Been quiet here lately, but I wanted to drop by and wish everyone a great day, and hope you’re all hanging in there with this insanity that’s going on in the world. Remember to take a step back from the news and enjoy your time with your family.
If you’re looking for investing advice…i’m long petroleum, oil shipping companies, 3M, and divorce lawyers.
Greetings from the Netherlands. Our government has chosen to go into something they coined “intelligent lockdown”, which means that everybody that can work from home should do so, all ‘contact professions’ (eg. hairdressers, nail studios, massage parlors) have been stopped. Local governments can impose access restrictions on specific areas (like beaches or nature reserves) and fine people if they throw parties or gather in large quantities. People are allowed to go outside as long as they observe the 1,5 meter distance to others (families can walk together of course).
Our company changed overnight from a don’t work from home policy to everyone work from home. Luckily this went pretty smooth. As scrum master / agile coach, we try to keep communication flowing by making more connections than I am used to. We call people more often, organize more fun meetings (online games) and do what we can to help people out. One thing that I really liked was that our lead generation section stopped (other companies weren’t waiting to be sold a new product when they were trying to cope with the chaos right now). The people from lead generation set up a service where they would bring office material to people at home: good office chairs, extra monitors, etc. We expect this lockdown will be in effect for a few more months, so a good office chair is important.
I love to see how creative people become when their daily work is disrupted, but on the other side, I see a lot of the suffering it has caused. People with sick parents that are worried that the virus will hit them. People with kids that have to homeschool their kids and struggling with guilt that they cannot work effectively anymore (luckily leadership is communicating very clearly that family and helping neighbors comes first). People that are home alone and feel more lonely than ever.
Weird times. Keep safe all. Try to help with the good efforts you see out there, and reach out to as many people as you can, just for a chat to see if they are alright.