How is your job being affected right now?

[dougdirt]

I can see where this topic could certainly turn "political", so let me just preface this whole thing by trying to cut that off and keep it more to a discussion that avoids politics as much as possible. I understand that some things could be tough in that scope, and mods you can handle that if/when something comes up.

That said, I'm curious about how everyone is doing, job wise, right now. It may all depend on where you live, too. Things in Ohio could be different than things in Wyoming.

I'll start things off. Technically, I'm still working. Self employed, work from home - so, essential business or not, the Ohio order doesn't come into play with me because I don't have to worry about anyone coming in contact with me or my "workers" that don't really exist. Unlike some others, who have either been flat out laid off, or had their hours cut back as businesses have had to shut down or change their operations - I can continue to work.

Of course, as someone who writes about something for a living that isn't happening at all, that's made things tough. The "keep working" part of this is tougher because there's not that day-to-day stuff to write about. It's more like "let's try to find something historical to write about" after an offseason that already had a bunch of 2019 stuff looked at.

But while I can and have kept working, it's been a disaster in terms of seeing what's happened for the financial side of this. Traffic is down about 70% over the last 2 weeks from where it was the previous 2 weeks. That alone has led to advertising revenue decline. But the advertising rates are also dropping. So it's been a bit of a double whammy. For me, I get paid in three ways for my writing. I've got Patreon for the minor league stuff - where those who support things give whatever they want to give per month, and get stuff in advance at times, and a bit of bonus content during the season emailed to them each morning. That usually makes up about 40% of my income. Then I also get paid via advertising - I use google ads and a sports video advertising/highlight agency that you've probably seen all over the place. That revenue has dropped off the face of the planet. Yesterday, the video advertising paid out $1.60 for the day. Google ads did better - $13.89.

Fortunately, I had been saving up to try and buy a fixer upper out in the country with a few acres of land in a few years, and I've got some money stashed away for that to keep me from being flat broke in a month or two. But things aren't looking awesome in my current situation, either. Not sure how long this whole thing lasts, but I don't have a ton of faith that the specific industry I'm in, is going to be doing well for a very long time.

Anywho - that's kind of where I'm at right now. How about you guys and gals?

[klw]

The courts are mostly closed but I am considered an essential worker. Even with that our office is mostly shuttered and almost the whole office is quarantined due to possible exposure. Oddly I am not as I was given permission to work from home before the others exposure became apparent. Even though we are essential we have been told to work from home unless absolutely needed to cover a rare emergency in court hearing. My fear is down the line a bit when the State budget crunch may effect my department's funding- an issue I ran into back in 2009.

Not to turn this political but I blame this all on the Joe Randa signing.

[Boston Red]

Luckily it hasn't affected me yet. I still go into the office because it's a ghost town, and it's a lot easier for me to be productive in the office than working from home. But if necessary that will be an option as well. Again luckily, I don't think this will affect my job status as long as it keeps up (assuming we aren't talking about a year or 18 months), because I'm busy dealing with issues around C-19 and our business continues to operate as normally as possible given the situation, but long term my job could certainly be impacted by a global economic slowdown if one persists post-pandemic.

[RedTeamGo!]

I’ve been working remotely since last Monday. I am an Account Manager at the largest freight broker in North America. We are absolutely essential. In fact a colleague of mine is the Account Manager on the GoJo account and he has moved 230 truckloads of hand sanitizer and soap in the past 3 weeks. I’m actually really proud of how my company handled this. We started preparing to work remotely over a month ago just in case. Last week over 10,000 employees hit the ground running working remotely and we haven’t missed a beat. Last week was actually our highest volume week in history and we handled it really well. I am actually on pace to get my largest monthly bonus (which is tied to volume) in my career.

I wish I was having a terrible month and everything was fine in the world, though.

But yeah, no big difference, just having to play with the kids while my wife gets on a work call or is doing something work related she can’t get away from and she does the same when I am doing the same. It’s weird all of us being home all of the time now. I’ve been running like crazy though. Ran 4.75 miles Sunday and 3.50 yesterday. Plan on running 4 tomorrow.

[klw]

I’ve been running like crazy though. Ran 4.75 miles Sunday and 3.50 yesterday. Plan on running 4 tomorrow.

I should be running more but the marathon I am training for was postponed last week from late May to late October, combine that with a few days windy weather and I have taken a few days off.

[Bob Sheed]

I'm a contractor for a company that may be suspending all of its contractors tomorrow.

Not too worried though. What I do is in pretty high demand.

I'm worried about all the unskilled labor jobs that probably aren't coming back even when this thing does end.

I'll leave it at that as to avoid politicizing the discussion.

[RedTeamGo!]

I'm a contractor for a company that may be suspending all of its contractors tomorrow.

Not too worried though. What I do is in pretty high demand.

I'm worried about all the unskilled labor jobs that probably aren't coming back even when this thing does end.

I'll leave it at that as to avoid politicizing the discussion.

Yep. I live in Lakewood, OH. Which is a densely populated urban environment with a ton of small businesses. Restaurants, bars, coffee shops, book stores, crafts, etc. I am very worried what’s going to happen to my community because of this. I always support the local small businesses, but I can’t right now. The city of Lakewood gave every small business $3000 to help pay their lease and bills. Hopefully this doesn’t go on too long and not too many of these places stay closed.

