So... who still has a job?

You working?


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I've been laid off since April 1. My guys haven't worked since March 12th. I personally don't see an end in sight for at least 6 months to a year. Getting to the point where they allow a thousand people to congregate in one room and to the point where patrons want to do that even if allowed is a long way off. So, how's everyone doing? Do you need help navigating the unemployment system? If so, ask! I'm making this poll public, there is no shame in this.
 
Still getting paid and working from home mostly on Paperwork and Programming. Starting the 19th I drop to 80% pay though I don't know how long that will last. My particular job is deemed business essential so I most likely won't be furloughed but don't know how many hours they will let me get paid for either.
 
There isn't an option for "I don't work in the industry". I still have a job.

Theatre-wise, our venue is closed and we've cancelled the remaider of the season. I spent a little time this week developing a donation/credit/refund process. We've lost a performance or two to weather-related events in the past 50 years but have never had to cancel half our season. It's further complicated because we're not expecting to sell season ticket packages next season.

I'm not just the president, I'm the tech support guy.
 
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Well, I'm still working -some - my last year before being fully retired - from my home office as I have since 2005. Web meetings; holding off travel and site visits for now. Should have a lot of last site visits as soon as travel bans are lifted for projects finishing for this falls school start. Didn't seem to fit in poll options.
 
Working from home part time, still being paid. My wife’s movie cancelled 3/13, so she’s on unemployment. I’m really surprised I haven't be furloughed or put on half pay. I got an e-mail this morning from the college with a letter dated 4/12 from the State of NY that we were to report back 4/29. The Governor obviously over-rode that yesterday by stating “stay-at-home” till 5/15. All our events are cancelled till ?. There’s talk our Dept. of Theater wants to do a cancelled event in June. Doubt that’ll happen as students are still on remote learning till the fall semester.
 
I’m working as much as I ever have in the last several years. (I am officially retired but teach a bit)

at The theatre where I mostly work I believe they have not laid anyone on salary off.
 
Things have slowed down a little for me, but mainly going from 55hr week to a 40hr week.

We've seen projects led by developers go on hold or slow down, as well as sports and hospitality projects. Corporate, commercial, and such seem to be moving along as normal. K12, municipal, commercial seem to be accelerating, particularly projects that were already earmarked so the funding is locked in. Just got notice this morning of a municipal theater project lighting up. Tending to think some of the governmental stuff accelerating or greenlighting right now has something to do with having "shovel-ready jobs" ready to pour slabs 4-6 months from -- though any public projects that are not already earmarked may be dependent on what gets included in the stimulus bills. Have a rep theater project that's taking the time to fund-raise more instead of finance for their upcoming build-out of their new production facility but so far no impact to the project schedule. Also have seen an uptick in theme park work -- now's a good opportunity for those guys to move on deferred maintenance or planned projects while the parks are down.

In general, the construction world is still moving along. Some projects slowing down but others picking up the pace has balanced most of the turbulence out. Most construction sites still active though everyone is starting to require masks and gloves as part of standard PPE.
 
I work for a healthcare system on the West Coast, so if anything I'm busier now with the virus than I have been for months. Data analytics, not front line clinical, so I've been working remote.

The theater group I volunteer with is through my kids' school, which is shut down for the rest of the year, so obviously nothing happening for our spring play this year. As for the upcoming school year in September, who knows. We're trying to figure out how to make the spring play happen in the fall - let kids keep their roles if they want them, allow kids who've left the school come back to participate if they can, timing stuff (the fall schedule is about a month and a half shorter than the spring, but we have about a month of prep already done from before the shutdowns). I can also see a scenario where they reopen schools but only for students, teachers, and essential staff. I.e. not me. And like @Footer said, who knows when people will be allowed/want to gather in large groups (not that we get a thousand people for one of our little plays).

Stay well, stay healthy.
 
Well yes and no to working for me. I work full time in aged care so I am still working there but I am a casual tech at the local PAC where I am not working at the moment because of the shutdown. I have many friends that are not working at all or are having to take their holidays to stay home and do nothing. But it has to be done if we are going to flatten the curve and restore some sort of normal. On the bright side work is progressing on our new 750 seat PAC with basement walls being installed this week. It is still a little over 12 months away from being finished but at least it is still moving forward. I am enjoying the massive online content from manufacturers and suppliers but most of the live streaming is at 2 or 4 am local time so I will not be able to see it live. I have to wait til it is posted somewhere.
Keep on keeping on.

