Coronavirus prep

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Replies

  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    edited July 2021
    Sorry to just pop in from time to time, but I've been incredibly busy.

    We were talking about this a while back. How most businesses will go back to work with some sort of hybrid system. This is talking about the long-term effect on commercial real estate. I don't see that as a terrible thing, though I'm in, at least in part, Construction recruiting. I'd love to see all the extra office space turned into more affordable housing in these cities.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/analysis-u-companies-spend-billions-170956481.html

    We even talked about this very thing a while ago. About this part, can I just say, double yuch. People are SUCH slobs at work. I would absolutely detest sharing a cubicle with multiple people.

    Still, the pandemic has accelerated changes that had been afoot for some time. Vocon, an architecture firm, designed offices before the pandemic that had 20% of employees at so-called hot desks, where multiple workers use a single physical work station at different times. Now, said Vocon, some clients are allocating more than 40% for what can be shared space.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,097 Member
    Sorry to just pop in from time to time, but I've been incredibly busy.

    We were talking about this a while back. How most businesses will go back to work with some sort of hybrid system. This is talking about the long-term effect on commercial real estate. I don't see that as a terrible thing, though I'm in, at least in part, Construction recruiting. I'd love to see all the extra office space turned into more affordable housing in these cities.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/analysis-u-companies-spend-billions-170956481.html

    We even talked about this very thing a while ago. About this part, can I just say, double yuch. People are SUCH slobs at work. I would absolutely detest sharing a cubicle with multiple people.

    Still, the pandemic has accelerated changes that had been afoot for some time. Vocon, an architecture firm, designed offices before the pandemic that had 20% of employees at so-called hot desks, where multiple workers use a single physical work station at different times. Now, said Vocon, some clients are allocating more than 40% for what can be shared space.

    I would not be ok with this either, but I have to think this is more common in something like a call center and less common elsewhere. Most in the offices where I've worked are working during the day. I'm in manufacturing and production workers share a "workstation" over multiple shifts. Usually there are 5S/6S practices in place to help make this work effectively.

    Where I am now, we are very tight on office space. I have my own office with a window and a door and some others have cubicles. A few of the cubicle people and a couple offices are not yet hired (new plant), so they are used by multiple people on different days (corporate visitors, contractors). As we get to full staffing, we will need fewer visitors, so those workspaces will become used by a single person. I would dislike using a space for just a shift and having to bring in / remove personal items for the day. But we do have a great cleaning staff and those (currently) shared workspaces are cleaned well between uses.

    It wouldn't bother me that much, although it's not likely something I'll be facing, as I started working from home in 2019 (my company's decision to save them money on office leasing). At the time they said we could have occasional use of something like a hot desk as necessary in the much-reduced office space they continued to lease, but there was never any procedure established for requesting that.

    For decades before covid (when I had an office and when I didn't), I had to work from any space I could find both when traveling and when going to local venues for various business-related meetings and events: on subways, in coffee shops, chairs in hotel lobbies, on the floor ... Anytime I had a designated flat surface for my laptop with a chair and electricity in a space that I didn't have to worry somebody would tell me I needed to vacate, I felt like worklife was good.
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,371 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Canada:

    -pharmacy chains are sending out email blasts advertising that they have "Moderna" in stock, make an appointment.
    -was it three or four weeks ago, in the grocery store, the pharmacy was advertising free FIRST shots of Pfizer to anyone over 12 *without* an appointment, come on down.
    -in Alberta, as an out of province visitor, seeking a second vaccine to avoid waiting till I'm back at my province of residence, I called in on Thursday evening and was given an appointment... for my choice of: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday...
    *all that concerned them was that the minimum time had passed since the first dose (I was at 58 days, so yes)
    *got Pfizer yesterday which matched my first one
    *they indicated that walk ins were perfectly acceptable. The vaccination centre is in a 50 to100K people town

    I was also told yesterday by someone that "they haven't had a vaccine yet because they're having trouble booking one" :unamused:

    Every single employee (and customer) at the grocery store was not wearing a mask! :rage:

    It varies so much by province. In Ontario I couldn't even book my second until June 28th, based on the date of my first shot (which was based on my age), and my appointment is July 20th. Yet I kept hearing about my same-age and younger peers walking into pharmacies and getting their second shot so I looked into it online but it was the same story, I didn't qualify until June 28th. And the health district next to ours was just giving shots to anyone and everyone provided the 28 days had elapsed since the first.

    Our mask requirements haven't changed but it seems to be something they're looking at now.

    At least we've hit our targets for stage 3 reopening, and six days early!
  • 33gail33
    33gail33 Posts: 1,155 Member
    ythannah wrote: »
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Canada:

    -pharmacy chains are sending out email blasts advertising that they have "Moderna" in stock, make an appointment.
    -was it three or four weeks ago, in the grocery store, the pharmacy was advertising free FIRST shots of Pfizer to anyone over 12 *without* an appointment, come on down.
    -in Alberta, as an out of province visitor, seeking a second vaccine to avoid waiting till I'm back at my province of residence, I called in on Thursday evening and was given an appointment... for my choice of: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday...
    *all that concerned them was that the minimum time had passed since the first dose (I was at 58 days, so yes)
    *got Pfizer yesterday which matched my first one
    *they indicated that walk ins were perfectly acceptable. The vaccination centre is in a 50 to100K people town

    I was also told yesterday by someone that "they haven't had a vaccine yet because they're having trouble booking one" :unamused:

    Every single employee (and customer) at the grocery store was not wearing a mask! :rage:

    It varies so much by province. In Ontario I couldn't even book my second until June 28th, based on the date of my first shot (which was based on my age), and my appointment is July 20th. Yet I kept hearing about my same-age and younger peers walking into pharmacies and getting their second shot so I looked into it online but it was the same story, I didn't qualify until June 28th. And the health district next to ours was just giving shots to anyone and everyone provided the 28 days had elapsed since the first.

    Our mask requirements haven't changed but it seems to be something they're looking at now.

    At least we've hit our targets for stage 3 reopening, and six days early!

    Yeah my daughter (27) was eligible as well June 28 and got hers on the 30th. My son was the last in our family to get his and that was last Monday.
    Maybe we have more options available in our area but we haven’t had any problems getting in quick.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/covid-19-delta-variant-wont-derail-economy-goldman-sachs-122405944.html

    Plus I have seen a few get pushed to get vaccinated due to the Delta news