COVID-19 Unemployed/Employed Roll Call Poll

Are you still employed during COVID?

  • Yes

    Votes: 57 21.5%
  • No

    Votes: 10 3.8%
  • Yes but Moved to Part Time

    Votes: 2 0.8%
  • I never stopped working during COVID

    Votes: 196 74.0%

  • Total voters
    265

Gunnerclone

Well-Known Member
Jul 16, 2010
75,682
80,074
113
DSM
I’ve been full time remote for almost three years now. I’ve just been chugging along through this situation. I’m really interested to see what kind of roles come open if school is from home this fall and people make the decision to retire or leave to accommodate that.
 

mramseyISU

Well-Known Member
Nov 8, 2006
7,076
7,518
113
Waterloo, IA
I've been working from home since St Patricks day with no end in sight. From what I gathered from our last all employee web meeting only they are only expected 50% of the people who did work in the office to come back ever.
 

SCNCY

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Sep 11, 2009
10,717
8,529
113
37
La Fox, IL
Never stopped working. Working from home since late February early March.
 

Cyclonepride

Thought Police
Staff member
Apr 11, 2006
98,846
62,419
113
55
A pineapple under the sea
www.oldschoolradical.com
For those that never stopped working, we’re you able to work from home?

Nope. I mean, I certainly could have, as 80% of my current job is website administration and social media, but I haven't. I don't really have a problem with that, as our office is pretty spread out, and I don't have a lot of people in and out of my office on any given day.
 

Clonefan94

Well-Known Member
Oct 18, 2006
11,204
6,258
113
Schaumburg, IL
Never stopped working. Have been working from home since Mid March, with no end in site. Our office is open because our IT guy is there to take care of the servers and we have one other person there because we still get orders via mail. Our office is fairly small in the first place, with only 25 people, so the company has said they want everyone else working from home, to protect those who have to be in the office.
 

IlliniCy

Well-Known Member
May 21, 2008
1,328
2,469
113
Been out of work since the end of March. I didn't really even try to look during April and May, simply because everything was shut down. Looking hard now though. Broadcasting, , marketing, social media content and recruiting, if anyone is hiring. ;)
 

Hoggins

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Sep 2, 2019
3,406
4,877
113
37
Essential ag employee so never stopped working. I was in close contact with someone who tested positive last Friday so now I'm just sitting at home waiting for test results. Until Monday, this thing hadn't really effected me at all.
 

Sigmapolis

Minister of Economy
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Aug 10, 2011
26,965
41,694
113
Waukee
Basically the whole business went remote when it hit.

The very rich Boomer who makes these kinds of decisions even speculated on an "all-hands" call about if we should walk away from office space when the leases are up. It's expensive, and we're not proving to really need it after the past few months.

I would not want to have much for holdings in commercial real estate right now.
 

GMackey32

Hall and Oates’ #1 Fan
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Nov 2, 2009
19,102
32,131
113
39
Ames Via Cedar Falls
Haven't stopped working. Been coming into work every single day. Unfortunately we've had two employees go get tested over the last week and I haven't seen them since. I'm hoping they are staying home as a precaution.
 

cb1030

Well-Known Member
Oct 6, 2017
316
604
93
39
Work in a small office with six other employees. Unlike a lot of other employers we were talking about contingency plans very early on starting in late January or early February. Since most of what we do is online we all were able to start working remotely in March and continue to do so. We just make a point of letting each other know when we intend to go to the office to grab something so that people can avoid crossing paths if they're concerned about that sort of thing.

At this point it's really becoming apparent that we could continue working like this indefinitely. Not sure if that will be the case, but it's certainly a debate worth having. Like most others I think our stance is that we're going to wait and see how this plays out before making any longer term decisions.
 

Jer

CF Founder, Creator
Feb 28, 2006
23,583
23,446
10,030
Thankfully we’ve been blessed not to be directly impacted. Never stopped working, but we all went remote in early March. We have 150 colleagues normally in the office but have only had 10-15 there that couldn’t work remote for one reason or another.

We have an office construction team putting up higher glass walls between the staff cubes and plan on starting our A/B schedule next week with every other seat open in week rotations onsite/offsite. We have a very open environment for those not in offices so there are still a lot of people not excited about returning, and with everything else (kids, school, compromised immune, etc) anybody that wants to stay remote for the time being is able to.

We have started heavy discussions about making a lot of our positions and/or teams flexible to be remote going forward since it’s proven effective for us, with shared spaces available to reserve. As we continue to grow as a company, that will also keep costs down as we are nearing capacity of our current building. Commercial real estate isn’t going to be the same for quite some time - if ever.
 

cmjh10

Well-Known Member
Dec 5, 2012
22,808
14,912
113
Buffalo Center
Essential ag worker. Plants shutting down affected us for a couple months, othet than that, not much has changed.
 

CascadeClone

Well-Known Member
Oct 24, 2009
10,921
14,024
113
Basically the whole business went remote when it hit.

The very rich Boomer who makes these kinds of decisions even speculated on an "all-hands" call about if we should walk away from office space when the leases are up. It's expensive, and we're not proving to really need it after the past few months.

I would not want to have much for holdings in commercial real estate right now.

There's been a lot on "de-officing" in the news and I think it will be a thing for sure. I'd guess around half of office jobs can be done equally well at home.

There are enormous benefits to skipping commutes in major cities, you would have a lot of people getting a couple hours of their life back, every day. That's huge. Reduced impact on global warming too. (Tinfoil hat - covid invented to scare people and reduce CO2 emmissions to save planet!)

The downside is that you miss out on social interaction. People joke about jerk co-workers, but it is a benefit (at least net-net). You will also lose some jobs maintaining/cleaning buildings. And there will be a major impact on the construction industry, office interiors companies, and all the folks that work in those industries. That will be a bigger economic impact than lost property values.

We just bought a new building for our business, but it is 85% warehouse/mfr space, so I feel ok about that.
 

Cyclones_R_GR8

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Feb 10, 2007
23,978
25,962
113
Omaha
I've been working from home since they kicked me out of the office on March 23. I was still going in because it was essentially empty so it broke up the monotony of being home 24x7. They had talked about a phased return to the office starting in July. I'm guessing they might push that back another month or so.
My setup at home is pretty much the same as in the office. 2 24 inch monitors. Thought about adding a third but then I would miss the third once I went back.
 

bawbie

Moderator
Staff member
Mar 17, 2006
54,370
47,074
113
Cedar Rapids, IA
For those that never stopped working, we’re you able to work from home?

I've been working from home the whole time. Starting June 1st we let some people back into the office, but very few went back in, I'd say < 20%. I expect it'll remain like this through at least the end of the year


Luckily my team and my company have avoided layoffs, only canceling some outside contractors.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ClonesTwenty1

exCyDing

Well-Known Member
Nov 29, 2017
5,650
10,170
113
I’ve been lucky - I’ve worked (almost) all the way through Covid. I changed jobs in mid-March, my last day at the old job was the first day they went work from home. The new job closed our offices about the same time. Aside from going in to pick up my laptop, I haven’t been in the office. I’m not even sure if I have a desk there or not.

Initially, the CEO said we wouldn’t be back in the office before the 4th of July. In June he announced everyone would get a small work from home stipend for July through September for anyone who needed things for their home office setup and stopped talking about a possible return to the office date.