• Question: How has the coronavirus lockdown affected your work? Are you still able to work on your projects?

    Asked by anon-74897 on 24 Jun 2020.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 24 Jun 2020:

      Coronavirus has affected my work in a big way, as our customers are mainly motorsport and hospitality the demand for our products dropped overnight after lockdown was announced and no racing/hospitality venues were able to open and continue trading/racing. I was furloughed and only recently returned to work as lockdown is gradually eased, the custom is building back up again. I am now more flexible with the way I work, I can work more from home as I was asked to do so at the start of lockdown, and busier than ever now.

    • Photo: Rob Husband

      Rob Husband answered on 24 Jun 2020:

      The only way i have been affected by COVID19 is not being able to immediately go to the lab to get some software testing done, otherwise there hasn’t been much affect apart from any it issues related to remote working.

    • Photo: Juan Carlos Fallas-Chinchilla

      Juan Carlos Fallas-Chinchilla answered on 24 Jun 2020:

      COVID has indeed affected my field as air travel has come to a halt. Passenger volumes before COVID are expected to recover in ~3 years, airlines aren’t placing orders and spares/maintenance isn’t in high demand as fleets are grounded.

      In my job, priorities are shifting and some non critical projects have been stopped (R&D). I have been reallocated some new tasks (still related with safety) as the company has to reorganize and be financially viable.

    • Photo: Oana Lazar

      Oana Lazar answered on 25 Jun 2020:

      Since the company I work at is already spread across the world, everyone is already used to working remotely together. I’m also pretty lucky since pretty much all of my work is on the computer, so I can do it online – so it hasn’t really been affected by COVID!

    • Photo: Conor Tickner

      Conor Tickner answered on 25 Jun 2020:

      My team’s workload has been much reduced since the pandemic, and I recently moved to a new office and hadn’t got thoroughly stuck-in with a lot of new projects, while not being as heavily involved in projects based out of my old office, so after the small projects I was working on in winter came to an end, there was a big downturn in new projects starting up and activity in older projects has been depressed. We’ve only got enough work for around 30-40% of the team. Therefore, I have been one of the people placed on furlough for the time being until workload increases again. It appears promising that it will pick up in the next few weeks though as there’s a good few projects coming down the pipeline again.

    • Photo: Jeni Spragg

      Jeni Spragg answered on 25 Jun 2020:

      I work at a power plant, where the top priority is making sure the staff that run the plant are safe, so that they can keep producing electricity. I’m not directly involved in running the plant, so I’ve been working from home instead. I had only just started a new job when lockdown began, so it was a weird way to start a job!
      Luckily our project is a long-term one that hasn’t been too badly affected, we’ve just had to learn to collaborate in different ways. I spend a lot of time in online meetings, as we can’t just pop over to someone’s desk to ask a question any more. But the nice thing about planning big projects for the future is that it reminds you that there’s still lots to look forward to 🙂

    • Photo: Melissa Beattie

      Melissa Beattie answered on 26 Jun 2020:

      For me, I have been working from home since 16th March and we haven’t been given a definite date of going back to our office full time although it might not be until September at the earliest. For the most part construction work was suspended but a few of the projects I was working on were classed as essential works as they affected the safety of road users so could still be constructed. We were allowed to carry out some investigations as well. So, for me, there wasn’t a major change to how this coronavirus has affected my work. The construction elements may have been delayed slightly for some but the actual design and preparation work was still able to be done from home.

    • Photo: Asha Panchal

      Asha Panchal answered on 3 Jul 2020:

      Hi Jumaima,
      COVID-19 has affected my area of work a lot as construction is a physical activity and relies on people being on site and managing works at the forefront. With the lockdown many jobs stopped, but with careful management and by carrying out the necessary risk assessments we have been able to get sites back up and running. Unfortunately, with a global recession looming people are slightly more nervous about investing in infrastructure projects so there has been a drop in future work. But at the end of the day, civil engineering works will always continue as people need water, housing, roads etc.

    • Photo: Katie Sparks

      Katie Sparks answered on 9 Jul 2020:

      The biggest difference for me is that I’m working from home.
      Advantages – I don’t have a really long commute, I’m saving money from my train fare and I can make much nicer food at dinnertime, instead of what I normally take in my pack up.
      Disadvantages – I don’t get to see as many people, it’s nice to chat to people randomly, rather than just in formal online meetings.

      I’m supporting schools and work with a lot of volunteers, many people are off work and want lots to do, others I’ve lost contact with as they were using their work email. I’m sure you’re aware, schools are really busy! The knock on effect is that I’m really busy too.

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