Coronavirus: social, economic and other changes as a result of the pandemic

[LHC]

As some things start to return to "normal" it's easy to forget that there might still be many ongoing problems in many areas of work. Many people are working, but working from home. For people who are normally based in offices this might mean that they don't have access to all the data that they would be able to see if in an office environment. Hopefully the better organised companies will have worked out good solutions for data access, but possibly not all have done this.

Some firms don't have direct telephone access to specific departments, so the way this "works" is to ring a general number, then get routed through several different people. That person may be isolated - at home - and actually not the person who is able to help. Then they try to route the calls through to the "correct" department - which will be represented by another person also at at home.

I had to apologise to one person as I tried to express my disappointment with the service when she explained she was still working from home and isolated - it is easy to forget that now - as things are improving in some areas.

We have been trying for days now to get a repair or replacement unit organised for our EV charger, supplied by Renault - it's a BP charger unit. Basically trying to get a fault reported and acted upon does still seem very difficult with some organisations. Bigger, and perhaps more profitable organisations, are not necessarily better than many smaller organisations.

We do still have one fossil fuel vehicle, so I suppose we'll just have to switch to using that for the immediate future.

This article at The Guardian suggests that the problems with BP chargers are technology-related rather than caused by the pandemic, and are quite widespread. Apparently around 87% of reviews for BP chargers on Trustpilot are at 1 star.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jun/14/renault-zoe-charger-bp-pulse

[Dave2002]

This article at The Guardian suggests that the problems with BP chargers are technology-related rather than caused by the pandemic, and are quite widespread. Apparently around 87% of reviews for BP chargers on Trustpilot are at 1 star.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...arger-bp-pulse

Thanks for that - I didn't know. The article you mention only discusses one problem, which it seems was resolved effectively. Is it the case that there were many more complaints? - it would be unfair to call this out if there weren't. The Trustpilot data is of interest, but is probably not specific enough. I don't know how much credence one should give to Trustpilot.

However the problems with internal communications at BP - or one of its subsidiaries - are perhaps Covid related, as like many other organisations workers will be working remotely, with more or less good technological support. I know that some organisations have managed to set up workable systems - possibly involving additional equipment for the workers. Also some organisations are now treating seriously problems which do arise from home working, such as problems which arise from sitting in front of a computer screen at a not ergonomically ideal desk etc. BP is a big company. It should be able to do a lot better than this.

Also, the "free" charger arranged by Renault would seem to be more of a liability than a benefit, but allows both BP and Renault to pass the buck as to which organisation is responsible. It will, and should, affect the reputation of those companies.

It is no longer the case that such difficulties can be explained away by the "we've only just found out about this problem, and we're looking into it ..." kind of argument. The pandemic has been going for well over a year now as regards the UK generally, so firms which have not adapted to the new circumstances rapidly or appropriately enough are really just not putting in enough effort to overcome the problems.

Other organisations have definitely had internal communications problems due to Covid, so while in this case the customer service situation appears to be exacerbated by what may well be poor devices and service, internal communications will have been badly affected in many organisations. I have had similar experiences with other organisations, but none involving such a poor device/service issue.

[LHC]

Thanks for that - I didn't know. The article you mention only discusses one problem, which it seems was resolved effectively. Is it the case that there were many more complaints? - it would be unfair to call this out if there weren't. The Trustpilot data is of interest, but is probably not specific enough. I don't know how much credence one should give to Trustpilot.

However the problems with internal communications at BP - or one of its subsidiaries - are perhaps Covid related, as like many other organisations workers will be working remotely, with more or less good technological support. I know that some organisations have managed to set up workable systems - possibly involving additional equipment for the workers. Also some organisations are now treating seriously problems which do arise from home working, such as problems which arise from sitting in front of a computer screen at a not ergonomically ideal desk etc. BP is a big company. It should be able to do a lot better than this.

Also, the "free" charger arranged by Renault would seem to be more of a liability than a benefit, but allows both BP and Renault to pass the buck as to which organisation is responsible. It will, and should, affect the reputation of those companies.

