Updated: Pegulas and arena/hospitality workers

[LTS]

2 hours ago, darksabre said:

The "essential" tag to me is more interesting as far as how it shows just how many of us do work that we don't actually need to commute to. A lot of businesses are running normal operations with no one in a central office. Technology has come so far that in many cases "the office" is now obsolete.

Think about how much less we would pollute, how much less energy, how much less real estate we would use if we simply...continued this work from home practice?

Though I do think there is value to having workers socially interact in real life spaces together, it's probably something we could get away from doing all the time. All of this brick and mortar office infrastructure suddenly seems...superfluous.

This change in work force distribution is expected to lead to a paradigm shift in business.  My work is directly related to providing solutions that can enable remote work forces. We are expecting a massive uptick in our sales.  Our residential access sales have skyrocketed the past two weeks to levels we've never seen before.  We anticipate that businesses will examine the cost of office operations versus the cost of enabling remote workforce with an allowance for operating a smaller meeting/collaboration space and end up settle on the distributed work force model.

This should create some serious change in the office space real estate models and subsequently impact businesses that have largely relied upon large pools of office workers keeping them in business (coffee chops, restaurants, office supply stores, etc.)

 

[dudacek]

2 hours ago, darksabre said:

The "essential" tag to me is more interesting as far as how it shows just how many of us do work that we don't actually need to commute to. A lot of businesses are running normal operations with no one in a central office. Technology has come so far that in many cases "the office" is now obsolete.

Think about how much less we would pollute, how much less energy, how much less real estate we would use if we simply...continued this work from home practice?

Though I do think there is value to having workers socially interact in real life spaces together, it's probably something we could get away from doing all the time. All of this brick and mortar office infrastructure suddenly seems...superfluous.

As someone who has worked from home for nearly 4 years now, my eyes have really been opened as to how unneeded and unhealthy commuting culture really is.

If there is good that comes out of the current situation, it might be how many eyes might be opened to this.

[Stoner]

Is the jig also up on expensive brick and mortar colleges and universities?

[Zamboni]

7 minutes ago, dudacek said:

As someone who has worked from home for nearly 4 years now, my eyes have really been opened as to how unneeded and unhealthy commuting culture really is.

If there is good that comes out of the current situation, it might be how many eyes might be opened to this.

Agree… There was already a big fast trend of more and more people every year working from home. But I think now that trend is going to increase quite a bit after all this is behind us. I don’t know what the percentage of work at home jobs are in this country, but I can certainly see it doubling or tripling in the next year.

 

[FogBat]

14 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Is the jig also up on expensive brick and mortar colleges and universities?

That, or they may have to adjust how they do things. The problem with doing this is that universities do need personal face-to-face research, such as specialized labs, med school, etc.

[Ogre]

16 hours ago, Thorny said:

On 3/21/2020 at 1:09 PM, That Aud Smell said:

 

The other thing that puts them in a really good position is not having a guaranteed job after this and having to re-apply. 

I was hoping to hear that I was dead wrong and that there was a benefit to the workers in being terminated instead of just being put in a position of begging for a job.....I’m going to continue assuming what I had already suspected(not good things, Terry). I’m still hoping to be proven wrong. 

[Wyldnwoody44]

I think after all of this is over, things will just continue the way they were, I have no faith in society to take much good from this, we are inherintley a selfish culture (as a whole) and we have evolved to a species that doesn't learn from our misfoturnes, or our mistakes ?

 

Sh1t, maybe I need an antidepressant 

[Weave]

14 minutes ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

I think after all of this is over, things will just continue the way they were, I have no faith in society to take much good from this, we are inherintley a selfish culture (as a whole) and we have evolved to a species that doesn't learn from our misfoturnes, or our mistakes ?

 

Sh1t, maybe I need an antidepressant 

Then we both need one.  My outlook is cynical.

[Taro T]

8 hours ago, dudacek said:

As someone who has worked from home for nearly 4 years now, my eyes have really been opened as to how unneeded and unhealthy commuting culture really is.

