Covid is a gift to the lazy, and it's turning people against restrictions, vulnerable, etc

[tfresh]

More of a rant than anything, but I think most people would agree at this point many private companies, and the vast majority of the public sector are now acting a total disgrace when it comes to covid.

Passports now take 2 months to turn around, the reason.. covid.

Bins still not regularly emptied ... covid

Ring up any government service, sorry we're not answering the phones..covid

None of it makes sense anymore, there are no restrictions, we have a vaccine, etc.

Certain jobs cannot be done from home, it's time to go back to work or move job. Why are companies putting up with staff who are refusing to work? It's crazy.

What makes matters worse is, this is turning people against the genuinely vulnerable. Now when someone says they can't come into the office because they're vulnerable, it's treated with suspicion and eye rolling rather than care. As always the piss takers ruin it for everyone.

If you can get down the pub on friday night, you can get down to work.

Two of our passports needed renewing last year but we're only just doing it now because there wasn't any point when we couldn't fly. We always like to get the most out of our passports so we're only just doing it now (and loads of people are off work very unwell with Covid. I know more people now with it than at any time).

To an extent - but to counter that, I have seen a great many people completely pull the stops out and go beyond the call of duty. My DD’s school, the speech and language team who are working with my DS, I’ve needed the NHS a few times - and although it’s been remote appointments, they have been absolutely amazing.
Bins - I really feel for the guys who do our bins. It was only our green bin where collections stopped, but what kind of protection did they get being in a lorry together? Did they need to all self isolate if one came down?
Passports - I can imagine, it’s not a straightforward process at all with a constantly changing picture.
Those who have used it to their advantage have always been that way inclined - and there will always be a section of society that do that. But on the whole - I think I’ve seen a more positive concerted effort from all.
Also think it’s a two way thing - if you approach a situation with as much positivity, resilience and proactivity as you can muster - you are more likely to get the same behaviour back.

I certainly haven’t noticed individuals being lazy (or not any more than pre covid anyway, same as for those who relish making other people’s lives more difficult - they exist, and I expect covid has been quite helpful for them, but most people are not like that). But for larger organisations if they can cut corners and cost cut they often will, and it’s left to the frontline staff to either make up for that or near the brunt of the frustration.

I think the op is a bit harsh generalising everyone. I’m a teacher recently had covid and back to work feeling exhausted. But we try to carry on despite a surge in cases at school.
I do get irritated at the messages on call waits I must say. You know. Due to the ongoing pandemic blah blah call wait times are long call later. Not a luxury I have . I have to get on with it in a timely manner.
I do agree the pandemic is far from over. Six months time will hopefully be better

It’s not limited to public sector at all. The most disgraceful case of not - working- from- home I know of is in private sector. Certainly I know of plenty slackers but it’s the individuals themselves. Ii have never worked so hard, and am close to breaking point.

I agree op. Both dp and myself have worked throughout. I've been into the office most days (during the main lockdowns I did wfh occasionally but mostly was in, he went in periodically to sign cheques, but as soon as they lifted the lockdowns we went in full time) if we could I'm unsure why others without health conditions couldn't?

We set the office up with social distancing and wore masks, not had a single case of covid

I agree OP and I can see it in myself.

I've completely lost interest in my work, if I can "get away" with Wfh, starting late, finishing early, doing some housework and taking a long lunch beak for a "wellbeing walk" I will. I'm nowhere near as productive as I was and no one cares. As long as the bare minimum gets done everyone appears to be happy, regardless of the impact on customers.

It's true we've have more staff with Covid over the last few weeks than at the height, but we also have people much more ready to take sick days than they were. Which is a good thing, if people don't come in with "symptoms", but I do think it's more borne out of laziness than concern for colleagues.

I think we have a huge workforce really struggling to motivate itself and that includes managers as well as staff, which is why it's not being addressed.

I also agree it's not just public sector

That's not very nice.

Our refuse collectors have never missed a day of collecting from day one.

