Coronavirus

[Pixie]

Still working in a public-facing, cash-handling job. Yay, we're essential (we deliver fuel/oil). At least I have a paycheck coming in. Still... expecting to catch this shit any day.

Can't wait to get sick with it and have no paid sick leave to fall back on. Yay Murica!

[Sssith]

Not having paid sick leave is BS.

@syn.  Also BS.  I take it you are still going into work.

[syn]

Not having paid sick leave is BS.

@syn.  Also BS.  I take it you are still going into work.

we've engaged distancing and extra cleaning protocols but are maintaining appointment schedules. there are other clinics that aren't letting clients in the building--- techs go out to the car to collect pets, all comms by phone. this would not work well at our clinic, for better or worse. we closed early today to do a deep clean (or so i've been told, the exposure was identified after i'd left for the day) but will be open again as usual tomorrow. governor walz issued an executive order this afternoon postponing elective procedures until further notice, the point being to conserve PPE. i forwarded the order to my boss; interpretation i got back is that it does not include veterinary practice, so no changes to us as of yet. in contrast, governor of OH included veterinary practices in a similar order. guessing it's a matter of time for us, but ownership at my practice won't cancel procedures until forced to. otoh, they did give all full timers an extra 80 hours of PTO to be used in case of COVID contact. i'm guessing at least one employee at my location will be confirmed positive in the next week and then we'll be closed for the next couple weeks.

edited to fix a sentence.

and MN has changed unemployment benefits to kick in much faster and to last longer for COVID related layoffs/sickouts, tho i'm not up on the specifics. I would guess/hope that ME has something similar in the works.

[Ray Patean]

New York has basically said to stay home unless you work in an essential business. Car sales isn't essential, so I'm officially not working until further notice. They didn't tell us if we're still getting paid, but did make it sound like they didn't plan on laying anyone off. We'll see what happens, and how long this lasts.

My wife works at a doctor's office, so she'll keep bringing a paycheck home, but it's definitely not enough to pay our bills. Here's hoping for the best...

[Pixie]

One of the truck drivers that works out of my office is in isolation for being exposed, so I guess that's cool and all. 

>.>

[mn4nu]

I'm hoping for you too Ray.  Hopefully Congress puts something together to help workers like you.

[maxbeedo]

I'm in a software job where I've worked from home a lot anyway, so things haven't changed a ton for me.  In fact, because we do mostly Salesforce implementation for schools and nonprofits, lots more business is coming in because they need a good database and framework to handle everything remotely.  If this had happened last year though I probably would've been screwed, since everyone has stopped hiring.  I can't go to our office, because someone else in the building had a confirmed case (several days after we started "semi-permanently" working from home), and I'm definitely worried about a lot of my friends, many who were working in retail and aren't getting paid anything to not work.

[D2Addict]

I worry about the people who are losing their jobs because of this.  Really rough.

@D2 -- I have been reading about your governor and he has been super proactive.  This is a really good thing and hopefully, you and yours will be better off for it.  California has no choice but to treat this seriously but it is good to see Ohio leading on this front.

I know quite a few people in service industry that are really struggling. Most didn't get laid off they just got a big reduction of hours to cover carryout orders. I told them I would probably leave and take the unemployment our state is offering with no wait time right now.

I am in IT as a programmer so working from home is not new to me. Luckily I can but I am tired of being home after 1 week already. Supporting users who struggle with technology has made the past week more difficult than usual.

Ohio will have to wait and see if it really does make a difference. Probably will not know for at least a few weeks.

If they really intend to do something nationally they already are taking too long. Just give everyone $x dollars and be done with it. No provisions or anything. I would say anything less than $2000 is a waste of time really.

[Timinator]

in 48 hours, my country is just going in lockdown for the next 4 weeks .. then see how it goes after that.

[Pixie]

https://twitter.com/AndrewCesare/status/1242174265547468803

Gangs in Rio aren't having any of your shit.

[Sssith]

The shacks in those favelas are right on top of each other.  They are going to be hit so hard.

[Timinator]

Yep, so officially in lockdown now for 4+ weeks.   allowed to leave the house for exercise once a day, go to to the supermarket (one person) to go to pharmacy and almost nothing else.  At least where I live people aren't jammed on top of each other, and there is a small park 2 days down that isn't used much.  Will be a few walks/biking around that to use some physical energy

[Timinator]

Pictures of the new reality. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120576880/coronavirus-heres-what-new-zealand-looks-like-in-lockdown

At times like this, I'm glad we are on an island, basically air travel apart from frieght is dead.  Almost no one is going to come by boat

[Pixie]

Aside from the barren-ness, those pics show me 2 things:

(1) you guys drive on the wrong side of the road
(2) there's some pretty places in NZ. I particularly like this pic.

[Timinator]

Thats the city that had a recent rebuild after earthquakes roughly 9-10 years ago, the tram track on the ground there too.

Also the right side of the road is not the "right" side to drive.  I'm sure if Bernie gets in , he'd switch everyone to driving on the left to annoy Trumpers.