I'm curious what effect the pandemic is having on the professional lives of everyone on this forum. How is it impacting your daily life so far? Are you worried about the effect it will have on the viability of your line of work?
I was at my kids' football match on Sunday (final fixture before they shut the league down) and talking to a couple of the other dads on the touchline. One was in alcohol wholesale and said last week was the best they'd ever had. Much less confident about the longer-term picture. Another works for a company that sells online ticketing apps, and most of its contracts are based on commission on ticket sales. They're in big trouble because basically live events are off for the foreseeable future.
I'm brand director at a business-to-business publishing company. A lot of our revenue this year revolved around a major industry event, which generates an advertising bonanza in our mags / websites. The event was scheduled for May and last week they announced it is postponed until next February. This presents a major cashflow problem. We could theoretically hold clients to their bookings for May but that would be at the expense of long-term relationships. So far we're talking to all of them and offering to cut/paste their ads to next year. Thankfully, a decent number are still happy to advertise this year, as well as next. We're benefiting from the fact that we're European market leader and so when marketing budgets cut down, we're the last brand that gets axed.
Still, there's a lot of uncertainty about revenue projections. We have a live conference of our own that is scheduled for October. Hoping it can go ahead, and hoping people aren't reluctant to buy tickets. We've discussed worst case scenarios. Will we have to make anyone redundant? Hopefully we can get through this year, thanks to the good financial position we were in before it started and the good name we have in our market. If it came to it, I'd rather propose that everyone took a temporary 10% pay cut (and I'd accept that myself) than sack people. We have a good team, and we don't have anyone who we don't see as valuable contributors to the growth of the business once things get better.
Today is the first day of working from home. It's going to be weird. One of the strange things yesterday was saying goodbye to colleagues and not knowing whether this is for weeks or months. The routine of going to work, being around these people, takes up such a big part of one's life. It's going to be really important to maintain regular contact - daily video team meetings, etc. Not just to ensure we keep being productive and don't drift, but for our mental health.
How does this look to everyone else? I hope you're all keeping well and feeling reasonably economically secure.
How is Covid-19 impacting your work?
posted on 18/3/20
They changed our hours after uproar but still going to lose 8 hours pay per week.
My wife is working from home and our five year old son off school, meaning it's really difficult for her to get work done.
This hour change for me will help her out as I'll be home 2 and a half work days per week.
Won't be able to do any work however as she needs the computer the whole working day.
posted on 18/3/20
I’m in shop fitting so expecting everything to come to a grinding halt anytime now sadly.
posted on 18/3/20
I work at a bank in Canada, pretty much everyone is working from home apart from a handful of us. Much of my job is facilities based so I can't really do it remotely, so I think I'll be sat around on my own doing nothing a lot of the time.
Least I've still got a job and they've let me pick my hours so I can avoid people on the way in and out. Strange, it should be such a relaxing time but it's really not.
posted on 18/3/20
comment by Shaun M - I can't see me loving nobody bu... (U9955)
posted 3 hours, 45 minutes ago
Barely affected me, I'm a machine operator making medical devices. The only thing we have done is segregate all 3 shifts from each other during shift swaps so that if any carriers come into work, it will be somewhat contained. I work out from home and my kickboxing sessions are in an instructors home gym so im fortunate enough to not be affected yet.
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You dont work in Kings Lynn do you?
posted on 18/3/20
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by Shaun M - I can't see me loving nobody bu... (U9955)
posted 3 hours, 45 minutes ago
Barely affected me, I'm a machine operator making medical devices. The only thing we have done is segregate all 3 shifts from each other during shift swaps so that if any carriers come into work, it will be somewhat contained. I work out from home and my kickboxing sessions are in an instructors home gym so im fortunate enough to not be affected yet.
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You dont work in Kings Lynn do you?
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Yes I do
posted on 18/3/20
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 7 hours, 2 minutes ago
comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 2 hours, 46 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 1 minute ago
What sort of business is it BerbaKing (if you don't mind saying)? I hope things work out better than you anticipate.
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Sure... Printing & distribution. Most customers are local circulars (community magazines etc), local estate agents, local trades people, restaurants and basically any local business whose customer base is local people. I also have one full time staff member who works alongside me and several sub contractors. None of the latter will be critically impacted by the loss of work from a financial standpoint due to the nature of it/their circumstances, but the full-timer will be, naturally.
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We should connect outside this forum... might end up becoming a customer of yours!
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Ha! More than happy for the admins to pass on my email.
posted on 18/3/20
Um, I shoot birds at the airport
posted on 18/3/20
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 19/3/20
comment by Shaun M - All sick aren't we! (U9955)
posted 9 hours, 24 minutes ago
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by Shaun M - I can't see me loving nobody bu... (U9955)
posted 3 hours, 45 minutes ago
Barely affected me, I'm a machine operator making medical devices. The only thing we have done is segregate all 3 shifts from each other during shift swaps so that if any carriers come into work, it will be somewhat contained. I work out from home and my kickboxing sessions are in an instructors home gym so im fortunate enough to not be affected yet.
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You dont work in Kings Lynn do you?
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Yes I do
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you work for a company that has recently been taken over by a Swedish firm?
posted on 19/3/20
Shaun...