Coronavirus prep
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Living close to the VA / West VA line, I just don't believe that while VA has thousands of cases, WVA has zero. It isn't like there's an electrified fence and armed border guards separating us (although right now I wouldn't begrudge WVA residents for wishing there was).
When all this has shaken out, I think they're gonna discover that the number of reported cases as of mid March was a tiny, tiny fraction of the actual infection rate.12 -
We have had a lot of illness among students and teachers all semester--since Winter Break ended. It's rather normal this time of year--between the flu (and a 2nd strain the vaccine didn't counter this year) and what are simply "bad colds." I have a student whose brother was just released from the hospital after getting the flu--a 16 year old, no known health conditions--"just" the flu. We tend to forget how sick we can get with a bad cold or the flu, and perhaps assume it is something else. This year it was especially noticeable b/c we have a sub shortage in our district.
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janejellyroll wrote: »Does anyone else work for a company that seems to be completely ignoring this altogether? I have received no communication from our leadership team whatsoever. I am extremely disappointed rn ...
I'm sorry to hear that. My company isn't ignoring it per sé, but they're very adamant about people not working from home unless they're actually sick. "We expect people to show up to work unless they're sick," has been said multiple times since last Friday when our city's first case was announced.
For companies that have the capability for people to work from home, especially if they don't have clients that require face-to-face contact, I really see no reason not to allow WFH. Really, every company should have some response prepared for their employees discussing the issue, regardless of whether people can work from home. Communication is key to alleviating confusion and stress.
Given what we're learning about asymptomatic transmission, this seems willfully stubborn.
I agree. We're a bank, so there is some measure of people who have to stay in order to service clients, but there are definitely people who could work from home without it causing any problems. In my opinion they should be encouraging those that can to work from home. Unfortunately, from conversations I've overhead around the office in the past few days, there are a lot of people who still believe everything is being blown out of proportion.
Same here. I'm getting really annoyed over-hearing my co-workers talk about it. One coworker is still planning on going to her exercise classes and such. (I'm not sure why they're even still open). I said something to her like "I wouldn't go there at all right now." and her response was I don't live in fear, I hardly ever get sick, it's mostly elderly that have to worry etc. I told her even if you don't get sick you can still come into contact with the virus and then spread it to someone else, who will spread it to more people, who will spread it to even more people etc. She just doesn't seem to care.18 -
Just checking stats--of the 5500 or so cases in the US as of midday today, the origins of 4300 were unknown--that is, community spread. I sure hope people are finally staying home.
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Does anyone else work for a company that seems to be completely ignoring this altogether? I have received no communication from our leadership team whatsoever. I am extremely disappointed rn ...
That's got to be extremely frustrating. I was pretty surprised when it took my school district 2-3 days before saying anything--and now it's been about a week since the first universities started to close and CDC began to recommend social distancing. Can you ask someone for guidance? Seems irresponsible to be ignoring the CDC recommendations so completely.4 -
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In addition to all the awful things in our latest update, the Trib's reporting weighs in on the question of the moment:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-nw-coronavirus-toilet-paper-charmin-shortage-20200317-iq5fdsgadbejbn3j66d75eulhy-story.html
Headline: "One less coronavirus fear: America’s toilet paper pipeline remains strong"
“It’s not like suddenly all the toilet paper factories in the world are burning down,” said Willy Shih, a professor at Harvard Business School who studies manufacturing supply chains. “They’re still cranking this stuff out.”
If anything, toilet paper supplies are suffering from being too steady, Shih says. Typically, demand for the product is flat proportional to the population — there is no hot season for toilet paper. That means that factories are designed to run as efficiently as possible around the clock to produce a constant stream of product, with little room for increase or decrease.
When that constant supply meets a spike in demand, shoppers suddenly run into empty shelves.
Toilet paper is also distinct from products such as hand sanitizer and coronavirus test kits, where increased use means that there is a genuine risk of shortages. Barring a new craze for mummy costumes, the actual use of toilet paper is unlikely to increase....
Since toilet paper is a relatively low-cost and high-bulk item — low value-density, in economics terms — there’s little incentive for manufacturers to ship products long distances or overseas. America imports a higher percentage of its toilet paper than most other nations, according to 2017 UN statistics, but those imports only amount to 9% of the total U.S. supply, with the majority of that coming from Canada and Mexico."5 -
The local newspaper said that WV currently only had enough to test 500 cases. The health department has announced 80 tests were negative and 4 were pending. They claim they'll be able to double that 500 to 1000 test available in about a week or so.
