To be sick of companies using “because of Covid” by now?!

[Hotair1234]

Ok, light hearted (ish!) but seriously??

AIBU to think that 18 months on, three lockdowns, and a highly successful vaccine program then companies who are brazenly using “because of Covid” are now just doing it because it worked out better for them?!

Example: local bank reduced opening hours to 10-3 because of Covid! So customers had a smaller window to go in and therefore would be more densely together but staff costs were reduced and the bank saw this as public safety?

My latest sighting: Finally got back to the pool which I seriously missed during all the lockdowns - people dipping themselves in bleach, what could be cleaner but hey, that’s a different thread!

Have to schedule the time to arrive, no issue. Can’t go into the building until five minutes before your booking, ok with that. Did mean you then had to pass everyone leaving the pool down a narrow corridor, ok less impressed, but the clincher was getting out of the pool and, having long hair, headed straight to the showers to find they were all taped off - no showers, “because of Covid”!!!

A) they’re cubicles so literally separated, close every other one of it’s a genuine concern but B) you don’t want people to WASH in order to avoid Covid?! How’s that?!

Come on mumsnet, I’m sure there are other businesses who can put stupid that, help me feel sane again.....examples??

HMRC were useless thundercunts to deal with before covid - now they are impossible to contact except by post.

Although they will send you a message to your online account, they won't accept a reply by the same medium which is ridiculous.

They really need a serious shake up.

I work in manufacturing and our production plans will be negatively affected by Covid until at least the end of the summer probably until the end of the year. When something that normally has a lead time of a few weeks now take 12-16 you can understand the situation is going to take a while to resolve. That's before we take into account our social distancing or any shut downs due to illness/ self isolating.

I've had a blockage in my ear for months and months. My GP/nurse can't syringe my ear, but a private clinic charging £90 per ear can.
What a surprise

Totally agree. If businesses want to get back on their feet they need to actually put some real effort in and they can’t use covid as an excuse to provide shit service.

Thé amount of hospitality staff who have decided that when places have opened back turned around and said to their employers I'm not working evenings or weekends anymore and then got the arse when their managers have said sorry that's not feasible

My DH in his profession has had lots of temporary work available for those people in his industry who are have been out of work due to shops and hospitality being shut (and its decent well paid work too) but they've turned around and said no and yet post on social media complaining about how skint they are.

I'm going to be honest the situation has kind of highlighted how bloody lazy us brits can be.

Thank god NHS staff haven't had that attitude

Are you arguing that all measures put in place because of covid are reasonable? You seem really keen to defend all of them.

I'm not arguing that every measure is 100% reasonable, I'm just trying to give an insight into why "covid excuses are wearing thin" is a very shortsighted statement.

Not everything will have an immediate and obvious reason why it is being done "because of covid" nor will the impact of covid be direct in every case but that doesn't mean it is a baseless excuse every single time. My posts have been to show that there can be perfectly reasonable causes for rules/restrictions to be put in place and just because you don't like it doesn't mean it is not reasonable under the circumstances.

Like I said earlier I am a retail worker who has worked through the entirety of this pandemic. I have been abused on a daily basis for "using covid as an excuse" because I have been trying to uphold the social distancing/covid safety rules brought in either by the government or by my company (to comply with the government rules on being a covid safe workplace) or tried to explain why XYZ isn't available because of covid restrictions. A year down the line and my patience has started wearing thin and I have stopped trying to explain because it invariably just leads to further complaints/abuse and now people get the standard "It's because of covid" line.

I’m surprised by your comment about GF food. Coeliac isn’t an allergy. It’s not like nuts where even a tiny amount of cross contamination is a potentially fatal issue. If my coeliac sibling and I order the same dish off the menu eg a salad, she’s doing it for dietary reasons and I’m not. The restaurant doesn’t know that. Some dishes happen to be gluten free because they just are, they aren’t routinely prepared in a separate kitchen in case the customer is coeliac?

Admittedly I am going off my memory of my experience years ago but basically if something was on the regular menu that happened to be GF then it would be prepared along with everything else in the main kitchen, but if something was specifically sold as being GF then it would be prepared separately - I remember once a new member of staff put some GF bread in the main toaster and was yelled at by the chef because they then couldn't use it and it had thrown out their timings.

Nope. Used to work at dominos. No additional space is needed at all. It’s either a gimmick or it’s a chain trying to police whether you might be shock horror sharing your pizza.

@SlipperyDippery

You are VERY wrong about celiac disease!!
It is an autoimmune condition which can be really serious and can absolutely be triggered by small amounts of gluten

I have a friend who can't use the same butter as the rest of her family, because if someone has buttered their toast and put a crumb back in the butter, and she then eats it, she will end up in hospital.

If your sister chooses to avoid gluten for dietary reasons, that is VERY different to someone who will face months of agony, weight loss, digestive issues, anaemia etc if they are gluten poisoned, until their gut heals

@KleineDracheKokosnuss

Nope. Used to work at dominos. No additional space is needed at all. It’s either a gimmick or it’s a chain trying to police whether you might be shock horror sharing your pizza.

When you say no additional space do you mean staff don't/can't social distance?

but I'm glad that our employer, for once, is putting staff safety over customer convenience
It isn't about safety though is it? It may be different in your shop, however in my post people are handling clothes, holding them up against themselves, some even trying them on whilst on the shop floor - yet I doubt there are staff watching all this and removal all these items for quarantine.

