Coronavirus

[BobbyD]

A lot of corporate jobs have already gone to Bangladesh, way before the virus broke out, and the public don't even know about it! The reason being, the jobs that are sent there are generally non customer contact, all the back office work. It's been ripping the arse out of us for ages, because they do it for a pittance. It will be seen as building a Bangladesh economy, I've no problem with that bit, but when in reality it means more profit for the corporate greed, while dispensing with jobs back in the UK, because the citizens here, could never live on the same wage. Wasn't one of the biggest heists ever commited in somewhere like Bangladesh.

There is no denial on my part, that there has been a major risk to mental health during lock-downs, but to use this as some sort of leverage not to work from home is obscene. It needs managing yes, and managing properly, but you will never see it operate safely, while the greedy or misguided attach false narratives to it. The truth be told, they don't want change, the same as they are not interested in saving the environment, it's profit before anything else. Yes, we have to have profit to improve, but it goes way beyond that, it's pure greed and nothing else at the expense of our planet.

yup, even IT jobs are being outsourced to russia and india, mainly testing and some development work. They will still keep teams in the UK but they won't need the teams as big as you can hire 3 or 4 people for the price you pay for 1 person in the uk.

The work is generally more buggy and you have be crystal clear on requirements but heads of companies think why employ 1 when you can have 4 or 5

 

[PINKIE]

I've no problem with that bit, but when in reality it means more profit for the corporate greed, while dispensing with jobs back in the UK, because the citizens here, could never live on the same wage..

This

****ed innit.

 

[Treble]

A lot of corporate jobs have already gone to Bangladesh, way before the virus broke out, and the public don't even know about it! The reason being, the jobs that are sent there are generally non customer contact, all the back office work. It's been ripping the arse out of us for ages, because they do it for a pittance. It will be seen as building a Bangladesh economy, I've no problem with that bit, but when in reality it means more profit for the corporate greed, while dispensing with jobs back in the UK, because the citizens here, could never live on the same wage. Wasn't one of the biggest heists ever commited in somewhere like Bangladesh.

There is no denial on my part, that there has been a major risk to mental health during lock-downs, but to use this as some sort of leverage not to work from home is obscene. It needs managing yes, and managing properly, but you will never see it operate safely, while the greedy or misguided attach false narratives to it. The truth be told, they don't want change, the same as they are not interested in saving the environment, it's profit before anything else. Yes, we have to have profit to improve, but it goes way beyond that, it's pure greed and nothing else at the expense of our planet.

I think there's a real opportunity to rethink and evolve our working practises, if there's some organised, well thought out approach to it. Not all businesses can work from home and nor should they BUT the more considered approach is for every business or profession to now think about which parts of their business can work from home. E.g. a corporate bakery - the front end staff need to be in direct customer contact but how many of their purchasing department, their accounts department, their middle management need to be sat in an office. That's the way to evolve imo. And it can apply equally to both the private and public sector.

 

[brb]

yup, even IT jobs are being outsourced to russia and india, mainly testing and some development work. They will still keep teams in the UK but they won't need the teams as big as you can hire 3 or 4 people for the price you pay for 1 person in the uk.

The work is generally more buggy and you have be crystal clear on requirements but heads of companies think why employ 1 when you can have 4 or 5

Yup, the conversation will go something like, how would you like a nice little trip out to India Bobby? All expenses paid, stay out there on us, for a couple of months, bit of nice little holiday for you....actually take your mate you work with to as a buddy.

Ok boss, what do you want us to do, oh nothing much, just help get all this gear set up out there, train a few people, nothing much. Probably make some friends out there, so if they have any problems when you come home, they can get you on the phone.

Six months later back in the UK....

Ok, you lot are redundant, we've set up a new team in India, Bobby sneaks out the door sheepishly

 

[BobbyD]

Yup, the conversation will go something like, how would you like a nice little trip out to India Bobby? All expenses paid, stay out there on us, for a couple of months, bit of nice little holiday for you....actually take your mate you work with to as a buddy.

Ok boss, what do you want us to do, oh nothing much, just help get all this gear set up out there, train a few people, nothing much. Probably make some friends out there, so if they have any problems when you come home, they can get you on the phone.

Six months later back in the UK....

Ok, you lot are redundant, we've set up a new team in India, Bobby sneaks out the door sheepishly

lol, i do know of some people who they said their outsourcing their job out to russia and then they had to go over and train them up.

I think i'm fortunate enough that i'm not in the IT side where my source can be outsourced so easily and requires specialist knowledge.

