How’s Work?

shailynn
They never tell you what you need to know.
2 years after the start of the pandemic, or 2 years into the pandemic (depending on how you look at things) how is work now?

I know asked previously and it seems most of us still working stayed at their currents jobs and didn’t leave. I know for my supply lines they are getting better everyday (still many hiccups) and finding trucking doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue. A year ago it took a month (or two) to get something, now it takes a week or two.

It’s different all over the country, I know places like Atlanta you wouldn’t even know COVID ever existed, but somewhere like Washington DC is not near back to normal because so many people are still working from home. I had a work counterpart tell me pre-pandemic there were around 2.4 million visitors weekly into DC (workers and tourists) and its improved greatly, but still is only around 1.2 million weekly visitors since tourism isn’t back to where it was and workers aren’t coming into the city everyday greatly affecting local businesses bottom line. On the other hand, businesses in the suburbs around DC are thriving because people working from home are now visiting these businesses where previously they wouldn’t, because they’d be in the city working.

37 comments

Latest

skibum609
3 years ago
My job is the same; mask mandate is gone for Court; but, business has gone insane to the point where I no longer am returning phone calls from prospective clients because I cannot work more than I do and it never seems to slow down.
shailynn
3 years ago
^ so are you saying more people want to get divorced now?
gammanu95
3 years ago
Everything is back to normal. We've stopped telehealth visits except for one shut-in and have made masks optional. I live and work in a very red area of FL, so it's a relief not to have to address mask refusals daily. I'm actually surprised when I'm out and about and see so many people still wearing masks.
skibum609
3 years ago
Shailynn - I used to see 10-12 potential new clients a month in order to get 2-4 clients a month. Now if I see 6 in a month, I sign up 5-6 and old clients keep coming back. I have 3x the normal amount of client retainers in my bank account. Not sure if the rate is going up or if it's the same rate, but people no longer window shop.
Call.Me.Ishmael
3 years ago
I started a new business at the beginning of the pandemic. I'm doing pretty great right now. I feel fortunate to be in that position.
Cashman1234
3 years ago
My office is still largely working from home. They had a return to the office a few weeks ago, and a good number came back for a day.

Over the past two years, we’ve gotten much more efficient working from home. Now it’s a challenge telling folks they need to come in to do all the stuff they have been doing from home.

I think over a longer period, more folks will develop a hybrid schedule and find it useful to be in 2-3 days a week - and then home the other days. The traffic isn’t bad at all, so I’m not complaining.

I think the large corporations will need to decide how much space they need going forward - and then maybe the office footprints will decrease?
SanchoRG
3 years ago
Our supply issues remain and we anticipate 2022 will be more of the same re China shipping containers. Major ports and factories over there are shutting down for Covid, again

Our suppliers have hit us with the first price increase of the year and tell us to expect 3-4 more. All of them saying this

Personally, I’m burned out and discovered I have a lot more leverage than I thought. Trying to figure out if I should remain where I am or go on my own. My employers are willing to bend over backwards to retain me, but I’ll never get a house next to the boss by working for him
Tetradon
3 years ago
Never better. Paid handsomely with a promotion in the works, locked in a mortgage before Bidenflation devalues debt. Charging more than ever on my consulting business and like Skibum, having to turn away clients.

Cacaplop's "recession proof business" is sucking cock behind the bleachers during fifth period. High school boys always ready to grab a nut.
san_jose_guy
3 years ago
SanchoRG, interesting.

Thanks

SJG

X- Live At The Whisky A Go Go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LInxU2dW…
Icee Loco (asshole)
3 years ago
Work is highly linked to people's discretionary income. And people definitely have less of it. The economy is a sinking ship
san_jose_guy
3 years ago
Biden is doing a very good job, but our currency is still sinking.

The real issue is that our economic system is broken. Advancing industrial and information technology means a less and less inclusive economy.

Biden is doing well, but we need more radical things, going beyond what he tried to pass in Build Back Better.

Problem is that with Right Wing Media and our history of racism and a virulent Right, the electorate is not ready yet for more progressive solutions. Biden has a very hard job.

SJG

X- Live At The Whisky A Go Go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LInxU2dW…
ATACdawg
3 years ago
Iive been retired for 8+ years, so things have been pretty good.

