Corona (COVID-19)- is it affecting you?

@sethmode: we’ll have a chance to provide our collective feedback on his leadership throughout this crisis soon.

I can only claim 5 days emergency leave so I'm back at work in a week's time.

@extintor: Too true. Fingers crossed we don't have another four years of this shit. I don't live in the US and even still I would love to hear about the president less.

I'm a mental health therapist and am doing all my sessions remotely through teleconferencing. It's a bizarre time to do therapy because everything is revolving around the virus, which most of us can't really do anything about other than manage our own hygiene and exposure. I've been focusing therapy on how to spend time while in isolation and whatnot, but that can only go so far.

I feel really lucky that I can still work from home and support myself. About 20-30% of my clients are already at a point where they might lose their jobs and we're only a short bit into this. I've been to a few health care teleconferences and have heard the potential models for how this whole thing could go. I'm not sharing this information with clients, because it can look pretty fatalistic, but the best case scenarios are still millions passed away globally. I heard one worst case scenario where 1.1 million US citizens pass away. Extrapolate that out to the rest of the world and it's pretty damn scary. Hopefully that doesn't come to pass.

Good thing Dem leadership isn't actively criticizing methods to help people, like non means tested checks, and offering low interest loans or means tested tax credits! And they rallied behind the candidate who said he would veto M4A if it was presented to him. Good deal for "opposition" "leadership".

I've been laid off of my service job (attached to a mall and SIMON malls are closed) with a handshake agreement to rehire who knows when. Filed for unemployment today. Government continues to drag their feet on providing real aid to people. Things are going so great.

Just got let go from my job an hour ago due to the current situation. Not sure what's next or who is hiring but I guess we'll see. Just had to post something to get a small moment of relief.

@stephen_von_cloud@transit4080 Hope you guys find your feet soon. God knows what it's like to hire in this.

The pub and coffee shops closing is going to make the town deserted. Good time for me to go back to work, I guess. By the looks of next week's rota, 20 people are in the office now at one time. Shit for business but at least I don't have to worry so much about exposure.

@shindig: unfortunately I was about to change jobs to help manage a Tea shop that I love in my city, which would have been so much more convenient. They were just opening their second location. I was preparing to switch jobs in April at some point but now who knows. Haven't heard back from the new boss yet about our meet up that was supposed to happen this week.

Appreciate the kind words.

Even if you haven't in the past, please apply for unemployment to help yourself. In MA they have made some of it more lax to help people quickly.

In the past I just kept looking for work but this is a different situation going on. It could go on for some time and if the government decides there's a shut down of public spaces, if you have a public job there's not an option for you.

@stephen_von_cloud: Thank you for the advice and support

@shindig: Thank you for the support.

@spacegandhi: We keep less than a week's worth of food at a time and I run to the store once or twice a week, my wife likes cooking with fresh ingredients.

I started working from home, something that seemed impossible a few weeks ago (normally need a secure location). So far it's been alright but hard to separate work from home life a little.

Nah, I sit at home and play chess all day long.

I'm a school teacher here in NSW, Australia. At the moment all government schools (mine's one of them) are staying open for the forseeable future while all semi-large gatherings have been shut down (>100 people). At this point, we are just expected to deal with it though it is only a matter of time before the staff succumb to some illness or other - especially as we get set to hit our winter months. Thankfully there is no chance of job loss for any of us which is a real blessing.

Well my company is paying us out or sick time while letting us get unemployment so that's nice. I had 37 hours so that's nice. Basically another week of work. I'm a barista/shift manager at a big international company that is becoming a chain in the US.

They are in the UK which has been treating a lot of this with no regard so their response has been frustrating up to now, with my Distract Manager today, while giving certain solid concessions and options to my concerns, still having a very dismissive tone. I already argued a bit with him about it because he argued against simple scientific info on the spread of viruses and bacteria.

He didn't understand how a personal cup a person brought in the store for example could be a vector for any barista handling it and should be banned. He didn't understand why gloves are an extra layer of safety... he said so what you still have the virus on the glove. He also today said that more or less poor and ignorant people are holing up afraid and highly educated wealthy people are just washing their hands and going about their day. I didn't feel like another argument.

Simon Malls says our mall will be open April 1st right now, which seems like the longest shot. And my company is letting us not come in if we want until things blow over and stay on a Furlough. We will see how it goes.

I've been living at home again for a bit after being in apartments on my own for years and although I wish I wasn't, I am thankful this happend now. I had times where I was extremely paycheck to paycheck and I'd be fucked right now if I didn't have the low cost of my current situation. I feel for others who aren't so lucky.

Hope you're doing alright. I just know I even looked at unemployment before myself and just hit the job market throughout my life but this is a serious situation. If you can manage to stay afloat on unemployment and keep yourself safe you should. Don't risk your health.

I'm a healthcare worker and for me its work as usual. My wife and kid are at home. I honestly don't think about it too much because of work, my daily routines are the same to a certain extent.