If i was just a code monkey then yeah potentially i code lose my job. Saying that, there will always be a team locally (saying that i've only worked at medium to big companies) as they will want some local people to sort out the bigger issues/liaise with the customer facing side

 

[brb]

lol, i do know of some people who they said their outsourcing their job out to russia and then they had to go over and train them up.

I think i'm fortunate enough that i'm not in the IT side where my source can be outsourced so easily and requires specialist knowledge.

If i was just a code monkey then yeah potentially i code lose my job. Saying that, there will always be a team locally (saying that i've only worked at medium to big companies) as they will want some local people to sort out the bigger issues/liaise with the customer facing side

You know Bobby, you clearly know. Happening all over the shop and as you rightly say they will always keep some local jobs, because they know that customers don't take kindly to talking to offshore call centres. Always makes me laugh when words such as offshore are used....so you mean India!?....I think they know there is cultural differences that could be construed towards conscious or unconscious bias, or even racism when you mention another country by name, so they prefer the corporate terms to be used.

Edit: When I say cultural differences, I'm referring to that English may not be their first spoken language.

 

[PINKIE]

I think there's a real opportunity to rethink and evolve our working practises, if there's some organised, well thought out approach to it. Not all businesses can work from home and nor should they BUT the more considered approach is for every business or profession to now think about which parts of their business can work from home. E.g. a corporate bakery - the front end staff need to be in direct customer contact but how many of their purchasing department, their accounts department, their middle management need to be sat in an office. That's the way to evolve imo. And it can apply equally to both the private and public sector.

Office based corporate/ admin and services sector office workers can work from home no problem. All of the technological infrastructure is there for them to do it based at home. Add to this, The High St is ****ed, big shops like Debenhams, M&S, John Lewis etc aren't making any money from the High St as folk buy it online, and they are looking to get rid of as much of their physical premises as they can. The result of far fewer people in the towns and cities means that loads of hospitality, food and drink businesses suffer.

It means our towns and cities and our ways of working need a whole new rethink.

 

[Treble]

Office based corporate/ admin and services sector office workers can work from home no problem. All of the technological infrastructure is there for them to do it based at home. Add to this, The High St is ****ed, big shops like Debenhams, M&S, John Lewis etc aren't making any money from the High St as folk buy it online, and they are looking to get rid of as much of their physical premises as they can. The result of far fewer people in the towns and cities means that loads of hospitality, food and drink businesses suffer.

It means our towns and cities and our ways of working need a whole new rethink.

A lot of these problems were already there before Covid so it's a rethink which would've been needed anyway.

Personally I think there's enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that whilst shops in city centres will continue to suffer, the local town hospitality and service industry shops will benefit from people working from home because even during a working week they'll be popping out more to their local towns.

 

[PINKIE]

A lot of these problems were already there before Covid so it's a rethink which would've been needed anyway.

Personally I think there's enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that whilst shops in city centres will continue to suffer, the local town hospitality and service industry shops will benefit from people working from home because even during a working week they'll be popping out more to their local towns.

The future of town and city centres is about the experience rather than going to traditional high st shops. It needs to become more event led and focused on the family day out. In this scenario, small and independent businesses that offer bespoke and creative services and products will thrive

 

[PINKIE]

A lot of these problems were already there before Covid so it's a rethink which would've been needed anyway.

Oh, and yes indeed they were.

 

[pompeymeowth]

6 months on...

“Ladies and gentleman, I have some bad news: there are no more tests today,” the security guard tells a disbelieving queue of people, most with children, who have been waiting in the afternoon heat by a car park in Deptford. I am among them, with my daughter Rosa who is coughing like many of the children there. It is the third time we have queued and been turned away in one day.

When I woke yesterday, Rosa had a mild cough. Over breakfast, as we were realising we would have to keep both our children off school and get tested, Priti Patel, the home secretary, came on the radio to tell us the test system was working, except in “extreme cases”.

I spent hours hammering the booking website, refreshing the page, each time having to go back to fill out the details all over again, each time getting the message: “This service is currently very busy.”

Getting nowhere with the site, we went to nearest “walk-through” centre, which I’d heard you could go to without an appointment. My first trip was at 10am. Hardly anyone was there. After a while, a security guard told me there were not enough tests, but there would be 20 more at 12.30, and we would be able to get tested.

When we came back, the queue was longer. We waited for 45 minutes with no movement. The guard suddenly announced they now had very few tests and had to prioritise key workers. The politeness in the queue evaporated.

People began waving ID cards, and making their case. A reception teacher said she hadn’t been able to teach her class for the past two days because her son was coughing.