Ironically, I will soon be going back to work with some old cohorts, probably between 10 and 20 hours a week. I've had the itch to do more naval architecture work, and the money is just too good to pass up. All work will be from home.
motorhead
3 years ago
Covid almost seems like a distant memory but supply chain issues are not getting better. I bet I heard the phrase 3 times just this week “it’s still going to get worse before it gets better”

Price increases are coming every 3 months. Several vendors have already indicated they are no longer taking new orders until 2023 at the earliest.
motorhead
3 years ago
The departments that learned to work at home, like accounting, now consider it to be the new normal and I doubt we will ever see them return. Some come only once a week, some once a month. I guess to proof they still are alive so their paychecks don’t stop

Among my suppliers, they have finally recognized that single sourcing (particularly from China, but also from India or Eastern Europe) was a mistake. They have geared up for dual sourcing and some production is coming back to the US. But that’s going to take time. 18-24 month lead times for machine tools. And then, will there be enough labor in the US to support the extra capacity? There are still rough times agreed in the industrial sector
shailynn
3 years ago
I agree discretionary income is dwindling in some places. We had crazy sales increases during the pandemic and right now the only way to go is down. Luckily we raised our priced modestly and it padded the small Al scales decline.

I agree with being burnt out too. Worked 6 days a week all of 2020 and still haven’t recovered.
whodey
3 years ago
Work is going great. While the company reopened the offices for anyone that wanted to come back there are currently less than 5% of the company that has chosen to give up working from home. While it was a rough transition to work from home for some of our people they have grown to love it. The company had been slowly moving people to w@h and already had about 20% of our staff at home before covid so it was just a matter of convincing the others to get on board with it.

This is allowing the company to greatly downsize the amount of office space they have. For instance, in Columbus we used to have offices in 5 buildings with 2 of those occupying the full 3 story buildings. Now we are only going to have 1 floor of one building for our offices even though we currently have almost 100 more employees in the area than we did in 2019.
Papi_Chulo
3 years ago
In certain industries like tech there had been a push towards shared-workspaces in-order to enhance collaboration and creativity - seems that style is gonna severely contradict the new work@home model that's taking-root and why I've read of some big-tech-companies trying to pressure its employees back-in-the-office.
docsavage
3 years ago
I work for the Department of Defense in accounting and all of us have been teleworking full time from home for two years now. We were recently offered the option to make full time telework permanent and I chose that.

I've thought about applying for jobs where I can make more money. It's always nice to have more money for things like strip clubs. I might not be able to telework full time on those, though. Also, I only really work about five hours a day on my current job and my bosses all like me. They think I'm a dependable and competent worker who doesn't cause any trouble. Government workers tend to be less competent and cause more trouble than their private sector equivalents, so it is easy to be a better than average employee in the government.


Papi_Chulo
3 years ago
"... Price increases are coming every 3 months ..."

"... [Jerome] Powell said the Fed would maintain its commitment to keep inflation near 2% — a level he suggested could be reached within the next three years as the central bank tightens monetary policy ..."

https://nypost.com/2022/03/21/powell-adm…


So we've gone from "inflation is temporary" to if it all goes well we'll get back to previous levels in 3 years - and some analysts are saying that is being bullish - we need to get ready for a new normal that will be around a good while and hopefully not permanent.
wallanon
3 years ago
Hey doc. I think I saw a video about that one time...https://youtu.be/vofWkCJvbDo
MackTruck
3 years ago
I been dumpin loadz like crazy
RTP
3 years ago
I am in industrial sales (I work for a distributor not a manufacturer) and my work is not that great. Problem is supply. About 25% of supply comes from Europe and Asia, some just never shows up. If it does show up, it can literally take 6 to 8 months. Prior to the pandemic it took about 12 weeks. Prices are up close to 50%, if you can actually get product. It is a challenge to survive, even though demand is really strong.
Tetradon
3 years ago
"Paid handsomely with a promotion in the works, locked in a mortgage before Bidenflation devalues debt""
What happens to the price of debt when interest rates go down, dummy? You might learn some finance when you get to 11th-grade math.

