Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[vikingTON]

9 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

It's right and good that person A loses some money because this other person B lost their job is a very common an popular belief in the country, but I have to say seems an odd position to take for someone ostensibly opposed to austerity.

Austerity is completely irrelevant to the economic costs that people will face next year as a result of not having a job, because their sector of the economy has been trashed while having zero impact on curbing the pandemic. It's absolutely telling that the snippy parent brigade are happy to see hundreds of thousands of people in hospitality, live events etc. experience actual poverty next year rather than take a hit to their own standard of living in the potential event of taking additional leave over a calendar year because the schools were shut. 

Those are the choices that are faced. Neither of them are good but one is objectively worse than the other in terms of dealing with the pandemic and therefore trashing the economy as well.

Edited December 21, 2020 by vikingTON

[vikingTON]

2 minutes ago, Wee Bully said:

Here speaketh the failed teacher.

Swing and a miss champ. 

[Wee Bully]

Swing and a miss champ. 

Dart struck home.

[Rugster]

18 minutes ago, virginton said:

 

Shifting the goalposts after wondering why your 'but... December is this year!' clincher failed to hit the mark I see. In any case, your claim is still wrong. Parents can take essential leave in January for childcare in the same way that people take leave for bereavement and other significant personal issues. It does not get put in a holiday book the year in advance, yet for some strange reason they're not at their workplace and don't get the sack! 

If some parents lose out in earnings over the whole of 2021 because some of their total leave ends up unpaid then that's just tough. Others in society are going to be making do with £80 per week next year as a result of the pandemic, so the minor inconvenience of those taking time off work for childcare and losing out financially is really not a top priority. 

You’ll likely ignore this post like the last one I made proving you wrong but in any case, parents cannot take essential leave for childcare purposes. They can take limited time to organise emergency child care, but not to care for the child themselves. 

[Billy Jean King]

Austerity is completely irrelevant to the economic costs that people will face next year as a result of not having a job, because their sector of the economy has been trashed while having zero impact on curbing the pandemic. It's absolutely telling that the snippy parent brigade are happy to see hundreds of thousands of people in hospitality, live events etc. experience actual poverty next year rather than take a hit to their own standard of living in the potential event of taking additional leave over a calendar year because the schools were shut. 
Those are the choices that are faced. Neither of them are good but one is objectively worse than the other in terms of dealing with the pandemic and therefore trashing the economy as well.

It's your ascertain that employers simply allow mass annual leave that is staggering in it's naievity. You know these same employers who your championing to survive.

Go ask your boss tomorrow for annual leave up to 18 January and come back and tell us how it goes. More so when he gets that request times x number of employees with kids.

Climb down from your crumbling ivory tower and live life in the real world just for once.

[madwullie]

[D.A.F.C]

Put the schools on nightshift.
Kids sleep all day.
Sorted.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

[vikingTON]

5 minutes ago, Rugster said:

You’ll likely ignore this post like the last one I made proving you wrong but in any case, parents cannot take essential leave for childcare purposes. They can take limited time to organise emergency child care, but not to care for the child themselves. 

Parents are actually entitled to four weeks' parental leave from their employers, can take indefinite unpaid leave, can use their annual leave and can also ask to be put on the furlough scheme as of last month as well:

https://workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/coronavirus/

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/coronavirus-if-you-need-to-be-off-work-to-care-for-someone/

Other than all of those as well as working reduced hours, there's no possible solution to the problem then.  

[mizfit]

Boss swung by today to confirm that we'll be on furlough til the 18th, but claims the high head yins have been tipped off that it's likely to be far longer, to the point that they're writing off the rest of the financial year.

Anyone else heard anything like this, or is my boss just being a fanny, as per?

Our managers were telling us back in March to expect it to last until June 2021.

[Jambomo]

1 minute ago, virginton said:

Parents are actually entitled to four weeks' parental leave from their employers, can take indefinite unpaid leave, can use their annual leave and can also ask to be put on the furlough scheme as of last month as well:

https://workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/coronavirus/

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/coronavirus-if-you-need-to-be-off-work-to-care-for-someone/

Other than all of those as well as working reduced hours, there's no possible solution to the problem then.  

They can’t all take these things at once though. If you have a team which has 4 or 5 parents in it, they can’t all take leave at once - however much you want to help them. What do the 2 or 3 who don’t get leave do?

Edited December 21, 2020 by Jambomo

[Rugster]

5 minutes ago, virginton said:

Parents are actually entitled to four weeks' parental leave from their employers, can take indefinite unpaid leave, can use their annual leave and can also ask to be put on the furlough scheme as of last month as well:

https://workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/coronavirus/

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/coronavirus-if-you-need-to-be-off-work-to-care-for-someone/

Other than all of those as well as working reduced hours, there's no possible solution to the problem then.  

With 21 days notice given to the employer, yes, you can request parental leave. It is not a guarantee that you will get it. 
 

Your employer does not have to agree to furlough you.

 

An employer can deny annual leave. 
 

You cannot take indefinite unpaid leave, you can ask for it, the employer must consider it, but does not have to grant it.
 

Swing and a miss, champ, thanks for playing, come back when you’re living in the real world. 

[vikingTON]

6 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

It's your ascertain that employers simply allow mass annual leave that is staggering in it's naievity. You know these same employers who your championing to survive.

