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What's your work status now? Back at work? Furloughed? Working from home? Or bugger all?

Are you back at work?

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    192
I'm going back in on Wednesday (voluntarily) as there are house viewings going on and I can't work around it.

It'll be weird, I think. Unofficially I've heard that we'll be going back on a 2 days in/3 days out thing from September. Agree with Poot - seems unnecessary as I've done my job just fine from home. If I had my way I'd just be popping in when it was needed. I'll be trying to stick to as little in the office as allowed.
 
Voley said:
Unofficially I've heard that we'll be going back on a 2 days in/3 days out thing from September.
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If that was my offer, I'd pick going in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays only -- which happens to be my semi-retirement plan for 2022 onwards anyway .... ;)

But I'm sure you'll work out your own rota! :D
 
Two-thirds of UK’s furloughed workers continued job in Covid-19 lockdown

Interesting reading for me, atm for personal reasons, I've been dreading the furlough scheme being extended beyond October (even though I think it would be the right thing to do... it's always seemed like madness to time it's ending then).

I've had:
2 months of furlough at 80% salary during full lockdown, my industry pretty much at a standstill.

2 months of furlough at 80% but increasing time in the office to pick up work (unofficial as not allowed under furlough rules) from 1 day per week to 3 days a week by the end of July.

Officially on part time furlough from 1st August - ie which nets me about a £50/month increase on the previous months.
In practice, I'm 3-4 full days per week in the office now.

But I've effectively had a 20% pay cut since March, and I'm really starting to feel it - rent, bills & food (if I'm careful) is covered but really nothing else.
It's starting to feel like a bit of a grim existence - moreso since I've been back at work, even though I actually enjoy going in.

Still aware that I had a pretty easy lockdown compared to a lot of people - and lucky to still have a job (there've been redundancies) & not be in rent arrears...

& for a while I've been thinking... "if I can just get through to October..." but of course there is no guarantee that work will have picked up by then, so there could still be more redundancies.
 
TLDR: I think the furlough scheme should always have allowed a degree of flexibility, so I don't think my boss is particularly exploiting me (any more than usual :hmm: ), but as long as it lasts, there isn't a hope of me getting off it, as it (the scheme) will be exploited to the max...

It turns out that a 20% salary drop is the difference between existing & 'living' for me, which would be easier to bear if I could see an end in sight. (And was actually ok in full lockdown when I had more time to devote to subsistence living, which I kind of knew from past experiences)

Could be worse...
 
Saul Goodman said:
Fucked. Out of work, out of money, had notice to quit in April and still can't find anywhere to live. Basically, I'm fucked.
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O Saul, this is terrible - a frightening position to be in. There will be an end to this...and it is horrible when you cannot see a way through a bunch of interlocking problems...but since you are not going to simply curl up and die, life will send you off down a strange road you have no choice but to keep travelling. One step at a time, keep all your options open, use all your networks and use Urban as a sort of rage cushion. True, we are distant, not much cop for practical assistance but nevertheless, you are amongst friends and people who care about you. All the best.
 
My company is 18 ppl, we run events. Seven furloughed currently.

Six of those are in f/t furlough, and have been told they'll be made redundant as of end Nov - we've an event to deliver first.

I'm the seventh, on p/t furlough, and worrying that I'll be up for redundancy too. I've been there nearly nine years, so suspect they'll try and keep me on rather than pay redundancy money - but they keep saying "why don't you consider moving to a consultant basis".

Aware there are many others in far worse situations, but it's worrying me a lot

We're meant to be moving back to office-based work in September.
 
plurker said:
My company is 18 ppl, we run events. Seven furloughed currently.

Six of those are in f/t furlough, and have been told they'll be made redundant as of end Nov - we've an event to deliver first.

I'm the seventh, on p/t furlough, and worrying that I'll be up for redundancy too. I've been there nearly nine years, so suspect they'll try and keep me on rather than pay redundancy money - but they keep saying "why don't you consider moving to a consultant basis".

Aware there are many others in far worse situations, but it's worrying me a lot

We're meant to be moving back to office-based work in September.
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Honestly, if I was in your situation I'd be looking at alternatives now. Its a bad time to be looking so the earlier you start the better. Hopefully it'll all work out with your current employer but statutory redundancy is not very much money at all and is designed specifically to ensure companies can rid of people for as cheaply as possible. You can calculate it here (Calculate your statutory redundancy pay) but I bet its not an amount of money which would deter your current employer.
 
Went back in today for the first time to test the water.

They've done a really good job. Nobody sitting within 2.5m-ish of you, very few staff in at all. One way system to help social distancing, hand sanitizer everywhere, lots of rules about using kitchen area safely, desk/phone etc has to be sanitized before you get yourself set up- they've really thought it through and I felt safe.

Had virtual meeting with director who said from September you're encouraged to start coming back but just for 2/3 days a week and if your circumstances don't allow, stay at home. Equally, if wfh really hasn't worked for you, you're welcome back. Can't fault them really, they're taking individual circumstances into account.

I still want to wfh as much as possible but it doesn't sound like that'll be much of a problem.
 
I knew it was going to be economic carnage going into next year, but seeing it bite is turning my stomach
So sorry to everyone already going through the shit right now

I find it hard to believe that the Government and Bank of England are openly and publicly planning for 2 million people to lose their jobs in the near future, all with a wink and a Tebbit like message to "get on your bike" to find another job. Labour seem close to silent on the issue.

Germany are extending their furlough scheme to 24 months - that should give a good impression of how much longer there is to go through all this.
This suffering is avoidable. I'm betting one day there'll be people in the streets over all this. By then though the damage will have been done. The sitting and waiting to get run over is unbearable.
 
Teaboy said:
Honestly, if I was in your situation I'd be looking at alternatives now. Its a bad time to be looking so the earlier you start the better.
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Yeah, I'm on it - thanks though.

Already built my own website to do freelance marketing work, and am advertising it. Redundancy £ would only be a couple of months wages.

Annoying thing is that I got offered a job in late March that would've taken me and the family out of London to the place we want to be. But that venue is planning mass redundancy also to try to stave off closure. Events and venues are really fucked already; god knows how the next 18 months will pan out...

Can always take the family and live in my campervan 👍
 
I'm still waiting for my pension statement so I can hand in my notice, but I
ruffneck23 said:
now the receptionist has got covid symptoms and they are shutting the building down.
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That's something I've been thinking about recently in my 8th week back at work where most of the IT team are at home on the phones and a handful of us are trying to get the place ready for a socially-distanced return in Sept/Oct - at which point every available room is going to be needed.

If I catch anything it's going to be at work because I am super careful out of it ... but were I to have an obvious case of CV19, presumably that whole project would come to an end - or at least all the team members I have interacted with would have to go home and change places with the phone support people.
I think I overheard yesterday that one department which has actual scientists as technical support staff may be lending a hand in their area ...

I have the very slightest dry cough at the moment - which could just be the low-level bacterial thing I've bizarrely had going on since this started. (I am massively not prone to coughs and snottiness - even in 2013 when I clearly had the flu ... I should be immune from the flu atm because I was vaccinated last November ...)
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
Should’ve started with 10 minutes every third week and taken it from there...
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I like your thinking.
There is a method to my madness however.

Official line is 2/3 days in and 3/2 wfh. I'm hoping if I say 1 day in, they'll compromise at 2.

Thing is, I've done my job perfectly well from home - a day a week would be enough to see the boss/ everyone else/ do any office-based stuff. I can't see the fucking point of going in at all tbh.
 
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