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Mrs308 works at the local surgery center. With the outbreak of CV, their procedures are limited to emergency, and this adds up to maybe 5 per day, most of which are completed by 8 or 9am.

That being said, nurses and staff are being farmed out, but since everyone is in the same boat, most are just sitting around putting in the hours.

Yesterday, Mrs308 was offered Pandemic Pay. This equates to 70% of gross wages, full benefits and PTO still accrue. The only stipulation is she has to (1) agree to the 70% and (2) not come to work for at least two weeks, and her employment is still guaranteed. She gets paid to stay home.

Needless to say, I encouraged her to take it since there is other staff that need the full time pay/hours, and we are not so much in that situation.

Anyone else hear about this sort of deal?
 
Something I thought I heard on the news tonight. Some of the small business rescue loan money wouldn't have to be repaid by business owners. So long as workers sent home were kept on the payroll and guaranteed a job to come back to. This is a generous safety net that we haven't seen the kind of before. I wondered about that world, "loan" when the rescue packages were under discussion in Congress. There is now a new definition for that word, loan. The new def. is "gift."
 
Something I thought I heard on the news tonight. Some of the small business rescue loan money wouldn't have to be repaid by business owners. So long as workers sent home were kept on the payroll and guaranteed a job to come back to. This is a generous safety net that we haven't seen the kind of before. I wondered about that world, "loan" when the rescue packages were under discussion in Congress. There is now a new definition for that word, loan. The new def. is "gift."
I heard something about that as well, but cannot find the source.
 
My employers policy is that if you come in contact with someone who has come in contact with someone who has Covid-19, you get two weeks off paid and it doesn't come out of our PTO. If you are responsible and avoid people, you go to work and earn your pay the old fashioned way
 
I'm putting in less than 1/3 of normal hours at work, "working at home" the rest of the time. There's not a lot I can do at home, so it amounts to a lot of free time with full pay.

It's not generosity; there's a logical business reason for it. There's only a few of us that can keep the place running, and it's many thousands of dollars per day when it shuts down. They don't want us working together or having any contact. If we all got sick at once, or were even exposed, they'd have to shut the plant down, and that would be catastrophically expensive.
 
Sounds like the new normal.

What I don't understand is why local non-emergency clinics are not allowed to treat day to day issues......

i Need a cortisone shot in my knee and no facility will see you unless you have life threatening injuries.

I know, I know, I know that we don't want to take a chance of spreading the virus but on the other hand in places like Oregon where there are presently no mass casualties, it just seems like steps that are being taken are to turn the economy of the US upside down.
:s0013:
 
They don't want us working together or having any contact. If we all got sick at once, or were even exposed, they'd have to shut the plant down, and that would be catastrophically expensive.
Approx 3yrs ago our VP showed up at our office with some nasty flu and didn't mention it. Within a few days our whole office of 8 people were wiped out with flu like symptoms. I think it was the worst flu I personally experienced. Perhaps this was the 2017-2018 flu which killed more Americans in one season than CV has done globally so far. But at the risk of being locked out of this thread for mentioning such things...I'll leave it at that.
 
My employers policy is that if you come in contact with someone who has come in contact with someone who has Covid-19, you get two weeks off paid and it doesn't come out of our PTO. If you are responsible and avoid people, you go to work and earn your pay the old fashioned way

Thats what my job is doing. but there had been waaaaay too many people in the building to call it irresponsible if you happened to get it.
 
Anyone else hear about this sort of deal?
I'd take that deal. I still have to go to work every day, but I get $2/hr hazard pay. I'll probably hit the Lambo dealership this week.

I read this morning a post from a union that represents grocery workers, a lot of whining from a Fred Meyer employee wanting hazard pay.


There is now a new definition for that word, loan. The new def. is "gift."

My grown up kids always thought the same thing. :rolleyes:
 
Mrs308 works at the local surgery center. With the outbreak of CV, their procedures are limited to emergency, and this adds up to maybe 5 per day, most of which are completed by 8 or 9am.