Sort of seems like a drop in the bucket to me7 -
Hubby's work just "furloughed" him for 90 days. I guess furlough sounds better than laid off with no pay but that's what it is. We're in sort of a hot spot in Texas for community transmission of the virus.
We are a one income family. Not sure what we'll do. How things change so quickly.36 -
My CEO just put out an all-staff email. I guess, based on this, that whether people work from home will be up to individual managers. I will say that our sick time and PTO are generous, so people will be unlikely to go unpaid should they not be able to work.
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I work for an investment bank that is the opposite of the experience of @Ruatine. They have been so fearful that I had to get a doctor's note in February that my chronic runny nose is due to hayfever causing post nasal drip, before they would let me back into the office. I never liked taking antihistamines for my allergies but I do now.
We started social distancing this week with split teams, where one half of the employees work from home for a week while the other half is in the office. Today we were told everybody should work from home also on the weeks you are meant to be in the office unless you need to do things that are hard to do from home.7 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Does anyone else work for a company that seems to be completely ignoring this altogether? I have received no communication from our leadership team whatsoever. I am extremely disappointed rn ...
I'm sorry to hear that. My company isn't ignoring it per sé, but they're very adamant about people not working from home unless they're actually sick. "We expect people to show up to work unless they're sick," has been said multiple times since last Friday when our city's first case was announced.
For companies that have the capability for people to work from home, especially if they don't have clients that require face-to-face contact, I really see no reason not to allow WFH. Really, every company should have some response prepared for their employees discussing the issue, regardless of whether people can work from home. Communication is key to alleviating confusion and stress.
Given what we're learning about asymptomatic transmission, this seems willfully stubborn.
I agree. We're a bank, so there is some measure of people who have to stay in order to service clients, but there are definitely people who could work from home without it causing any problems. In my opinion they should be encouraging those that can to work from home. Unfortunately, from conversations I've overhead around the office in the past few days, there are a lot of people who still believe everything is being blown out of proportion.
I think you said you're a computer security person? I'm musing (i.e., not expecting you to have an answer) about how many companies now resisting work-from-home have been foot-dragging about it heretofore, as a half-**sed security strategy, and are now paying for (or panicked about) that. Dysfunctional management, in the form of under-planning and under-responding, can be dysfunctional in multiple ways.
It's been a long time now since I retired from IT, but back then, there was a huge range of responses among organizations needing to do disaster planning (needing, in order to pass audits, and such). Some recognized the risk issues, and made it real planning. Some just did some hand-waving and created a shelf-ware report to get their auditors to check a box on some audit questionnaire, unfortunately. Pandemics should/could have been one of those planning scenarios.
Do you think banks may be more on top of the issues, having been through close scrutiny since the last recession, and because of personal-data compromises? Versus, say, manufacturing companies or the like, who haven't had those same kinds of experiences over the last decade or so?2 -
I work for an investment bank that is the opposite of the experience of @Ruatine. They have been so fearful that I had to get a doctor's note in February that my chronic runny nose is due to hayfever causing post nasal drip, before they would let me back into the office. I never liked taking antihistamines for my allergies but I do now.
We started social distancing this week with split teams, where one half of the employees work from home for a week while the other half is in the office. Today we were told everybody should work from home also on the weeks you are meant to be in the office unless you need to do things that are hard to do from home.
Huh, I also have a chronic runny nose that frequently results in me coughing from post-nasal drip. I've had to explain myself many times in the past week.
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I agree, Igfrie. Oklahoma cases nearly doubled, 10 to 17 overnight. 2 of the last four of the first 10 were private tests. I have not heard how many of the last 7 were private, but those 2 didn’t qualify for the government tests. How late were we in finding cases because we didn’t test anyone because we didn’t know who to test?
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Today my job announced that we will be shortening hours, 6am-6pm, but we still are working our scheduled shifts to get the store back in order. They are urging our supervisors to make sure the sick do not come to work. They have granted all full timers an additional 80 hours of sick time, and 40 for the part timers.
