Here is a little nugget of information that sort of dropped into my lap.
For weeks now I have been struggling with an English term for "Kurzarbeit" calling it "short work" simply did not feel right.


Ahem!


The English word for Kurzarbeit is: "Furlough leave!"


Apparently from the Dutch word: "Verlof" as in "leave of absense."

But a furlough is usually unpaid. Kurzarbeit is paid

The world truly must come to an end given I agree with you here...

Again, it's not about being insensitive, but about keeping some perspective. Yes, I know this is not "the flu", and that's not the point - but the flu too can attack a (seemingly) healthy and young person's heart and lead to their death. What is the point of now emphasizing and pointing out every single < 75-year old who passes away from this - and there have been extremely few so far, mind you (much fewer than in 2009, mind you)? What's the intention or end goal other than create even more of a twisted panic? Yes of course this is tragic, it always is, but we are exposed to all kinds of dangers, illnesses and accidents in our lives. A friend of mine passed away from a heart attack at 32, no previous issues that were known - though later it was found out she did have some heart problems. Yes it sucks all over the place and of course no one wants that to happen - but it does happen, for a million and one reasons.

In the US, yes. However in a real country like the UK...:*




*sorry could not resist.

Kurzarbeit is almost slang, hard to translate. The term in French is "réduction de l'horaire de travail" or RHT which translates well to reduction of working hours.

What is your "confinement uniform", dresscode of sorts? Will you keep some of it afterwards? Do you wear strange, comfort things like when you were 5? Or is it kink the whole day? Is anyone working from home in real work clothes to keep the spirit or sentimental value..No laundry since the beginning of the quarantine?

Why do these leggins feel like my best friend, aaaaaaa

We will wear masks afterwards I think. Better get used to this idea. Slovakian president (of chic) makes hers match the rest of her outfit.



My friends have all sorts of skulls, vampires design masks with a top of the nose clip, it is pretty...Halloween.

__________________
"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein

I had a good laugh when the head of my office suggested on video conference that we all dress for work everyday. (My office is quite formal)

My confinement uniform is as follows: I have two outfits - each day I change from my day pyjamas (leggings, comfy rock t-shirt) to my night pyjamas (slightly more kink and perhaps pink).

Due to my currently highly unprofessional haircut, I've taken to wearing far more formal clothes to balance the whole business casual thing. So suit and tie along with a mohawk. I get funny looks when I'm out on the balcony.
This is probably more for my own amusement and mental health than any practical reason.

Friday - casual day...or week, hahahaha. I loved the casual (translates to "survive the elelements") approach in Iceland, cycling lycra pants with an Icelandic sweater and some hipster hat. Everywhere and every day. I bet even their MPs, priests and teachers. Bankers.

I have to normally wear formal clothes due to who I teach and honestly can't wait to get back in them, but this 'return to the basics' feels pretty ok. I wonder if we'll get more creative with our image once we have our freedom back.

The average age of those dying in Italy is about 80. This virus certainly targets the elderly and the vulnerable. It is however not unsympathetic to question the rationale of destroying entire economies on account of relatively few people dying, and the long term damage that it may do to people.

I fear it may be too late for that...

My company is probably the only big pharma out there that doesn't have a working from home program. Behind the scenes, everyone has been hoping that they will have one now that we have all gotten used to it. All of those hopes were squashed yesterday when we had a division video conference where the heads said "we need to be more present now than ever" once we return to normal.

They also suggested that we take vacation now since we will need to commit to work as much as possible when we are back. WTF are we going to do on holiday now? Many of us are working EXTRA hours now, it's not like we haven't been working during this time.

From the looks I get from people I think you may be right.

I think it depends what meds/tests your bosses are planning to do..I've heard of cca 5 that are in high demand these days.

I work online. But while loads of folks I know are trying to figure out how to keep busy or entertain the family, I work 3x much than before, the times call for it. And all the technical support I use (and my kid) is my own, nobody prepared us or thought about chipping in with the costs. Lots of people compensate for the system to keep the edu that students need afloat. But I am lucky that I don't risk my life nor my kid's, as opposed to thousands now.

Hugs, Suzie.

__________________
"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein

Crazy really, my sympathies

As my husband is a software developer he dresses like a scruffy student, even under normal circumstances when he's at the office. Only thing he doesn't wear to his office is a t-shirt that has WEB DEVELOPER plastered on the front, or the one with The Dude from The Big Lebowski on it. They are strictly for home working. We both worked from home for 8 years when we had our own company so this thing is a doddle for him. However, working in underpants is verboten .

He also gets a slap for snacking, thinks I don't hear the fridge door or the biscuit jar being opened

As mentioned before, this is not over yet. While it might look like relatively few now, the numbers could be quite different in a month...and might have looked even worse were it not for some of these measures. This is also assuming we believe the numbers being reported are accurate, and we know they're not.

Unfortunately every government is largely in the same position of damned if you do and damned if you don't.

• Choice A: Close businesses and limit interaction to reduce the spread, but wreck the economy. Maybe find out later that it was an overreaction.
• Choice B: Keep everything open, risk overwhelming the healthcare system and having companies need to shut anyway due to too many sick workers, and have the economy collapse anyway. Maybe find out choice A was the lesser of two evils.

• Choice C: Keep all the vulnerable secure by whatever means necessary. Keep everything open but dictate/enforce social distancing and protection. Healthcare will not be overwhelmed because the vulnerable are safe. Rate of increase of infections managed by (common sense) measures.

We will move to Choice C anyway. It's when, not if.

Again you're over-simplifying it.

Define "the vulnerable?"

In France, more than half of the first 300 people admitted to IC units were under sixty..

People middle-aged people are spending weeks in hospital.

Without a place in hospital as the number of cases soar in your "choice C", these people will be dying too.

Lots of these will be parents. Who is going to look after the children with dead parents? Are these children just collateral damage in your scenario?

I cannot believe that the UK government is now using a generally available app to run the country from home (Zoom).

Even working for a big Swiss bank, I have to get through several security checks and obstacles developed over the past years to allow me to log-in from home. It takes me almost 3 minutes to login, with my personal access card and access credentials, depending on whether I’m in the Swiss or International zone. It’s been that way since years. And these are constantly revised.