Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

idk. There was some strong bread flour (Canadian??) in my supermarket this weekend but no regular stuff.

yeah, i have seen things about the sudden rise in people needing to bake bread right now.

It’s mostly going to feed moths and weevils right now.

I don't know if anyone on ILX is Mormon or ex-Mormon, but I just learned yesterday that apparently having (at least) a 3-month emergency supply of food is an informal tenet of the religion. As I was reading about it I came across a forum for ex-Mormons complaining about the practice and all the stuff their families or loved ones had accumulated. For example, parents downsizing were itemizing their store room and realized they had barrels of wheat. Not flour, wheat. Responses jokingly asked what they planned to do with it, run it over repeatedly with a car? Someone else stockpiled so much wheat (wheat!) they eventually had to donate it to feed cattle. Another thread calculated that they had enough pancake mix to make literally 3000 pancakes; their mom called the packaging hotline to beg for alternate uses. Another poster said their dad would joke that he didn't need to store food, because if the end of the world came he would just grab a gun, walk down the street, shoot his neighbor and know there'd be a year's supply of food. There was even an older article asking if then candidate Mitt would have months of food stored in the White House.

When they've been charitable, it's been a great boon. I believe they opened up their church stores post-Hurricane Katrina, which was the right thing to do.

On the other hand, the central organization has been hoarding money like crazy for a while and some of the members are getting irritated that, like any person or organization that has a ton of capital and desires to do something to make it grow, they've invested in real estate

I just got furloughed!

Aww, man. Best of luck to you shakester.

My wife's company was offering a three-month sabbatical at half pay, which frankly sounded great to us. Turned out they don't want to lose her for that long, so they worked out a part-time deal instead.

this came at a time when I happen to be fairly well-positioned to survive it financially, so I'm thankful for that.

At this point I'm more worried that my company is going to go under, and I won't have a job to go back to. But who knows what tomorrow will bring.

really sorry to hera

I’m listening to my husband in the next room negotiating a pay cut. It sounds like his boss is talking a 50%-75% cut. Husband is trying to ascertain if he’ll still be expected to work full time and boss is being passive-aggressive about it.

Shit, that's terrible.

xp -- *hear, apologies, tabbing between this and freelance thing

yikes justin3. that's scandalous.

Οὖτις does this mean paid vacation or are they keeping that 100% salary guarantee?

(or maybe i'm not quite understanding how this works...)

I don't quite understand it all either. I do know it means I'm still technically an employee (which means I get to keep my benefits, which is good) but I won't be paid a salary, and I can't work. I *can* claim paid-time-off that I was already eligible for (ie vacation and sick time), while I am on furlough. Otherwise I am expected to sit around, not get paid, and wait for my position to be re-activated.

I do think I am eligible for unemployment while furloughed (which I think means I will also be eligible for the 4-months pay thing in the Senate bill)

I'm really disturbed to hear what's happening to everyone

I’m listening to my husband in the next room negotiating a pay cut. It sounds like his boss is talking a 50%-75% cut. Husband is trying to ascertain if he’ll still be expected to work full time and boss is being passive-aggressive about it.

― just1n3, Tuesday, March 24, 2020 7:28 PM bookmarkflaglink

what.....the.....fuck!

can we, like, crowdpunch that boss until he relents, like Bill Murray's brother

Personal good news: I just got another message from the DC courts, saying that I will NOT need to report on Monday, and this round of service is completed.

Οὖτις: I was furloughed for four weeks during the 2018-2019 Federal Government Trumper tantrum sequestration. (My employer is a Federal contractor, so they had no money coming in on my contract. But they did keep our benefits active.) I didn't apply for unemployment, because I had savings and didn't think it would last that long, but would have been eligible. I remember the worst part was the uncertainty. But at least then I could go out, go to a movie, etc. So far I've coped with working from home, but only because I've been busy for the last week.