There will be back logs trying to play catch up. If it bothers you that much about the passports book an appt in London and get one on the day.

Most things now have a back log. So plan that in, in your time. This has been going on for two years now. Don't expect a passport to be back within two weeks.

People are still ill with covid. Just because the restrictions have lifted doesn't mean covid has gone.

Have to agree with earlier posters , I know more people recently who have caught it who never had it during the "lockdown " stages , think we need to show thanks to all the staff in every sector who have kept on working through it all

People judge away without really understanding situations. This argument is from the same playbook as ‘loads of people claiming benefits are scroungers.’

Yes there are always a minority who will take advantage, but the majority have real issues. At my workplace, we are dealing with a huge caseload because we could not operate normally when the restrictions were in place. This is impacting the service and will continue to do for another year or so without additional resources. If anything our funding is dropping. The pandemic had impacted the mental health of 1 in 2 people according to a study by the Red Cross. Personal debt is at record levels.

More ready to take sick days, struggling with motivation. Laziness, low level depression, or seeing anew that life is about more than work?

It’s depressing, anxiety inducing times. Record levels of debt, job insecurity with a massive recession looming.

My daughter has Covid.
6 of her class mates do too.
According to the 'vine' there's at least 20 kids from my daughter's school that are off this week with a positive test.

20 kids off, could mean 20 parents off to care for them.
If 20 parents are off, it could mean 20 jobs going undone somewhere in the world.
That'd one small school in one small town.

Google says there's 24000 schools in the UK. If 10 kids from each are ill, that's 240000 I'll kids right now and parents needing to care for them...

That's a lot of staff from a lot of work places and it doesn't include adults that have Covid themselves.

Now imagine, the bin lorry workers doing their jobs, Tony cones in Monday, but on Tuesday he has to be off as his kids got Covid. Tony had it too, didn't realise, bow the other bin lorry workers have it as well. 1 of them becomes symptomatic, there's half the lorry workers off.. leaving just Sharon, Ken and Derek to empty the many thousands of bins in your town.

Covid isn't over. Boris used it to save his career, but it is still very much alive and within the population.

Have you had Covid tfresh? I have for 3 weeks now, never felt so ill. I now have bronchitis and on antibiotics.
I think you are being so unreasonable!!

Covid has not gone away ! People are still getting ill with it . My dad having avoided it for 2 years got it , was in bed 3 days been over 3 weeks now he still has the cough triple vaxed .

Ds had it last week for the 2nd time . 24 hour fever and sore throat wasn’t well enough to attend school anyway in the first 5 days much better by day 7 .
Bit unfair to say people are being lazy with it . Quite a few I know who have had it , it had totally wiped them out .

I know of a few who avoided it over 2 years like my dad being careful and are now catching it . Chris whitty did say everyone will catch it at some point .

What specific businesses are using Covid as an excuse? I genuinely haven't seen anyone use it for quite a while. And while I recognise that everyone's experience is very different, I had to sort out a passport at the end of last year and it was very quick and efficient; I'm going to the doctor in 15 minutes and have never had an issue (through the whole pandemic - I appreciate I'm lucky in that respect) getting an appointment or being seen when needed - in fact, if anything it's MORE efficient as they're much happier to chat over smaller issues on the phone so I don't need to take time out of work.
I was WFH for most of the last two years. I think I was lucky because I'd had large periods of working from home in different jobs before Covid so I knew how to sort myself out and get things done but for others there was more of a settling in period. Now we've moved to hybrid working and it's really effective for the most part, but we're a small-to-medium sized private sector business, not public sector. The public sector issues I've come across have been to do with budget cuts, not Covid at all.

I think Covid's given plenty of people an excuse to be incredibly rude and very, very mean-spirited about anything that doesn't fit their narrative. I'm certainly tired of that.

also - if this is turning you against the vulnerable, then you really do need to take a look at yourself, not other people. That's awful.

