Pandemic personal consequences

[Clair De Lune]

Thanks everyone. Really appreciate having a place to share and feel supported. I have emailed my boss and carefully explained my side of the story. I feel better for having stuck up for myself no matter what he decides to do with it.
Big love x

 

[Johnny Doe]

Had a call this morning from my main client to say that they are cutting my day rate, which they recover 100% from an end client by 20% for the whole of May. I'm waiting to see what detail is in the letter, but it appears they will continue to charge the end client by current CTE (cost to employ) rate and take the benefit the difference to shore up cash reserves. Lucky to have a well paid job, which I can do from home, but it's still a pisstake

 

[existentialist]

Had a call this morning from my main client to say that they are cutting my day rate, which they recover 100% from an end client by 20% for the whole of May. I'm waiting to see what detail is in the letter, but it appears they will continue to charge the end client by current CTE (cost to employ) rate and take the benefit the difference to shore up cash reserves. Lucky to have a well paid job, which I can do from home, but it's still a pisstake

Another one for the shitlist when this is all over...?

 

[chainsawjob]

Halfway through my UC claim online, I've done all the easy bits...

 

[scifisam]

Halfway through my UC claim online, I've done all the easy bits...

It's important to remember that, as long as you complete the claim within a month, it will start from when you started the claim. So don't push yourself to do it all in one day if you're mentally exhausted.

(You can apply for backdating to when you actually stopped working, as came up in either this thread or another one - I lose track - but that's a different issue).

 

[Johnny Doe]

Pa Smiles is in agony with his Parkinsons-related Ulcerative Colitis. The NHS site says that if it's a severe flare-up you should be in hospital to avoid dehydration or your colon rupturing. Ma Smiles is waiting for a call back from the hospital but I think maybe I should just take him to A & E. But I fear he might never come out if he catches Corona

 

[moomoo]

Pa Smiles is in agony with his Parkinsons-related Ulcerative Colitis. The NHS site says that if it's a severe flare-up you should be in hospital to avoid dehydration or your colon rupturing. Ma Smiles is waiting for a call back from the hospital but I think maybe I should just take him to A & E. But I fear he might never come out if he catches Corona

This is my biggest fear. That if I get a flare I’ll have to go to hospital and that I might not come out. Hope he’s ok.

 

[Johnny Doe]

This is my biggest fear. That if I get a flare I’ll have to go to hospital and that I might not come out. Hope he’s ok.

Thanks, just spoke with him, doesn't want to go to A & E and sounded a little better.

 

[wayward bob]

as i understand it the hospitals are specifically asking people to come in for critical conditions, they have the capacity and putting things off for fear of covid can have its own implications. just imho, obvs.

 

[Johnny Doe]

as i understand it the hospitals are specifically asking people to come in for critical conditions, they have the capacity and putting things off for fear of covid can have its own implications. just imho, obvs.

Yeah, the NHS site lists severe colitis flare-ups as potentially fatal though, hence my checking if he wanted to go in

 

[chainsawjob]

It's important to remember that, as long as you complete the claim within a month, it will start from when you started the claim. So don't push yourself to do it all in one day if you're mentally exhausted.

(You can apply for backdating to when you actually stopped working, as came up in either this thread or another one - I lose track - but that's a different issue).

Thanks for this. Yeah, I didn't try and get it done in one go. How do I answer the question about whether I'm disabled or have an ongoing health condition, this is where I got stumped. I'll think about it again tomorrow. I came off PIP/ESA & got work last year, doesn't mean I'm ok

 

[farmerbarleymow]

How do I answer the question about whether I'm disabled or have an ongoing health condition

If you meet the criteria in the Equality Act for a disability just say yes. It doesn't matter if you're able to work or not.

Definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010

You’re disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a 'substantial' and 'long-term' negative effect on your ability to do daily activities

www.gov.uk

 

[chainsawjob]

Thanks farmerbarleymow. You're right, I will, see if I meet it I mean. I guess I probably will, doesn't mean I could pass a work capability assessment right now i.e. be found unfit to work, my condition is a very fluctuating one. But as you say, that's not the criteria. Thanks for your clear thinking on this!

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Good luck with your claim, and hope evil DWP don't give you any grief.

 

[chainsawjob]

Good luck with your claim, and hope evil DWP don't give you any grief.

Done it. I decided I met the criteria. Just my OH to do his, he's dragging his feet somewhat, but there's a deadline in a few days, in order to link it all as a joint claim.

 

[prunus]

My mum (76, severe angina, has difficulty climbing stairs or walking up hills) has come down with a fever, cough and aches this morning. She and my dad have been isolating hard for 3 weeks or more. Not actually a pandemic consequence necessarily yet, but she and we are naturally anxious .

(edit: got my own mum’s age wrong she’s 5 years older than I thought. Maybe I am too...?)

Update on this: she is now (more than 3 weeks later!) it seems on the mend at last. She was never tested (of course) but her GP said it was almost certainly covid. She was pretty ill most of the time, luckily not too severely affected in the lungs though (gastric symptoms were the predominant, with fever aches and severe fatigue, and the anosmia), not hospitalised (although 'on watch' for while in the middle). She's now fever-free for 2 days, and feeling better, though still very weak.

 

[Clair De Lune]

Officially furloughed. With Schrodinger's disorders. I have disorders when they want me to be an ambassador but I don't have disorders when I need reasonable adjustments for said disorders. Screams inwardly so as not to bother anyone.

 

[gentlegreen]

I was at the daily team conference call and my uber-boss popped in for the first time ... and a bit later she messaged me for a voice chat ...

I had to admit I'm doing feck all for my salary - apart from sitting in on the team meetings - I wasn't issued with a magic laptop so am not part of the call centre work (helping staff with IT issues at home) and I'm not gifted in that area.
My daily routine (was) running to teaching rooms for immediate support with equipment, but mainly turning up there later to fix any faults ... and come the summer, moving and installing loads of PCs and upgrading teaching kit ... the idea of being slotted into a well-oiled virtual machine and screwing up people's laptops remotely with no ability to turn up and put things right would not add to my life - or the team's.
I don't suppose I'm the only one being "carried" at the moment - there must be hundreds of us and I'm not massively highly paid ...
I wriggled out of being on the list for going in to build laptops.

----------------

My original plan was (even with my original retirement plan destroyed), was to work up sufficient emotional capital to hit the ground running (retire) in the summer, but why would I do that now and lose a sizeable chunk of income ?
I might be inclined to hold out for redundancy - which is a not insignificant dollop of cash...

... and disciplinary procedures in the current climate seem highly unlikely and not paying my modest salary is not much incentive. - and I'm on the edge of qualifying as mentally ill if they were to push it - though part of the reason for that is the lack of the daily routine at work ...

To be honest, I think she wasn't fishing - just genuinely concerned that I get to be as much a part of what's going on as possible.

 

[two sheds]

Yep sit down with a spreadsheet and work out the possibilities I'd say. You're still thinking of France? I'd have been tempted myself but there are a lot of French people over there (sorry ). As long as you've got enough to buy somewhere small like what I did and have enough to keep going on I think you'll be fine.

 

[gentlegreen]

Yep sit down with a spreadsheet and work out the possibilities I'd say. You're still thinking of France? I'd have been tempted myself but there are a lot of French people over there (sorry ). As long as you've got enough to buy somewhere small like what I did and have enough to keep going on I think you'll be fine.

To be fair, you're living in my original dream retirement location - or rather Cornwall generally
It's not just the geography of Brittany, it's the excitement of learning the language and the challenge of "connecting" with a (slightly) different set of people - and Brittany isn't even quite "France" ... where I was aiming to live, they have a "Festival du Bout du Monde" - which sort of explains why it appeals to me so much...

