I haven’t had a chance to post any rants or ramblings about all the fucked up shit happening in our country right now. There is so much going on that is well beyond normal for my weird shit-o-meter that I haven’t really wanted to go down this rabbit hole until I had enough time to put some actual thoughts together. For today I figured I’d start with the current status of the COVID-19 virus, what we are seeing, what we are doing and what it possibly could end up meaning for us. I do intend to follow-up with an additional post in the next day or two touching on the current unrest and protests in our country as this is an important topic we all need to be involved in discussing so we can work toward a better answer than what the status quo has been for too long (this goes for all parties involved, including law enforcement, but that is for a later discussion).
The COVID-19 lockdowns are starting to lift in parts of the country. Depending on which state you are in and what is happening with the virus in that region dictates which phase of the reopening your city/county/state is in. While it’s great to start seeing some restaurants, bars and other stores reopen the damage done to the economy has been pretty massive and will take a long time for most businesses that do survive to recover. That of course is only for those businesses that are able to reopen and make a go of it in the reality of these new times. There are a lot of businesses that with the current restrictions can’t re-open, or those that could re-open but due to the restrictions on capacity and available services they can provide it wouldn’t be profitable for them so they have to choose to still be closed, or in the worst cases those businesses that can’t re-open because the damage has already been done and is too severe for the survival of the business. I hope that I am wrong but I fear a good chunk of small business will be gone after this coronavirus fiasco and may never be able to come back. These are the business owners and employees I feel most for at the moment as finding a job in this economy and period of time is incredibly difficult (I unfortunately just found out that I will be losing my job at end of this year due to IBM restructuring and downsizing so I definitely share similar feelings as those who have already been affected… it’s a nice “thank you” from IBM after 13yrs of service… but that is for another tirade at another time).
It’s been interesting listening to the virus response info I’ve been hearing from my employer as well as friends who work for different employers and also what I’ve been able to find online from different companies in IT and other industries. For many companies it sounds like even by end of this year they are aiming for only 50% at best of the office staff being back in the office for work each day due to how the recovery phasing rules are working in each state and how each company is handling it’s work from home capabilities as well as what the in office work environment and whatever possible liabilities (both health-wise and legal) are present. This is quite a difference from the early days of the pandemic response when companies were initially telling employees they’d have the option of working from home until the end of that current month, March. Since then it seems like each week the forecast for when and how many employees are returning to work changes depending on what new information has come out regarding the infection/mortality rate along with any other important virus related news. If anything good comes from all of this it may be that companies return to expanding their work from home policies and programs so that more employees have the option of working from home during part or all of their shifts each week.
I am still looking forward to hitting a bar once they’ve opened up in my area. I even am looking forward to going to the Portland,OR IndyCar race in September, provided it isn’t cancelled or becomes a spectator-less event. Like nearly everyone else I too am chomping at the bit to get back to even a taste of what used to be normal for us. That all said I still support taking a cautious approach to help prevent infection and protect those who are most vulnerable in our communities. It seems pretty clear to me that we will have to learn to live with this virus, at least for the few year near term, while a vaccine is produced to help and try to stamp this virus out from becoming a yearly instance like the flu currently is.