Go ask your boss tomorrow for annual leave up to 18 January and come back and tell us how it goes. More so when he gets that request times x number of employees with kids.

Climb down from your crumbling ivory tower and live life in the real world just for once.

You mean the January when the entire Scottish (possibly UK) mainland is going to be in lockdown with everyday activity curtailed? Sure sounds like businesses will be overwhelmed with demand!

Your 'real world scenario' falls down because there is no need for every single parent in the land to enjoy leave. Some will have a partner who is capable of handling the childcare, or extended family living within their household, or indeed older children who are WFH for college/university. A company that is lucky enough to be still open and operational in January 2021 is neither going to be overwhelmed by the need for parental leave, nor will it collapse because of the temporary slack of absent employees. And they can choose to put as many or as few staff on furlough to suit the needs of their business. 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

7 minutes ago, Andrew Driver said:

Best if Dart strikes board.  Hitting the home just means you have lots of dart-tip sized holes around your board, which can actually impact the resale value of your house.   

Should put a bit of plywood up imo.

[the_bully_wee]

41 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Boss swung by today to confirm that we'll be on furlough til the 18th, but claims the high head yins have been tipped off that it's likely to be far longer, to the point that they're writing off the rest of the financial year.

Anyone else heard anything like this, or is my boss just being a fanny, as per?

I work in a branch of the CS and an email was sent out last week (or thereabouts) advising that work from home for CS staff would continue until, at the earliest, April, so I can see this one being plausible (assuming you're not in a position whereby you can WFH). Obviously that's comparing apples with oranges a wee bit, but gives an indication of when the government thinks things might start (meaningfully) calming back down. 

[vikingTON]

17 minutes ago, Jambomo said:

They can’t all take these things at once though. If you have a team which has 4 or 5 parents in it, they can’t all take leave at once - however much you want to help them. What do the 2 or 3 who don’t get leave do?

That depends on how many employees are in the total team and how many parents actually need leave. If you have 4 or 5 parents in a team then the number who actually need full-time level leave is most likely going to be 3-3.5 to begin with. The idea that businesses are going to be cracking the whip to insist that people come in to exploit the great business environment of January 2021 instead of having them take unpaid leave in the wake of nationwide school closures is just dystopian nonsense. 

Edited December 21, 2020 by vikingTON

[vikingTON]

5 minutes ago, Rugster said:

With 21 days notice given to the employer, yes, you can request parental leave. It is not a guarantee that you will get it. 
 

Your employer does not have to agree to furlough you.

 

An employer can deny annual leave. 
 

You cannot take indefinite unpaid leave, you can ask for it, the employer must consider it, but does not have to grant it.
 

Swing and a miss, champ, thanks for playing, come back when you’re living in the real world. 

Hence all the bands of feral children roaming the streets between March and June, as the cruel Victorian employers denied their parents the leave required to look after them first time round as well. 

[Rugster]

4 minutes ago, virginton said:

Hence all the bands of feral children roaming the streets between March and June, as the cruel Victorian employers denied their parents the leave required to look after them first time round as well. 

So no rebuttal to what I said then? 
 

Same as no rebuttal to when your nonsensical claim that the same practical restrictions are in place under  tier 4 as they were in the spring was debunked. 
 

Swing and a miss, again, champ. 

[vikingTON]

30 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

Again you're very keen to have a narrative of the central motivation of parents re: schools to be self interest. I don't know why you keep going back to this.

If all the infrastructure was rolled out in such a way to allow a good standard of remote education for all children then that's what would be happening,

Erm no, the SG instructed schools to prepare for the need for blended learning before changing course and doubling down on the schools stay open at all costs approach late in the summer. There's no evidence to suggest that the technology failed to deliver - the decision was party political. Swinney was taking a battering over the exams fiasco and so caved in on the schools. And so here we are. 

In a more rational system parents would of course have had to be dealing with the reality of childcare since August, so quite why we're having a deluge of tears and snotters about it now is a mystery,  

Quote

I am sure the Scottish government has decided keeping schools open is the least worst option on these kind of bases. They can be rightly criticised for being too keen to portray schools as places with minimal transmission of course.

The reason why the SG has prioritised keeping schools is primarily driven by the fact that they are a bunch of populists - the fact that there is an election in May only adds bearing to that as well. 

Quote

Moustache twirling parents cackling as the pandemic drags on because they send their kids to schools is for whatever reason an attractive story to you but it's a bit silly.

Either the parental lobby groups knew fine well that chucking 1000 children into the same building all week was not concomitant with a respiratory virus pandemic or they are thick as mince. My explanation gives them the merit of agency by asserting that they are selfish arseholes rather than complete morons. 

Edited December 21, 2020 by vikingTON

[vikingTON]

7 minutes ago, Rugster said:

So no rebuttal to what I said then? 
 

Same as no rebuttal to when your nonsensical claim that the same practical restrictions are in place under  tier 4 as they were in the spring was debunked. 
 

Swing and a miss, again, champ. 

What you said doesn't actually need a rebuttal because the same employer rights to deny leave existed for three months and yet there was no actual crisis in childcare. It's a complete nonsense claim then to assert that a similar January 2021 shutdown will produce a wave of employers knocking back childcare.