Coronavirus - A pale horse,4 men and ....beer

[jamesg46]

The company I work for put out a letter to all employees on Monday, the whole of the night shift will be furloughed until the end of June, ALTHOUGH some of the night shift will be asked to come back to work on the day shift, WHILE some of the day shift members will be furloughed until the end of June.

My translation of that is, oi oi lads, we are hand selecting who we want to employ, some of you will be put on the scrap heap until the Goverment stop paying your wages & at that point we make you redundant.

This morning, I recieved a phone call asking me to start back work as of Monday. I lose 27% of my wages by doing so & the others lose their jobs... the group I work for employs 7000 people and at a guestimate up to or pretty close to 40% of those people will lose their jobs based on it being the axe of night shifts. I'd imagine companies up & down the country are making similar plans, judging by the "itll all be alright" attitude of large qtys of people, they're likely not to have yet come to this conclusion yet.

Thankfully for the sanity of you other forum people, you wont have to put up with my bored & random posts for too much longer.

Some people think millions will be made redundant after June or 30-45 days before that if the government doesnt extend the furlough scheme further. I cant see how the government can as its costing billions each month to do it. More likely they will just have to accept that in the short to medium term there will be around 6 million people claiming unemployment benefit or universal credit.

Yeah for sure, the issue with that is most of those people who are going to need that money will be mortgage holders or live in private rent houses. The government surely isn't going to prop that up like they do with social housing... I wonder how many of them are financing expensive cars, long term loans & are living in credit card balances. The tide going out is gonna reveal a lot of naked people.

A good friend of mine who I've worked alongside for the past 8 years moved to the UK from Czech, when he came he had with him a tonne of debt that he had managed to rack up in the Czech, he was barely getting by because the repayments were huge. Since I've known him we moved through 2 companys together & our wages grew by 61% in that time. He managed to get himself a mortgage 2 years ago, he got his mum to take out a loan and send it to him as a gift to cover his deposit for the mortgage... about a year later he tells me that hes taken out a whopping loan to cover his debts in Czech, his repayment on the deposit loan, some money he owed to his brother & some home improvements, hes just finished with new windows, new bathroom, new kitchen & a full range of new furnishings throughout... hes then treated himself to 2 BMW's... living the real good life, he told me that he was maxed out on his weekly income and relied on overtime for his fun tokens.

He didnt receive a call today asking him to start back work, he knoww hes screwed. I really feel for him, I know it's his own making but so many people have lived the life of comfort & ease for so long that they never accounted for something like this.

[Archery1969]

Some people think millions will be made redundant after June or 30-45 days before that if the government doesnt extend the furlough scheme further. I cant see how the government can as its costing billions each month to do it. More likely they will just have to accept that in the short to medium term there will be around 6 million people claiming unemployment benefit or universal credit.

Yeah for sure, the issue with that is most of those people who are going to need that money will be mortgage holders or live in private rent houses. The government surely isn't going to prop that up like they do with social housing... I wonder how many of them are financing expensive cars, long term loans & are living in credit card balances. The tide going out is gonna reveal a lot of naked people.

A good friend of mine who I've worked alongside for the past 8 years moved to the UK from Czech, when he came he had with him a tonne of debt that he had managed to rack up in the Czech, he was barely getting by because the repayments were huge. Since I've known him we moved through 2 companys together & our wages grew by 61% in that time. He managed to get himself a mortgage 2 years ago, he got his mum to take out a loan and send it to him as a gift to cover his deposit for the mortgage... about a year later he tells me that hes taken out a whopping loan to cover his debts in Czech, his repayment on the deposit loan, some money he owed to his brother & some home improvements, hes just finished with new windows, new bathroom, new kitchen & a full range of new furnishings throughout... hes then treated himself to 2 BMW's... living the real good life, he told me that he was maxed out on his weekly income and relied on overtime for his fun tokens.

He didnt receive a call today asking him to start back work, he knoww hes screwed. I really feel for him, I know it's his own making but so many people have lived the life of comfort & ease for so long that they never accounted for something like this.

Blimey!!

I spoke with my ex boss today, he put 247 staff on the government scheme knowing full well when it ends they will all be made redundant. His argument was, they may aswel get 80% of their salaries while they can as opposed to £75 per week unemployment benefit. Not sure that is in the spirit of why the system was setup as he openly admitted to me that the company is nolonger viable.

[jamesg46]

Yeah for sure, the issue with that is most of those people who are going to need that money will be mortgage holders or live in private rent houses. The government surely isn't going to prop that up like they do with social housing... I wonder how many of them are financing expensive cars, long term loans & are living in credit card balances. The tide going out is gonna reveal a lot of naked people.

A good friend of mine who I've worked alongside for the past 8 years moved to the UK from Czech, when he came he had with him a tonne of debt that he had managed to rack up in the Czech, he was barely getting by because the repayments were huge. Since I've known him we moved through 2 companys together & our wages grew by 61% in that time. He managed to get himself a mortgage 2 years ago, he got his mum to take out a loan and send it to him as a gift to cover his deposit for the mortgage... about a year later he tells me that hes taken out a whopping loan to cover his debts in Czech, his repayment on the deposit loan, some money he owed to his brother & some home improvements, hes just finished with new windows, new bathroom, new kitchen & a full range of new furnishings throughout... hes then treated himself to 2 BMW's... living the real good life, he told me that he was maxed out on his weekly income and relied on overtime for his fun tokens.

He didnt receive a call today asking him to start back work, he knoww hes screwed. I really feel for him, I know it's his own making but so many people have lived the life of comfort & ease for so long that they never accounted for something like this.

Blimey!!