Naturally the other reason it appeals to me is that I could afford to buy a place with an acre of land and a barn and still be within reasonable distance of a supermarket - though a helicopter flight to the nearest A&E - or a half hour drive if it wasn't quite so urgent.

 

[two sheds]

Yep I'd have settled in the Netherlands if it wasn't so flat . I loved speaking Dutch, still do when I get the chance.

Auction could be the way to go, or someone I know quite like yourself who's intensely practically minded found a field in the back of nowhere in Cornwall - they do still have them - and has plonked a static caravan on there with solar panels and collecting rainwater there and is building the equivalent of a log cabin.

The other route I'd have been tempted by would have been a houseboat. Pootling along from village pub to village pub with perhaps a little strip of land somewhere you could moor up to would be my idea of perfection.

 

[circleline]

So, had the online funeral last week for work colleague who died on 30th March. We were given a login and password and it worked very well. A strangely intimate experience (no dressing-up or standing on ceremony, obviously, but, perhaps, more intimate because of/in spite of this).

Fucking heart-breaking. The sheer shock and hurt from the family was palpable. We were told that she last saw her (23 year old) son on Mother's Day and was taken (back) into hospital the next day and died a week later. Due to crisis restrictions, her son wasn't allowed to see her in hospital, at all. (I believe this ruling has changed now..?) His abiding memory was being able to see her to share a special day but actually, truthfully, fucking gutted that this hateful virus deprived him of even being able to share his mum's last few moments.

Particularly saddening that we are now talking about, perhaps, easing restrictions and, at least in the above circumstances, respecting our very basic, yet essential, human needs.

There are oft-repeated platitudes: Gone too soon/too young/no age; but really here, for her son, the tragedy is that she died in the wrong place and at the wrong time.

 

[Epona]

Understand that completely

 

[pogofish]

I’m no longer working from home. Furloughed from yesterday for the next three weeks, then maybe more.

My main job up to now has been as part of the team putting one of our sites over to a ventilator training centre for the NHS - twenty-odd of us were engaged in that in different capacities but now it is successfully up and running, they only need a handful of people for largely off-site support. So until they change-round the teams, I’m gardening!

 

[extra dry]

My investment in a wifi router has rather let me down today trying out zoom with a colleague only for him to be saying 'can you hear me' or 'can you see me'?
The speed is terrible and the sound is like talking through a wet dishcloth while underwater.


My direct boss is insisting I can teach using this system when clearly I need a fiber connection, a new computer, and a professional microphone. There are 60 other teachers who are hoping to get work (teaching hours) but I am supposedly a key person and without me, the project is in peril.
I just want to get back in the classroom. rant

 

[oryx]

My investment in a wifi router has rather let me down today trying out zoom with a colleague only for him to be saying 'can you hear me' or 'can you see me'?
The speed is terrible and the sound is like talking through a wet dishcloth while underwater.

I'm sure this is small (or no) consolation but I have been put off any type of videoconferencing, possibly for life, by using it a lot in my last job.

I never want to see a pixelated room full of people again, or spend ten minutes having a conversation that consists almost entirely of 'Can you hear us?' 'Can you hear us now?'.

I'm no tech expert but the tech for multi-way video calls seems to lag behind others. Even organisations you'd expect to be used to it, and to have the latest facilities (e.g. TV channels) seem to struggle at times.

 

[8ball]

I never thought I'd see going to the office to get my office chair and a monitor as a "nice afternoon out".

 

[gentlegreen]

.

 

[gentlegreen]

My investment in a wifi router has rather let me down today trying out zoom with a colleague only for him to be saying 'can you hear me' or 'can you see me'?
The speed is terrible and the sound is like talking through a wet dishcloth while underwater.

Can you not cable up directly ?

 

[gentlegreen]

At the institution I work for they handed out laptops, WIFI dongles for desktop PCs they took home and didn't want to run cables and USB SIM card 4G adaptors ..