So sad about redundancies

[CathyandHeathcliff]

We’re in the fortunate position so far not to have been in line for a redundancy. But I’ve just found out my close friend’s husband has. It’s really sad as they have a toddler and have only just bought their own house.
I’ve also heard today about Boots letting thousands of people go.

Will we look back on this in years to come and think lockdown was an overreaction ? Are the outcome of job losses going to be greater than the virus itself?

Same with my company - we'll be moving to fully mobile working from September probably 5 years earlier than anticipated. City centres will Need to change and adapt as workforce's change.

Fact is people are sick of paying extortionate costs to be packed in an overcrowded train or bus to commute into city centre offices to do work they've shown they can be productive doing at home

Businesses have pushed the environmental benefits of public transport on its employees for years forcing us to take buses/trains because they insist on building city centre offices without parking but now people don't want to travel
On public transport so will out of town business parks see a boom?

City centres will need to become places that multigenerational people will want to live and work and relax - family homes (not the nasty rack em and stack em flats which are only destined to become the ghettos of the future) schools, nurseries etc in the city centre then it might tempt people back

@Chickenwing the 128 deaths did not actually happen yesterday. They are just new deaths that have been reported. Most of them are historical. The actual daily hospital deaths for yesterday are in single figures.

I am aware that there have been deaths due to lockdown, but not comparable to the deaths caused by the virus.

Yet.

I'd agree the length of the lockdown has been an overreaction, given the cost to the economy and the deaths that will be caused by poverty.

And the effects of lockdown will be long term. Of course we haven't seen as many deaths compared to coronavirus because this is just the start. In the coming months as the lockdown effect takes hold we will see a lot more deaths - suicides and poverty deaths, mark my words.

I am aware that there have been deaths due to lockdown, but not comparable to the deaths caused by the virus.
The expected excess cancer deaths alone are expected in the 10s of thousands.
Lower economic status tends to take several years of a person’s life - and there’s going to be loads of that around. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

@Waxonwaxoff0 I took that statistic directly from the government website. "Number of additional deaths on Wednesday 8 July 2020." It is yesterdays death rate in the UK for coronavirus deaths alone.

Where is the evidence/statistic for the 10s of thousands of deaths lost due to lockdown? There has been more than 44 thousand deaths caused by the virus in the UK. I can't understand why this doesn't seem to bother anyone anymore. Where is the humanity?

I agree lockdown was an overreaction - what should have happened is that anyone in receipt of state pension - since over 67s were the most at risk or disability benefit or those classed as clinically vulnerable should have gone into lockdown, care homes should be been closed off etc and then 90% of the rest of the population considered low risk should have continued on in relative normality with additional measures such as hand sanitising etc

www.medscape.com/viewarticle/933436
between 7000 and 35 000 excess canxer deaths predicted...and thats just cancer

@Chickenwing yes, it is additional deaths RECORDED, not deaths that actually happened on the day. Look it up.

@newdaynewname1 unfortunatley I cannot read the article or see the evidence for myself as it is a paid service. I will wait until there is published figures rather than "expected."

It's crazy to me that anyone thinks there shouldn't have been a lockdown. If anything it should have been done sooner. The economy will recover, the lost loved ones will always be lost. Having lost someone close due to the virus, maybe that has tainted the way I see it. I don't want anyone else I love to die. I don't want my family or friends to lose a loved one. A redundancy, while upsetting, isn't life threatening. Easing lockdown is.

@waxonwaxoff0 I have done. It is the deaths recorded since 4pm the day before to 4pm that day. I don't understand why the word recorded make a difference here?

I have name changed, but I work for one of the companies that announced job cuts today, I am worried about my job.

@Chickenwing but the point is that lockdown kills as well. i know several people who have died due to lockdown (suicide, cancer, insufficient home care, not wanting to overload the nhs). you can’t win

lots of these people losing jobs( not all) will be the ones that voted tory- causing misery to thousands. So my sympathy is zlich.

I agree OP. Huge, massive over reaction.

I don’t think it’s fair that millions of people are going to suffer the financial loss and have their lives changed etc for god knows how many years.

We know it’s not nice, we know it can kill some people, but for the majority it’ll be fine. People don’t even know they have it, it can be that mild.

Vulnerable people can die of a cold if they get complications. The elderly, vulnerable etc could have been advised to shield but I think it’s terrible that everyone else is going to suffer the brunt of the financial crash.

Listen to Lord Sumption on YouTube. That man talks so much sense!

@Chickenwing because most of the newly recorded deaths didn't actually happen yesterday, so saying there were 128 deaths yesterday is inaccurate. Most of the deaths actually happened weeks ago and have only just been recorded. The actual number of deaths that happened yesterday is a lot lower. If you look on the NHS website you will see the actual daily death figure.

@username108 I didn't vote Tory in the last election and never have done.

@username108

Politicians and the Tory party has nothing to do with it.

Just as many millions would have been miserable under a Corbyn led Labour government

I'm on the fence. I personally know of two people who have died due to suicide during lockdown, and one (90yo with dementia in a care home) who has died of the virus. I agree the economy IS lives, we need tax revenue to do things like run the NHS. I remember growing up in the 80s and seeing real deprivation in larger amounts than there is now. So from that POV it was an overreaction to lockdown.

But OTOH I see what is happening in the USA and Brazil and it doesn't look good. And hospitals here came close to bring overwhelmed as it was.

I don't know what the solution is, but it's going to be a grim few years.

Yes and yes.

The company I worked for has made 5 people redundant and is looking to get rid of more. I have been lucky to get a new job in the mean time.

It's been a complete and total over reaction.

I was made redundant last week. The reasons for it were not related to the covid pandemic itself, but the knock-on effects of lockdown have made it a very difficult time to be back in the job market searching for non-existent jobs in a tanked economy.

I am in my fifties. I truly hope that I will be able to find more work, but to be honest, the prospects aren't encouraging. I find the job market an unkind, cruel, ageist and disillusioning place at the best of times.

Of course it isn't comparable to people who have lost their lives or their relatives. That doesn't mean though that those of us affected are not allowed to be worried about our livelihoods and our futures too.

I’d rather be without a job than dead. The economy suffers more from mass deaths than it does mass unemployment. The British economy has been paused, which will cushion it more than it would have been otherwise. While it’s sad when people lose their jobs, it’s unreasonable to just write off the health guidance because of that sadness. This is exactly the attitude of Trump supporters in the US, and I’m disappointed to see that in the UK too. We are better than that.

I should add, the longer lockdown has gone on the more I am leaning towards it being an overreaction. I thought it was needed at first, but it should have been done and dusted long ago.

@sergeilavrov

I’d rather be without a job than dead. The economy suffers more from mass deaths than it does mass unemployment. The British economy has been paused, which will cushion it more than it would have been otherwise. While it’s sad when people lose their jobs, it’s unreasonable to just write off the health guidance because of that sadness. This is exactly the attitude of Trump supporters in the US, and I’m disappointed to see that in the UK too. We are better than that.

I don't think it can call this a pause any more.