I had covid and it was like a bad cold for me - it’s not me lying or minimising, I know it can be worse for others. I worked as best I could through it with toddlers at home - it was the isolation rule that made it more difficult for me to recover in fact. But I work for a public service and there isn’t anyone to cover for me. We were overloaded before covid and it has got worse.

We are asked to only phone one dentist outside of certain times 'obviously because of covid'

Our bins have missed a week because they have so many staff off sick. With Covid. Because it is still a serious illness, not a cold.

Our nursery had to close a couple of rooms for the same reason recently. Not isolating, just ill.

I remember in the first few weeks of the first lockdown, there was much talk about what we could all learn from the pandemic. One of the biggest takeaways was that hopefully, it would mark the end of 'presenteeism' - struggling into work and spreading your germs about if you were unwell (covid or otherwise). It was seen as one of the positives we could take from all this, and would benefit not just the vulnerable but well-being generally.

DH has wfh since the start and still does - there is some hybrid working in his office, but those who are vulnerable or live with people who are (I'm CEV) can wfh permanently. His company has been brilliantly supportive and have made sure everything is in place for smooth homeworking and there hasn't been any dip in client satisfaction. If his company can do it, others can too. If they choose not to and are still blaming covid, that's on them, not on their staff.

Not being able to have olives on my Domino's because covid is a pisstake though.

Oh and OP your post is nasty and goady and if you feel less inclined to show empathy for vulnerable people because you were on hold to the DVLA or whatever for an hour, it's you that needs to take a long hard look at yourself.

But I doubt you'll see this because you're not coming back to the thread, are you.

The backlogs at the DVLA are something to behold. I'm on a short-term licence which, last time it was issued, ran for one year. It expired mid-2020. Because of Covid, the DVLA granted an 11-month extension, to allow them to process the renewals, pushing my expiry date to mid-2021. I applied for my renewal before that new expiry date. Just last week, I received a letter saying they'd made preliminary contact with my doctor as the first stage of granting my renewal.

So if I look at the expiry date on my physical driving licence, it's now been expired for longer than it was ever valid.

@ClumpingBambooIsALie

The backlogs at the DVLA are something to behold.

Same with HMRC. I'm still trying to get them to deal with tax refunds which were claimed pre covid, so 2 years ago. It's not just backlogs, they make mistakes and ignore things when your case finally reaches the top of the pile, so you have to contact them again and back to the bottom you go.

Yes, I know some staff were diverted to furlough and covid grants, but it was a very small proportion of staff who were redeployed - less than 10% I believe, and if they've had 90% of staff working as efficiently/productively as normal (whilst at home), they can't say that a 2 year delay to deal with pretty simple post that would normally have been dealt with in 3 months is because of only having 90% of staff. There's something else at play, and I suspect that is that their working from home staff aren't as efficient/productive as they claim to be!

@CIaireFraser

Oh and OP your post is nasty and goady and if you feel less inclined to show empathy for vulnerable people because you were on hold to the DVLA or whatever for an hour, it's you that needs to take a long hard look at yourself.

But I doubt you'll see this because you're not coming back to the thread, are you.

Thing is that's probably not a one-off. I had to make a third party claim against Churchill car insurance. Calls to them took over an hour to be answered by a human. That doesn't sound so bad, does it?

Yet, accordingly to my phone call log, it took 14 calls, each of over an hour, to conclude the claim. That's because after waiting an hour, most times I was fobbed off by them saying someone would call back (they never did), or them agreeing to do something, which they did wrong, etc., all necessitating making multiple repeat calls until they finally did what was required of them to deal with the claim, which they could have done in the first phone call had the person been remotely capable of doing their job in the first place.

The "covid" excuse is just being randomly trotted out to excuse poor customer service, and that has to stop, and I suspect in most cases, it's nothing to do with covid, just plain and simple incompetence.

I know somebody who works full time for the local council, but since wfh is also now working full time for a private company in an admin role and raking in two salaries! I don't know how she dare, I'd be terrified of getting caught, but clearly her particular council department is slack enough not to notice as she's been getting away for it for the best part of a year now!