[dougdirt]

Yep. I live in Lakewood, OH. Which is a densely populated urban environment with a ton of small businesses. Restaurants, bars, coffee shops, book stores, crafts, etc. I am very worried what’s going to happen to my community because of this. I always support the local small businesses, but I can’t right now. The city of Lakewood gave every small business $3000 to help pay their lease and bills. Hopefully this doesn’t go on too long and not too many of these places stay closed.

First off, that's awesome of Lakewood. It's probably been 18 years since I was there last, but I enjoyed it (except for the parking ticket we got.... but that's another story for another day).

But yeah - I've just got a real bad feeling that among many other repercussions of this situation, we're going to see a lot of smaller business go belly up and never return.

[JaxRed]

I'm retired. You look up the potential victim of this and I'm the guy. Male, age 69, prior lung issues. I can hunker down a long darn time. But my wife (66) still works. We don't need her money. Everytime she heads out the door to work, it's like she's playing Russian Roulette with the gun pointed at me.

The Mayor has said anyone that can work from home is ordered to work from home. But she can't in her job. (Accounts payble... it's still done like it's the 80's.....paper, paper, paper). Her boss has let payroll know that if they get locked down. they'll still get paid.

She says "I hope I don't get locked down"!! I hope she does.

[Larry Schuler]

I'm retired. You look up the potential victim of this and I'm the guy. Male, age 69, prior lung issues. I can hunker down a long darn time. But my wife (66) still works. We don't need her money. Everytime she heads out the door to work, it's like she's playing Russian Roulette with the gun pointed at me.

The Mayor has said anyone that can work from home is ordered to work from home. But she can't in her job. (Accounts payble... it's still done like it's the 80's.....paper, paper, paper). Her boss has let payroll know that if they get locked down. they'll still get paid.

She says "I hope I don't get locked down"!! I hope she does.

My wife was working from home for a week and then her job implemented a staggered work schedule, half her office working every other day, and, on her second in-office day, several members of the office that were supposed to work from home came in anyway because they were “bored” working from home. It’s hard to balance respecting your spouse’s autonomy and pushing them into making the correct choice but I think health comes first. I had to be a bit of a focused a-hole (or at least I felt like one since I’m not naturally aggressive or controlling) but my wife decided to bring up her concerns about her co-workers coming in on ‘off days’ and her boss agreed with the concern and now my wife is working indefinitely from home. And I’ve been reassured that I only felt like a jerk and she appreciated me pushing her to say something. I hope your wife decides to make the better choice for the health of both of you.

[SunDeck]

I work a software company and our clients are state and federal law enforcement training academies. Largely, we are unaffected by working from home. Our contracts are annually paid, so the company is probably good through fall of 2020, but after that who knows? That two trillion dollars needs to come from somewhere and I'm sure some of our clients will be pressured to scale back our implementations. The upside is that with a client base of first responders, law enforcement and homeland security there's not likely to be much stomach to cut back on their budgets currently. Fingers crossed, but can't say I'm not a little worried.

[BuckeyeRed27]

I travel for my job about 50% of the time. I haven't noticed it too much yet, but if this goes on for 8 weeks or something it will be very odd. I'm pretty used to working remotely anyway and our office has been completely shut down now for about a week, although I haven't been there in almost 3 weeks now. I work in finance and given what has been going on in the market, I'm busier most days that I am in "normal" times.

[BuckeyeRed27]

Yep. I live in Lakewood, OH. Which is a densely populated urban environment with a ton of small businesses. Restaurants, bars, coffee shops, book stores, crafts, etc. I am very worried what’s going to happen to my community because of this. I always support the local small businesses, but I can’t right now. The city of Lakewood gave every small business $3000 to help pay their lease and bills. Hopefully this doesn’t go on too long and not too many of these places stay closed.

I've been supporting a local coffee shop in Lakewood called Starbucks almost every day because they have a drive thru. It's basically the only time I leave the house, except to occasionally go for walks when the weather isn't awful.

[Tuff Nut]

My factory is still running full tilt. There are approx 50-60 hourly employees, spread thru different departments.. We make metal cabinets and tables for hospitals, dentists, and labs.

[Roy Tucker]

I work in IT security for an insurance company with Cincinnati in its name. We have to be at our best in a disaster situation so we have a remote disaster recovery data center and practice regularly various DR scenarios. Key to all that is everyone working from home or remotely since our HQ might be a smoking crater. We usually rotate people though WFH on a regular and routine basis. So we were well prepared for this and we are all WFH. It’s been a little weird attending all meetings via Skype (I’m a big “be in the room” guy) but I’m getting used to it.

My wife works front office at Mason Early Childhood Center (all K-2 classes) and a big part of her job is attendance for 2000 kids. They are on spring break this week so she is unsure what she’ll be doing come Monday. I told her to be open and flexible and engaged and pitch in wherever you can. Her principal leans on her a lot as a peer since my wife has a BSME and is grossly overqualified for her $35k job. But she likes it and it keeps her happy so that’s good since if momma ain’t happy, there ain’t nobody happy.