You mention customer convenience, but as we've seen on many a post about this, people are taking their money elsewhere.

@Sparklingbrook

No, it means the same space is needed to make a half/half pizza vs one with the same topping.

You don't need a second work station to add a second topping. You stand on the spot and add toppings.

So it isn't a social distancing thing

It is a 'this has always been a minor hassle and we would rather not do it, so let's use this gift horse of a virus to say a flat out no to anything that's a hassle'

It's blindingly obvious that is what many businesses are doing. Why on earth posters are falling over themselves to the business defenders is baffling

Fair enough @melj1213 and I’m sorry people have been abusive to you. Totally uncalled for regardless of measures.

@GappyValley as I think I said in my post, my sister is coeliac. That means she has the auto immune condition referred to. I accept there are probably some people more seriously affected than others by it but she has a flare up if she eats gluten.

The fact remains that someone being hospitalised and months of agony because someone’s food has been prepared in the same kitchen as food containing wheat (which is different still to eating a crumb) is fairly extreme and not common among coeliac sufferers, and I don’t think most places are set up so that no knife which has touched food containing wheat touches food that is gluten free.

[quote GappyValley]@Sparklingbrook

No, it means the same space is needed to make a half/half pizza vs one with the same topping.

You don't need a second work station to add a second topping. You stand on the spot and add toppings.

So it isn't a social distancing thing

It is a 'this has always been a minor hassle and we would rather not do it, so let's use this gift horse of a virus to say a flat out no to anything that's a hassle'

It's blindingly obvious that is what many businesses are doing. Why on earth posters are falling over themselves to the business defenders is baffling[/quote]
I am not defending anything. I don't even frequent Dominos. I do however know people who work in hospitality where social distancing has meant that they can't work in the same way that they did. That's all, no need to be baffled.

I imagine half and half pizzas will be back in time.

then companies who are brazenly using “because of Covid” are now just doing it because it worked out better for them?!

Lol. You know why businesses are in business, right? It’s not out of the goodness of their heart. Vote with your feet of your don’t like how a certain business operates. They are always going to do what’s best for them.

@SlipperyDippery

Fair enough *@melj1213* and I’m sorry people have been abusive to you. Totally uncalled for regardless of measures.

@GappyValley as I think I said in my post, my sister is coeliac. That means she has the auto immune condition referred to. I accept there are probably some people more seriously affected than others by it but she has a flare up if she eats gluten.

The fact remains that someone being hospitalised and months of agony because someone’s food has been prepared in the same kitchen as food containing wheat (which is different still to eating a crumb) is fairly extreme and not common among coeliac sufferers, and I don’t think most places are set up so that no knife which has touched food containing wheat touches food that is gluten free.

I avoid gluten for a different autoimmune condition, and have been told previously that I can't get chips because they are used in the same fryer as breaded products, and I always always get my own dish of butter with gluten free bread without asking, so I would say most restaurants are very aware of the issues with cross contamination.

My local pizza restaurant only offers a 'low gluten' menu, because while they buy in gluten free bases, they use the same oven.

On that basis, a restaurant offering gluten free, should be offering just that - food free from gluten!

Unfortunately for a lot of coeliacs, the longer they go without eating gluten, the worse they react when they encounter some.
So if someone has been really strict for years and then is accidentally given some contaminated food, they could have a very severe reaction, even if the reaction years previously was very mild.

Some of the restrictions, I hazve much sympathy for and yes, it seems obvious they actually are to try and keep people safe.

There does seem to be a lot of 'because covid' as an excuse for just shitty/corner cutting practise though.

I may be a bit biased on the topic though as my poor sister has been having to accept 'because covid' for over a year now, when shes in deseprate need of an operation, to the point where she can no longer walk at all and is in a lot of pain constantly, can no longer pick up her child. Finally got a gyne appointment, apparently for a physical over the phone (because covid) and was told 'ah, it doesnt sound too bad, some others are worse, people have died you know!'. Before covid, they were discussing how bad her case was and talking about a hysterectomy as a serious option given how bad she was. Yet suddenly, physicals over the phone are a thing (presumably so it can be claimed that the department has carried on over cvid, not shut down...etc, though in reality, its shut) and shes exagerrating and theres no fucking issue?!

So yeah ,might be biased on 'because covid' as an excuse. But I think some is genuine, where others ARE clearly using it as an excuse, though quite why, I don't know.

I think the covid after effects will last a long time, possibly for years with new variants circulating all the time and questionable effectiveness of the current vaccines against them.

Take the NHS for example, still a massive backlog of non urgent procedures and surgeries that were postponed during the pandemic peaks.

And lots of keyworkers still off sick with long covid, some fighting to keep their jobs on capability grounds even though they contracted the illness through work and were praised as heroes at the time!

Covid has changed a lot of things permanently IMO, and will continue to do so.

It makes me cross when people compare long covid to chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. Covid is still new, the long term effects still not understood, other than it can cause multi organ damage and widespread inflammation and even brain inflammation in some cases.

Companies aren’t using it as an excuse, they’re operating within policies and trying to avoid another spike in cases. It’s far from over!