Back to Work

[Zambeezy]

Who has returned to work yet?

 

I've been working from home since about mid-March (and really enjoying it) but got informed yesterday that we're expected back on Monday barring extenuating circumstances. I'm a data analyst so my job 100% can be done remotely but I've never had the opportunity to try extended WFH. Now I'm addicted to all the freedom. Taking a walk down to the park in the mid-morning, taking time to make a nice, healthy lunch, stepping away from the computer to work on home projects for 10-15 minutes here and there...I feel like WFH is something I'm really going to seek out going forward.

 

What's it like in your neck of the woods?

[derf]

I'm still working from home.  At our staff meeting yesterday they told us that anyone who can work from home is required to keep doing so until further notice.  There are a few things that people do where they have to be in the office but I can basically do everything remotely so I stay home.  Sometimes I miss being able to sit down face to face with someone and work through a problem but we have decent (not great) tools to help us collaborate.

 

I too enjoy the freedom.  Having access to the kitchen for a healthier lunch is nice.  The commute is a lot shorter and I don't have to "dress up" (i.e. put pants on). 

[Torq_Shep]

I am a test cell engineer so I am still at work. Everything is pretty slow though.

[NHMJXJ]

Had a few weeks of reduced hours, but have worked straight through.  I'd like to say it's business as usual, but reality is it's business "unusual".

 

Can't work from home.

 

 

[Smokeyyank]

I worked from home for a bit but returned to the office FT two weeks ago and it's been non stop madness ever since.  Hospital OR's are booked through June already. Most of my team is back on site. Being in leadership it's hard to manage being remote

[tugboat95]

Never quit working although as of yesterday I'm on my 21 days off. Just did a 21 day hitch on the tug. (I work 24/7 for 21 days then 21 days off) La harbor is very slow. Almost zero containerships coming in and very few tankers. Only saw 1 car carrier in 3 weeks. Hawaiian trade thru Matson shipping seems to be the only thing steady. When I left yesterday there were 25 tankers anchored waiting to offload and nowhere to do it. And 5 cruise ships just sitting. There is a flotilla of ultra large crude carriers currently heading to the west coast from Saudi(too big for canal). Nobody knows what they are going to do When they get here. Shore tanks are full refineries are shut down due to lack of demand. World is actually running out of oil transport. If it floats its already full. Oil shipping right now is lucrative. Being paid to store it. But when it ends it will crash hard.

89 Comanche
Eliminator
2wd
4.0L
5 speed PukeGoat
Factory Original

[87MJTIM]

I am considered “essential “ personnel. I have not stopped working through the whole pandemic. As self-employed CPA , my clients want their refunds ASAP. Those that owe were granted time until July 15. 
 

for me, it is still a reduced “busy season “. 

[13 Legion]

Ironworker in Chicago. We’ve worked the entire time. It’s business as usual. The social distance thing doesn’t really adapt to my line of work. Nobody in our gang has gotten sick. We rely on one another so we trust if someone is sick they don’t come in. We have masks if we want to wear them so it’s an option if you feel the need. I would say the majority of people going past our job are wearing masks.The ‘essential worker’ thing is thrown around a lot, as that pertains to us. I’m bolting up a railroad bridge. Thanks to all our police, fire and hospital staff who are risking it. 

[dante2]

5 hours ago, tugboat95 said:

Never quit working although as of yesterday I'm on my 21 days off. Just did a 21 day hitch on the tug. (I work 24/7 for 21 days then 21 days off) La harbor is very slow. Almost zero containerships coming in and very few tankers. Only saw 1 car carrier in 3 weeks. Hawaiian trade thru Matson shipping seems to be the only thing steady. When I left yesterday there were 25 tankers anchored waiting to offload and nowhere to do it. And 5 cruise ships just sitting. There is a flotilla of ultra large crude carriers currently heading to the west coast from Saudi(too big for canal). Nobody knows what they are going to do When they get here. Shore tanks are full refineries are shut down due to lack of demand. World is actually running out of oil transport. If it floats its already full. Oil shipping right now is lucrative. Being paid to store it. But when it ends it will crash hard.