“I put food on your shelves,” shouted a woman who worked in a supermarket, “does that not count?” Another woman complained that her son was very ill, and “loads of people getting tested here don’t have symptoms”.

We left with the promise there would be more tests at 4.30.

Our third and final attempt ended the same way, and this time there were even angrier scenes. “We’re disgusted,” said Paula and Simon Perry, who’d been trying to get an appointment for four days. They said their life was on hold: “People won’t self-isolate, if this is how it is. It’s crazy.”

“It’s absolutely bonkers, a shambles,” said Billie, a deputy specialist nurse who had been off work for several days, and whose son had just settled at secondary school, only to have to stop attending.

“We’ve just driven from south-west London, I’m a doctor. I’m booked in” shouted an exasperated woman.

“Still no more tests, I apologise,” replied a supervisor.

That was Lucy, who like many others I met had actually managed to secure an appointment there, an hour-and-a-half drive from where she lived. “To drive all this way with a confirmation and be told there are no tests is completely unacceptable,” she said.
------------------------------------
But more and more people across the country have faced problems with trying to book a test, and some who had been offered one have had to travel far away to be tested.

A mother-of-two from Reading, who doesn't want to be identified, told The Chronicle she was facing this issue.

She said: "My 5-year-old son had a cough so the school asked us to get him tested and only bring him back if the test comes back negative.

"I understand that the school is being cautious for other children's safety, because I would expect the same from the school if one of the other children in my child's class had similar symptoms.

"I have been continuously trying to book the test since Monday morning [September 14] and nothing is available.

"Last night my daughter, 12, also developed similar symptoms.

"It's quite disappointing to see that no plan was put in place for this. The government should have seen this coming with the schools reopening.

"How can we send our children back to school when we can see that there are no arrangements for their tests if they are sent back with any of the symptoms?

Dee Goodey, also from Reading, is desperate to get her vulnerable daughter a test.

She said: "My daughter, who has a medical disability and extreme anxiety, has been told to not go back to school.

"I turned up at Newbury Test centre after I had failed to get a test online and the test centre was empty.

"I am a key worker and I can not return to work.

"Plus if she does have the virus we need to inform people we have been in contact with."
----------------------------------------
Key workers and parents of young children have told Sky News they have been asked to travel hundreds of miles to get a test - or been forced to stay at home due to a lack of testing capacity.

Centres across the UK have been turning people away after a backlog at laboratories caused testing to come to a halt.

Dr Claire Sillitoe, a GP working in southwest London, had to cancel face-to-face appointments with patients on Monday after failing to get a test over the weekend.

Her husband, who is also a GP, was forced to do the same. Claire was only able to conduct remote consultations and also had to cancel visits.

She told Sky News she tried "day and night" to get a test after her 11-year-old daughter fell ill with a temperature on Saturday.

In the end she had to "cheat the system" by using a Scottish postcode to get an appointment in Aberdeen and then taking the QR code it generated to her nearest centre.

She told Sky News she tried "day and night" to get a test after her 11-year-old daughter fell ill with a temperature on Saturday.

In the end she had to "cheat the system" by using a Scottish postcode to get an appointment in Aberdeen and then taking the QR code it generated to her nearest centre.

She said: "The most frustrating thing is yesterday GPs were told by the NHS we are slacking and weren't seeing enough patients face-to-face. Yet I was desperate to see patients, but I was prevented from doing so because of my daughter.

"I wasn't willing to put my patients at risk, so I was stuck in a really difficult position."

Thankfully the test came back within 24 hours, clearing the family to return to work and school on Tuesday.

But it's left Claire fearing what will happen when we reach the winter months.

She added: "Ministers have had the whole summer to prepare for everyone going back to schools and universities.

"To not have really ramped up testing capacity is very short sighted."

Meanwhile the PM...

"To the best of my knowledge".... weekly tests are happening in care homes.

Except as pointed out today in PM Questions citing a boss in the care sector, it's not.

What happened to project speed?

 

[JakartaToon]

Same in Cornwall. Folk from London and the cities buy up all the nice houses and push up the prices for locals, due to ‘going market rate’ and supply and demand. It’s a double whammy down here at times because some folk will buy up 5-6 houses just to rent them out to holiday makers.

Local families can’t afford to buy houses, because whilst they are ‘cheap’ compared to London prices, it’s all relative because Cornwall, like a lot of Wales, is a low wage area.

I thought they all supplemented their wages by smuggling rum and plundering shipwrecks.

 

[Archers Road]

On the subject of office workers, perhaps the key point is that, whereas key workers from binmen to supermarket staff to bus drivers, and of course NHS staff, kept the country going all year, it turns out we never really needed the armies of overpaid briefcase ****ers schlepping in to the City every day?

