To think some have been given the nod?

[whatnow41]

DH works in an industry that has close links to both healthcare and hospitality. Since March he has noticed a pattern of certain very large customers (national chains of pubs or big brands) seeming to know and respond to lockdown and tier information a few days in advance.

In March I was working as a manager for an organisation that supplied call centre workers for the NHS Covid line. We definitely had some kind of a nod. We were told to get as many people as possible WFH in the 2 weeks before lockdown was announced. Literally getting brand new staff in, trained in a day, and out the door again to WFH.

I now work for a call centre again within a very key industry. Beginning of last week, despite our whole call centre being key workers, we began prep for WFH. The management have always said we can't support staff well enough to support customers on a WFH basis due to tenure. 95% staff have less than 3 months as it's a new site.

The positioning statement from our ceo last week was that we were just doing some business readiness planning "in case Boris announces increased levels of restrictions".

Now on the BBC news channel Boris is warning restrictions may be increased.

Some people get the nod, don't they?

Using common sense maybe? Or some expert knowledge.

Our local covid support centre was in the process of being set up by the beginning of March, up and running before lockdown was announced. They didn't have any "wink and a nod", simply a group of friends who had had disaster relief training saw that it was going to be needed and acted on common sense and their knowledge.

I'm not particularly smart and have managed to do a good amount of worst-case scenario planning for my organisation since March. Then when the worst-case or near worst-case scenario comes along we're ready (e.g. gearing up food stocks, pre-ordering hand sanitiser, anticipating more staff needed as rates of infection grow). As PP said a lot of this stuff can be seen coming down the tracks.

They absolutely do, before last lockdown was announced to be lifted last time local (large chain) restaurant staff were back on site prepping and training. There will always be those that spout BS about whatever coming, and those that correctly judge a situation but absolutely some sectors know exactly what's happening (though not consistently - teaching leads seem to have been behind/ahead on comms depending on which way the wind is blowing!)

My company started working from home weeks before lockdown was mooted. However we also had daily communications and notices up all over the place telling people who had just returned from China not to enter any premises.

The aviation industry has most certainly not been ‘given the nod’ about any of the restrictions which have crippled our industry. Quite the opposite, in fact.

@ThrowawaySecondarySchool

Some people pay attention to which way the wind is blowing.

This.

I think as a business owner you can look at the figures and prepare .

And local tiers and advice is good .

We made our own decisions about when to wfh again because it seems sensible to minimise risk .

Btw are bbc interviewers not supposed to be unbiased ? AM pushing his own Scottish politics agenda was a bit off I thought.

Anne "Most people I know didn't see the tier 4 restrictions coming in the middle of December. That was a surprise to everyone I know."

No way!!! I was expecting full lockdown from late September.

Most people I know didn't see the tier 4 restrictions coming in the middle of December. That was a surprise to everyone I know. Clearly we are all idiots. After London was put in tier 3 we expected to be in tier 3 before the end of the year but we didn't expect half the south east to go into tier 4 before the end of that same week

I was in tier 3 too and we saw rising case numbers/admissions etc and a lot of people at work etc were saying that the 5 days of Christmas mixing would be scrapped to make 25-26th. So you can kind of predict roughly whats going to happen.

we are tier 4 and neighbors still have people round and staying overnight till restrictions are enforced and people stop making there own rules we are stuck .

I work for a very large employer and we have just this week been sent updated business contingency plans in the event of another lockdown.
We have a mix of the Brexit shit show and our business is all over the uk across all tiers so they have to prepare for the worst.
They employ directly and indirectly hundreds of thousands of staff.
I would imagine that the people at the very top of the organisation get a heads up of some sort.

Most people I know didn't see the tier 4 restrictions coming in the middle of December. That was a surprise to everyone I know. Clearly we are all idiots. After London was put in tier 3 we expected to be in tier 3 before the end of the year but we didn't expect half the south east to go into tier 4 before the end of that same week

Gosh. It was all over the media in the lead up to it. I don’t know how you all missed it.

Friend in DVLA gave us the nod two weeks before March lockdown. So yes government departments do know in advance.

Yes they do, usually part of the old boys network..

Yes - the British Retail Consortium, for example, have meetings with the government regularly (and I assume input into decision making too from a sector-specific economic perspective).

Retailers therefore often get a 'nod' to expect lockdown to be likely/imminent with a few days notice. From what I hear, it never seems to be definite as the government can change their mind or make last minute decisions but generally there is some indication in advance.

I feel like each lockdown has been leaked to the public before being officially announced- there were murmurs so didn’t come as a shock to anyone following the media

Contingency planning.

And if you look at what the media reports, not everything is true, an awful lot is speculation, in fact I would hazard a guess that most is speculation and then when some of it happens the press can say “we reported on this some days ago,” and then the untrue “facts end up being pushed down.

How many times has it been suggested that London is going into complete lockdown for instance.

How many times has it been suggested that the railways are all to close.

Given extremes are speculated on, it stands to reason that there may be some kind of change, what with the rise in figures and all.

And how in the name of God did no-one see additional tiers coming? I actually thought we’d be in lockdown and was fully expecting Christmas mixing to be cancelled altogether. In fact we had previously had intentions to go to my parents for Christmas but given the rise in figures had decided some time earlier that it wasn’t worth the risk (I am vulnerable,) nothing to do with being given “the nod” it’s pure common sense.

I’ve just watched today’s Andrew Marr show and it sounded from what the PM said that restrictions are about to be tightened further.

If this is the case, then can they include schools in the prewarnings? Especially when the announcement is regarding schools 🤨.

@Bleepertybleep

I’ve just watched today’s Andrew Marr show and it sounded from what the PM said that restrictions are about to be tightened further.

In Wales apart from xmas day we have been in full lockdown figures still climbing so do not assume that a full lockdown will work, immediately at least.

Of course it happens.

My sister is a Sister for ICU/Covid wards in a hospital in Sussex they were told a week ago to prepare for tier 5 and a full lockdown in Sussex. Throughout this whole pandemic she’s been one step ahead of Boris’s announcements. At times she’s told us things and we haven’t believed her only for it to be announced a week later.

@AcornAutumn

Anne "Most people I know didn't see the tier 4 restrictions coming in the middle of December. That was a surprise to everyone I know."

No way!!! I was expecting full lockdown from late September.

Perhaps it depends where you live. Until very recently infection rates have been low where I live and we were tier 2 until Boxing Day.

@justasking111

Friend in DVLA gave us the nod two weeks before March lockdown. So yes government departments do know in advance.

That's nonsense, there is no way the government intended to lock down two weeks before they actually did! They only closed the schools because their hand was forced by the other home nations and lockdown followed a few days later.

As a hospital we get no nod at all and learn when you do but we can see the numbers and judge what we think will happen so it’s rarely a big surprise.

I work for a large high street bank.

A fortnight before the first lockdown in March, some areas of my company started sending people to WFH on a rota basis.

On the Thursday before the lockdown announcement came, my department texted us & said not to come to work the following day, but to WFH. Then that nigh we were told not to come back to the office for a fortnight.

Two days later the lockdown was announced.
I’ve been working at hone since 13th March, with no sign of us returning any time soon.

I do believe that my company knew something, but were also forward thinking as they should be.

I would expect many large companies to have a pandemic business continuity plan, tbh.