89 Comanche
Eliminator
2wd
4.0L
5 speed PukeGoat
Factory Original

 

I was getting ready to ask you what the tanker situation was on the coast. That is not good at all. They furloughed 56 drivers last Friday and put the rest of us on 4 on/4 off. They are trying to get us as close to 40 hrs as they can. Rumors are flying about filling frac tanks and rail cars with the storage tank being filled up. Crazy times ahead.

[buxmj]

I am a musician and also teach private lessons at my teaching studio. It will be a while before gigs start coming back but I am able to teach some students through Google meet and that is going better than I thought it would. A few students have started coming back to the studio, I schedule at least 15 minute breaks between students now so no one comes in close contact arriving or leaving and that also gives me time to wipe the waiting area tables down. Teaching private drum and percussion lessons can be done while keeping social distancing so the few that have come back to the studio are fine with the situation, hoping to get more back each week. Income is not great but enough to pay the bills and with the free time I have got a lot done around the house and on the mj. Also have had time to get more consistent practice in, it has been a long since I have been able to do that. 

 

Buck

[CPH-0628]

I'm also on the list of essential workers and been non stop since this all started. Working maintenance for animal feed manufacturer so we have been busy making food for animals so we can turn around and, well you all know the rest. I still have a feeling we haven't seen the worst of this pandemic yet but have been taking necessary precautions to keep myself and family healthy. Lots of projects getting done at home and now waiting for it to hopefully sell. Time to move on to the next adventure.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[FrankTheDog]

Never stopped working, most everybody in the shop has stayed. There have been a couple furloughs here and there mostly because of slow down in work coming in.

 

Had one guy in our shop catch it but I work a different shift and different machines so no close contact with him. 

[mjeff87]

Both the wife and I are essential.  She's been WFH 3 days a week (when the software works for her to get into her system remotely, it's not 100% reliable).  I had the option to WFH a few days a week but declined.  I have 2 subordinates that report to me and neither of them are able to WFH due to the nature of their positions, so I didn't think it would be a good idea for me to while they couldn't/didn't.

 

 

[tugboat95]

I was getting ready to ask you what the tanker situation was on the coast. That is not good at all. They furloughed 56 drivers last Friday and put the rest of us on 4 on/4 off. They are trying to get us as close to 40 hrs as they can. Rumors are flying about filling frac tanks and rail cars with the storage tank being filled up. Crazy times ahead.

They are already filling train cars and even pipelines across the country. My cousin works on the NYC to Port Jeff (Long Island)run. He delivers 90% of the gasoline used outside the city on the island. Facility usually takes in 30000 barrels a day. Last 3 weeks it was only 7000 barrels per day. His barge carries 80000 barrels. He's doing a lot of anchor time.

89 Comanche
Eliminator
2wd
4.0L
5 speed PukeGoat
Factory Original

[500 MJ]

For all of the talk of filling rail cars with oil products and letting them sit - I work at a railroad and we currently have a plethora of empty tank cars (new 2019) stored on our unused tracks. They definitely are not full. Other areas this may also be the case or they may in fact have product in them. Regarding the latter - I'll just say that there are plenty of regulations out there for tank cars that have hazmat product in them and how they are to be handled, time they can sit idle, etc...

 

The news likes to grab onto these things and run with them. Recently there was a story in a local newspaper here about our tank cars being stored full. The writer never contacted us, he was wrongly informed by someone who apparently "knew their stuff"... 

 

Everything on the internet is true...right? 

[tugboat95]

For all of the talk of filling rail cars with oil products and letting them sit - I work at a railroad and we currently have a plethora of empty tank cars (new 2019) stored on our unused tracks. They definitely are not full. Other areas this may also be the case or they may in fact have product in them. Regarding the latter - I'll just say that there are plenty of regulations out there for tank cars that have hazmat product in them and how they are to be handled, time they can sit idle, etc...
 
