL failed to highlight exactly what qualifies for "essential" places of business to remain open and so my employer is gleefully operating in that fucking loophole and jeopardising the health of its 100+ staff across 5-10 offices every fucking day.

I don't know what to do any more. This is a complete shambles.

Gregory Torso

The way this whole thing has been handled by the government and employers is sickening. I'm going to have to take unpaid leave just to protect myself. Thank christ I've got a little bit saved up so I can survive for a month at least. When this is all over, these fuckers need to be held accountable for so blatantly not giving a shit about any of us.

alan nagsworth

Yep, I am disgusted and my depression/anxiety has left me feeling completely drained. It's very hard to summon the energy to fight back when you've been dumped into a corner and you have very little self-confidence left. This is a global concern and common sense is being completely ignored because these people do not care about me. They have made me feel as though I may as well not exist.

holyzombiejesus

We've just received guidance on visiting from our employer. Fucking farcical.

QuoteWash your hands at the end of your visit (if the condition and location of the hand washing facilities
are appropriate). Where hand washing is not available, clean your hands using
alcohol-based hand gel. Where that is not available, use antibacterial wipes.
Where that is not available carry bottled water and soap and a kitchen towel.

Ask for a window to be opened for the duration of your visit.

Doomy Dwyer

Just got the word that I'm being locked down in a blaze of glory and my days as an essential worker and valuable member of society are over. And not before time. Fuck that shit, baby. Keeping the library open has merely served to spread the contagion and to get on my tits. I'm probably responsible for the death of thousands by now. I'll miss the overtime.

I was only supplied with rubber gloves yesterday and then only by one of the janitors (I don't mean only a janitor. I mean not by my superiors who do not give a fucking shit, have no comprehension of the practicalities of the day to day running of the library & information centre and who only told us to stop handing cash and cheque payments IMMEDIATELY (their capitals) half an hour before closing last night). We put up a makeshift barrier of 'Do not cross' tape threaded between traffic cones in front of the ironic Information Desk yesterday to prevent continued and widespread flouting of social distancing guidelines and within two minutes some absolute cock knocker ducked under it in order to put a single battery in the recycling box. I remonstrated with the man in no uncertain terms and as he attempted to duck back out of the exclusion zone his rucksack became entangled in the tape and he began to drag the cones across the floor behind him in order to escape my wrath like some kind of pitiful reversed Sisyphus. I continued to hurl abuse at him, called him a pig ignorant fucking dick head, etc and all the regular pensioners, homeless and junkies were laughing and pointing at him and he eventually became quite tearful and muttered something about saving the planet. So, we can all relax because this cunt's got us covered on the old ecology front. But it was nice to see the community coming together, if only for a brief, beautiful moment, even as we are told to stand apart. 

You hear a lot about the NHS and doctors and nurses and that, but I'm at the sharp fucking end here, hanging it in like gungha din.   

holyzombiejesus

Quote from: alan nagsworth on March 24, 2020, 09:35:01 AM
Yep, I am disgusted and my depression/anxiety has left me feeling completely drained. It's very hard to summon the energy to fight back when you've been dumped into a corner and you have very little self-confidence left. This is a global concern and common sense is being completely ignored because these people do not care about me. They have made me feel as though I may as well not exist.

Can't you self-isolate and claim you have symptoms? Is your SSP drastically lower than your usual pay? It's really shit that you have to do this but your mental health is as important as your physical.

Gregory Torso

Quote from: alan nagsworth on March 24, 2020, 09:35:01 AM
Yep, I am disgusted and my depression/anxiety has left me feeling completely drained. It's very hard to summon the energy to fight back when you've been dumped into a corner and you have very little self-confidence left. This is a global concern and common sense is being completely ignored because these people do not care about me. They have made me feel as though I may as well not exist.

I found myself in exactly the same position a week ago. Couldn't sleep or eat. Pure fear and misery. I called into work and said, look I'm at risk, I've had lung infections and pneumonia in the past (true) so I can't come in. Done. I'm hoping, hoping, that after this is over, people who have been fired or laid off or had to survive without pay will be recompensed in some way. Maybe. But if you can, don't go to work. I know this might not be an option, but if there is a way, it's not worth the risk.

alan nagsworth

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on March 24, 2020, 09:41:44 AM
Can't you self-isolate and claim you have symptoms? Is your SSP drastically lower than your usual pay? It's really shit that you have to do this but your mental health is as important as your physical.

SSP is dreadful man. My salary isn't exactly great but the weekly SSP amount is around the same as what I earn in a day. It isn't feasible for me to exist on that for two weeks, and even then, what happens afterwards? If my godforsaken office is still open then, I'm still going back to work.

The shred of hope I'm pathetically clinging on to right now is that if I use four holiday days to take the remainder of this week off, by next Monday they will have finally seen sense and closed the office. But honestly, I really don't see that happening.

Everyone myself and my aforementioned sick colleague have spoken to, including the NHS, have said the same thing: this is a fucking joke. The NHS worker on the phone asked us if all surfaces and equipment are regularly disinfected, if our staff sit 2m apart, and if we work in an office with open windows to keep the air travelling through. The answer to all three questions is no. They said that was ridiculous and we definitely should not be working there, but since the government guidelines still aren't clear on this, there's fuck all we can do.

Dirty Boy

Currently signed off sick, but my local warehouse/hardware place is looking at remaining open to the (mostly elderly, spluttering) public who are still cueing up to buy their emergency paint and bark chips. What part of stay at home don't these twats understand?

The people i know working there feel like they've been hung out to dry for the sake of lining some cunt CEO's pockets. Hopefully the goverment will step in.

