Offices

[jemimavintage]

I run a vintage clothing/handbag online store and an air-conditioning company (yes, I know, a bit of an odd mix, but at the moment, I'm glad to at least have two fingers in different pies) and we're seeing a drop off in business for the air con as offices close. Funnily enough tho, there's been an uptick in vintage sales as people are bored at home and want something a bit quirky and different..

Anyway, my question is this: for the office workers, how long has your office told you you're gonna be off? ...and are they giving you full pay? We're looking to give our engineers full pay, even during a slow down for us.... It's gonna be very difficult to achieve this but that's our aim..

Wow it is.........CRAZY....work and business wise... :( :(

We haven't been given a timeline at all. We are getting 100% pay and employer will claim 80% back.

We have a 30,60 and 90 day plan. Fully anticipate 3 months as minimum. The thing is if lockdown takes us to summer holidays there will be a major problem for most parents trying to reinstate holiday care, especially if childcare settings have gone under due to lack of income.

Likelihood is many parents will continue to WFH to September even if lockdown ends before then. Other consideration for us is whether we would go back to an office setting at all if WFH proves productive and quality remains high.

Office is £45000 a year just for rent, then there are all the other associated costs. Closing it would be an automatic saving of c£70,000 a year which would be significant at a time when cost savings will be essential.

@toy perhaps you could negotiate with your LL to pay reduced rent?