2G20 - 2: Social Distancing/Home Working

WaWard · Post by **WaWard** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 6:25 pm

Ours are general stores by now

Fei Ayanami · Post by **Fei Ayanami** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 8:03 pm

SARS mask should be a rank.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Sun Mar 29, 2020 7:48 am

WaWard wrote:Ours are general stores by now

Most of ours are actually counters inside supermarkets.

Vibing_V · Post by **Vibing_V** » Mon Mar 30, 2020 11:06 pm

Lord Golbez wrote:I had to wait longer than 15 minutes in CVS while wearing a SARS mask when I had the flu, which was actually the coronavirus according to some SG members. Even though I was wearing a SARS mask, I had to deal with moving around so people didn't get too close. Like maybe keep your distance from the guy wearing the SARS mask on your own people?

I feel more comfortable around people in masks. They're either prudent in protecting themselves, or prudent in protecting others. Either way, you're a marked threat and I can calculate the risk. You're keeping your germy droplets to yourself so I'll probably feel safer standing around you (vs all the unknown germ carriers ready to cough or sneeze in my face).

Except those idiots who keep taking them on/off or wearing them below their nose as one woman did at Safeway yesterday.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 6:37 am

In the media here, we’re constantly being told that face masks are pointless and borderline dangerous, then I see friends in Japan and Hong Korg sharing advice that suggests they’re the best way to combat the virus

Thing is, Japan’s having a much easier time with the whole thing than some countries that didn’t get it as early.

WaWard · Post by **WaWard** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 12:02 pm

Damien wrote:In the media here, we’re constantly being told that face masks are pointless and borderline dangerous, then I see friends in Japan and Hong Korg sharing advice that suggests they’re the best way to combat the virus
Thing is, Japan’s having a much easier time with the whole thing than some countries that didn’t get it as early.

Yeah the Japanese contractor I work with is saying people followed the rules swiftly so it never got out of control

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 12:39 pm

From pictures posted by people I know in Japan, everything seems be running as usual there.

Vibing_V · Post by **Vibing_V** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 3:38 pm

From what I can gather, the mask thing goes both ways:
-use it properly and it will help
-use it improperly and you make things worse

Given that part of the worry of this virus is asymptomatic spread, it seems to follow that everyone wearing masks (so as not to infect OTHERS) would be smart.

Largely, I think they said MASKS BAD due to shortage, so that people wouldn't buy up supplies that could be rerouted to medical personnel who need them far more. This I am okay with.

I still feel a bit weird about the disinformation campaign on masks though.

Lord Golbez · Post by **Lord Golbez** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 4:15 pm

I thought the deal was that some of the masks help, but not all the types being used. How do you use a mask improperly though? Wipe some coronavirus up with it before putting it on?

Post by **Grey Fox** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 4:26 pm

I've been "working from home" for a few years as I'm self employed so no big change for me. I have to go outside to film stuff but it's mostly in very remote mountain type areas where there's no people. My main concerns are gas stations, where I use paper towels to touch the pumps.

We hired someone to deliver groceries so that we don't have to go to the store, and we sanitize everything that arrives. I've got an acre of land in the forest with no close neighbors, fresh water from a river, and if it comes down to it, plenty of deer and a hunting rifle.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:19 pm

None of the supermarkets here have any grocery delivery slots for the next few weeks, so while it’s all good and well to be told to stay away from shops and order online, that’s currently not possible. Even the websites all currently have half hour+ queues to get in and see you can’t get anything.

Mitsurugi CP · Post by **Mitsurugi CP** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:58 pm

Vibing_V wrote:From what I can gather, the mask thing goes both ways:
-use it properly and it will help
-use it improperly and you make things worse

Given that part of the worry of this virus is asymptomatic spread, it seems to follow that everyone wearing masks (so as not to infect OTHERS) would be smart.

Largely, I think they said MASKS BAD due to shortage, so that people wouldn't buy up supplies that could be rerouted to medical personnel who need them far more. This I am okay with.

I still feel a bit weird about the disinformation campaign on masks though.

tl;dr - masks don't really help if you're not working in a hospital; if you wanna wear something like a bandana or a cloth face cover, go ahead, but don't use surgical masks and n95s so it's easier to get them for hospital workers and first responders.