I spoke with my ex boss today, he put 247 staff on the government scheme knowing full well when it ends they will all be made redundant. His argument was, they may aswel get 80% of their salaries while they can as opposed to £75 per week unemployment benefit. Not sure that is in the spirit of why the system was setup as he openly admitted to me that the company is nolonger viable.

Yes, exactly... short term it does help employees & I'm sure they are grateful as was I. It's scary that no one i worked with was accepting this as a possibility 2 weeks ago... I just got the normal roll of eyes, like here we go again, James is on one.

[Euler]

Irish Government has confirmed that events with crowds of more than 5,000 will not be licensed up to the end of August

[Archery1969]

Irish Government has confirmed that events with crowds of more than 5,000 will not be licensed up to the end of August

Shouldnt it be more than 1 ?

[superfrank]

With the exception of nurses and a few others, I think we should have a temporary 20% wage cut across the public sector to help fund the job retention schemes.

We're all in this together aren't we?

[Archery1969]

With the exception of nurses and a few others, I think we should have a temporary 20% wage cut across the public sector to help fund the job retention schemes.

We're all in this together aren't we?

I dont think soldiers below the rank of corporal would agree as most of them are on the minimum wage as technically there on call 24/7 etc.

[superfrank]

With the exception of nurses and a few others, I think we should have a temporary 20% wage cut across the public sector to help fund the job retention schemes.

We're all in this together aren't we?

I dont think soldiers below the rank of corporal would agree as most of them are on the minimum wage as technically there on call 24/7 etc.

Agreed. Maybe those earning above £30k and not frontline then.

[Archery1969]

With the exception of nurses and a few others, I think we should have a temporary 20% wage cut across the public sector to help fund the job retention schemes.

We're all in this together aren't we?

I dont think soldiers below the rank of corporal would agree as most of them are on the minimum wage as technically there on call 24/7 etc.

Agreed. Maybe those earning above £30k and not frontline then.

+ 1

One thing is for sure, everyone is going to be paying allot more tax in the future as some estimate it will take 20 years of austerity to get back to where we were in January 2020.

[jimibt]

I dont think soldiers below the rank of corporal would agree as most of them are on the minimum wage as technically there on call 24/7 etc.

Agreed. Maybe those earning above £30k and not frontline then.

+ 1

One thing is for sure, everyone is going to be paying allot more tax in the future as some estimate it will take 20 years of austerity to get back to where we were in January 2020.

i think there needs to be a worldwide/community wide revision on how we want to live in society tbh. the current form of capitalism just seems too elitist to cater (care) for scenarios such as the current pandemic. in the uk we at least have the NHS (god bless 'em - the one thing that we really got right). the US is a stark example of a country that places pretty much no emphasis on society as a whole at the expense of the individual being able to *do whatever and achieve whatever* they want. the truth is so far from this vision as to be absurd but sadly un noticed by the US citizens...

but referring back to frank's proposition, i do think that if you can offer support across the chain, for the common good, then we are not only displaying our belief in a fairer society, we are contributing to a mindset that allows such a concept to flourish.

all for one and one for all!!

[Euler]

Professional sport in the Netherlands has been banned until September 1 after its suspension was extended by three months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

[Jukebox]

Despite the expected jump in UK deaths today the rolling 3 and 5 day averages have still hit their lowest since 7th and 8th April

Ours it still 40 and 60 higher than Italy were 14 days ago, but it took them 11 days to get theres from high 500 to below 500

In these days of sophisticated spin it is surprising that the govt only have these pathetic charts to show that real progress has been made. It does seem that between them, politicians, the people they have around them and journalists alike seem to have little clue about handling, managing and interpreting data. They still haven't worked out that a rolling seven day average for instance would help with the weekly 'Monday euphoria followed by the Tuesday despondancy' and instead would help show some positive progress. Who knows - handwashing, social distancing and crowd reduction might have been enough if they were better with the data - imagine what data they have at their fingertips.

Meanwhile of course "we need more data" to work out if a public mouth and nose covering might reduce the spread of a virus that spreads from our mouths and noses - after all, we're not just being asked to not touch each other, we're being asked not to be within coughing, sneezing and breathing distance of each other.

Mind you we did need an illustrated document with instructions and pictures sent to every household on how to wash our hands - goodness knows what the data says about the populace that meant that was necessary.

[Jukebox]

Professional sport in the Netherlands has been banned until September 1 after its suspension was extended by three months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

That does seem bleak.

[greenmark]

I think this is worth reposting.
It describes my thoughts perfectly.
I'd add this is global. We're all involved. There is no point anyone calling in a debt.
Capitalism is dominant right now. Even if you include China and Russia, they're following a capitalist/consumerist approach.
So what does that mean?
Its just barter - one human valuing the goods/services of another.
The fact that manufacturing has been forced to slide from producing high-end clolthing to producing PPE makes no difference.
PPE has high value right now.
F1 companies are producing ventilators.
It's the transition from one mode to another that is expensive, particularly at the lowest levels, but expensive is a relative term in these conditions.
The world is fighting Coronavirus. There is no advantage in exploiting the situation.
I hope that logic persists when someone discovers a therapeutic drug or vaccine.
Just watch the bounce back when it's all over.
Am I naive about that?
Of course, it could be a real nightmare if recovering from CV doesn't give you immunity. Or it turns out that CV19 is the ultimate virus and can mutate rapidly into a strain that avoids CV19 anitbodies.
But presumably evolution will protect us from that. A virus that wipes out its host would be redundant.
posting.php?mode=quote&f=2&p=218939

[Kafkaesque]

But presumably evolution will protect us from that. A virus that wipes out its host would be redundant.

Someone - like me - adhering to the simulation hypothesis being a viable possibility would say that the system is poking us with a proverbial stick to remind us of exactly that fact. With it being a fail-safe, or a prelude to one should the warning not be heeded the first time around.