Benefits of Coronavirus

[SCFinfan]

Anyone’s life gotten a little better as a result of this plague? For me, as much as I (honestly) feel guilt when I say it, my life has gotten a lot better.

Pre-COVID, I was in court every day just dying inside. It was a constant grind. Since COVID, the courts have mostly shut, but I have found myself going to bond court every now and then, the pressure is off, the police are really relaxed, and everyone is trying to take care of one another.

Likewise, bc of COVID, bond court judges are wanting to let ppl out - the last thing they need is a jail lawsuit bc someone died from COVID while awaiting bond on a nonviolent offense.

Business-wise, the firm has suffered a teensy bit: we are still doing ok - no one furloughed, no one fired, no one reduced in pay... thank God. But it is noticeable how slow the phone is some days.

The spare time has allowed me to start running again. It’s really made me enjoy my neighborhood and my neighbors (who do little cookouts bc they work from home and are no risk bc they don’t come into contact with anyone except their kids and us) and, I dunno, life is just slower and better.

Anyone else have this happen to them? I hope so.

[CF DolFan]

We are still working pretty much the same as before but traffic is so much nicer. We also conduct our progress meetings on Microsoft Teams so I guess that is different. Otherwise our weekends are very limited. We still ride our Harleys but our group rides have gotten much smaller with no restaurants to eat in. Sitting outside under a tree and eating isn't quite the same.  As well ... our trips on the water are a bit more isolated. I guess the only benefit would be less traffic.

[Dave Gray]

I have enjoyed it.

I don't want to downplay the loss of life, people getting sick, or the incredible damage to the economy....but....

I am having a great time.  I work more effectively over less time, no commute, I get to see my family a ton, I play every day, I have done a ton of home improvement projects, we're eating well and cooking a lot. 

I could ride this out however long it takes.  ...luckily, I'm still receiving a full paycheck, as is my wife, but if the economy continues to slump, I'm sure there will be problems.  But conceptually, I love staying home.

[Dolphster]

Like Dave said, I feel a little odd talking about the "benefits of Coronavirus" when so many people have lost their lives, etc.  My wife already teleworked full time so that was no change for her.  But this is the first time that I have ever teleworked in my life.  It has been an odd transition and I'm looking forward to getting back into the office and in "the field".  But we are very fortunate in that we are still gainfully employed and it not having access to all of the things that we normally go out and do has made us appreciate the little things in life a little more.  Actually having quiet time to talk instead of racing from event to event every weekend has been nice. 

Still, kind of hard to do an end zone dance when so many people have been so negatively impacted by COVID. 

[Sunstroke]

Less traffic is literally the ONLY benefit I can see from this pandemic...

[Dave Gray]

I owned my own business where I worked from a home office for years.  I think it changes you.  You work when you need to work to get things done....not because there are hours to do or change or because someone is checking your progress or anything.  It's just a lifestyle that you adopt and it became a part of the way I lived.

I have slipped right back into that.

[Tenshot13]

I think I mentioned it in another thread, but my wife and I couldn't be better.  Between friends and family, a lot of our time was spent with them instead of enjoying each other.  Since this started, every weekend we get in the pool, have some drinks, set up the sprinkler so the dog can play too and listen to Jimmy Buffet (something about Jimmy B, sun and drinks makes me happy), along with more intimacy, to say it in a classy way.

[David Fulcher]

Though I've still been working full-time in my line of work (I'm actually a physician), still things have definitely been slowly at work since I'm predominantly more in the office/outpatient setting than in the inpatient/hospital setting, though I go there essentially every day I'm at work, even if just to see 1-2 pt's only.

But yeah, definitely slower on the office side, and I'm hearing that from tons of my colleagues in various specialties in the communities.  A lot of ppl in the hospital, of course, but not a lot wanting to come to the office for follow ups/new consultations, and thus a lot wanting to do telehealth visits instead.

I do see where several posters are coming from stating that the slower pace in general does seem to be "better", though--gives one some time to breath here and there!!  Certainly wish it didn't have to be a byproduct of this overall type of situation, though...

[fyo]

The epidemic hit at the worst possible time for my family. Still small potatoes compared to what others are going through, so I'm not complaining. It will cost us a huge chunk of money in the long run, though. The next few months should give us a better picture, but it sucks. It is what it is, though.

[SlothVomit]

This whole situation has improved mine in terms of spending more time with my family and finishing projects i've put on pause forever. I love my job, but sitting in front of a computer all day in an office would get to anyone at some point. I do miss my coworkers as i have become close with a few but i work just as fine if not better from home because my moral is simply better. I don't miss the commute. In fact i find myself happier in the AM these days because i don't have to deal with FL drivers at the beginning of my day. I feel for anyone and everyone hurt by this and hope for nothing but the best outcome for their situations.

[BuccaneerBrad]

Less traffic is literally the ONLY benefit I can see from this pandemic...

And now that the state is opening back up, there was more traffic on the road today when I was out delivering groceries.

That plus my unemployment from being furloughed has put more money in my pocket

[Downunder Dolphan]

One local benefit here is that while the hotels have been closed, the State Government has paid for some of them to house a good chunk of the homeless and is now talking of extending that plan in some way when the crisis is over.

[Fau Teixeira]

cause giving the homeless homes .. makes them not be homeless

[Downunder Dolphan]

cause giving the homeless homes .. makes them not be homeless

It gives them something over their heads at least. Thankfully winter in most of Australia is not as cold or harsh as a lot of the northern hemisphere, but it's still a bitch for those with their shopping trolleys of belongings and sleeping bags huddled under carparks or shopping center overhangs to stay dry. We are a relatively rich country, but it breaks my heart to see a teddy bear and toys among the stuff of the unlucky crumpled out on the sidewalk somewhere trying to keep warm.

[Pappy13]

Southwest has just sent out a memo that they will be embracing working from home now for the time being. They are planning on opening up headquarters in June, but if you want and are able to you will be allowed to work from home. I think going forward companies will see that people can actually be productive from their homes especially now that we've been forced into doing it and some new practices have been put in place for it. For instance they expedited the roll out of Microsoft Teams to our technology folks to make collaboration easier. It will be rolled out to everyone soon. I can pretty much get to everything I need to now without even having to log into the company VPN or remote into my work PC now. Everything is web based including Microsoft office, Teams, Slack, DASH, etc and in fact these things actually seem to work better when not on Southwest's VPN. Course I'm sure that not everyone is in my position, but for me it's almost better to work from home. I definitely see that as a benefit of Coronavirus.

One last thing and that is that I have actually customized my hours to demand. In the office my hours were pretty much 8:15 to 5:00 regardless if I was busy or not. Now I start anywhere from 7:30 to 8:00 and work into the evening if I need to just respond to an e-mail or something and I take breaks whenever I'm not busy. I'm actually more productive in my opinion then I was having to go into the office every day. Combine that with the savings on gas for the car, the wear and tear on the car, insurance has dropped in the last 30 days etc. My work experience has much improved.