I am continuing to go to work as long as we are still open. My supervisor has told me that my team has recieved permission to work overnight shifts so that we limit ourselves from public interaction. It is something I am definitely considering.
My boyfriend has mentioned that his driver's routes are being cut in half as a majority of specialsts/doctors offices are closing. There are very few other places they are delivering to besides hospitals. He has to be in Boston for 5am to deliver a huge special order of scrubs/linen.
I am assuming the governor will be making some new announcements. Our count is up to 68, from 41 last night. I expect this number to continue to rise as new testing sites were opened today. We will see as time goes on.
Edit: 68 confirmed cases, only 280 tested here in Connecticut.6 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Does anyone else work for a company that seems to be completely ignoring this altogether? I have received no communication from our leadership team whatsoever. I am extremely disappointed rn ...
I'm sorry to hear that. My company isn't ignoring it per sé, but they're very adamant about people not working from home unless they're actually sick. "We expect people to show up to work unless they're sick," has been said multiple times since last Friday when our city's first case was announced.
For companies that have the capability for people to work from home, especially if they don't have clients that require face-to-face contact, I really see no reason not to allow WFH. Really, every company should have some response prepared for their employees discussing the issue, regardless of whether people can work from home. Communication is key to alleviating confusion and stress.
Given what we're learning about asymptomatic transmission, this seems willfully stubborn.
I agree. We're a bank, so there is some measure of people who have to stay in order to service clients, but there are definitely people who could work from home without it causing any problems. In my opinion they should be encouraging those that can to work from home. Unfortunately, from conversations I've overhead around the office in the past few days, there are a lot of people who still believe everything is being blown out of proportion.
I think you said you're a computer security person? I'm musing (i.e., not expecting you to have an answer) about how many companies now resisting work-from-home have been foot-dragging about it heretofore, as a half-**sed security strategy, and are now paying for (or panicked about) that. Dysfunctional management, in the form of under-planning and under-responding, can be dysfunctional in multiple ways.
It's been a long time now since I retired from IT, but back then, there was a huge range of responses among organizations needing to do disaster planning (needing, in order to pass audits, and such). Some recognized the risk issues, and made it real planning. Some just did some hand-waving and created a shelf-ware report to get their auditors to check a box on some audit questionnaire, unfortunately. Pandemics should/could have been one of those planning scenarios.
Do you think banks may be more on top of the issues, having been through close scrutiny since the last recession, and because of personal-data compromises? Versus, say, manufacturing companies or the like, who haven't had those same kinds of experiences over the last decade or so?
Yes, I'm in information security. Based on industry contacts, banking is certainly more aware of and prepared for the security issues of a work from home environment than other sectors. There has been a huge push in banking to move to virtual infrastructures, which helps mitigate many of the security issues (so long as it's managed appropriately). I do worry about how many security measures are being waived in other industries in order to quickly deploy a remote workforce.
I have been saddened, but a not surprised, by the number of companies (non-banking) I've seen in the past couple weeks without a fully fleshed business continuity plan. There have been even more that haven't explained that BCP to their employees. Pandemic planning as part of BCPs has been woefully overlooked by many to this point. It's one of the more difficult pieces of a BCP, given the timeline variables and the human capital component. I do hope businesses learn from this experience.5 -
Financially I think we will be ok, we are truly blessed with my husband’s job, and I don’t see things stopping given what they make (mentioned above, but packaging for various items, many of which are hygiene/cleaning related). This is our usual time of year to re-pad savings but already the bonus he was supposed to get last week didn’t come through, and we are hoping our tax guy can get ours filed ASAP in case refunds are dramatically delayed (or worse)... our spring spending just came to a screeching halt, minus what I am investing in garden beds and supplies... just in case.8
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Kansas schools closed the rest of the year 6 -
I work at Microsoft, as an outside contractor. My job will be up in July and we'll be in a recession by then, bad news for me. But for now, they're treating me well.
Microsoft is donating millions to support the restaurants and cafes around here. Everybody who can work from home is. Parents who can't work from home and can't arrange child care are being paid to stay home with their kids for 6 weeks. Hourly workers are being paid through this.
I can work from home, and it's good to occupy my mind. Spring is in full force here, the cherry trees are going off, we've had some sun, I want to be outside, I shouldn't much (around here) and work is keeping me busy.8
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