Regards
Geoff
 
Run small event production company and work live event freelance audio engineering and lighting tech. No gigs, no work since March 13th and almost everything out 6 months cancelled. Have a few holdouts in June, but not anticipating those to actually happen. Agree with Footer, were a long way off from any large public gatherings.
 
Working from home part time, still being paid. My wife’s movie cancelled 3/13, so she’s on unemployment. I’m really surprised I haven't be furloughed or put on half pay. I got an e-mail this morning from the college with a letter dated 4/12 from the State of NY that we were to report back 4/29. The Governor obviously over-rode that yesterday by stating “stay-at-home” till 5/15. All our events are cancelled till ?. There’s talk our Dept. of Theater wants to do a cancelled event in June. Doubt that’ll happen as students are still on remote learning till the fall semester.

That really suprises me they have not just cut the cord yet... no way will we get the mass gathering limit lifted anytime soon. I'm curious if we can even get a promoter to do a show at 50% capacity if that is allowed. The one benefit we do have is we will open when Broadway does... and I don't think NYC will consider this "over" until Broadway is back.

Things have slowed down a little for me, but mainly going from 55hr week to a 40hr week.

We've seen projects led by developers go on hold or slow down, as well as sports and hospitality projects. Corporate, commercial, and such seem to be moving along as normal. K12, municipal, commercial seem to be accelerating, particularly projects that were already earmarked so the funding is locked in. Just got notice this morning of a municipal theater project lighting up. Tending to think some of the governmental stuff accelerating or greenlighting right now has something to do with having "shovel-ready jobs" ready to pour slabs 4-6 months from -- though any public projects that are not already earmarked may be dependent on what gets included in the stimulus bills. Have a rep theater project that's taking the time to fund-raise more instead of finance for their upcoming build-out of their new production facility but so far no impact to the project schedule. Also have seen an uptick in theme park work -- now's a good opportunity for those guys to move on deferred maintenance or planned projects while the parks are down.

In general, the construction world is still moving along. Some projects slowing down but others picking up the pace has balanced most of the turbulence out. Most construction sites still active though everyone is starting to require masks and gloves as part of standard PPE.

The public sector projects will be interesting going forward, I know they are cancelling projects in my complex right now if they have not been awarded yet. State goverments are going to be a wreck going forward... so much tax money just disappeared.
 
@Footer, with the failure of the federal gov't, not only is a tax base being lost due to unemployment but those states are having to foot some major bills on testing, procurement, and mobilization that will eat into their existing budget cycles. Gov. Cuomo sounds like he knows those cuts to budgeted initiatives are going to hurt but how much they will hurt remains to be seen.

For all the talk about an "infrastructure week" during the 2016 election, we never really saw one. Kind of hoping the stimulus includes something to that effect. I haven't studied the WPA much so I can't attest to whether it was effective but as someone who grew up in a school and theater built by it, that has a special place in my heart. Wasn't a world class venue by any means but theater people are like goldfish -- we adapt to the bowl we're given. Even if a lot of the assembly and hospitality work is dried up for awhile, construction and infrastructure projects can help provide employment to many thousands of people. Unfortunately I don't see the politics working out. Probably would just end up being another showdown over whether the wall gets funded.

Somewhat unrelated, but here in FL the unemployment system is a mess. Only like 4% of applications have been processed and have had checks cut to people to the sum of $275/wk -- for some reason the federal contributions haven't been included so far. There are people on Reddit trying to find any/all ways to find food for their families. We haven't been hit too hard by COVID, at least from what we can tell from the very limited testing we've done, but the consequences of a completely failed unemployment system are going to ripple out well past when people can get back to work. There are a lot of jobs that just aren't coming back anytime soon no matter how soon safer at home orders are lifted so the magnitude of this welfare infrastructure failure is going to be enormous.
 