The news likes to grab onto these things and run with them. Recently there was a story in a local newspaper here about our tank cars being stored full. The writer never contacted us, he was wrongly informed by someone who apparently "knew their stuff"... 
 
Everything on the internet is true...right? 

I know of 3 terminals across the country that have trains sitting and waiting to be unloaded. (As of last week) Tanks are full nowhere to put it. They pump out the train cars as the tanks allow. And you're right distillates(gasoline) have a shelf life. How long ago was that gas we just bought made? Who knows?

89 Comanche
Eliminator
2wd
4.0L
5 speed PukeGoat
Factory Original

[BeatCJ]

46 minutes ago, 500 MJ said:

Everything on the internet is true...right? 

 

And worth EXACTLY what you paid for it.

Both my wife and I are considered essential. She's a manager at a smaller hardware store, they've been crazy busy. And customer's have been stressed. as a manager, she's salaried, and working 10 to 12 hour days. Vegetable starts, landscaping products, power tools are flying off of her shelves.

I'm an Assistant Fire Chief, and we are just starting to get a handle on what wildland Fire Camps might look like. It's going to be a strange summer for us.

[Blue XJ]

I;ve been working from home the entire time. Our governer keeps extended the stay at home order, so my work from home orders are also getting extended.   It'll be at least June before I go back as of now.

[70barracuda]

Never stopped working. Being AAA we have to be available anytime. Definitely not a lot of tows and if there is they are short ones. Nothing like last summer with the long distance stuff. I will say having to service dead batteries has gone up like crazy with people not driving for weeks then coming out to a dead battery.

 

It has definitely gotten busier though within the last 2 weeks. I think people are just done with staying home and venturing out even though NJ isn't technically open yet. 

 

[thecodemonk]

It's the opposite situation for me.  My company said IT's "return to the physical office" will not be re-evaluated until Sept 1st at the earliest, regardless of what the local governments are going to do.  In fact, we can't go into the office without manager approval right now (to protect critical operations personnel who have to be there).

 

That said, been working from home this whole time exactly as I was in the office.  

[gogmorgo]

I’ve also been at work mostly the whole time, keeping the trucks running that keep the highway open. Mid-April the winter road maintenance requirements get relaxed, so after that we got shifts moved around to minimize people in the shop, and that resulted in everyone missing a shift every other week. It doesn’t apply to me but we’ve also had some people missing hours due to lost child care. We’ve been required to disinfect cab interiors and external touch surfaces before we get into a truck, and we’re getting more haz-mat friendly PPE and equipment washing systems put in place as we’re transitioning from moving snow to dealing with equipment that handles garbage and sewage.

 

The province is starting to “cautiously” reopen in steps starting this weekend, but I’m in a federal jurisdiction so we’re still mostly shut down until the end of the month.

 

Both of my roommates have been working from home. They’ve both been given the option of returning to the office starting next month, although the one who does work somewhat with the public will still have her office mostly closed to the public until the fall.

[Pete M]

58 minutes ago, 70barracuda said:

 I will say having to service dead batteries has gone up like crazy with people not driving for weeks then coming out to a dead battery.

 

 

yeah, I've gotten more calls from friends/family in the last couple weeks than the last couple years about "can you come give me a jump?" or "can I borrow your battery charger?"     trickle chargers are cheap people!  

[gogmorgo]

We’ll be starting to get that one at work as well. We were just starting to pull the light fleet out of winter storage for the busier summer season when everyone was sent home, and now we’ve got the whole fleet just parked up and waiting for a summer that we weren’t sure would happen. I’d actually suggested going out and disconnecting all the batteries way back in early April, but the powers that be were convinced it was a waste of time and we’d be back to normal. At least we’re beyond the season of certain death for discharged batteries left outside.

Its kinda nice having older vehicles that actually turn off when you shut them off, that you can leave unattended for a couple months without draining the battery. Modern cars just have too many systems that stay on and draw the battery down. 

[Crash]

Been working, slinging parts is an essential service.
I was originally supposed to have reduced hours , but a couple of my coworkers bailed and took "the allowed" time off for covid.