That being said, nurses and staff are being farmed out, but since everyone is in the same boat, most are just sitting around putting in the hours.

Yesterday, Mrs308 was offered Pandemic Pay. This equates to 70% of gross wages, full benefits and PTO still accrue. The only stipulation is she has to (1) agree to the 70% and (2) not come to work for at least two weeks, and her employment is still guaranteed. She gets paid to stay home.

Needless to say, I encouraged her to take it since there is other staff that need the full time pay/hours, and we are not so much in that situation.

Anyone else hear about this sort of deal?

Work sharing.

I think I did this at one place a long time ago, but for many employers they just furlough or lay them off period, depending on whether they want you back. I was laid off - my employer/client has been laying off both direct hires and contractors for a while.
 
Something I thought I heard on the news tonight. Some of the small business rescue loan money wouldn't have to be repaid by business owners. So long as workers sent home were kept on the payroll and guaranteed a job to come back to. This is a generous safety net that we haven't seen the kind of before. I wondered about that world, "loan" when the rescue packages were under discussion in Congress. There is now a new definition for that word, loan. The new def. is "gift."


Its the Payroll Protection Plan or PPP. It opened up yesterday for small biz to apply for it. Take your 2019 payroll, divide by 12 for your average monthly payroll total. Then x2.5 and that is the amount the business can get. It's officially a loan from the SBA. No payments for 6 months. Then payments at 1% over 10yrs have to be made to pay it back.

However IF the employer can show 8 weeks after getting the $$, they have maintained their staffs pay by a min of 75% of what it was when the loan was issued and have the same number of employees, they can total what they have spent for payroll for those 8 weeks AND any lease or interest paid on a building loan, plus all benefits paid and apply for the SBA to forgive that total spend for those 8 weeks. If approved that total is forgiven of your loan. Any $ not part of the forgiveness then is a 10yr loan at 1%.

 
Something I thought I heard on the news tonight. Some of the small business rescue loan money wouldn't have to be repaid by business owners. So long as workers sent home were kept on the payroll and guaranteed a job to come back to. This is a generous safety net that we haven't seen the kind of before. I wondered about that world, "loan" when the rescue packages were under discussion in Congress. There is now a new definition for that word, loan. The new def. is "gift."
We applied through our bank. The Missus handled the application and paperwork (she does all the bookkeeping). The deal, as far as my puny brain can understand, is that you get a loan that covers your employee salaries, utilities and some other minor expenses. If you continue to pay your employees through the quarantine period, the loan will be forgiven. In my case my sole employee is also The Missus, so I'm keeping her on because if I fire her, I'll likely die from something worse than the Kung Flu.

I believe the program was offered through the SBA, but we filled out paperwork online from our bank directly. It's first come, first served, so our bank is only offering it to existing customers first.

As an aside, Kung Flu killed my design/illustration business. I'm unsure if I'll be able to revive it when this is over. I'm real angry at what I consider a complete over-reach by the gov't consisting of attempting to suspend our Natural Rights, which by definition, they have no power to do. But that's tyranny for you.
 
I read this morning a post from a union that represents grocery workers, a lot of whining from a Fred Meyer employee wanting hazard pay.

?? Albertson's/Safeway gave a $2.00/hour increase a week or so ago, going back to 3/15. I would presume it would be all three? Including Fred's? From Wifey talking to some Fred's employees in the past, they have different structure in their contract with the UFCW than Albertway's does. And a different contract.

Wifey is getting emails from the union puffing their chest about getting them this extra pay, but she's under the impression it was the company. o_O Being as she is a department head she just received a bonus check $$ too, that wouldn't have had anything to do with the union.

We're not fans of paying the union. They are raging liberals and want members to vote for people that would take more and more money from their paychecks. :confused: If not for the union there have been management that would have surely made life hell. If not getting her terminated :confused: It's a rippin' "Catch 22"!

I don't trust the union as far as I can fart. I don't believe these businesses have cash squirting out their butts, but the union acts like they do. The union will demand increase $$ that seem unrealistic to me. The union will be the undoing of the stores where they are in place, is my fear.
 