I thought our UI was bad at 240$ a week. I filed right away on the 13th here in AZ and have been prorated 2 weeks worth of the extra federal money. Supposedly our CC is spose to reopen in May which we supply AV for. However a lot of new cases are popping up and the news tonight said it’s looking more like June. Everything is up in the air but at least now 800$ a week is somewhat livable with the other half still working.
 
Somewhat unrelated, but here in FL the unemployment system is a mess. Only like 4% of applications have been processed and have had checks cut to people to the sum of $275/wk -- for some reason the federal contributions haven't been included so far. There are people on Reddit trying to find any/all ways to find food for their families. We haven't been hit too hard by COVID, at least from what we can tell from the very limited testing we've done, but the consequences of a completely failed unemployment system are going to ripple out well past when people can get back to work. There are a lot of jobs that just aren't coming back anytime soon no matter how soon safer at home orders are lifted so the magnitude of this welfare infrastructure failure is going to be enormous.

Same in Oregon. Big part of the problem is that the IT system they have to process the claims is literally from the Reagan administration and uses COBOL, a programming language roughly the equivalent to Aramaic as far as anyone who can speak it. They basically said that to overwrite the one week waiting period to get benefits would take longer than the waiting period itself and stop claims from being processed. They were supposed to upgrade it about 12 years ago and are slated to finish the work in another 5-6. Similar situation in a number of other states from what I’ve seen.
 
I was able to get on the system the day after I got laid off, did it at like 6am. NYS did have an issue with call in centers, but if you could do it online most went through. If you had to call in..... total cluster. I maxed it, my wife came close, so we're living on 2100/wk and not paying any childcare. So, I really can't complain.

@Footer, with the failure of the federal gov't, not only is a tax base being lost due to unemployment but those states are having to foot some major bills on testing, procurement, and mobilization that will eat into their existing budget cycles. Gov. Cuomo sounds like he knows those cuts to budgeted initiatives are going to hurt but how much they will hurt remains to be seen.

I work with Cuomo's staff 3-4 times a year on events.... my office is 600' from the room where he is doing his daily pressers. Its nice to be in a state where we have that kind of leadership. Somehow our state allocation didn't get zeroed in the budget that just passed, so thats a positive. Oddly enough the only entertainment person I know who is working right now is the guy running his powerpoints... Cuomo really likes those.

Hopefully the money starts making it out there and people can at least survive. Then again, beaches just opened again in Florida... so.... we still might be up a creek.
 
Florida's a weird, unknown variable in this. Beaches just opened in a few counties and from the sounds of it there was an explosion of people onto them. Our gov, Trump Jr., was very slow to react initially and people outside of Miami slow to take this seriously plus we had people from NY/NJ come down. So far the numbers in Florida seem...low...I don't know whether that's a surprisingly good thing or if those numbers are deflated. From some of the reporting out of the Miami Herald, it sounds like like there could thousands or tens of thousands of tests pending results. Official tally is only about 1600 waiting results, but that only includes state la which so far account for only 8% of tests statewide. It's not reassuring that reporters have been blocked from pressers and that a lawsuit to get the numbers/names of nursing homes with outbreaks has not thus far been successful. The lack of transparency makes me very apprehensive about what happens next in our region.

Part of me things if the numbers are real, we're actually not that far from being able to enter Phase 1 of reopening if we can get testing and contact tracing sorted out. Mostly though, I have to doubt that those numbers are real and that the situation in Florida has potential to be worse than we currently understand.
 
Sweden didn't shut down and their deaths per capita rate is close to US.

They didn't not shut down. They closed ski resorts. They encourage social distancing. They encourage work from home. The US as a whole death rate is not really the best indicator.... New York States's death rate is 8x the national average.
 
but the consequences of a completely failed unemployment system are going to ripple out well past when people can get back to work.

That's the thing, for those of us in the education and other public sectors, this won't hit until the next cycle when they start looking at the shortfalls and reassess. As tax-averse as Florida is in general, people will be screaming at anyone who even mentions raising them to compensate. So layoffs and postponement of repairs it is, just like in 2008 and 2012 all over again. Us school auditorium guys are worried we'll look like a line item if we run buildings that can't serve their purpose for a year or more.

Its nice to be in a state where we have that kind of leadership.

You NY-er's send us enough of your old people, could you try sending some people who could grab their asses with both hands next?
 

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