ETA: I guarantee you that companies who decide to stay closed on their own (you know, because it would PROTECT PEOPLE and SAVE LIVES) won’t qualify for any federal subsidies. It’s been their plan all along. Re-open or shut down.
And employees who are afraid to go back to work will probably get fired "for cause." This is just another way to force people to decide between their jobs or their health. And I have a feeling it's going to backfire horribly from a public health perspective.
Mr. Smock was one of the 6.6 million people who filed for unemployment this week.
Our situation is a little different, because his company laid him off in January but April 1st was his official last day. So we've had time to come to terms with the situation and plan our budget. I thought we'd be okay financially, but I'm nervous about how a recession/depression will affect my freelance work. I practically had a meltdown yesterday because another freelancer claimed a piece I wanted to write.
I think it varies by state. I'm also not sure what happens in the case of a temporary layoff; I assume you wouldn't get vacation time paid out in that situation.
Mr. Smock got laid off earlier this year, and even though his company gives annual vacation time in a lump sum in January, the "company policy" is to only pay out vacation accrued by your last day, which meant he got less than we expected. The fine print always seems to screw the workers.
Also it was a terrible idea to read Oh Crap! I am now deathly afraid of PTing DD2. Damn this book really shames you when you don't PT before the magical age of 30 months. It convinced me to not PT this coming week since we'll be doing some Easter activities, so next weekend it is.
If it makes you feel better, I tried to PT DD1 before the 30 month window "closed" and it was a total disaster. We did the three day method and she completely stopped going at all, other than dropping massive amounts of pee on our floor once a day. That kid has an iron will (and still does at almost 6!). We ended up backing waaaay off and didn't try again until around her third birthday.
bowies, I'd say do it. It's good practice and it's actually low-stakes since you don't want the job. Especially considering that you might want a position with them down the line, make a good impression now to bank some goodwill. (But I totally understand wanting to cancel; I've want to cancel every single interview I've ever done because I also get anxious.)
Is it bad if it's supposedly "Spring Break", but the WFH/SAHP still has a modified version of homeschooling still in effect? Asking for a friend...
We're planning to keep up the homeschool routine through our spring break. Honestly, we're finally into a good routine, so I don't want to throw it off by letting them run wild for a week. (Plus, I still need to work that week!)
My boss started a meeting today by “inspiring” us with the fun fact that King Lear was written and the Theory of gravity was discovered while under quarantine.
SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT—IM SUPPOSED TO BE A PRODUCTIVE WORKER, TEACH 3RD GRADE AND PRE-K, WORRY ABOUTMY FRIENDS AND FAMILY......AND NOW IM SUPPOSED TO RISE TO THE OCCASION TO BE FUCKING SHAKESPEARE OR ISAAC NEWTON?
Nope.
Shakespeare and Isaac Newton weren't working full time and homeschooling kids during their quarantines. I'd wager money that Shakespeare's wife spent a fuckton of time making William's life easier, and Newton was living with his MOM, so, no. Not the same at all.
How have WA & CA managed to keep their numbers from increasing while NY & NJ continue to explode. I feel like NY/NJ/CT locked down shortly after the West Coast, but I could be wrong.
NY is definitely doing more testing, and the high population density probably plays a factor, but WA also had their first COVID-19 death two weeks before NY. I think people here in Seattle started stocking up and social distancing earlier than the East coast. Which hopefully means the social distancing is working.
How is it that our death rate is so much lower than Italy and China? Is it because it's more spread across the country?
Mostly because because we haven't had it as long. It takes normally 2-4 weeks from onset of symptoms to death. Not many Americans have died of it yet, but also not many have recovered.
Just to add to this, China has 74,000 recovered cases, Italy has over 10,000 recovered cases, and the US has under 2,000 recovered cases. We're earlier in the cycle than China or Italy, so we're still waiting for our death rate to increase. It's going to get really bad in the already swamped hospitals.
We just finished our 2019 tax returns, mostly because I knew we’d have a refund and I want my money. I feel relieved it’s done. I am still boiling mad about the fuckery with our 2018 taxes, even moreso with the stimulus checks tied to those filings (ours still aren’t compete because we are missing K1 documents.) It gives me so much anxiety.
It sounds like the stimulus checks will use your 2019 taxes if you've filed already or your 2018 taxes if you haven't, right? So hopefully the 2018 tax problems won't affect the stimulus.
I'm kind of kicking myself for filing my 2019 taxes early, since we made more than in 2018, which will mean less in the stimulus check, even though Mr. Smock got laid off (right before COVID-19). Anyone know if the federal unemployment benefit only applies to people laid off because of COVID-19 or all unemployed people?
Also, I thought I'd try asking a question here instead of starting a brand new thread. I've never had to do a virtual meeting before. But we are having a faculty meeting and department meeting virtually through Google Meets next week.
What do you use for a microphone? They told us our computer mics are probably not very good. I don't think I have headphones with a built-in mic (I have Bose noise-cancelling earbuds and don't think there's a mic on them). Do I need to online order an external mic and hope it gets here in time?
I wouldn't order an external mic. I'm picturing all the faculty meetings I attended and thinking audio quality will be low on the list of problems with a virtual meeting. Anyway, I rarely talked much at that kind of meeting, so ordering a mic just for that seems like overkill.
Also, I regularly use my MacBook for video calls without an external mic and I've never had a problem. One of my clients once bought a fancy external mic and it didn't change the audio quality at all. I wouldn't stress about it.