Please note, his company still hasn’t drawn on their line of credit. Jordan is trying to convince him that that conservation of cash by cutting 75% is not worth the loss of employee effort, which would end up costing a lot more.

that’s yet another fucked thing, our system doesn’t have a cut-out for salaried employees to take assistance if their position is diminished

my friend who used to work on a factory line had a couple weeks per year of nearly guaranteed lay-off years ago, and it was straightforward. they’d only shut down the line for several weeks, he’d know it was coming and get his paperwork in order to file for temporary unemployment, go hiking along the great lakes for a week or two, and come back right after. obviously not a lifestyle for everyone, but he knew the rules and the standard deviation

Just1n3, shakey, I’m so sorry.

Thank fuck for that I can rest easy now I've had my office government text message.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lv7b1o6917cnu44/png%20image%202.png?raw=1

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/ETuAqILXYAEkkM0.jpg

so sorry to hear people’s bad news. all this is happening so quickly.

i lost my job about two weeks before all this really kicked in (i reported bullying at work, and they removed me a few days later), and now the job market for people like me has just ground to a halt. ‘er indoors is still working, and i’ve got a reserve tank of money to get through the next few months, but the timing sucks.

i reported bullying at work, and they removed me a few days later

well now this is bullshit on top of bullshit. sorry AA

So, when is a good time to kick out one’s alcoholic and belligerent husband after years of putting up with his lying about the problem at hand? Apparently last night, if you’re my little sister.

He really is an asshole and she found 18 empty beer cans had accumulated over the course of one day.

oh jesus, that's awful. I suspect this time of extended closeness will result in many reckonings.

I’m not clear where he actually *went* because this news arrived overnight via my mother, who had to deal with a weepy, whiny drunk man phoning her at midnight to complain about her daughter. She needs to block that shit NOW.

friend of mine is a manager at a whole foods in oakland; she says it's just a round-the-clock shitfight. idk whether they have masks/gloves, but she's expected to work many extra hours without extra pay because she's salaried

it's not like i want to lose access to food or have people starve, but maybe there really should be a general strike

It's unbelievable that Whole Foods managed to get worse leadership than the libertarian-hippie nutjob they had pre-Bezos.

xp - there's only one Whole Foods in Oakland -- the one near my house. They do have staffing round the clock normally. Not to be all Captain-Save-a-Corporation. ... Also, that store, idk, I feel like when Amazon bought it they rearranged shit to encourage people to get delivery rather than actually buy groceries there, because they moved things around, and changed register staffing, such that the lines are ridiculously long ... like, the Friday when everyone freaked out and bought all the food? ... The lines weren't any longer than usual ... only difference was more people with larger quantities. ... They also fucked with the in-store music.

Supermarket aisles aren't designed for this 2m apart thing. Maybe they need to have a one way system that traverses every section, but then the queue by the till gets in the way.

And we're all going to die like the golgafrichans from a disease picked up from the 'pay now' part of those touchscreens.

I kind of like the way you end up with things you wouldn't normally buy, like mango chips and coconut milk.

Also, has anyone told the olds that 2m is 6ft?

Tell them it's roughly the height of King George VI and they will understand immediately.

Shakey, Just1n3, I'm so sorry about your situations. Shit's real.

and aa. sorry folks.

It's going to be a really bad time for the people self-isolating with alcoholics, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Someone I know has already banished her husband to the van. Allowing him back for toilet breaks.

I’m waiting for Minnesota to wake up - I’m pretty sure my sister’s husband is self-isolating in his van too

Shakes, just1n3, aa best of luck.

aa, are you in the US? If your employer's action was directly related to your complaints of bullying, you might want to speak to an attorney depending on the state (especially NY/CA).

nah, i’m in australia, and i was casual so they could let me go at short notice without a reason

that is some bullshit. very sorry.

thank you. it was total shit (and pushed me onto antidepressants for the first time in my life) but the current world situation really throws it into perspective.

aa, Justine, shakey, wish yall well

<3

Yes, hadn't even read your own situation AA, amidst all the rest. Be well <3

The couple two floors below us in our 6 story building I mentioned before, the ones who both got the symptoms on Monday? We found out yesterday they are still taking their toddler to the park. These are friends of ours (correction: were friends of ours). My wife tore into them yesterday by text but it’s okay because they are “taking every precaution” apparently. FFS!!!!