Masks, on the whole, don't help for several reasons:

- most people use them wrong, and even with training, still use them wrong
- They really only work for short-term prevention of transmission, which is why they're disposable, but people will wear them all day like they're not picking up all manner of schmutz throughout the day.
- false sense of security, so sick people go into public, get their germs on everything, sick and healthy people don't do things like washing hands as much because they think the masks will protec

They're best used in controlled hospital environments where we're already practicing a much higher level of sterilization/isolation/sanitization than just about anywhere else. And normally, we only use them intermittently when going into a patient's room. Then we dispose of them, because the outside of that mask (whether it's n95 or not) now possibly has contagion on it, and the inside's contaminated with whatever was in your lungs/face. And those n95s form a great seal so long as you don't exceed the air exchange capacity. So if you breathe normally, you're good, but if you cough or sneeze, there's a good chance that air breaks the barrier and gets vented out the borders of the mask instead of through the filter element. Thus why it's not great to wear them all day.

Before all this, I never wore the same gloves/masks between patient rooms. But now that we're trying to do the best we can with limited supplies (primarily because dipshits didn't take this serious early enough) and just trying to sterilize them for reuse between pts as best we can (far from ideal, but at this point, we're isolating all our COVID rule out patients in specific floors in the hospital and just trying to keep our nurses and docs from getting infected so we also don't have a staffing shortage)

Vibing_V · Post by **Vibing_V** » Tue Mar 31, 2020 6:11 pm

Lord Golbez wrote:I thought the deal was that some of the masks help, but not all the types being used. How do you use a mask improperly though? Wipe some coronavirus up with it before putting it on?

the main thing I hear is people adjusting them or touching their face more by taking it on/off, as opposed to putting it the fuck on, leaving it alone, and not touching it. I can see how someone fidgeting with it and touching their face and taking off/putting on all the time could be counterproductive, as well as reusing masks that are dirty.

There's also a lot of talk of "only N95 masks work" but if the virus is mostly in droplets, and regular masks are enough to catch those, I imagine that would help a bit. Not an expert here.

Damien wrote:None of the supermarkets here have any grocery delivery slots for the next few weeks, so while it’s all good and well to be told to stay away from shops and order online, that’s currently not possible. Even the websites all currently have half hour+ queues to get in and see you can’t get anything.

The only place that seems to have grocery delivery slots here is Walmart. And TP doesn't exist online. Most high demand items are in store only.

Grey Fox wrote:I've been "working from home" for a few years as I'm self employed so no big change for me. I have to go outside to film stuff but it's mostly in very remote mountain type areas where there's no people. My main concerns are gas stations, where I use paper towels to touch the pumps.

We hired someone to deliver groceries so that we don't have to go to the store, and we sanitize everything that arrives. I've got an acre of land in the forest with no close neighbors, fresh water from a river, and if it comes down to it, plenty of deer and a hunting rifle.

Grey Fox apocalypse bunker!

Lord Golbez · Post by **Lord Golbez** » Wed Apr 01, 2020 12:17 am

I think we should all just wear plague masks.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:08 am

I've been in isolation for an entire month now. How's everybody holding up?
The main change I can think of is that I usually use a calculator a lot in my job, and I'm mostly talking to Siri for the less complicated calculations

Now I have Ring Fit Adventure, I'm going running a lot less than I was a few weeks ago. I'm mostly doing fine though and more worried about readjusting after it's all over. Genuine fear that I'm becoming agoraphobic

WaWard · Post by **WaWard** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 10:52 am

I had to drive. It felt weird. I’ll be working from home even after this is over with, we’re considering scaling down and replacing a car with an electic moped once this is over.

I’d be doing relatively fine I’d i didn’t have to share the day with my family. No jab at them but we could use some space at this point. Just introvert problems.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 3:55 pm

Somebody at work left today so I had to go into a zoom meeting with about 10 people to say bye. Did it from my garden. Multitasking! (getting skin cancer while looking like a mess on camera).

WaWard · Post by **WaWard** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 4:10 pm

Damien wrote:Somebody at work left today so I had to go into a zoom meeting with about 10 people to say bye. Did it from my garden. Multitasking! (getting skin cancer while looking like a mess on camera).

