It's been a weird week. I've spent large parts of the work side dealing with COVID-19 preparations or the closure of the site which caught fire, including the unpleasantness of redundancy consultations. The ongoing deterioration in my parent's health is approaching another waypoint as well. At home, I've been reading a lot, enjoying the company of the family and catching up on sleep. I've found that the last month-and-a-half is starting to bite from a tiredness perspective, so I've had a few early (for me) beds to try and deal with that. When you're falling asleep mid-page and drop the book (or Kindle!) repeatedly, your body is giving you a hint!
Writing this as someone who has spent the last fortnight diving into government guidance for the coronavirus breakout and turning that into company policy, the last few days feel much more panicked and disorganised. The gov.uk guidance that has been developing logically over the last few weeks - for example, over travel - has suddenly been withdrawn, undermining the work that we've been doing to try to be consistent and ensure that the business can still operate. The armageddon moment for business-as-usual (or business-as-near-to-usual) is if schools are closed; for a manufacturing business, that makes things incredibly difficult. Of course, the health of our people is the most important thing, but we don't have the security that French employers have of knowing that their government will cover salaries if people are sent home.
The panic buying is shocking; Morrisons in Wetherby looks worse than Christmas. Admittedly, their supply chain and on-shelf availability are poor at the best of times, but the two times I've visited this week has seen virtually no detergents, pasta, rice, coffee/tea, tinned food, cleaning agents and toilet rolls. The shelves were bare in large sections. Watching other people's trolleys made me despair; I'm not sure that it's the town's demographic, but it was mainly the elderly shoppers with trolleys full of staples.
If the reports of aiming for 60% infection to develop herd immunity are true, it's a pretty cold decision, and BoJo's talk of many loved ones dying is definitely true. With an estimated death rate between 1% and 3%, that's 360,000 to 1,080,000 extra deaths from the virus (crudely). Now, that may well be an over-estimate, but it's going to be harsh.
Work continues to be all about the aftermath of the fire at Wakefield, but the focus has moved to the site closure and business continuity. Most of the next three weeks will find me sitting in redundancy consultations, which are never pleasant for anyone involved. However, it's really important to me that I be as supportive and sympathetic as I can to the people I talk to.
My mother's health has deteriorated further; my dad is now on four week's respite break as he's not coping well. He's sleep-deprived and struggling to manage with Mum's Parkinsons and associated dementia. It's time to start looking at long-term care options before he kills himself by over-doing it.
I've found solace in reading, and seem to have started an impromptu Iain M. Banks re-read on impulse. Time with Jill and the lads is also great; Jill's on the mend from a very nasty bacterial chest infection, which is good news. I also found myself diving deep into the Marillion back catalogue; mainly the material that has been recorded after Fish left (which I prefer), and especially the albums which I haven't listened to as much.
Nathan seems to be developing a really interesting taste in music; The Killers, NIN, Bring me the Horizon and Pet Shop Boys have all featured recently. I'm glad he's developing a broad taste in music.
I'm on an unplanned gaming break at the moment; Curse of Strahd finished for the time being and a gap until Graham restarts Coriolis. Jag has also had to put a gap in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4e game we're playing to the end of March. I'm playing around with using Sly Flourish's Ruins of the Grendleroot as a taster campaign for the lads over the Easter Holidays. I fear that the various conventions that I was planning to attend won't survive the COVID-19 epidemic; as an organiser, I'm watching advice closely.
But I'm here, I'm healthy and mostly happy.
15 March 2020
Writing this as someone who has spent the last fortnight diving into government guidance for the coronavirus breakout and turning that into company policy, the last few days feel much more panicked and disorganised. The gov.uk guidance that has been developing logically over the last few weeks - for example, over travel - has suddenly been withdrawn, undermining the work that we've been doing to try to be consistent and ensure that the business can still operate. The armageddon moment for business-as-usual (or business-as-near-to-usual) is if schools are closed; for a manufacturing business, that makes things incredibly difficult. Of course, the health of our people is the most important thing, but we don't have the security that French employers have of knowing that their government will cover salaries if people are sent home.
The panic buying is shocking; Morrisons in Wetherby looks worse than Christmas. Admittedly, their supply chain and on-shelf availability are poor at the best of times, but the two times I've visited this week has seen virtually no detergents, pasta, rice, coffee/tea, tinned food, cleaning agents and toilet rolls. The shelves were bare in large sections. Watching other people's trolleys made me despair; I'm not sure that it's the town's demographic, but it was mainly the elderly shoppers with trolleys full of staples.
If the reports of aiming for 60% infection to develop herd immunity are true, it's a pretty cold decision, and BoJo's talk of many loved ones dying is definitely true. With an estimated death rate between 1% and 3%, that's 360,000 to 1,080,000 extra deaths from the virus (crudely). Now, that may well be an over-estimate, but it's going to be harsh.
Work continues to be all about the aftermath of the fire at Wakefield, but the focus has moved to the site closure and business continuity. Most of the next three weeks will find me sitting in redundancy consultations, which are never pleasant for anyone involved. However, it's really important to me that I be as supportive and sympathetic as I can to the people I talk to.
My mother's health has deteriorated further; my dad is now on four week's respite break as he's not coping well. He's sleep-deprived and struggling to manage with Mum's Parkinsons and associated dementia. It's time to start looking at long-term care options before he kills himself by over-doing it.
I've found solace in reading, and seem to have started an impromptu Iain M. Banks re-read on impulse. Time with Jill and the lads is also great; Jill's on the mend from a very nasty bacterial chest infection, which is good news. I also found myself diving deep into the Marillion back catalogue; mainly the material that has been recorded after Fish left (which I prefer), and especially the albums which I haven't listened to as much.
Nathan seems to be developing a really interesting taste in music; The Killers, NIN, Bring me the Horizon and Pet Shop Boys have all featured recently. I'm glad he's developing a broad taste in music.
I'm on an unplanned gaming break at the moment; Curse of Strahd finished for the time being and a gap until Graham restarts Coriolis. Jag has also had to put a gap in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4e game we're playing to the end of March. I'm playing around with using Sly Flourish's Ruins of the Grendleroot as a taster campaign for the lads over the Easter Holidays. I fear that the various conventions that I was planning to attend won't survive the COVID-19 epidemic; as an organiser, I'm watching advice closely.
But I'm here, I'm healthy and mostly happy.
15 March 2020
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