What business stayed open at the start of the pandemic ?

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I've looked it up but a lot of info is vague. Did companies that were not essential, but not open to the public, stay open with social distancing measures ?

Commercial scrap year, we stayed open which was good as it kept the wagons/lorries/ tractors etc working as parts couldn't be imported.
95% of our workforce furloughed so we that had to be in had to step up into doing jobs we'd never done before, including being in the yard!

My DH is a software engineer and his office stayed open throughout lockdown. Some people worked at home but quite a few still in the office (working on systems that were not online for security reasons).

I work for a B2B service provider. We carried on working providing industrial processes to customers with reduced staffing (some people were furloughed), distancing, daily temperature checks, etc. Office based staff worked from home. We were sent home a week before the national lockdown.

I work at a small print and publishing company and we stayed open throughout. Not a particularly essential service but it was a good little business. Most of us were furloughed but Boss stayed on and kept one manager on in the office. It was quiet, but they had things to get on with most of the time until eventually we were all asked to come back part time, rising to full time by the end of the second lockdown.

I only knew 2 people who were furloughed, everyone else either moved to WFH or carried on their 'normal' job (non of which could be classed as essential).

DHs company stayed open. Plastic bottle manufacturer, deemed essential as they were producing for hand-wash supplier. Allegedly "key worker".

Road haulage, some parts of the business closed down, depended on the industry being served - hospitality obviously badly hit. Other parts of the business had a blip then carried on.

It's going to sound weird but lockdown passed me by. I was sent to WFH. My assistant was furloughed (cost saving measure) so I had his job to do as well as mine. I worked or went to the allotment.

DCs started working as supermarket home shopping pickers. To maintain social distancing home shopping was dealt with out of hours so meant starting work in the early hours. I felt like we were a house of toddlers. Everyone went to bed early and got up early.

One DC works in medical R&D. Not covid related. She carried on throughout.

I saw a local barbershop still in operation with nobody wearing face masks!

I work in a very large organisation in the financial sector and we all worked from home. Very well supported, physically and mentally as well so I was lucky.
Partner owns a food takeaway so he closed for about 6 weeks whilst he made changes to help protect customers and staff (e.g plastic screens etc)

Pretty much everything was still operational in some capacity. Hospitality was the main industry furloughed. As much as possible, everything else carried on remotely (though reduced service). Construction, manufacturing and key workers still working in person in most cases.

Automotive sales and repair.
scaled back but remained open, people still needed cars fixing and new cars delivering

Dh worked throughout plumbing and heating. The first month was slightly hairy but toilets still need fixing and taps break and so he did smaller jobs for a few weeks. By late April the bathroom refits and boiler changes were back on the horizon and he never slowed up after that.

I asked my plasterer about work during lockdown and he said he was busy the whole time, the properties he was working on were empty.

Your job didn't have to be essential to be allowed to do it.

Boris Johnson got that wrong during the TV lockdown announcement.

People were allowed to work outside the home if they couldn't WFH. That was the essential part. So construction, manufacturing etc.

It was only hospitality, travel and non essential personal services that had to close. IE the ones that involved close contact with lots of people.

That was actually illegal, which is a different cup of tea. I saw a fair number of stickers up advertising mobile hairdressers as well, which IIRC was also illegal.

Yes, I remember it being "WFH if you can", luckily I can't so was able to keep going in, I would have gone mad at home for months. We moved from weekday only working to shifts, a couple of people were shielding and were furloughed, temperature checks, masks, plastic screens, windows open, eating at your desk instead of the kitchen, one way system round the building. We have still never had any linked cases of covid at work.

I was wondering this about places like farms. People could socially distance, and surely crops needed tending?

My friend's brother was in construction; he started working again after 6 weeks.
My optician closed but then started taking emergency cases after about 6 weeks.
Our then neighbour worked in a university; he didn't do any teaching obviously but as they had a lab he went in and made handwash etc.
I'm stil annoyed they initially closed the tip. What for? It's outside and absolutely nobody goes to the tip to socialise! Plus loads of people were having clearouts and had nowhere to take their stuff.
Also, before, you could just turn up with your stuff, now you can only go on either odd or even days depending on your car registration, you have to take ID etc......what a faff!

The County Courts stayed open-I know a couple of people who work there.

I'm thinking of eg technology developers

I write scientific software - I'd already been wfh since 1995. My colleagues - all around the world, not just the U.K. - took their machines home and we carried on working. There were minimal people still in the office - I think just those IT folk who had to work with the servers.

The company had seen it coming and increased vpn capacity etc ahead of time.

The only difference for me was that because meetings switched to Skype and then zoom I had to attend more of them!

That similar to the measures at the lab where I worked, I was part lab admin and part lab tech so did a bit at home but most was in work, the full time lab staff had to work shifts to spread the staff about and the company opened 7 days a week

Construction here, we stayed open

Also, the barbershop was full of customers with none of the men wearing face masks.

I'd imagine labs would be essential though ?

Bloody hell, they weren’t paid??

Who was it that asked you to make them?