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

sorry jon, hope you're able to push back on that

seconded! good luck, jon, hope you get management to see sense

I've been handling this OK at home, but yesterday was the first time in weeks I felt a little on the verge of snapping at my family. It probably didn't help that Monday I went to the store and volunteered (safely!) at the food pantry for the first time in a long time, so I got to see the real world at work, or something like work. It definitely doesn't help that my kids, who started this adventure spread out all over the house, either for the sake of novelty or who knows why have stationed each other within a few feet of where my wife has been working, so the central hub of the house is now this busy den of dings and beeps and one-sided conference calls and e-learning and, inevitably, bickering. It definitely definitely doesn't help that weeks ago, before even shelter at home, I told them that we would be spending a lot of time inside and it would be a big help to keep their rooms and bathrooms clean, and throw away trash, put away dishes, and so on. And to the surprise of no one they have ... not been doing that.

Thanks. I'm just frustrated because I know upper management is on my side and has multiple stated guidelines and recommendations that we HAVE to have all meetings remotely. But I just seem to hit this perfect storm of a frustrating contractor and a supervisor who just doesn't like to push back, so I'm feeling stuck. I know it's not helpful, but I'm kind of spiraling this morning into all kinds of assumptions. Right now I'm making arrangements to sleep in my car for the next month or so, because I'm sure as hell not going to risk bringing it back in to the rest of my family.

Mostly comes down to the stark reminder that capitalism and someone making money is more important than lives.

Good morning! All I got:

“I’m gonna make you my favorite Cosmopolitan and you probably have all the ingredients right in your house. So you need a big pitcher ‘cause I like to make a lot of Cosmos. You never know who’s gonna stop by. Wait a minute... no one’s stopping by.”
- Ina Garten, 9:30AM pic.twitter.com/6EFONzgssa

— Ξvan Ross Katz (@evanrosskatz) April 1, 2020

This is what I get for maintaining relative calm for the first two and a half weeks. I'm freaking the fuck out today. Great.

Ugh, sorry about that, jon. I don't know why people aren't getting this (or why people who do get it don't seem to give a fuck about sending other people into the lion's den).

Surprisingly/thankfully, it seems that my workplace hasn't looked for some way to creep around the shelter in place order and we will, afaict, still be working from home through the next month at least. I mean, aside from the fact that I'm sitting here looking like someone who slunk out of an alley to bum a cigarette, my day-to-day work routine is pretty much precisely the same as it was a month ago, so why not?

It's just been a really hard adjustment in mindset from knowing I'm doing everything I can to protect my health and my family's health to knowing that I will now have to just accept getting sick and potentially dying.

jon, I hope I don't minimize the dangers when I stress that you and your family will likely be fine if you keep your distance from other people.

That's my plan, I just have very little faith that the job site will be allowing me to do so. The last time I was there, just the day before the stay at home order came through, no one was following any good practices.

if you go now and it's still like that, would it do any good to send a polite email to contractor expressing your concerns? like "I'm really trying to accommodate your desire for face-to-face meetings, but the situation I experienced today made me very uncomfortable. Can you try to accommodate my desire for a safe workspace" blah blah

Worth a try, but gauging by his responses when others (not just me!) had previously requested remote meetings in lieu of in person meetings, I'm not sure it'll go very far.

After the bad weekend I had I'm trying to retrench and re-organize. "Vacation" mentality lasts for two weeks. If I want to keep my grip on things I need to work. Less Discord, more structure.

During our team meeting yesterday my boss mentioned that since the medical school (and the university to which it's attached) is bleeding money at the moment, furloughs are likely, and if my boss gets furloughed, my freelance/contractor assignment goes away, too. We'll see...

xp to jon: What is this man's deal? Does he think only delicate blossoms get viruses? Has he just returned from his vacation in a CAVE ON MARS and hasn't seen any news yet?

He's just a hardheaded older guy that values his bottom line over everything else. When my company first told him we were going to pause the project due to essentially shutting down our campus, he threw an absolute shit fit. Once the governor clarified that ALL construction was considered essential, he got even worse and was hounding us daily about restarting it. I have no idea what changed with upper management about restarting this particular project, because it's not falling in under and of our internal "essential" categories, but I'm not privy to their decision making process.

http://static.tvmaze.com/uploads/images/medium_portrait/164/412338.jpg

(nb: photo will make no sense if you don't watch better call saul)

Ha, I do, and that's not a bad comparison actually. He plays golf all the time and has a second house in the SW.

that 2nd house mortgage ain't gonna pay for itself, let's get this thing constructed, jon!!!