It is no longer the case that such difficulties can be explained away by the "we've only just found out about this problem, and we're looking into it ..." kind of argument. The pandemic has been going for well over a year now as regards the UK generally, so firms which have not adapted to the new circumstances rapidly or appropriately enough are really just not putting in enough effort to overcome the problems.

Other organisations have definitely had internal communications problems due to Covid, so while in this case the customer service situation appears to be exacerbated by what may well be poor devices and service, internal communications will have been badly affected in many organisations. I have had similar experiences with other organisations, but none involving such a poor device/service issue.

There is a lot more detail about other problems in the comments section below the article.

[Dave2002]

There is a lot more detail about other problems in the comments section below the article.

Ah - I see.

I've tried to raise comments about lousy customer service in these pages - and elsewhere - before - only be to told "it's just me ...". This article and the comments which follow it suggest that sometimes at least I might be right.
However, there is a lot of misunderstanding. I agree with some of the complainants that "needing" to have a mobile phone is just not a good thing, but having said that, our own experiences don't show that a mobile phone is absolutely necessary. Indeed phones probably just add to the general confusion. It is possible to run some EVs without a mobile phone, which is mostly what I do with mine - not the Renault Zoe, and as far as I can see it's not necessary for the Zoe either. Where things do get choppy is with trying to use public chargers.

I met a couple of others a few days ago at a local charger, and they said they were fed up of having to have so many apps on their phone in order to get charge - as so many chargers are different, run by different operators, etc., etc., etc.
So far that hasn't been a problem for us - though trying to figure out which part of each public charger to kick in order to get them to work - that's a research project leading to a PhD I think.

[oddoneout]

It is true that WFH has caused problems for many businesses and many or those problems may be difficult to solve. However it is also true that a great many companies had rubbish/deteriorating complaints and customer (so-called)service procedures a good while before covid hit, and the virus has just provided a convenient opt-out from having to address those deficiencies. Call-centre staff working from a script, inadequately trained perhaps and often insufficient in numbers, and nether encouraged nor permitted to use their initiative, won't necessarily be any less ineffectual in the office as WFH.
Lack of preparedness/adaptability can result from quite simple and preventable issues as was demonstrated where I work in two important areas. The telephone set-up has always a bit of a problem due to the split between office staff being 9-5 Mon-Fri whereas the visitor side is 7 days a week, spread over a large site and also seasonal, so getting wrong numbers/answering machines to phones not manned at weekends etc was common. Despite our best efforts to point out the problems it would cause, that less than ideal set-up was changed to a single mobile(handset as well as number) which routes calls round the houses until it finds a suitable(as far as the system is concerned) end point. That may work for Council HQ but doesn't for our operation, and members of the public struggle as a result. When lockdown meant no-one was allowed in the building there was a whole other layer added because...
An exercise staged in 2019 to model an emergency shutdown of HQ and staff having to WFH to maintain a skeleton service was deemed a success overall when the results were analysed. The biggest problem found was when power leads were not taken home with the laptops. What they didn't check was who had a Council laptop in the service as a whole, so when the real thing happened and buildings were shut there were rather a lot of key staff(including the managers at the site where I work) who found themselves completely cut-off -no access to email, no access to Council intranet - as their own devices did not have the necessary security clearance for access to HQ - and as for phone messages... There will have been other organisations which will have had similar blind spots and will have struggled to keep things functioning until solutions were found.
As is always the case there are those who do their best to overcome problems and engage with the public and those who don't, and in many cases it doesn't have much to do with the size and resources of said business/organisation.

[Mandryka]

Antibody levels above 90% in every nation of the UK - ONS

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19latestinsights/antibodies

Can anyone who knows about science tell me what this means as far as the COVID crisis is concerned? What does it mean for incidence, for symptoms, that sort of stuff?

[Bryn]

Antibody levels above 90% in every nation of the UK - ONS

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19latestinsights/antibodies

Can anyone who knows about science tell me what this means as far as the COVID crisis is concerned? What does it mean for incidence, for symptoms, that sort of stuff?

