Hi everyone. I haven't checked in since prior to this post's creation. I am sorry so many of you are going through hardships. I'm fortunate that as of now, my family is healthy, my wife and I are working from home, and my kids's schools have closed until mid-May with online learning starting next week. With the exception of an emergency vet visit, we have been self-quarantined a little ahead of the curve over the rest of America. We're temporarily having groceries delivered, tipping WELL, and going through an OCD-like cleaning process as they come in. We are scared and careful but privilaged and fortunate to not be hurting like some.
The stupidity and willfulness of my countrymen has yet again showed it's ugly face, and many continue to ignore science. I am suffering a bit of derpression but I imagine everyone is struggling right now, even those without hisotires of emotional challendges. I regret staying away from the forum but my priorities have been stretched. The support for each other here is overwhelming. This is a great international group, and based on this threat, an intellignet one, too. But we already knew this.
If you want to read on, I want to talk about my work situation: I work IT in a medium sized law firm with prominent clients. I don't talk about work much on socila media for the obvious reasons, and honestly, even on a bad day I don't like to complain too loudly. But this forum is private and I haven't said this shit anywhere and it's driving me insane. They were assholes and wholly unprepared. My buddy and I in IT started pressing our management team about proactive plans in early February because we saw this coming. We were first dismissed as paranoid, and later, as insitgating unenssary panic. We told them it was inevitable that schools would close in weeks, and once the schools closed, we were not coming in. This again was dismissed as our firm was "carefully monitoring the situation". That day my buddy and I started writing up emergency documentation and recommending plans to get the staff ready to work from home: only 60% of our Firm (225 or so employees) had work-at-home capabilities as per Firm policy. As a side note, I was not allowed to work my shift from home...EVER...even though I routinely support afterhours and weekend OT for one or two weeks a month froim home: I'm only allowed to do it when it benefitds them. But I digress.
Fast forward to Thursday the 12th. My Firm still planned on staying open and there was no word from the shools yet, either. Although we had proactively written up documetation and proactive action plans to get the staff working from home, we were clearly taking a reactive response. We were told the info had been passed to the top and was under consideration with everything else, but they literally had us doing roll-out type work, training people on new systems that late in the game. I decided I wasn't going back in the next day and the kids were staying home as well as I felt a "call" was going to be made that weekend anyway (as a side note, I convinced them to let me work from home as a 'test' and they decided this was better than a call-out). My wife did the same. Sure enough, my kid's schools closed and my wife's job allowed her work from home. For mine...they still wnated people to report on Monday so we could 'prep' for closing on Tuesday. Let's say that again: WE NEED TO CLOSE FOR THIS SERIOUS VIRUS, BUT YOU NEED TO COME IN ONCE MORE AROUND YOUR PEERS! As an IT person, this meant a mad scramble of attorneys and staff coming to my desk for me to handle their laptops and mobile devices. The shit I had been asking to do for a month was now going to be rushed in a day, and locals were already sick. No thank you. My buddy and I both offered home support becasue our kids were home and it was granted, but that first week of remote IT support was hell. And if we didn't corrdinate together, whichever one would have gone in would have gotten all the shit work.
Fast forward to now. My kids are out until 5/15 but work wants us back on 4/15...extended from the originally proposed 3/27! 1/3 of the people are still going in despite the Governer closing down our state until 5/15, and the messaging continues that IT may have to be present if our attorneys invite out of state guests. FUCK THAT! You don't need me to be in that room or touch that shit. We shouldn't have guests right now at all. I could go on and on bitching about what my employer has done wrong, but I recognize I am fortunate to be working AND away from people. I will say this. My buddy and I who thought ahead and called out? They let us handle 200+ calls and email by ourselves in the first 2 DAYS: the entire rest of the IT was needed for people rusing down to the office...just like I predicted.
So that's been my little slice of heaven. I know people are sick and having trouble with food, so again, I consider myself lucky. But just yesterday I got in a debate with someone that thinks businesses are doing the best for their employees. They're not. Most certainly do not, and this is while our Congresspeople withheld info so they could profit on stocks. And my trying to convince people that all the relief policies they are looking for is exactly what Bernie Sanders and Democratic Socoialism stand for is met with debate, as if wanting governement support for themselves but not for everyone always isn't fucking evil.
So anyway, that's been my last two months...being trated like chicken litte while also still being expected to take the fallout I warned about. Fighting the onset of depression for 2 months has been hard.I haven't had a crash since my son was born: he literally keeps me sane and is my daily motivation. But this is certainly the darkest I've been in over a decade. And oh yeah, my Bernese/Poodle mix got injured in a freak accident in my house. So now I'm carry that 95 pound / 43 kilo puppy up and down stairs and outside for potty breaks. So agian, lots of bullshit, but good with all things considered. Thanks for reading.