Who quits a job in the middle of a pandemic. Pure madness

Vibing_V · Post by **Vibing_V** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 4:53 pm

Damien wrote:Somebody at work left today so I had to go into a zoom meeting with about 10 people to say bye. Did it from my garden. Multitasking! (getting skin cancer while looking like a mess on camera).

Catching some pokeymams too, I hope.

WaWard wrote:
Damien wrote:Somebody at work left today so I had to go into a zoom meeting with about 10 people to say bye. Did it from my garden. Multitasking! (getting skin cancer while looking like a mess on camera).
Who quits a job in the middle of a pandemic. Pure madness

My partner is exiting his job. This happened a few weeks before all the madness, when nobody even could've imagined this kind of lockdown scenario would happen. But he didn't have a set end date for a while. He's stayed on to help hire and train his replacement. Originally training was going to be postponed until people could be back in the office, but since that's a long way off I guess they changed their minds. So he's training remotely this week/next week and will be done at the end of the month. Bad timing, but at least it dragged on a bit.

Damien wrote:Genuine fear that I'm becoming agoraphobic

I really miss the daily social interactions and being in different physical spaces (I've always done better at focusing on different tasks in a designated space, ie: study at library, workout at gym). But social distancing makes me have huge anxiety and panic when people are too close out in public, so yeah, I can see some weird sort of agoraphobia setting in. $:\$

I'm also getting way out of shape. We go for walks but I don't really work out at home like I should.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 4:57 pm

WaWard wrote:
Damien wrote:Somebody at work left today so I had to go into a zoom meeting with about 10 people to say bye. Did it from my garden. Multitasking! (getting skin cancer while looking like a mess on camera).
Who quits a job in the middle of a pandemic. Pure madness

She'd applied before it all kicked off and got the job during the pandemic. She's going to be trained for the new job on Skype.

Fei Ayanami · Post by **Fei Ayanami** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 7:14 pm

I was genuinely agoraphobic for a period of time ~15 years ago so I am TRAINED UP

Lord Golbez · Post by **Lord Golbez** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 7:37 pm

WaWard wrote:
Damien wrote:Somebody at work left today so I had to go into a zoom meeting with about 10 people to say bye. Did it from my garden. Multitasking! (getting skin cancer while looking like a mess on camera).
Who quits a job in the middle of a pandemic. Pure madness

Seems like the perfect time to quit to me. I've been considering it. Then again, I've been considering quitting for years, so that doesn't necessarily mean much.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 8:15 pm

You don't have to see anybody one last time or any of that rubbish.

WaWard · Post by **WaWard** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 8:21 pm

Damien wrote:
WaWard wrote:
Damien wrote:Somebody at work left today so I had to go into a zoom meeting with about 10 people to say bye. Did it from my garden. Multitasking! (getting skin cancer while looking like a mess on camera).
Who quits a job in the middle of a pandemic. Pure madness
She'd applied before it all kicked off and got the job during the pandemic. She's going to be trained for the new job on Skype.

Sounds like me

Lord Golbez · Post by **Lord Golbez** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 8:28 pm

Damien wrote:You don't have to see anybody one last time or any of that rubbish.

Huh? Are they dying from covid?

WaWard · Post by **WaWard** » Fri Apr 17, 2020 8:43 pm

This was self deprecation btw I’m starting a new job on Monday

Mitsurugi CP · Post by **Mitsurugi CP** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 12:22 pm

That's kind of impressive you were hired to a new job so quickly.

WaWard · Post by **WaWard** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 1:14 pm

Mitsurugi CP wrote:That's kind of impressive you were hired to a new job so quickly.

I mean people need computers a lot these days.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 3:15 pm

I'm now reaching the mental point where I'm more worried about this way of living/working ending than continuing

Fei Ayanami · Post by **Fei Ayanami** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 10:48 pm

WaWard · Post by **WaWard** » Mon Apr 27, 2020 11:11 am

I’m definitely looking forward to my kids going back to school. Being an engineering lead at a new job, part time teacher, part time IT, part time lunch lady all at once is getting old as hell. Weekdays are stressful

Fei Ayanami · Post by **Fei Ayanami** » Mon Apr 27, 2020 2:06 pm

Hm? Fun & Games with your kids when you should be working? Sounds like you should get a pay cut.