Exactly. My family's health and safety is expendable as long as his standard of living isn't impacted.

Sorry to derail today. I get that many are fighting much harder and dealing with much bigger issues right now, it's just been a rough morning. And I had a really long conversation with my wife last night about how thankful I am that we both have jobs and we are both being encouraged to stay home, so it's felt like a bit of a sucker punch to feel kinda thrown to the wolves.

Not at all helpful that my boss has had time to write and respond to seven other emails involving me in the last two hours, but has conveniently ignored the one where I raised my concerns.

If you have any authority over the contractor, such as in approving the work, you should make clear to him that you will be looking at everything with a fine tooth comb, taking every one of your allotted days to approve change orders, not letting him skate on near immaterial variances, etc.

NP, jon. we all get to annoyed by this in our own unique ways.

You have to play up the health an safety angle. I’m sure he wouldn’t allow anyone on site without hi viz, hard hat, safety boots and safety glasses. And I bet he’d throw anyone off the job who violated safe work processes. This is the same thing this is taking an unnecessary risk. This is working on a machine without a full Lock out Tag Out process. If there is no need for you to be onsite to participate in meetings then you are putting yourself, him, his workers, your family, his family and their families in a situation with Unnecessary risk. If he doesn’t get that take this to OSHA

tbc he should be following of all that protocol PPE + Lock Out Tag Out procedure whether there's a pandemic on or not

cough on all of the floorboards

(sorry ed misread what u wrote at first)

This makes me mad. We’ve had a SWMS on workout for weeks now. One of our biggest contractors has isolated their crews, one crew per site l, no mixing between crews and if there is a case the job stops and the whole crew quarantines. Very tight rules about subbies being allowed on site (basically not at all without the crew withdrawing). We can’t even visit our site when the crew is there. Management walks by FaceTime only.

We’re not building a building, to be clear, it’s installing DC fast chargers on petrol station forecourts but you’d be surprised by how many trades that take.

If you can’t keep your people safe you shouldn’t be in business.

Amazon has a ton of listings for surgical masks shipped from overseas with bad reviews, all of which are variations of MADE IN WUHAN, CHINA, AVOID, U RISK INFECTION.

Hmm not sure who wants to be the first to tell these guys that you're just as likely if not more to get a contaminated package if it was made in the US atm and that two or three customers probably sneezed on the groceries you bought before you took them off the shelf.

One of my best friend's mom has been battling cancer for months now. She just learned that her mother is in misery, and has at best two weeks to live. She's being moved to hospice, but because of current rules no more than two people can visit her at a time, and no kids. So my friend and her family can't be with their mom, even though they know the end is coming soon. And my friend can't even have her daughter come say goodbye to her grandmother. No hugs, no collective celebration of her life. And then when it comes to the funeral in days or weeks from now, there's not going to be any of that, either. It's absolutely heartbreaking.

post workout = Corona

Listening in to a call my wife was having with her friends (the same call where we heard the terrible news), I learned that this was the first day she herself was feeling kind of down. I never would have guessed, but it was still sad to learn that's how she felt. I mean, I assume we are all feeling some version of that right now, and it will get worse the more people we know that get sick or succumb. We are all lucky and unlucky in our own personal and specific ways, but we are all equally helpless in the face of this disaster.

Taught my first actual class online tonight. Classes are normally 3h20m (with break) but we only took 10 min break and went 6:30 to 9:40pm. EXHAUSTING. Videochatting and sharing my screen and ON 100% for 3 hours staring at a laptop :-/

Before I used to leave home at ~ 3:40 to avoid traffic, prep for class, and eat my carefully planned homemade dinner. then i would teach for 3 hrs 20 min (with break) and drive home to arrive around 10:20 or so.
Now I get to stay at home and eat my homemade food with my partner and have a few extra hours

I am enjoying the new good times but still wistful for the old times :( i miss having tea with my students and just being in their company

With funerals etc, it must be possible to have a bigger wake/saying goodbye collectively thing at a later date. Must be something significant at another point post pandemic. My family is hoping for my Dad's next birthday as a famiy get together for that purpose.
Having a small ceremony and a burial in his birth village. I was semi surprised they were being allowed to take the body over there during this, it's half way across the country.

sorry Stevo :(

sorry and good luck to everyone else having hard times too

had my first social distancing nightmare last night, kinda funny in retrospect, everyone around me just kept throwing huge GATHERINGS, with BABIES. i yelled at everyone that we were all gonna get sick!