It means that, either through prior infection or vaccination, 90% now have an induced immune response to the virus. This does not mean full protection but a very much increased likelihood of fighting a future infection.

[Mandryka]

It means that, either through prior infection or vaccination, 90% now have an induced immune response to the virus. This does not mean full protection but a very much increased likelihood of fighting a future infection.

And has anyone modelled what this means for incidence of the disease? Or for transmission of the disease?

Could it be a significant force driving the current low positive test results on .gov.uk?

[LMcD]

A lunchtime concert has had to be switched to St Peter and Paul's Church because the organ at St Andrew's has become unplayable through lack of use and TLC during the pandemic.

[Cockney Sparrow]

And has anyone modelled what this means for incidence of the disease? Or for transmission of the disease?

Could it be a significant force driving the current low positive test results on .gov.uk?

It might well be, but I'm no expert. Just posting to point out, though, that if we are referring to herd immunity or similar, the statistic is for the Adult population. Our younger population is still there to receive, and spread, "variants" which we already have and will received from the many parts of the world with low vaccination rates where mutation is, I presume (as I say, I'm inexpert) free to occur at greater or lesser pace.

But do we agree it bodes well for lower hospitalisation and mortality rates?

Against which IIRC morning/lunchtime radio items on Long Covid amongst the young - large numbers of infected --> even with low percentage of illness --> resultant %age long covid outcomes - it still adds up to large numbers. Also hospital doctors talking about marked increase in the proportion in Covid units who are in their 20's, maybe younger, with some facing the need for ventilator treatment and all that implies for their eventual outcomes.

[Dave2002]

It's been a bit over 17 months now since the "official" start of the pandemic in the UK - with the lockdown announcements made on or around March 23rd 2020.

We have seen some changes, but now some things are perhaps drifting back to what was "normal" before the interventions.

I wonder what changes have happened in products and whether they will persist. For example, there has obviously been an upsurge in the development and marketing of hand sanitisers. There was a rapid and short period of reorganisation, so that whisky and gin producers were able to make hand sanitisers - both seemingly useful, and maybe also enabling those businesses to be more financially viable.

There may have been a shift from more conventional tablet based soap(s) to liquid soap, but have there been corresponding changes in products. For example, have soap manufacturers produced and sold small bars of soap for use in households, or even for guests? I'd submit that they haven't really. Consider this pack of soap bars - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lux-Soap-Ve...0928031&sr=8-2 versus this similar pack with small tablets suitable for guests - https://www.amazon.co.uk/10-Lux-Beau...0928155&sr=8-2

One pack has soap at around £36 per kg, while the other with larger bars is about £10.50 per kg. There's a bit more packaging in the smaller tablet sets, but really enough to justify more than three times the basic price?

Another example would be biscuits. There have been very few packs of biscuits with individually wrapped biscuits. Some people have been concerned about that perhaps before, and at one time when we were allowed to start seeing people and entertaining them, there was advice about not just putting out biscuits on a plate, but only to provide individually wrapped biscuits. My guess is that concerns of this kind have now largely passed.

Services will also have been affected. Last year there were relatively few cases of flu, but many cases of coronavirus including hospitalisations and deaths. It seems likely that this year we will have both Covid-19 and whatever variety of flu comes round. Clearly health services have been stretched a lot, with even some relatively "simple" things, such as routine dental treatment being put on hold. There will be, and will have been, a considerable knock on effect into the future because of that.

Many of us have adapted slightly to an online "existence" - so many are now familiar with Zoom and other communications tools. However these are still not being used in a very sophisticated way, probably because they are too complicated for "ordinary folks" to use. For example, better results might be had with multiple cameras and microphones, but then few people would be able to manage the complications which would arise. Perhaps some people have made dedicated studios for online working - but the majority of us probably haven't. Those that have were probably already doing online work, such as making Youtube videos or podcasts. There may have been an upsurge in online education during the last year or so - both on the creation side - producers generating more material, and on the consumer side - end users wanting to learn new subjects.