WaWard · Post by **WaWard** » Mon Apr 27, 2020 2:30 pm

I’d be fine getting a pay cut if it means less work stress TBH

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Tue Apr 28, 2020 7:51 am

Virgin internet has had problems nationally since yesterday evening, so that'll make remote working fun today!

Vibing_V · Post by **Vibing_V** » Tue Apr 28, 2020 9:24 pm

Damien wrote:I'm now reaching the mental point where I'm more worried about this way of living/working ending than continuing

Same here. There's so much talk of opening up in the coming months despite a steady increase of cases day by day...

If I have to go to the office again I'll probably move home, which will be big changes again. From here it's 2 buses each way.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Tue Apr 28, 2020 9:38 pm

So glad I’m not in London for the aftermath.

Vibing_V · Post by **Vibing_V** » Thu Apr 30, 2020 6:03 am

My bosses want me to take vacation. I mean, it makes sense bc it's quiet work-wise and I was also meant to be on vacation right now anyway. But it'd also be nice to pocket a few days for the fall.

H suggested that I stagger the days so I'm only working 2-3 days a week for a couple weeks so that I'm still in touch with what's going on. Might bring that up. Otherwise 5-6 days and then maybe 1-2 in the fall.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Thu Apr 30, 2020 7:21 am

Fuck what they want! Don’t waste your vacation because it suits them. If they want to furlough you, they can do that’s!

WaWard · Post by **WaWard** » Thu Apr 30, 2020 12:17 pm

Vacation sounds great. Whew are you going to go? In the kitchen? Maybe you could take a small detour in the washroom!

Fei Ayanami · Post by **Fei Ayanami** » Thu Apr 30, 2020 1:12 pm

I’m with Damien. When you use vacation should be something you decide. It’s one thing for work to be like “please don’t vacation just then, it’s a busy time”, but telling you when you should vacation is bullshit.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:34 pm

You work hard for them, don't let them dictate your free time. This isn't a benefit, it's a right.

Vibing_V · Post by **Vibing_V** » Thu Apr 30, 2020 4:12 pm

Well they have to approve the vacation request and they aren't going to let me take it later in the year....
I see Brits talk about furlough but not sure what it is. Is it a lay-off? We just have lay-offs here.

Fei Ayanami · Post by **Fei Ayanami** » Thu Apr 30, 2020 4:20 pm

Furlough was also a hot word in the US when Trump’s shenanigans shut down the government.

Vibing_V · Post by **Vibing_V** » Thu Apr 30, 2020 4:25 pm

Reading local employment standards and the wording I come across makes it sound like employers CAN schedule the time for me.

Damien · Post by **Damien** » Thu Apr 30, 2020 6:03 pm

It's having your employment being kept but actual working put on hold while you still receive a full or large portion of your regular income. If you work 2-3 days a week, you're totally going to still be expected to do everything you usually do in a normal working week, by the sound of it. Taking "vacation" now doesn't seem to be of any benefit to you.

Vibing_V · Post by **Vibing_V** » Thu Apr 30, 2020 6:18 pm

We don't have that here. Just lay-offs which means no pay (eligible for employment insurance) but in theory your position is there later on I think.

WaWard · Post by **WaWard** » Fri May 01, 2020 11:20 am

Hello I’m a boss and I agree with Damien and Fei. I’ve had a conversation with people that *haven’t* taken enough vacation to tell them to look and plan one, but I’m not actually telling them to take some. the only exception I’ve come across for that is if they’re about to expire or some shit like that where they would actually lose out not taking them, then I talk with the person and try to figure out a way for them not to lose out on rightful vacation time.

That said, I don’t think it’s illegal for that in Canada, but the law is strict minimum for the most part and employers that use it as a back up aren’t doing enough IMO

Fei Ayanami · Post by **Fei Ayanami** » Fri May 01, 2020 11:46 am

Ward’s a boss

WaWard · Post by **WaWard** » Fri May 01, 2020 11:50 am

Thanks I hate it

But I guess I’m good at it somewhat

Cid · Post by **Cid** » Thu May 07, 2020 7:05 pm

I was hoping our department director wasn't full of shit when he kept saying everything was fine but unfortunately Covid just took out my job.