 

[Archers Road]

And remember chaps...

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[JakartaToon]

On the subject of office workers, perhaps the key point is that, whereas key workers from binmen to supermarket staff to bus drivers, and of course NHS staff, kept the country going all year, it turns out we never really needed the armies of overpaid briefcase ****ers schlepping in to the City every day?

We should be able to sack off a load of the transport workers as well if the trend to home working continues.

Sat through a 2hr long webinar yesterday on the impact of COVID on oil & gas demand and price (we get our priorities right in this business!) and the transition to new fuel types. They are building into their models a trend towards home working, the lack of air travel etc and the trend towards renewable energy supplies, plus electric vehicles, particularly in developed countries, and its depressing news for my business but good for the climate. Don't know whether anyone has noticed how the major energy companies have responded - they are buying up renewables firms and getting into wind farms, selling off oil assets all in a rush, with expansive plans to be carbon neutral within 10-30years.

While COVID may have had a profound effect on the world it could be the kick it needed to sort out climate change.

Bad news from the modelling work was that:

1. The worst of COVID is yet to come globally, with November/December going to see a major spike in global cases and deaths
2. Air travel is not going to be back to normal until 2022 so forget holidays in exotic places for the next year and half

 

[Archers Road]

We should be able to sack off a load of the transport workers as well if the trend to home working continues.

Sat through a 2hr long webinar yesterday on the impact of COVID on oil & gas demand and price (we get our priorities right in this business!) and the transition to new fuel types. They are building into their models a trend towards home working, the lack of air travel etc and the trend towards renewable energy supplies, plus electric vehicles, particularly in developed countries, and its depressing news for my business but good for the climate. Don't know whether anyone has noticed how the major energy companies have responded - they are buying up renewables firms and getting into wind farms, selling off oil assets all in a rush, with expansive plans to be carbon neutral within 10-30years.

While COVID may have had a profound effect on the world it could be the kick it needed to sort out climate change.

Bad news from the modelling work was that:

1. The worst of COVID is yet to come globally, with November/December going to see a major spike in global cases and deaths
2. Air travel is not going to be back to normal until 2022 so forget holidays in exotic places for the next year and half

Every cloud and all that. It appears Covid May be accelerating some necessary changes to the way we live and work.

Bit alarming to me as a transport worker, but the daily commute appears to be finished. Now all we need is a UBI and some of us can forget about work altogether.

Perhaps we could all retire at 40 (obviously won’t happen in places where people keep voting Tory).

 

[JakartaToon]

Every cloud and all that. It appears Covid May be accelerating some necessary changes to the way we live and work.

Bit alarming to me as a transport worker, but the daily commute appears to be finished. Now all we need is a UBI and some of us can forget about work altogether.

Perhaps we could all retire at 40 (obviously won’t happen in places where people keep voting Tory).

Get retrained in building offshore wind turbines or working on energy storage projects - growth areas. It can't be that much different to driving a train.

 

[PINKIE]

I thought they all supplemented their wages by smuggling rum and plundering shipwrecks.

Only on Tuesdays mate. Local bylaw or something.

 

[BobbyD]

We should be able to sack off a load of the transport workers as well if the trend to home working continues.

Sat through a 2hr long webinar yesterday on the impact of COVID on oil & gas demand and price (we get our priorities right in this business!) and the transition to new fuel types. They are building into their models a trend towards home working, the lack of air travel etc and the trend towards renewable energy supplies, plus electric vehicles, particularly in developed countries, and its depressing news for my business but good for the climate. Don't know whether anyone has noticed how the major energy companies have responded - they are buying up renewables firms and getting into wind farms, selling off oil assets all in a rush, with expansive plans to be carbon neutral within 10-30years.

While COVID may have had a profound effect on the world it could be the kick it needed to sort out climate change.

Bad news from the modelling work was that:

1. The worst of COVID is yet to come globally, with November/December going to see a major spike in global cases and deaths
2. Air travel is not going to be back to normal until 2022 so forget holidays in exotic places for the next year and half

You mean for the people who can't afford cheap holidays or no planes will be flying there whatsoever?

 

[BobbyD]

Every cloud and all that. It appears Covid May be accelerating some necessary changes to the way we live and work.

Bit alarming to me as a transport worker, but the daily commute appears to be finished. Now all we need is a UBI and some of us can forget about work altogether.

Perhaps we could all retire at 40 (obviously won’t happen in places where people keep voting Tory).

if that happens i'm going to be a professional gamer with no fans and sit in my pants all day