Are you essential? (2 Viewers)

[mashoo]

Just curious since you are probably in the know more than me. What is your outlook for Westjet and the rest of the airline industry?

I can't speak for other airlines but it is not looking good for us. WestJet is already doing a second round of layoffs this Thursday (found out yesterday) to level staff to our current flight capacity and schedule. The execs are looking to reduce flights in our hub to 40 flights a day. For the past week, less than 2,000 Canadians have been flying network wide. To put that in perspective, yyc alone in the busy summer averages in the upper 10,000s guests flying through yyc a day. We've had flights with less than 10 passengers on board. We've taken approximately 80 aircraft offline and that number will go up.

I've been with WestJet since 2012 and I've never seen anything like this. We've grown and expanded operations a ton these past few years and seeing it throttled back is a shock.

The airport has shut down 2 of the 4 terminals in the airport to consolidate us. It's just a ghost town. There's a handful of stores open and food options. It's like being at a small regional airport.

I used to be a baggage handler and I've worked my way up into the office at the airport as the daily duty coordinator. I managed what planes went into what gates, manpower, ops, etc. (Maybe I'll do an AMA if anyone is interested)

I'm lucky as of right now because I'm less expendable.

 

[ReallyGoodUsername]

If staying home is essential, then I'm your gal -- I'm retired. I can manage 10-12 days between trips to the supermarket. I felt awful yesterday because I needed to interact with additional people: Someone to start my car (dead battery), the person at the dealership who took care of me, and someone in the pharmacy where I picked up a prescription. For the first time, I used the self-service checkout at the supermarket. For the most part, I'm trying hard to become invisible to the outside world, not counting the virtual world. If it weren't for you guys, I'd feel so isolated. Thank you all for being here!

Always happy to chat it up ! Thanks for being no small part of this awesome community

 

[Big Jilm]

Retail Pharmacist, so yeah I am working. I am happy to do my part and help people....always have, happy to bring home a paycheck right now, but to be honest I would prefer to stay home with my wife if I had a choice. I am scared I am going to bring it home to her and serve it up to an asthmatic former smoker who I am not confident could battle it.

My wife is a veterinary technician, and a damn good one too. She was furloughed due to a lack of business. However, the veterinary business is considered essential -- (essential for emergencies), but they just aren't bringing in the revenue atm.

 

[BusinessAzUsual]

Just emergency relocated from Vietnam and now “Working” from home. But with 12 hour time difference and wife and kids running around our little apartment I’m ready for them to open up our office again in Houston...

 

[Lemonzest]

I can't speak for other airlines but it is not looking good for us. WestJet is already doing a second round of layoffs this Thursday (found out yesterday) to level staff to our current flight capacity and schedule. The execs are looking to reduce flights in our hub to 40 flights a day. For the past week, less than 2,000 Canadians have been flying network wide. To put that in perspective, yyc alone in the busy summer averages in the upper 10,000s guests flying through yyc a day. We've had flights with less than 10 passengers on board. We've taken approximately 80 aircraft offline and that number will go up.

I've been with WestJet since 2012 and I've never seen anything like this. We've grown and expanded operations a ton these past few years and seeing it throttled back is a shock.

The airport has shut down 2 of the 4 terminals in the airport to consolidate us. It's just a ghost town. There's a handful of stores open and food options. It's like being at a small regional airport.

I used to be a baggage handler and I've worked my way up into the office at the airport as the daily duty coordinator. I managed what planes went into what gates, manpower, ops, etc. (Maybe I'll do an AMA if anyone is interested)

I'm lucky as of right now because I'm less expendable.

Wow! Thanks for sharing. Yeah I mean everyone knows cruise lines and airlines are getting hit hard. But it is another thing to hear what is happening on the inside. If you ever did do an AMA or longer write up to document the journey through this mess I would tune in!

 

[mashoo]

Wow! Thanks for sharing. Yeah I mean everyone knows cruise lines and airlines are getting hit hard. But it is another thing to hear what is happening on the inside. If you ever did do an AMA or longer write up to document the journey through this mess I would tune in!

I'm walking into the office today so when I get some down time I'll do an AMA thread

 

[Silv3rDawg23]

I am "Essential" as an IT Professional. Have the ability to work remotely but would like to go back to the normal daily life here soon.

 

[k9dr]

Retail Pharmacist, so yeah I am working. I am happy to do my part and help people....always have, happy to bring home a paycheck right now, but to be honest I would prefer to stay home with my wife if I had a choice. I am scared I am going to bring it home to her and serve it up to an asthmatic former smoker who I am not confident could battle it.

My wife is a veterinary technician, and a damn good one too. She was furloughed due to a lack of business. However, the veterinary business is considered essential -- (essential for emergencies), but they just aren't bringing in the revenue atm.