Well it's finally starting to impact me directly. They've started drastically reducing public transportation, which is how I get to work, so I ended up being 2 hours late today, despite being up and ready on time.

Unfortunately I don't have any real alternatives, other than trying to find a different bus route nearby that might arrive a little sooner, so I'm going to be late every day going forward. I just have to hope that my bosses are understanding and don't fire me over it.

Gatherings limited and restaurants/bars are closing now aside from curbside. Which honestly I'm a little proud of the county for doing so considering there haven't been any confirmed cases so far. Wouldn't have thought we'd be so proactive.

I'm on two weeks of unpaid leave from work, and that's about to expire. I'm leaning towards not returning to my job of 13 years because I have a person in my household with a depressed immune system that this would potentially be lethal for. My plan for survival is to live on what I have in my emergency fund and slowly bleed out what I have of holdings until there is nothing left. I'm hopeful I can make it a year before things get too ugly.

It's crazy what a difference two weeks can make.

We have nearly 40 confirmed cases in our area and lots and lots of reporting about possible exposures around the city. The state government is on the verge of calling a shelter-in-place order similar to what has been instituted in other states across the country.

I think the hardest part has been convincing my elderly family members that this is, like, a real problem. Not some kind of politics-driven hoax. It's been an exercise in providing proper hand hygiene education and general awareness about the relative dangers of being around others. A lot of information falls on deaf ears. Sometimes you want to grab them by the collar and shout, "HEY, YOU'RE THE REALLY VULNERABLE ONE HERE." But, obviously, that doesn't solve anything.

I'm a delivery driver for a Peterbilt dealership in NJ and I live with my mother who has MS and isn't in great shape.

It really hasn't affected my life much, til today I suppose. Most of the places I deliver to around the whole east/southeast coast of NJ has been business as usual? Only one place didn't want me coming inside the building. Now that the state kicked it up a notch this past weekend, it was getting a little more serious. My location wasn't letting customers in the building anymore, and one of the township public works I delivered to today had a sign on the door to leave deliveries outside.. which I did.. even though the cardboard stuff and invoice were just going to get soaked in the rain and potentially blow away /shrug

Anyway, company had a meeting I guess and said people could opt to stay home if they want. I came back from my run and some of the other drivers were saying they are not coming in now. Which meant all that stuff would potentially fall on other drivers.. Screw that. The other reason this conveniently worked out for me is that I really don't want to be at work for the moment because of an issue with a female coworker/friend. Need some space.

So I told the boss I'm out for the time being and to keep me posted I guess. Nothing in writing. They'll use up whatever PTO I have (no idea how much, I never use it) and then won't get paid from then on. It's alright with me for now as I've got enough money saved up to cover bills for many months. Maybe they'll close up shop for the time being if a lot of people just don't want to come in? Honestly, I'd be fine with two or three weeks off but beyond that.. that's maybe more than I expected. Maybe I'd go back in if they're still open? Maybe in a week.. No idea! All up in the air at the moment. Again, just glad I have a little time away from the lady friend.

The problem is now that I have all the free time I wanted before.. except now I have been in a wild headspace and emotional rollercoaster for weeks because of said coworker and have no desire or enthusiasm for playing games.

Half Life Alyx though! Woo

As of a couple of hours ago we are now in lockdown in the UK.

I'm working from home now, which is not so easy now the kids are home from school too.

Both me and the wife are classed as key workers, so we can technically send our children to school, but we don't want to take the risk as things are clearly getting very serious.

The Governor of Michigan issued Executive Order 2020-21 yesterday. The "Stay Home. Stay Safe. Save Lives." order.

Today begins day 1 of at least 21 days of self isolation. I was laid off so it also begins day 1 of unemployment. I've been assured that "your office is still your office" and I'll be back to work once this blows over. That sounds great except no one really knows when that might be. That's not a criticism, it just is what it is.

I don't know what to feel or really what to do. I've been lucky enough to have been gainfully employed since 1994 so this is all new for me. It's new for everyone.

I'm stocked up. I've got savings to last a while. I've filed for unemployment. I guess I'll just hunker down, plan for the worst, and hope for the best.

@bane: by any chance did they pay you or cashh you out in PTO and/or Illness hours?

This is week 2 of being home from work.

My employer had initially told us we would be working from home for around 2 weeks, but this is now looking like it'll be much longer. I don't think I'll be in the office again until June. Ontario just announced that all non-essential businesses would be closed for 14 days yesterday, but looking at the list of essential businesses, it seems like nothing actually closed. I also keep seeing people mention how many people are still going to parks in large groups... sooner or later, the government will say enough is enough and take more extreme measures.

I've mostly been at home except for seeing my girlfriend at her home, both of us have been just saying indoors this entire time.

@merxworx01: They didn't, but I also neglected to ask about that. They're trying to figure out health insurance at the moment, but after that I plan on asking them about my PTO.

