Has the guidance changed or is this the Mandela effect!

[hellogoodbyehello]

I recall, at the start of lockdown, the message was to stay home unless you were a key worker. Key workers (myself and DD) were given a letter by our employers to say we were authorised to travel to work, in case we were stopped by the police. If you weren't a key worker, and couldn't work from home, you could be furloughed. This is why so many offices and shops etc were closed.

DH says no, everyone has always been allowed to go to work, you were just encouraged to work from home if possible.

If that's the case, why were DD and I given letters to prove that we were allowed to go to work?

Please settle our argument!

DH is right
Lots of businesses closed due to caution but are now reopening. The letters were pointless and still are.

The message was what you and your daughter are saying the evening that lockdown was announced, but then the following morning the message changed to working from home if possible.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-on-social-distancing-and-for-vulnerable-people/guidance-on-social-distancing-for-everyone-in-the-uk-and-protecting-older-people-and-vulnerable-adults

The advice I thought was to stay at home and travel to work only if there was no possibility of wfh (although obviously if your workplace was closed you would have no choice)
My DH is SE and cant wfh , he has done a few days per week in the last few week finishing orders etc. He works in a building with no other people at all.

I was not a key worker and also had a letter for work as I could not wfh, it was not just keyworkers who could work, I work in a laboratory.

Certain types of businesses weren't allowed to operate - eg 'non essential' retail, the point there being that they require people being in the same spaces.

But other types of work which can't be done from home are allowed - eg gardeners.

Neither of you is entirely correct.

Your DH is right.

Stay home unless you can’t work from home but only work if you can practice safe social distancing at work (unless you’re a keyworker in which case you have to take your chances)... that’s my recollection anyway.

And obviously loads of employers were forced or chose to shut - I think that’s what lead to the you’re only allowed to work if you are a key worker belief.

I’m not a key worker but can’t do my job from home.
I never had a letter saying I was allowed to go to work and I travelled to and from work on the bus for the first two weeks of lockdown and then was furloughed

Your DH is right but the police were being utter wankers so it became safer to carry a letter as proof.

I think the letters were to stop you getting a load of grief from the police so they could ring up your work if they wanted to and check.

Several people I know got stopped travelling to work when it was the Bank Holiday as the police were obviously trying to crack down on those days. Also someone else who works odd shifts so was coming home at 4am got stopped.

The letters make it easier to prove why you are out and about.

My letter went into a lot of details about social distancing and other measures put in place at work as I am not a keyworker

What Boris announced on 23/3 was only go to work if you cannot WFH , but the media immediately announced that as 'only essential workers can go to work'. No wonder there's confusion. DH is a SE gardener, and has been working the whole time apart from when we had to self isolate.

Your DH is right.

That image on the .gov site was there for only around ten minutes before it was replaced - someone in comms must have got the wrong end of the stick, but it was too late, and the screen shot of that was reproduced everywhere.

Boris announced on 23/3 that you could go to work if you could not WfH and so it was essential to travel to work to do your job. Many people picked up on his use of the word "essential" and thought that only essential workers could go to work, but that was a misinterpretation on their part. It was always that you could go to work if you can't do your job from home . Obviously this was separate to the people working in the specific shops and industries which were asked to close, who needed to be furloughed.

Your DH is right

Since then there was clarification issued

What’s the Mandela effect???

Many businesses especially self employed people, have continued to operate because things still need to be fixed. Since the lockdown I have had an engineer out to fix my boiler (no hot water) and would have had to call the plumber had I not known how to unblock the loo myself. My gardener also showed up. However these people are still able to do their work by maintaining social distancing. If they decide to continue working and make adequate precautions then its allowed.

Obviously I gave the area where the engineer worked a good wash down after he had gone as I then had hot water to do it with.

The media mangled the original message, which was to only go out to work if you cannot work from home. No specific mention of key workers there. They reported that only key workers should go out to work, when that wasn't true at all.

Some police did behave like arses. Some set up road blocks in the area of our local hospital and were telling drivers that their NHS ID and hospital passes were insufficient evidence that they were out on an essential journey. It took a complaint from the hospital to their Chief Constable for this to be put right. They were told to remove the road block immediately and a public apology was issued.

My DP is not a key worker but he is still working. He can not work from home but can socially distance when at work. I have had many arguements with people over this.

Based on what you're all saying, do you think dog groomers should be working?

I would say yes but I can't find anyone to do my dog because it's "non- essential"

Actually. Ignore my post. I'll start a new thread.

Oh LittleMiss you've got an interesting evening ahead! Google Mandela effect - it's where people (or groups of people) swear something is right but the evidence shows differently. It came from people who, on Nelson Mandela's death, thought he had died years previously.

Ok, I'll give it to DH. Thank you.

Eloise
I think the problem can be where a job cant be done without social distancing. A gardener could go in someone's garden and have 0 contact with their client and be at least 2 metres away at all times. There has been debate over construction work as some jobs would require 2 people to be working too closely together.
A hairdresser could not do the same. Also the person going to the hair salon would be making an nonessential journey.