I was FT remote prior to the pandemic. My team is across the pond, so what do they care if I'm in the office or not. This exposed face time for the outdated notion that it is. Commute? Fifteen seconds, a minute if I make a jaunt to the kitchen.

My products are needed whether or not there's a pandemic. And there are exciting new pharmaceuticals as long as the NIH grant and venture capital money flow.

In short, I've been very lucky. I've tipped my house cleaners, waiters at my local hangouts, etc extra throughout the pandemic.
Tetradon
3 years ago
^ When interest rates go UP.
twentyfive
3 years ago
Not working is great, I am learning how to live a life of leisure, it's fun watching y'all running round and round on your hamster wheels.
Tetradon
3 years ago
@25, I don't plan to retire until I'm no longer able to work.

I enjoy and believe in what I do, bringing innovative drugs to patients. I also have time to do things I enjoy outside of work.

I'll take purpose over leisure.
skibum609
3 years ago
While I don't like work, the idea of staying home and doing what I see other retired people do is of no interest to me. I have taken extended periods of time off from work when I changed jobs and came to the conclusion that without a stressful go, go, go type job I don't enjoy activities as much. Last time I took a summer off golf became a chore, rather than something to look forward to. I always thought I'd be done at 59 1/2, then it was 62 and as I approach 65 the question is 66/6 or 70? I golfed last Friday, spent 4 days gambling on march madness, 2 days at the strip club, one all night poker game and tomorrow I go skiing.
shadowcat
3 years ago
April 1st marks my 13th anniversary of retiring from the company I worked at for 42 years. I did retire 2 years earlier than I had originally planned due to a nice retirement bonus. But I miss working so I have taken a part time job as vagina inspector at one of Atlanta's strip clubs. It's not quite as demanding as my old job but it's still something that needs to be done.
jackslash
3 years ago
Being retired means I do whatever I want all day every day. Money appears in my checking account every month and I haven't done any work. My old boss would say nothing has changed.
twentyfive
3 years ago
I am enjoying myself, I have plenty of purpose driven things that keep me as busy as I like, but after years and years spent as a business owner, constantly fixing other peoples messes, and dealing with lazy entitled people that believe I owe them a living, it's so nice to just be responsible for my own self, and enjoy the luxury of doing what I like, when I like, with no nagging worries as to how my day will be impacted by some other person's failure.
It's great to be in my position.
rickdugan
3 years ago
Overall great. Good people in my field are in high demand right now. Though if this inflation continues then I'm going to have to start re-negotiate more of our existing service agreements and potentially bake in inflation riders.

On a broader note, I do a lot of business in NYC and I'm thoroughly convinced that the city will never return to its pre-pandemic glory. Some businesses are NOT requiring workers to come back in at all and many of those that are returning to in-person are using a hybrid model, only requiring workers to come in 2 days per week. Office availability is now at 17.4% in Manhattan, which is a record high. But the worst is yet to come. Many of the companies occupying existing offices are on 5 to 10 year leases, so it will only get worse as time rolls on and those leases expire - basically a multi-year death by a thousand cuts.

While I love being able to work from anyplace with an Internet connection, I fear that many of our largest cities will never fully recover, especially those heavily reliant upon finance and tech workers.
drewcareypnw
3 years ago
I’m in software. I quit a solid consulting gig to take a full time gig just before the pandemic started. The timing was purely random, but they fired all the consultants from gig 1 a few months later. I’ve never been into the new job’s office in 2 years. Crazily these last 2 years have been my best by a factor of 2x, not a figure I would have ever expected to see. I have to go into the office for a social lunch today, and it will blow up my productivity for the day. I don’t expect to ever be a regular at the office. Strange times.
Tetradon
3 years ago
^ Don't think most people here care what you think of them. All the Greenville basketball team cares is that you still suck dick for a fiber behind the bleachers during 5th period.

Don't concern yourself with the lives of your superiors.
Tetradon
3 years ago
^ for a fiver
Tetradon
3 years ago
^ I never lied. You are illiterate.
Icee Loco (asshole)
3 years ago
Tetraplop pays himself to troll a strip club site and spam it with war propaganda
Tetradon
3 years ago
^ If you had it you would have done it already
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