We're running on the assumption that my being laid off is a temporary situation. I'm guessing if I come back and didn't used them during the shutdown I'd still have them available., but if I don't come back they'll cash me out.

@wrinklydinosaur: I hear & feel you. My missus is in the same boat - we're in Western Sydney, and her school has dropped from 1800 students to around 100 in the last week, but all staff are still at school busy trying to cobble together some online learning courses. I feel for the kids doing HSC; whilst it doesn't *really* affect marks *too* much (everyone's in the same boat, scaling of marks, etc), the stress of it all on the kids would be insane :(

As for me... well, I picked a poor time to start a playthrough of The Last Of Us.

Thought id pop in here, just got laid off from my factory job for the next 2 weeks(in Indiana), already got unemployment filed...and now ill sit here and get caught up on shows and games and hope for the best I suppose, my thoughts go out to the people that are dealing with worse though

Furloughed as of this week, I work IT for a major retailer.

Girlfriend lost her job. Applied for benefits. They're three weeks behind. They've received 6 months of applications in one week. They've said that they will backpay people, but that's assuming those people can wait a month...

Yeah, granted I have no idea how the system works, but I don't see the logistic possibility of trying to pay money to millions of people at the same time...its kinda scary

They'll be running a skeleton staff, too.

lol well they got that corporate bailout money no problem!

Look up how UK or Denmark are covering workers wages. We just get stepped on in America and people are so beaten down they think nothing good from the govt is possible.

Not sure if the GB crew has talk about it, but SF Bay area is supposedly ordered to stay at home other than "essential" services.

Traffic is way better than normal, day one of the shelter in place had the clearest traffic, but lately it has been ramping back up. On the bright side, the weather looks great! Not sure if related.

My "essential" job is making a serious effort on sending people to work from home now...while insisting other groups that they must be present. I am with the latter group. While it is true that the job looks secure, my role is dumber than ever. There's also a lot of glory hounding and bandwagoning going on that is funny and sad, and explains a lot of the wasted resources that has been going on for a long time, but of course we can't be criticizing during time of crisis right!? Yet it is precisely during these times that issues and incompetence shine the brightest.

Also had a minor incident with people needing to getting tested, so get to stay home for a few days as precaution, but was a false alarm...I was actually looking forward to getting 2 weeks off.

Last update. I have been temporarily laid off, which means I won't be working for the foreseeable future. They closed the doors to my workplace and asked everyone for the keys to the building so no one has access. Happened after our Governor made the stay-at-home order here in WA. It felt as bad as getting fired at first, to be honest, and there's a level of uncertainty for sure. I had to ask whether I was getting fired or being temporarily laid off because the last thing I wanted to hear was to hand over my keys to the building as that, even for shutting the doors to the place for however long, seems like much as I have no intention of going in there if I am not going to work. The place will be closed until May, and then maybe past that. I have to say, I try to keep my mind occupied, but thinking about it, it's stressful. I was on the verge of crying when I got the text about it but quickly got back into my normal mood.

@ntm: Sorry to hear that. Hopefully it's just temporary. I've a number of friends who've been temporarily let go and they're promised their position back if the place reopens. For now try keep a schedule for yourself and keep yourself occupied.

I'm lucky enough to have employment in a huge company so I'm working from home and we have been told that financially we are stable so no layoffs or anything would happen. Mentally it is starting to have a toll on me. Back in my college years I had some strong anxiety problems that I was able to squash with time but this whole situation is not so great for my mental well being. I have elderly parents that I'm genuinely worried about and although I have no underlying medical issues I do know my immune system is fairly weak - I don't deal very well with regular flus and fever, so I can't imagine I will fair well against a super flu with heavy respiratory issues. So all in all I'm actually kind of a nervous mess from day to day where every little cough, every time I feel a little too warm I start getting paranoid about being sick. It certainly doesn't help that each time I read the news hoping to hear things are getting better, they only seem to be getting worse and there doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel.

Shopping has lost all convenience. Queueing for an hour miles apart from people just for the opportunity to see if they have things in.

Too far in the other direction, although you've got to do what you can to stop the hoarders. Ironically, if that's the shopping experience for the next weeks and months, you'll be more inclined to load up.

This pandemic made like a paranoid and it activated my anxiety. For 2 days, I got so worried because I came from the hospital for a check up with a neurologist. So I was like I hope I was not exposed with an infected person. And yeah, I started to wash and sanitize my hand every time, even if I am at home only.

This whole situation has really made being introverted feel like a weird super power.

I live in the Cleveland area, which has the most cases in Ohio. My wife and I both have jobs that require us to work through the epidemic.

For us, life is pretty normal. We still work 40 hours a week and do our normal stuff around the house. Only difference is less trips to the store.

@shindig: many stores are limiting the number of items you can get.

Yep. Some things are limited to 3 per customer.

@efesell: My wife and I have been on a tiny island in Korea for over a month now, only interacting with our local store cashier and we felt the same kind of bemused way when we saw people back in the US freaking out on day 5 of quarantine.