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, April 1, 2020 5:19 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

This past week I've dreamt something distancing related every night. And I swear, like Groundhog Day, every fucking morning the first thing stuck in my head is "I used to dream about Corona" (from Heather Nova's "I used to dream about Verona"). They're not nightmares per se, but it's an always present dread. Could do with at the very least the night being corona-free tbh.

Sorry Stevo, Jon, and everyone dealing with a lot right now. Best to ye <3

THanks, hope everybody is going to come through this ok. & there sin't another unforeseen coming straight after it.

Would be great if it was able to be taken as a time to rethink not prompting a scramble for more and more austerity and right wing takeovers.

My dad had been in ill health and had to be rushed to hospital. Not sure how things would have panned out if he hadn't died suddenly this is a trying time for everyone .

Taught my first actual class online tonight. Classes are normally 3h20m (with break) but we only took 10 min break and went 6:30 to 9:40pm. EXHAUSTING. Videochatting and sharing my screen and ON 100% for 3 hours staring at a laptop :-/

I sympathize. Tuesday and Wednesday have been exhausting: from recording lectures to answering the endless emails.

ffs one of the other 2 devs and one of the 2 product managers are being furloughed. I am definitely not being furloughed. lucky bastards. they get paid the same and they don't have to work :( meanwhile I will probably have to work harder to cover for them

thinking of everyone at this time who has been hit with the worst.

spain........ wyd

Followed government advice and went out for my first bit of exercise - walking is exercise enough for me. Probably not a good idea to go out in the afternoon as it was no quieter than a reasonably quiet Sunday. I thought I'd go to a nice leafy middle class bit of the neighbourhood for a walk, rather than try to navigate the clueless goons who seem to populate my area. Anyway, I was almost trampled to death by joggers - most of whom make no effort whatsoever to avoid anyone else - and then had a close encounter with a taxi driver who purposefully drove to the centre of the road to intimidate me when I was crossing because I assume he thought I wasn't crossing the road quickly enough. Lovely people, taxi drivers.

I'm so glad we have a treadmill in the apartment. So, so glad.

Taught my first actual class online tonight. Classes are normally 3h20m (with break) but we only took 10 min break and went 6:30 to 9:40pm. EXHAUSTING. Videochatting and sharing my screen and ON 100% for 3 hours staring at a laptop :-/

I sympathize. Tuesday and Wednesday have been exhausting: from recording lectures to answering the endless emails.

I’ve been teaching (tweens) remotely for two weeks now. Video conferences are exhausting Really painful. So much of working with young students is relational, and few of them have social pragmatics in person, let alone on a shared Google Meets Hangout screen with ~ 20 peers they haven’t talked to in weeks.

My day is: wake up, record horrible embarrassing video/screencast, update website, attend various department planning meetings virtually, respond to student emails, develop my curriculum, design and post new supplemental materials based on student need, read and prioritize and respond to emails from parents, special educators, and administrators who are not involved in helping me (but have strong and arbitrary opinions on how I should be doing things), eat lunch, hold virtual office hours for kids, work on next week’s lessons, etc.

My district has decided (and it is a brave and good decision) that we should plan weekly lessons per subject that can be accomplished AWAY from the computer, are non-sequential in case kids miss weeks of school due to family illness, do not widen the equity gap re. technology, and deepen academic skills w/o attempting to shuttle new content into environments we cannot influence. We are not able to enforce or hold students to any deadlines - and one/one conferences are discouraged. And administering classes in a way that honors special education needs is ... very difficult.

For me, the biggest difficulty at the moments is that I’ve just fully contact with some (adored) students. They don’t respond to emails, log into school software, and neither do their parents. They’re often vulnerable kids I mentor, with whom I have formed a 1:1 relationship over the course of many careful years. My only recourse is to turn their names over to a sometimes ham-fisted administration, which I’d prudent but feels like a betrayal.

I'm planning on my kids not having school (at school, at least) for the rest of the year, that's the way things seem to be going. My daughter asked me how they're going to handle grades, given the official policy is that the school work they are doing is not being graded. I have no idea! I guess it depends how things play out.

I'm going to donate blood in a little bit, wish me luck. Life, or at least parts of it, must go on.

we're doing their school's zoom classes and trying to get them to do their assignments but our strategy is just to make sure they're reading a lot and improving in their reading and assuming they can grow in that area i'll consider our corona homeschooling a success.