Day 1 of working from home and the whole community being shut down. Quarantine and such started a little bit over the weekend, but this is the first Monday — a Monday in which things should have been normal — that has gone. Therefore, I call it Day 1.
The company is trying to get ahead of all this and make plans to cut costs that we don’t need to support for the short term. Some of our clients will have their projects affected. Some of their own businesses will be affected. We are possibly looking at a temporary economic downturn across the board at the best, and a full scale country-wide recession which will take years to recover from at the worst.
We’re exploring whether or not there are some possibilities here, like:
- Help other companies cope with going remote. We’re no experts, but we’ve done it now for three years and are ahead of the curve
- Help companies that have big events or conferences planned to go virtual. Again, not experts here, but willing to help
- Help clients get out very timely information
- Think of ways in which we might help put better information out into the world. So much noise, so much misinformation, so much political divide
Meanwhile, I feel for the gig-economny workers. While some might be very busy — like delivery people — others in the restaurant and bar industry will be hard hit. GoFundMe campaigns have sprouted up.
Still, others in the population are not concerned. This is a forced vacation for them. Or, this is just an inconvenience. What the hell is everyone so freaked out about? Why can’t I have my Wednesday brunch? Why is everyone buying up all the toilet paper? This is just a hoax cooked up by China to pay us back for winning in the tariff war. Yikes. That kind of attitude can get some people killed, literally. Healthy walking people with the virus can infect others. This is how it will spread. And misinformation feeds it. That, and human nature. “It won’t happen to me” attitude.
For us, it is only Day 1 so the reality of it all is barely begun. The kids are fine so far. They have no school, but they also have each other. We are going to try to enforce some sort of schedule for them so things feel more normal. We went bike riding at Swan Point Cemetery yesterday because it was a nice day and we could keep at a safe distance from other people. East Side Marketplace for some essentials was not that bad — sliced sandwich bread was very low, along with hamburg meat, but milk was well stocked.
I stayed away from the news today for the most part. I worked. I read articles. I tried to bury myself and my mind in something that felt productive. I had a lot of video calls, too, which helped take my mind off things. Beth is reading a ton and encouraging the girls to take breaks to slow down as well. We’re trying not to rely on the TV too much but there will be plenty of it I am sure.
Hope Academy sent out an email about distance learning. Some students will have a Chrome book to take home, but very little info was given about how it might all work. I guess we’ll find out on Wednesday when they want us to come in and pick up materials.
All restaurants have been ordered to shut down and work take-out only. Many other cities are doing the same. Some, like White Electric, have decided to close to the public and keep their workers home. Even large chains like Starbucks have moved to a takeout only model. Grocery stores are limiting their hours and declaring certain times of the day to be “senior citizen only.”
We’ll see what tomorrow brings.