The problem most B2B firms have is that unless they are forcibly closed by the government as the shops were yesterday, there's no relief for them (or their employees) from the government. Plus if a company's clients don't shut, they'll happily find an alternative supplier that hasn't shut. Mike Ashley deciding to try to take the piss whilst the majority of the retail sector do as they've been told has only made this even more difficult for companies to do the right thing.

Unless the government step in, we're all stuck in this awful limbo. If we stay at work, we're in danger. If companies close by choice, their employees will have no jobs to go back to.

SteveDave

Working from home is fun when your company only has 50 licenses to remotely access the shared drives needed but 150 employees all trying to use them. For most of the day I'm sat staring blankly into space. Business as usual for me then.

fatguyranting

My manager, writing from the comfort of her home office has insisted i turn in to manage a 17 bed until filled with people with complex issues around mental health and drugs/alcohol. Many have symptoms, all refuse to self isolate and there's not a anti-bac wipe or glove in sight. Ring the police was the cunts sage advice when I asked how I was supposed to keep people isolated. 36K a year she gets.

Puce Moment

Quote from: Doomy Dwyer on March 24, 2020, 09:41:00 AMYou hear a lot about the NHS and doctors and nurses and that, but I'm at the sharp fucking end here, hanging it in like gungha din.   

A national treasure. The people's poet.

#staysafefordoomy

Uncle TechTip

Quote from: Gregory Torso on March 24, 2020, 01:14:00 AM
I assume the post office will stay open because (a) they are inexplicably still open in Italy, (b) smiths is cunts and (c) covid risk grans need to buy a stamp and a postal order for two pound fifty made payable to the cats protection league

Many people can only operate their bank accounts in a post office. A post office covered in cat sick or something.

Gregory Torso

Yeah, I know. There's also people with gas cards and lecky keys who need to come in since all the local shops stopped doing paypoint. There must be some way all that stuff can be done without, mainly elderly, people having to physically come in and sort it out. I know the p.o. cards are being phased out and a lot of people switched to having their benefits and pensions paid directly into their bank accounts, but there's still enough confused old people who are going to keep having to come into this windowless germ chamber just to be able to go on living with heat and light and water. shits fucked

kittens

finally been allowed home. time to get pissed

Sherringford Hovis

I've been on leave since 20th (booked since November) and I'm getting shamed by several colleagues for not cancelling my time off and booking 'Available' for on-call firefighter/ambulance duties.

I live furthest away from the station by quite a large margin, normally weekday day-times when there's only 4 available I'm crucial to call-outs: they can't leave without me. But in these Corona-times with everyone off work from their main jobs, most of my alerts will mean I have to drive to the station but won't get a place on a vehicle because they've got 13 available on-call for a maximum of 9 operational roles (5-6 on fire engine, two on water bowser, 1 on ambulance car).

Plus a pay 'restructure' in June is likely to leave me <>£2K p.a. worse off and training budgets have been slashed to the bone, so I'm often in positions that I struggle with because we haven't had timely refreshers of the skills involved. I'm spending the rest of today contemplating giving my notice - I've only been doing this five years, and I've had enough already.

greencalx

Blue Jam - the latest all-staff email says stay the fuck at home. I hope you actually pay attention to that one.

Ferris


kittens

just gotta nip to the gym on the way home

Doomy Dwyer

Just been told I may be redeployed to sit in some other shitty municipal building so I can spend my day being breathed at by people who in all likelihood voted leave and definitely resoundingly voted conservative as they berate me for enforcing twenty-five pence library fines during a time of global crisis. I also sell them dog poo bags (fifty for just a pound, dogshit fans). They may find that there's precious little room for Fido's turds under the new regime.

They can't just leave you alone these busy fucking cunts, can they?  You can't just have a moment to yourself. So I've got to go back into the eye of the storm, probably fucking miles away, to be face-to-face with these walking fucking contagions and listen to fucking remember the fucking blitz bullshit all day while waiting for my lungs to collapse and my family to die. FUCK OFF YOU FUCKING BORING ALL IN THIS TOGETHER LET'S GET THIS DONE MIDDLE-MANAGEMENT CUNTS.

Stoneage Dinosaurs

Quote from: Angrew Lloyg Wegger on March 23, 2020, 10:22:32 PM
Even after lockdown I'm probably still going to be going into work cause my job can't be done from home, it's not specifically mentioned on the pdf and my company will do everything they can to stay open cause apparently they're something to do with life changing cancer drugs and all that crap. I reckon my only way out of this now is to actually get the virus which obviously isn't ideal.

I am now off again, work hasn't shut but they've told everyone who commutes on the public transports and doesn't drive or cycle that they can go home. Finally my years of belligerently refusing to learn to drive have paid off

Jasha

Still dragging my arse in as apparently John Deere have some sort of Trump exception in the Eww Ess Ayyyyyyy. There's absolutely no concern for health and all about money, even had a circular from the CEO withering on about liquidity and the takeover oh and by the way April's payrise is cancelled

Cloud

Still working from home til the 1st then gaining "lumberjack status" or something like that, basically where they give you 80% pay and tell you to take a couple of weeks off instead of laying you off.

gib

Still running the shop through a very makeshift hatch in the doorway made of a stairgate covered with cough-proof florists' plastic and bits and pieces. A nurse wanted some beer to break up what is now an neverending cycle of long shifts and unironically called me a lifesaver.

I'm still at work, driving a freight train which I wouldn't mind if, A, I was moving essential goods rather than cement and lime stone and B, the company, with the backing of ASLEF, didn't expect us to get 2 taxis per shift (3 hours plus). 'Just sit in the back behind the passenger seat.'

When I got to the quarry yesterday I expressed my surprise that they were still running trains only to be told that they are actually hoping to increase the number next week as more 'paths' become available due to low passenger numbers.