I run a small business. My customers are exclusively other small, local businesses. Jan & Feb were really good months. March so far has been less than decent. April is looking almost non-existent and everything looks very, very quiet at the moment. My main customer is a large-scale local magazine, and I think they're experiencing similar issues with advertisers not exactly jumping up and down to spend money to be in the next few editions. If they pull the plug, I'll have to basically close until things become viable again, meaning I'll have no income.

What sort of business is it BerbaKing (if you don't mind saying)? I hope things work out better than you anticipate.

comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 0 seconds ago
I run a small business. My customers are exclusively other small, local businesses. Jan & Feb were really good months. March so far has been less than decent. April is looking almost non-existent and everything looks very, very quiet at the moment. My main customer is a large-scale local magazine, and I think they're experiencing similar issues with advertisers not exactly jumping up and down to spend money to be in the next few editions. If they pull the plug, I'll have to basically close until things become viable again, meaning I'll have no income.
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Oh, and what I was suppose to add is that my partner started a new job only 5 months ago. She's on a temporary contract, which is going to be renewed in April, but still as a temp. Her job isn't at risk but the nature of it means there's no possibility of working from home. She just won't get paid if they have to close doors. She works for a bank, meaning her senior bosses get paid 100's of 000's of pounds per year. She and other colleagues face the uncertainty over actually getting paid over the next few months.

So things are a little uncertain at the moment in our household!

My office at Heathrow was officially shut down 2 days ago, due to British Airways cutting down 75% of their flights. So we are being made to do manual labour work or take unpaid leave.

I work from home, so very little impact... The plus point is no more flights to various countries for stupid meetings that could be done over Slack.

As a UI/UX consultant, I guess a major financial slowdown might hurt business... But with people spending more time at home, bored... Might even see a boost!

comment by Greenwood FC (U11781)
posted 1 minute ago
My office at Heathrow was officially shut down 2 days ago, due to British Airways cutting down 75% of their flights. So we are being made to do manual labour work or take unpaid leave.
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can you do manual labour Arab?

seriously, what is it you do?

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.

I work freelance as a graphic artist, I’ve technically got 4 jobs on at the moment but no idea if they’ll actually happen now? One is for a music festival in the US and as of yesterday they said it was still happening? The work no doubt is going to dry up and come to a stop soon. I used to do the odd editorial stuff which I guess would still be happening, maybe worth asking. I work from home with very little overheads so not spending and using my savings.

i was already working from home for two days a week. That is now four and when I go in it is at 6 when there are not many people about and I am out of there before most people come in.

Our floor plate which may have had 30 people on it on a normal day is now staggered to having ten at most at any given time.

its hit my work hard.

as a pimp the b!tches i send out on a night arent as desired as they were before.

many of the punters didnt mind the risk of catching gonorrhea, syphilis and genital warts... but are scared sh!tless of the flu... pu55ie5

Met some friends yesterday for a few drinks. Redundancies happening left right and centre. Probably have a few mates staying at mine for foreseeable future. Ropey few months ahead.

Dunc

I have been WFH for 10 days now. I work for a multi national pharma company.
So far so good but was informed this morning that WFH will continue until at least end May. Country is going to be on lockdown soon after the Taoiseach address to the nation last night.
We have 300 cases at the moment but is expected to be 15k by end of the month.

I'm a decision maker in a legacy benefit (JSA)

Being civil service... My income etc won't be impacted at all luckily... We've been told all sick related related to covid won't count, and any isolation will be special leave

Workwise... I'm grand compared to most

Home life... Haha... Not so good

My daughter is in isolation as of yesterday

Her boyfriend has lots of health issues including auto immune problems and started coughing a lot Tuesday morning.... She's been staying there mainly and has a sore throat but generally ok

No test just told to isolate etc... And while hopefully and likely nothing to worry about... I'm a fairly over protective dad type at the best of times... So her not being home is doing my head in

I see the sense in leaving her where she is obv... But its a worry we can't keep a proper eye on her

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

I've had to self isolate today with a mild temperature, quite a number of people in my office have also had to self isolate with coughs/temperature.

Work in scientific research at a Uni. The Uni hasn't shut but everyone being encouraged to work from home as much as possible. Non-essential research activities being suspended with principal investigators being told to anticipate a shut down. We have also been told to anticipate being asked to work for the NHS re. testing.

Work for a pharma manufacturer on a site that is classed as critical medical supply (we make antibiotics).

The site has sent all staff non-essential to continued production off site to work from home. Office staff on site have had social distancing rules put in place, so they all have to sit on desks a certain distance away from each other. Members of the same department that are critical to releasing products have to sit in different offices or work shifts. All meetings are conducted through Skype. In production areas, they have split the shifts to keep it running and trying to reduce contact with each other.

It's quite crazy really. I am currently working from home and only going into site when it is needed. I think a lot of the contract staff who are classed as non-essential will be let go to be honest.

I work in tax for one of the 'Big Four' accountancy firms and it has been largely BAU, except the vast majority (if not all) of the team working from home.

As its audit season, we have been swamped as you might expect and revenues look good due to the reliance on recurring work or proposals issued and approved last year. Tax can piggy-back on this as most audits will require a specialist tax review.

What will be a much greater challenge is the winning of ad-hoc advisory work between May and tax return season (Nov-Dec).

I'd been looking at changing firms and was quite bluntly honest with the partnership about the fact...time to go back with my tail between my legs!!

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

I’m currently unemployed and living off savings as moved back from Spain with the plan to take a couple of months off and do a farewell lap of all my old haunts and friends etc before I head off to Australia.

The work I usually do is Reruitment/HR (was recruitment in Canary Wharf before). Had I been doing the last job I had in England I would have been sent home by now as still in contact with some old colleagues and they say so many of the companies they recruit for are obviously not hiring. Not that many people necessarily will mourn recruitment agencies but they will suffer quite a lot in the next few months. Hopefully after the bounce back they will come back to life and be the ones getting people back to work.

I work in the steel industry and we were called in for talks yesterday basically telling us it’s business as usual for the time being, although a rival business not too far away has ceased production

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

I work in recruiment for a small business and it's already causing disruption.

I have one guy thinking about cancelling his notice and staying put which would cost me four figures, a client about to backtrack on an offer which would cost me another four figures.. and this is only the beginning.

its not even a loss of jobs that is the problem in regards to work.

a lot of companies are only offering SSP.. i mean who the feck can manager to live on 90 odd quid a week.... if people arent helped in the right way then crippling debts are on the horizon

comment by dunc manson... you must follow ole... you must follow ole (U11713)
posted 1 minute ago
its not even a loss of jobs that is the problem in regards to work.

a lot of companies are only offering SSP.. i mean who the feck can manager to live on 90 odd quid a week.... if people arent helped in the right way then crippling debts are on the horizon
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I’m hoping (for my mates) that the government make further announcements in the next few days to go much further in helping the needy than they did yesterday