Coronavirus Disease Outbreak COVID-19 #64

I'm currently feeling..

  • Hopeful

    Votes: 61 16.3%

  • Hopeless

    Votes: 154 41.2%

  • Indifferent

    Votes: 159 42.5%
  • Total voters
    374
  • Poll closed .
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I’ve just had a long phone call with my Grandma as it’s her birthday today. We have a video call every week with family members and she’s always so upbeat, I feel like they’ve been okay all this time.

She was telling me that my Aunty (so her daughter) has suggested that her family isolate for 10 days before Christmas so that they can go and spend a few days together. Even though they wouldn’t be breaking the rules even if they didn’t isolate, my Grandparents have followed every single rule going and so this is the only option for them. However, she’s still feeling nervous about it and was questioning whether she should then cuddle my younger cousin. It’s made me feel really emotional knowing that this is a worry to her. On the surface, people seem okay but you never know what they’re truly thinking.

I really hope they go for it and have a nice few days worry free.
 
jazyblu said:
No one is defending anything, it is providing context. This isn't a race to the bottom. The majority of the 2,000 staff working for the department for health are civil servants on relatively low salary bands, they aren't all fat cats earning 150k+ a year, they work hard, they also pack their own lunch and expensed dinners are when you work significantly outside your hours. No one goes to their office 9-5 and packs a dinner.

This isn't taking away from the hard work NHS staff do, or how much they should earn, it is a normal "perk" to many jobs and completely blown out of proportion to provide a "gotcha story".

The amount wasted on dodgy procurement for PPE contracts, that is an outrage.
Steve and his 200 colleagues getting a £15 takeaway curry for working 18 hours during a pandemic response when their canteen is shut is a distraction.


Also £1 takeaway pizzas in central London...yeah good luck with that.
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If they want takeaways, that isn't ordinary meals, you pay for it yourself, like the rest of us have to do.
 
The King in the North said:
If they want takeaways, that isn't ordinary meals, you pay for it yourself, like the rest of us have to do.
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A lot of businesses pay for expenses if you work long hours. Where I work we get dinners ordered in for us from takeaways if we work long hours, and lunches if we have long customer meetings etc. It’s not unusual for places to do so as an act of good faith (and to keep their staff from dropping from hunger).

I don’t think in the scheme of things this is major considering as mentioned a lot of these people are probably on low salaries and can’t afford a takeout every night if that’s the only way they can eat dinner.
 
The King in the North said:
If they want takeaways, that isn't ordinary meals, you pay for it yourself, like the rest of us have to do.
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It isn't because they WANT a takeaway. You are entirely misunderstanding this. It is "ordinary meals" it is completely normal in the civil service and the private sector for the company to order food for the staff who are doing unpaid overtime into the evening past dinner time.

This isn't individual people thinking "I really fancy a chinese today better get the government to pay for it", it is a single order for the entire department while all the staff are forced to stay there though the night and work on the pandemic response.

You said "pay for it themselves like the rest of us do" but every office job I've ever had ordered in food after about 8 o'clock when you had to stay and finish a project, they usually provide a taxi home after a certain time too.
This isn't out of the ordinary and even more reasonable during the pandemic for the staff that had to go into the office.

If you have not experienced this maybe it sounds out of the ordinary to you but this is a completely normal thing in the corporate world.

I really hate tory corruption but this really doesn't seem to be that. Sure if this was a single dinner for 6 people it is outrageous, but it is hundreds of meals during March & April lockdown.
 
The King in the North said:
If they want takeaways, that isn't ordinary meals, you pay for it yourself, like the rest of us have to do.
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I accept that £44,000 is a huge bill, but at the end of the day when they are working 12/14/16 hour days during a pandemic it was the easiest option. These people do not work these sort of hours usually so its not like there is someone who can rustle up some dinner for them all. In the grand scheme of this this is pennies, we need to focus on the millions spent on non existent bridges, faulty PPE and companies with no ferries rather than some pizza to fuel some civil servants.
 
jazyblu said:
It isn't because they WANT a takeaway. You are entirely misunderstanding this. It is "ordinary meals" it is completely normal in the civil service and the private sector for the company to order food for the staff who are doing unpaid overtime into the evening past dinner time.

This isn't individual people thinking "I really fancy a chinese today better get the government to pay for it", it is a single order for the entire department while all the staff are forced to stay there though the night and work on the pandemic response.

You said "pay for it themselves like the rest of us do" but every office job I've ever had ordered in food after about 8 o'clock when you had to stay and finish a project, they usually provide a taxi home after a certain time too.
This isn't out of the ordinary and even more reasonable during the pandemic for the staff that had to go into the office.

If you have not experienced this maybe it sounds out of the ordinary to you but this is a completely normal thing in the corporate world.

I really hate tory corruption but this really doesn't seem to be that. Sure if this was a single dinner for 6 people it is outrageous, but it is hundreds of meals during March & April lockdown.
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So, you're telling me they couldn't get a ready meal from Iceland, but a takeaway.
 
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The King in the North said:
If you're doing unpaid overtime, then that's their own fault. Still doesn't warrant the government blowing £44,000 on takeaways.
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So you'd rather they just downed tools at the time their hours stipulate in the middle of a global pandemic, possibly setting back the efforts of the country, than pay for some takeaways? Would you be so up in arms if it was £44k of overtime being paid to them?
 
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The King in the North said:
So, you're telling me they couldn't get a ready meal from Iceland, but a takeaway.
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I would be pissed to no end if I was expected to do unpaid overtime and then told to go to Iceland and buy a ready meal. It shows good faith from the employer to feed their staff and make sure they’re having nice meals. Imagine the queue at a microwave for ready meals lol
 
malolo said:
So you'd rather they just downed tools at the time their hours stipulate in the middle of a global pandemic, possibly setting back the efforts of the country, than pay for some takeaways? Would you be so up in arms if it was £44k of overtime being paid to them?
Click to expand...

Forcing people to do unpaid overtime, I wouldn't be bothered if the money went to their wages than the food.
 
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