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And in all this there is the one consequence that no one really wants to address.

So where is all that free money coming from? It's either from printing money, which is inflationary so watch for prices to start rises sharply in the future.
Or its just adding to the debt pile, which basica lly lead tot he same thing.

The "loans" if used for payroll are forgiven. Otherwise they are 1% interest. So basically free money to businesses. That is if you can manage to get the loan in the first place. Most banks are sitting on their borrowed cash and making it plenty hard to get money. They can basically borrow at 0% right now.

While its great that businesses are paying people to not work and thus help people through these times there will be a price to pay later and everyone needs to be preparing for that as well.
 
While its great that businesses are paying people to not work and thus help people through these times there will be a price to pay later and everyone needs to be preparing for that as well.

True in many ways. We're going to be so backed up with projects and maintenance when things get back to some semblance of normal, that we won't be able to think straight for months. I'm enjoying the extra time with my family right now, but all things considered, I'd much rather be at work doing my job.
 
And in all this there is the one consequence that no one really wants to address.

So where is all that free money coming from? It's either from printing money, which is inflationary so watch for prices to start rises sharply in the future.
Or its just adding to the debt pile, which basica lly lead tot he same thing.

The "loans" if used for payroll are forgiven. Otherwise they are 1% interest. So basically free money to businesses. That is if you can manage to get the loan in the first place. Most banks are sitting on their borrowed cash and making it plenty hard to get money. They can basically borrow at 0% right now.

While its great that businesses are paying people to not work and thus help people through these times there will be a price to pay later and everyone needs to be preparing for that as well.

Free $ for businesses = continued jobs for workers. They are one in the same.

90% of Americans are employed by a small business under 15 employes (Government, Fed, State, County City are actually the #1 employer in the US). In the past 4 weeks, 10 million people in the US lost their jobs, they now are drawing unemployment, food assistance and have no health insurance, yet sill have emergency medical needs that go unpaid. All of this is going to have to also have to be paid.

Owning a small business that provides living wages for 8 full-time employees and full benefits for their families is a responsibility. Having just two months of operational expenses paid that keeps every worker, working with full benefits and the building lease paid is huge. The two largest costs for most small biz are Labor and building lease. By having the 2 months paid that savings (the $ the biz would have spent) divided over the following 6 months represent a 1/3 reduction in operational spend. So if the business has lost ruffly 30% of their sales over the next 8 months they should be able to stay in business providing those jobs and keeping their staff off the system for further assistance, plus keeping jobs in place as the economy recovers. Also as recovery happens existing companies have a greater chance of opening up more jobs to pay workers as they are more stable.

My small business is a manufacturing business. 97% of every dollar we spend in manufacturing stays in the PNW. We spend it on our local staff, building, raw materials locally sourced, packaging locally sourced etc. This is pumping $$ into the local economy. Most important 95% of our gross sales are from OUTSIDE the PNW so this is new $ into our local economy.

So ya there is a deficit cost, but the long term cost of allowing 90% of the nation's employers to go under is far far worse. We are so fortunate as a country to have the President we have at this time. Having a real businessman in the Whitehouse that is willing to make the hard choices and not care what others think is exactly what we need.
 
Helocat, I don't disagree with you BUT every dollar that is being given away right now will have to be paid for by those being paid with interest.
I'm not against what Trump and his team are trying to do, but there is a serious price that is going to need to be paid for all this. And it's those of us with the small businesses and medium incomes that are going to pay for it just like usual.

Also, have to wonder how much of other side of this is that fact many of our lovely leaders are using this to pad there portfolios and see how much unconstitutional behavior they can get a way with.

I should note I too run a small business and while I prepared ahead of time so I'm not cash short and can pay my suppliers even when my customers are getting behind. Most businesses and people don't do so. And yes there are many reasons, some good and some not so good why. If I can get the "free" money I will and use it to bridge for a bit but I am also aware of the need to prepare for the taxes to go up because of all this wealth redistribution.
 

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