My workplace insists they can stay open.

[XmasIsComming]

I work somewhere that sells a lot of non essential items. We also have an area of gardening/diy within the store.

I have been informed that the whole store will remain open during lockdown.

We closed during the first lockdown.
Apparently this time our business doesn't have to close.

I think if a lot of businesses are doing this then it's not going to be a very effective lockdown.

Daughter works in a small garden centre. They started selling pet foods after the last lockdown so that they'd be able to stay open if there were any subsequent lockdowns. Seems they did a very clever thing.

@CallItLoneliness

Having been through what you are facing: the issue is that shops are places where staff pass COVID on to each other. A complete hard lockdown for four weeks would get you through it, but the UK is not yet ready to grasp that nettle.

"a complete hard lockdown" - right lets just unpick what that means for a moment - as i assume you want to still be able to have groceries delivered? and have electricity and clean drinking water? and you would like the hospital still to be open?

Just think about the reality/practicalities of what "a complete hard lockdown" actually means

I was listening to the radio during last lockdown and someone called into a station to ask a question of an employment lawyer.

Bascially someone was running a DIY store and she was trying to get people to come back to work as the store was opening.

They said their employees were either not answering their mobiles or claiming that Granny had moved in and they needed to shield. Someone had even said that they said they werent coming back until Oct because Boris told them they didnt have to!

The lawyer made some very good points in response but surely if your company is wanting to open that is good. Otherwise you might find you have nothing to go back to

Op was hoping and expecting to have four weeks off, paid

Of course the shop should stay open, all shops should stay open and many will be looking at ways around the guidelines so they don't go under, and who can blame them!

Well if you can wfh home @XmasIsComming regardless of if the store remains open or close, then what's the issue?

Surely those in a similar situation to you can go back to wfh and a skeleton crew in the building.

I do know of companies however that aren't allowing this to unproductive staff. And tbh I don't blame them either. Some employees have really taken the piss and continue to do so thinking that they are fine because CV will somehow give them protection against getting fired.

@Ihaveyourback

Op was hoping and expecting to have four weeks off, paid

Of course the shop should stay open, all shops should stay open and many will be looking at ways around the guidelines so they don't go under, and who can blame them!

Have you even read my replies? I will be working from home regardless.

Why it's an issue is I feel that encouraging people to shop for non essential items is wrong at this moment.

But they also sell items classified as essential and they are permitted to stay open. In addition if they shut it might mean they shut for ever and all the staff loose their jobs.

The fact you want tougher restrictions than the government has placed doesn’t mean your work place should close and risk other staff loosing their jobs.

@XmasIsComming

I am very grateful to still have my job.

I just think we need to have stricter measures to make a difference.

What's the point in doing a bit of a lockdown. It seems pointless.

No. Lockdowns themselves destroy people's livelihoods. Businesses that close now may never reopen again as so many struggled the first time around. Too many fell through the cracks in the furlough system.

If your job was in real danger or you had been made redundant then I doubt you would be so keen for a harder lockdown.

I hope many more businesses find a way to stay open. People's jobs and ability to earn a living are essential too.

I'm much less on board with this second lockdown than I was with the first. Lets just say that life experience over the last few months has rammed home to me the very real drawbacks of it.

I think most shops really could be allowed to open.

I do feel extremely saddened for pub landlords and restaurant owners. The ones I have been in this summer have been fine and had very good distancing and other measures in place. They were trying very hard and it really must have been a shit year for them.

I don't think the ones with sensible measures in place and being enforced were the main areas spreading the virus.

I was working from home too and was made redundant at the end of the first lockdown.

Working from home doesn't mean that the job is necessarily safe.

The reason I lost my own job was not Covid related, but the reason that the company which bought the business couldn't take me on were - they had been forced to close their local office and were operating from one on the other side of the country.

What are you talking about op!!!!

Of course your company needs to stay open, or they will go into liquidation and you will be out of a job. It is like you don't seem to realise the enormous fuck off recession/depression coming our way. We have approaching the same amount of debt as we had at the end of WW2 for goodness sake. Every shop and company that CAN stay open, and can do so safely should absolutely be doing so.

Just because you are working from home doesn't mean your workload has changed, I guess if the shop closes I guess you will have less or nothing to do so my org point still stands. You want time off and to get paid.

We need to keep every single company going, we have to. It is not about whether it is increases the covid risk by 000.1% or not. We are going to have no way to fund the NHS or furlough or the police force, or anything else for that matter unless we can keep the economy going in some capacity. Jesus I despair. Truly I do.

I don't know anyone of any job description that is stopping working. All tradespeople I know are working normally, shops are open or doing click and collect, hairdressers are working in people's homes as they are now allowed to - ditto beauticians. Dog grooming, decorators and all the rest. Still operating. Gyms are now sending out PT to client's home or operating classes outside. Our car wash is even remaining open as it is 'outside' what is essential about a car wash?!

It is nothing like the last lockdown. Why?

Because we ALL know we are going to be completely fucked if we actually go into another full lockdown. We simply won't recover. So quite rightly people are being very very creative with the guidelines.

Our gift shop as of yesterday is now selling food and cake. Brilliant! Good on them, now they can stay open.

Sorry op but you are really missing the point.

Brilliant! Good on them, now they can stay open.

Humans are very short termist, doesn't mean they are sensible.

The UK system has contributed to a lot of these individual bad decisions. I understand why these decisions are bring made, but they are self-defeating.

befuddled we can't afford another full on lockdown, or do you suppose there are money trees littering the countryside?

We won't have an NHS or a police force or anything else for that matter this time next year if we continue to shut everything down, even very low risk parts of the economy. Fortunately most people are sensible and pragmatic, and not off with the money fairies imagining a pot of gold at the end of the NHS rainbow. Critical thinking is precisely that, critical right now.

@Ihaveyourback

befuddled we can't afford another full on lockdown, or do you suppose there are money trees littering the countryside?

We won't have an NHS or a police force or anything else for that matter this time next year if we continue to shut everything down, even very low risk parts of the economy. Fortunately most people are sensible and pragmatic, and not off with the money fairies imagining a pot of gold at the end of the NHS rainbow. Critical thinking is precisely that, critical right now.

Oh yes, the old money tree jibe! If I recall, the Chancellor was saying we couldn't afford furlough until, oooh, yesterday.

The government will afford what they need to afford, the government will afford a lock down if lock down is needed.