Covid-19 Megathread

[Vamp]

1 hour ago, Ted said:

We had something similar at work too (public sector) & they ended up saying it would get recorded as sickness but wouldn’t count towards our sickness records in relation to warnings.

Ours could get counted in relation to warnings depending on how HR are feeling...

[Glenryck Pilchards]

I am also in the public sector and I have to commend my organisation. Anyone who has been shielding, contracted Covid-19 or have been recommended to quarantine have been receiving full pay with no impact to their sickness record. We have only started asking people to come back to work after they have received a risk assessment and if necessary if they were to return they could work from a lower risk site. 

In my region alone we have had over 60 staff who have been self isolating since 16th March and the majority are wanting to come back to work. Whilst they were off we had a massive gap to fill for the lost hours, but the organisation offered double time to healthy staff to cover the hours of the 'shielders' and they also received a wage allowance on top. 

We currently have a handful of people stuck in Spain at the moment who will need to quarantine when they arrive back. They will still receive full pay when they return, but anyone who travels to Spain from now on they will be asked to either put in further annual leave or to take it unpaid. 

If anyone can work from home they must do for the foreseeable future unless personal circumstances makes it necessary for someone to work in the office. 

Everything my work has put in place has been fair and sometimes a bit too generous, but I couldn't have asked for a better place to work during the pandemic. 

[Vamp]

I'm envious. 

I've totally fucked myself over at work by asking a question about why we've more than halved the amount of cleaning time when we're saying we follow all government advice (which says to increase the frequency and clean heavily used objects daily). 

Apparently they've asked the union about it and they're not happy about the cleaning regime either. I've now got to improve it but I can't clean it myself or ask staff because we haven't been trained. I can't have a cleaner in any more days. The only solution I've got to that at the moment is to only have staff in on the days the cleaners are in (which I'm guessing isn't going to be the correct answer...). 

[stewdogg]

It does sound odd that cleaning would be halved.

You could do the cleaning yourself? I don’t really know what that entails but I’ve seen Tesco are now asking their staff to take on extra cleaning responsibility, and it’s not as if you have training to keep your house tidy and clean. I guess though if you hate it that much quit. You shouldn’t have to do something that you don’t feel comfortable doing. Moaning on a forum isn’t going to achieve anything. 

[DavidB6937]

Sorry if it's been mentioned before - long topic!

Is there any financial assistance for anyone working from home? Obviously all the bills have gone up, especially electricity. 

Just wondered if anything was in place to support anyone or if it's something we just have to suck up.

Thought it was worth asking.

[Keith Houchen]

8 minutes ago, stewdogg said:

It does sound odd that cleaning would be halved.

You could do the cleaning yourself? I don’t really know what that entails but I’ve seen Tesco are now asking their staff to take on extra cleaning responsibility, and it’s not as if you have training to keep your house tidy and clean. I guess though if you hate it that much quit. You shouldn’t have to do something that you don’t feel comfortable doing. Moaning on a forum isn’t going to achieve anything. 

Nah. Changing your duties to cover work that’s done by others without compensating you, and possibly doing others out of wages hours isn’t acceptable. Once it’s done during trying times it’ll be expected every time. He is well within his rights to be pissed off and refuse, especially With the union backing him. 
And moaning on a forum does help. It can lead to info that helps or just sounding off can help as well. 

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Vamp said:

I've totally fucked myself over at work by asking a question

I've now got to improve it

Got to love bosses like this.

"Don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions."

Wouldn't that... make me the manager?

[Jazzy G]

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/lockdown-restrictions-explained-greater-manchester-east-lancashire-west-yorkshire-visiting-homes-571413?ito=social|facebook|fb_theipaper

 

[CavemanLynn]

1 hour ago, Uncle Zeb said:

Got to love bosses like this.

"Don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions."

Wouldn't that... make me the manager?

Only the worst managers mean that literally (and there are a lot of them). What they should mean is, based on your experience on the 'front line', what options do we have right now to fix this. Then again, I know a lot of 'lifers' who then get up in arms about it not being their job to fix things, but refuse or resist new procedures put forward by management because they weren't 'consulted'.

Sorry, bit off topic. The perils of working from home.

On topic, I had no idea about that WFM tax relief. No doubt the phrase "required to work from home" is key - my place of work strongly advised working from home from the off, and have reduced office space to assume a percentage of staff being off-site, but I don't think there's technically an absolute requirement that those who work from home do. I'd also imagine a department or member of staff officially employed on flexible working, splitting time between home and office, also wouldn't qualify. Which is a shame - £6 a week for me and the wife would cover our electric every month!

Edited August 5, 2020 by CavemanLynn

[Bettencourt]

A mini local lockdown in Aberdeen just been announced. So many wankers in this city it’s unreal. 

[Tamura]

7 hours ago, Bettencourt said:

A mini local lockdown in Aberdeen just been announced. So many wankers in this city it’s unreal. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53666665

Ms Sturgeon said 54 cases had now been associated with the cluster and 191 close contacts had been traced through the Test and Protect system.

NHS Grampian has published a list of venues which have been visited by people linked to the cluster, including 28 bars and cafes.

They are:

Bieldside Inn, Bobbin, Brewdog (Castlegate), Buckie Farm Carvery, Café Andaluz, Café Dag, Café Drummond, The Cock & Bull, College Bar, The Dutch Mill, Dyce Carvery, East End Social Club, Ferryhill House Hotel, Hawthorn/Adam Lounge, The Howff, The Justice Mill, The Marine Hotel, McGinty's, McNasty's, Malmaison, Moonfish Café, No.10 Bar, O'Donoghues, Old Bank Bar, Prohibition, Soul, Spider's Web, The Draft Project.

The list also includes Aboyne, Deeside and Hazelhead golf clubs, and the Banks O'Dee Football Club.

 

Did Nicola Sturgeon forget to say "Don't go on a fucking pub crawl" or something?

[wordsfromlee]

 

[SuperBacon]

That social media manager needs sacking.

The forum is safe

[Vamp]

Work have played a blinder with the masks.

Originally we were told masks would be "encouraged" for customers. When asked why staff weren't consulted about this the department head said he couldn't possibly consult all staff.

The wording was changed to "required" after the department head received unsolicited feedback from staff.

The department head said we couldn't make them mandatory because we had to follow the government.

The government makes masks mandatory (with obvious exceptions).

The department head creates a risk assessment which says "customers will be encouraged to wear masks."

I'm not surprised by the 'whataboutery' but that's real shoddy workmanship. 

 

[Cod Eye]

So Russia say they have a vaccine , and that soldiers from the Russian military "volunteered" to be human test subjects(and Putin has given it to his daughter too). Can't see folk queuing up for it myself...