I am a veterinarian and considered essential. I own my own business and we are as busy as ever, even though we have gone to curbside service only for the time being. Since people are sitting at home spending more time with their pets, they are noticing more problems. I have one employee who is staying at home because she had recent heart surgery and her doctor advised her not to work.

 

[Frogzilla]

Consumer finance so we’re considered essential as part of the banking sector. Quite fortunate to still have a job, and even more so being able to work from home. Making the most of this shelter in place by spending lots of time with the little one

 

[duffman]

Power lineman/Emergecy Response.

Still working to ensure everyone at home can have that cup of coffee in the morning, charge thier cell phones, binge watch that popular Netflix series, wash thier clothes, heat up that TV dinner, etc...

Not complaining, I love going to work, I see something new and exciting everyday. The pay isn’t half bad either.

I’m basically a glorified maintenance man for the the power company. If something breaks I try to fix it. We work all calls from something as simple as a single customer’s meter all the way up to a 110 substation...and everything in between. Mainly 33, 13, & 4kv switching & large power outages.

Work has increased since the pandemic started. Been working 12 hr days and picking up extra shifts to fill holes in the schedule.

Trying to avoid people as best I can. Not really wanting to bring this thing back home to my family.

 

[pltrgyst]

I thought I was essential, but my wife has informed me that I'm expendable.

Since we're both retired, I don't really have any grounds for disagreeing with her.

"Dear Abby:

Bewildered, bewildered
You have no complaint
You are what your are and you ain't what you ain't
So listen up buster, and listen up good
Stop wishing for bad luck and knocking on wood"

RIP, JP...

 

[mashoo]

Wow! Thanks for sharing. Yeah I mean everyone knows cruise lines and airlines are getting hit hard. But it is another thing to hear what is happening on the inside. If you ever did do an AMA or longer write up to document the journey through this mess I would tune in!

There's a live conference with the CEO going on right now... I've got some crazy details for my AMA later. Wow.

 

[dennis63]

911 dispatcher, so deemed essential personnel and working full-time hours +. There are so few of us, my bosses try to keep us isolated within the building. (No one is allowed to even enter the dispatch center unless you work inside, and then only after a temp check.)

Wishing all here a safe trip though this and back to normal very soon.

 

[GenghisKhan]

High school teacher. Essential, only because we switched to online for the rest of the year and all the students are assigned computing devices. It's half the work for me

I find it strange that all my teaching buddies are off because they 100% cancelled all high school for the year in my province. Other provinces and states moved to online teaching. But our teachers were told to go pick up their sh*t cause they're off til September. No home work for the kids, nothing.

 

[GenghisKhan]

911 dispatcher, so deemed essential personnel and working full-time hours +. There are so few of us, my bosses try to keep us isolated within the building. (No one is allowed to even enter the dispatch center unless you work inside, and then only after a temp check.)

Wishing all here a safe trip though this and back to normal very soon.

My wife is a dispatcher. The dispatch center is inside our local police station. They've closed it off to the public completely. Cancelled everything non essential like fingerprints, background checks etc.

They've tried to separate/isolate each dept as best they can, and each person.

You don't want everyone in a dispatch center or police station off at the same time cause they all got sick.

Hope everything works out well for you guys in dispatch.

(If there's one thing I've learned before all this Corona crap, it's that dispatchers like @dennis63 have the best funny stories)

 

[Klobberer]

I find it strange that all my teaching buddies are off because they 100% cancelled all high school for the year in my province. Other provinces and states moved to online teaching. But our teachers were told to go pick up their sh*t cause they're off til September. No home work for the kids, nothing.

I thought Americans were dumb, but that's nuts.

 

[GenghisKhan]

There's a live conference with the CEO going on right now... I've got some crazy details for my AMA later. Wow.

Okay I need to hear this. I'm supposed to be in Vegas this week. I need Westjet to still be there to get me to Vegas as soon as we're back to normal.

 

[BGinGA]

Bill, I can't recall ever seeing you without a smile on your face.

You've apparently never watched him play Scarney.

 

[GenghisKhan]

I thought Americans were dumb, but that's nuts.

Maybe we're that far ahead?
No, that's a joke. Trust me, we are very behind.

 

[boltonguy]

I'm optional but the company I work for is not: we provide datacenter infrastructure for some of the largest financial institutions and hospitals in the US. I'm in sales and my team and I are doing our jobs remotely. We are still closing deals but the business has slowed a bit. I feel lucky to be working and hope that continues. God bless everyone on the front lines - thank you and stay safe!

 

[GenghisKhan]

Essential. Working from home.

I work for the government as a kind of consulting expert. I help the employees provide financial aid to the public employees who've been laid off.