There has probably also been consumer fatigue. At one time we were watching several live lectures each week, perhaps even daily. We haven't bothered with any of those in the last month or two - good though they were. We might resume if the weather gets worse.

There may also have been changes in pure entertainment - rather than education. We have seen organisations such as the Royal Opera House and the Met offering streamed productions - often free of charge, and others such as theatre companies have put out live performances. In some cases these have been welcome - there is no need to drive miles in cold or bad weather in order to see or experience a production - and sometimes there has been what seems like a surprising increase in demand, and possibly also revenue. Clubs - such as photography clubs - have discovered that they may have a much wider reach with online communications, and also they have found that they can offer what are in some cases better services - for example speakers from around the UK - or even around the world, and experts and judges can be asked to participate without the need for travel or travelling expenses. Some organisations are now wondering how they can combine the most useful parts of the online meeting experiences with live meetings which may be expected to return shortly - subject to how the pandemic is controlled over the next few months.

[Bryn]

It's been a bit over 17 months now since the "official" start of the pandemic in the UK - with the lockdown announcements made on or around March 23rd 2020. . . .

By which date my dear friend Carole Finer had been dead, killed by the SARS-Cov2 virus, for 3 days. In her memory, I am donating a 1994 2 metre Broadwood grand piano to the Iklectik Arts Lab at which we both attended events. Until now they have had to make do with the old Danemann they inherited when Cafe OTO upgraded to a Yamaha C3. It is hoped to install the Broadwood in the next few days. A number of pianist friends have come forward to participate in launch events once the instrument has had time to settle in and be tuned and voiced for its new home. A founding member of the Scratch Orchestra, Carole had catholic tastes in good music which were reflected in her weekly Sound Out programme on Resonance FM. Her own adopted instrument was the banjo. I will aim to post information on launch events, similarly covering her musical interests, as they become available.

Iklectik intend to retain the Danemann for the use of those musicians who are wont to play 'under the lid'. However, it is sorely in need of a pretty thorough overhaul which is likely to cost a couple of £K, for which fundraising event(s) and crowd-funding are intended to pay. I must try and rope in Carole's cousin Jem.

Sorry if this is somewhat O/T but the mention of March 23 2020 brought Carole's death from COVID-19 rather starkly to mind.

[Serial_Apologist]

By which date my dear friend Carole Finer had been dead, killed by the SARS-Cov2 virus, for 3 days. In her memory, I am donating a 1994 7 ft Broadwood grand piano to the Iklectik Arts Lab at which we both attended events. Until now they have had to make do with the old Danemann they inherited when Cafe OTO upgraded to a Yamaha C3. It is hoped to install the Broadwood in the next few days. A number of pianist friends have come forward to participate in launch events once the instrument has had time to settle in and be tuned and voiced for its new home. A founding member of the Scratch Orchestra, Carole had catholic tastes in good music which were reflected in her weekly Sound Out programme on Resonance FM. Her own adopted instrument was the banjo. I will aim to post information on launch events, similarly covering her musical interests, as they become available.

Iklectik intend to retain the Danemann for the use of those musicians who wont to play 'under the lid'. However, it is sorely in need of a pretty thorough overhaul which is likely to cast a coupe of £K, for which fundraising event(s) and crowd-funding are intended to pay. I must try and rope in Carole's cousin Jem.

Sorry if this is somewhat O/T but the mention of March 23 2020 brought Carole's death from COVID-19 rather starkly to mind.

A most generous and welcome gesture, Bryn - one looks forward to experiencing the Broadwood in its illustrious new home.

[Bryn]

A most generous and welcome gesture, Bryn - one looks forward to experiencing the Broadwood in its illustrious new home.

It occurred to me this morning that Carole Finer has/had a cousin by the name of Jem, who also plays the banjo. I must try and get him involved.

[edashtav]

A most generous and welcome gesture, Bryn - one looks forward to experiencing the Broadwood in its illustrious new home.

Seconded.