We're throwing packages in the garage for a day. That's long enough to kill the virus on cardboard. And it's always been 2+ days since anyone touched the inside contents, so we're not wiping anything down.
I've gotten more paranoid since the last time we went to the grocery store, so I might start wiping some things down.
I have a possibly dumb question. In areas that are now on a lockdown, can you be out in your yard? Everything I've read refers to orders for people to stay in their homes.
Yards should be fine as long as you're six feet from people. And even under shelter in place people can leave to get groceries.
As for outside exercise where you leave your property, I think it varies depending on location. In the Bay Area, you can still go outside for exercise if you stay six feet from other people. Here's a NYT explainer:
If I live in a community that is under a shelter-in-place order, can I run or walk outside? This answer is easy: yes. The San Francisco County health department’s order, which is likely to be a model for similar announcements, says that people may leave their homes “to engage in outdoor activity, provided the individuals comply with social distancing requirements as defined in this section, such as, by way of example and without limitation, walking, hiking, or running.” So, as long as you remain six feet away from other people (not counting those in your household), you can exercise outside.
seeyalater52 -- it is totally fair to be struggling with your feelings. But I wonder also if there might be some workarounds? Like, potentially you could have maternity photos if you did them outside and stayed 6 feet from the photographer? Or even maybe a virtual baby shower (not the same, I know) using teleconferencing software?
But yes, everything blows. THe fact that we don't know how long these restrictions are going to go, what it means for our lives 1/3/6/12 months from now, and the inability to plan our lives is making me....not a calm person. My daily anti-anxiety med is not up to this kind of challenge.
Ohhhhh that honestly never occurred to me about the photographer. That is a great idea! My friend suggested having a virtual shower but my sister (who would throw it) thinks it’s gift grabby and inapproprate given the circumstances. Not sure yet how we will handle that situation, she is such a critic. Honestly I’m mostly just feeling super personally attacked that I finally have a baby GROWING INSIDE OF ME (basically a medical miracle) and I really want people to celebrate this because we never thought it would happen and we just love this little baby so much and want to have a normal experience for once.
WTF to your sister. CEP will throw you a virtual baby shower!!!
Younger me would have punched someone for saying this, but yoga and getting outside for a run/walk really help my anxiety. (It's like i've become a different person or something.)
This is going to be the stupidest, most first world complaint. They’re basically shutting down work for the next 2 weeks. Essential stuff only. I thought it would be everyone working from home, but no. What am I going to do all day if I’m not working 9-10 hours?? It gives me purpose and keeps the worry at bay.
Oooh, I've got so many ideas! You could write a novel. Pick up some freelance work on Upwork or a similar site. Volunteer for Joe Biden. Learn a new language. Take an online course.
It’s really easy to say that, but we were supposed to be leaving for Spring break when this all went sideways. I use that as a time to clear out my fridge/freezer. We had zero fresh fruit or veggies and the only meat was 3 packages of frozen pork chops and frozen chicken wings. I went shopping as soon as we cancelled, but shelves were already running low. All I got as far as meat goes was 2 packages of chicken, a family size package of ground beef (2 meals). I got two cartons of eggs (family of 5 so that can stretch to 3-5 meals). That’s 8 meals with meat and not much in the grand scheme of things although we do eat meatless a good bit.. We do have some extra pasta but I feel like we should be saving that for when our country reaches community spread and we really can’t leave the house. I get what you’re saying obviously, but I feel conflicted/
Keep in mind that in Italy people can leave the house to go to the grocery store. And grocery stores in Italy aren't experiencing shortages; the empty shelves we're seeing now are more because everyone stocked up at the same time and stores are doing their best to keep up. In Wuhan, even where they had neighborhood lockdowns people could still order grocery deliveries.
I do think it's smart to have two weeks of groceries on hand in case someone in your house gets sick, because then you really won't be able to go to the store. But even in the hardest hit areas, people doing shelter in place can access groceries.
ETA: I get the anxiety, though, because I'm food aggressive. I'm already annoyed at Mr. Smock for using too much jam. I've got that rationing mindset!
A colleague I work with at the county public health department told me this morning that WA state can only test 80 people per day and that is why the numbers are artificially low in some counties. They are only testing people with known contact and symptoms. Everyone is is just supposed to self quarantine unless the need to be hospitalized. I’m really glad most things are shut down here, because people suck at following rules and recommendations.
I've heard that the state Department of Health only had about a 100 test per day capacity, but the UW is testing over 2,000 people a day, a number that should go up to 3,000 by the end of the week, and they're almost primarily testing people in Western WA (they were accepting tests from around the country before they hit their current capacity).
There still aren't enough tests, for sure, but WA's testing capacity is much better than a week ago, at least.
We're planning to limit all contact outside our household for two weeks and then start visiting grandparents. I'm more concerned about us giving it to them than the reverse.
A friend of ours just let my H know that he got swabbed for a test. We saw him 2 weeks ago as of tomorrow. He’s been symptomatic for almost a week. We should be ok.... right?
Yeah, if you saw him 14 days ago you should be fine, even if he was shedding the virus a week before he became symptomatic (which seems unlikely). It's still scary, though?
I think we're all going to have stories like this soon. I just saw that a grocery store up the road from us had a staff member test positive, and Mr. Smock was there two weeks ago.