When they hit a snag and aren't sure what to do or say, they contact my department for assistance to figure things out. I'm the senior so some people call me "master". I'm not gonna lie, I like the nickname lol.

Things are pretty challenging and frustrating right now. The sheer numbers are crashing our phone lines, our internet, all our systems.

But at the end of the day I'm thankful I still have work, that I can do it from home, and that I work with wonderful positive people who keep in touch everyday and bring each other up.

**Big thank you to all of you who can't work from home and also to those who are really supporting us by taking care of us and keeping everything running.**

 

[zo121179]

All this talk about the airlines and being hit hard, very true. However, I haven't been this busy as an Air Traffic Controller since the Chicago Center fire of 2014. All the weekend warriors are taking advantage of the airlines not flying and the beginning of spring so they are all out in force. It isn't normally a problem but in the little facility I work in now there are usually 10 working the tower and approach control per shift. There are 8 total now in a 24 hour period.

**Mad props to the nurses, Dr's, EMT's, care takers in large assisted living communities, and anyone else that has to man a register at any large box chain or grocery store. Right now, they are not being paid enough.**

***And the mail carriers that bring me chippies*** (Thank you!)

 

[XBobdog]

Interestingly, I am "essential", but presently working very little. I'm an anesthesiologist.

When all elective cases were stopped by my hospital, the amount of work we have to do plummeted. I imagine "elective" is 90% of the cases we do. Instead of staffing 3 MD anesthesiologist/day, we are now staffing 1.

We have had some Covid cases, but overall the hospital is super quiet. No patient guest or family, no non essential staff, way fewer surgeon and surgical staff around. It originally had a calm before the storm feeling. Now it's just quiet.

The Mecklenberg (Charlotte's county) cases are trending up. The vacation may end soon, but mostly my group is struggling to deal with the financial implication of a sudden loss of income. We employ 30 CRNA's, PA, Nurses, office staff etc, that we don't want to let go. Not only because we like them, but because when this thing ends, there is going to be an immediate rush of cases to do.

 

[FDLmold]

Interestingly, I am "essential", but presently working very little. I'm an anesthesiologist.

You get to administer all the GOOD organic chemicals. Sweet! If I was going to be a doctor, that's one on the short list of what specialty I would have chosen.

 

[Chester Copperpot]

I work for the feds, and we are 100% telework right now.

 

[Ben8257]

I was essential until 30 minutes ago when I got this text.

Yup spent the last 2 weeks working on floors 7-9... the top of the building and all of us packed on top of each other! Ohh joy... guess I'm on vacation

 

[abby99]

I thought I was essential, but my wife has informed me that I'm expendable.

Since we're both retired, I don't really have any grounds for disagreeing with her.

"Dear Abby:

Bewildered, bewildered
You have no complaint
You are what your are and you ain't what you ain't
So listen up buster, and listen up good
Stop wishing for bad luck and knocking on wood"

RIP, JP...

Does that ever take me back a few years decades. Thanks for posting it. Here it is for the young'uns on this forum:

 

[mashoo]

Okay I need to hear this. I'm supposed to be in Vegas this week. I need Westjet to still be there to get me to Vegas as soon as we're back to normal.

If you really do mean this week, we haven't flown anything other than domestically in a couple weeks now and won't be for the foreseeable future. I do have my AMA thread up to not derail this thread

 

[duffman]

I was essential until 30 minutes ago when I got this text.
View attachment 436495
Yup spent the last 2 weeks working on floors 7-9... the top of the building and all of us packed on top of each other! Ohh joy... guess I'm on vacation

Sorry to hear that. You work for Kelly Electric? Based out of Upper Marlboro?

 

[RowdyRawhide]

Interestingly, I am "essential", but presently working very little. I'm an anesthesiologist.

When all elective cases were stopped by my hospital, the amount of work we have to do plummeted. I imagine "elective" is 90% of the cases we do. Instead of staffing 3 MD anesthesiologist/day, we are now staffing 1.

We have had some Covid cases, but overall the hospital is super quiet. No patient guest or family, no non essential staff, way fewer surgeon and surgical staff around. It originally had a calm before the storm feeling. Now it's just quiet.

The Mecklenberg (Charlotte's county) cases are trending up. The vacation may end soon, but mostly my group is struggling to deal with the financial implication of a sudden loss of income. We employ 30 CRNA's, PA, Nurses, office staff etc, that we don't want to let go. Not only because we like them, but because when this thing ends, there is going to be an immediate rush of cases to do.

My wife is an anesthesiologist too, their group just announced rotating week long furloughs through June 1 for MDs and CRNAs. She is also the head of her department, and part of the Covid disaster response team. She was on vacation last week but still logged roughly 50 hrs in meetings. Today she went to work and was home by 10:30am. So far the shit hasn’t hit the fan here....if it does they want the anesthesiologists to do all intubations.