If there is good that comes out of the current situation, it might be how many eyes might be opened to this.

As someone who's worked from home for a looooooong time, have appreciated both the value of being able to primarily work from home and also how essential having occasional in person meetings are.  

Will be interesting to see how transformative this quarantine turns out to be.  Expecting it to only result in incremental change; but have been wrong before.

[ubkev]

Alright, I've decided to begin working from home. I've moved 3 baccarat tables and a pai gow tiles table into my garage. I'm looking for investors. We need $300k in loose cash on hand and an actual truckload of cigarettes. I'll supply the dealers and the clientele.  You're looking at a 30% ROI in the first week.

[WildCard]

Should update this title now

 

[Zamboni]

Well that’s good news. Unless you want to be critical of anything Pegulas do and whine how it should be more. 
But has there been a final definitive factual conclusion that’s 100% irrefutable, on whether or not the Pegulas are leaving the PSE hospitality workers high n dry and shafting them?

[TrueBlueGED]

On 3/24/2020 at 1:11 PM, dudacek said:

As someone who has worked from home for nearly 4 years now, my eyes have really been opened as to how unneeded and unhealthy commuting culture really is.

If there is good that comes out of the current situation, it might be how many eyes might be opened to this.

 

On 3/24/2020 at 1:20 PM, Zamboni said:

Agree… There was already a big fast trend of more and more people every year working from home. But I think now that trend is going to increase quite a bit after all this is behind us. I don’t know what the percentage of work at home jobs are in this country, but I can certainly see it doubling or tripling in the next year.

 

 

19 hours ago, Taro T said:

As someone who's worked from home for a looooooong time, have appreciated both the value of being able to primarily work from home and also how essential having occasional in person meetings are.  

Will be interesting to see how transformative this quarantine turns out to be.  Expecting it to only result in incremental change; but have been wrong before.

I'm on day 7 of working from home and I want to gouge my eyes out. 

[Stoner]

10 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Should update this title now

 

They announced it. How much money did they donate? How much is coming from the foundations? Anyway, it's good that some of the money raised by gambling in the arena will return to the community.

[Taro T]

6 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

They announced it. How much money did they donate? How much is coming from the foundations? Anyway, it's good that some of the money raised by gambling in the arena will return to the community.

Waiting for somebody to ask how much of that aid will be in the form of Pro Weight Scandella, Sheary, and Rodrigues sweaters.  ?

[nfreeman]

1 hour ago, TrueBlueGED said:

 

 

I'm on day 7 of working from home and I want to gouge my eyes out. 

As someone who telecommutes for a big chunk of each summer, and now potentially for a longer stretch than that, I too greatly prefer working in the office.

 

1 hour ago, PASabreFan said:

They announced it. How much money did they donate? How much is coming from the foundations? Anyway, it's good that some of the money raised by gambling in the arena will return to the community.

Do the foundations have donors other than the Pegulas?

Separately, I'm curious as to how the $1.2MM figure was determined.

[Taro T]

6 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

As someone who telecommutes for a big chunk of each summer, and now potentially for a longer stretch than that, I too greatly prefer working in the office.

 

Do the foundations have donors other than the Pegulas?

Separately, I'm curious as to how the $1.2MM figure was determined.

Value of outstanding O'Reilly sweater inventory?  :unsure: ?

[Eleven]

29 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

Do the foundations have donors other than the Pegulas?

Every person, save one, who buys one of those 50/50 tickets at any Sabres game, is a donor, and this goes back well before the Pegulas.  I still don't know what the true charitable effect of the "Sabres Foundation" is and I still don't donate to it, through 50/50 or otherwise.

Edited March 25, 2020 by Eleven

[Neo]

On 3/24/2020 at 1:11 PM, dudacek said:

As someone who has worked from home for nearly 4 years now, my eyes have really been opened as to how unneeded and unhealthy commuting culture really is.

If there is good that comes out of the current situation, it might be how many eyes might be opened to this.

Megatrends ... this will accelerate great change.  Much was already in the works.

1).   China loses big.

2).   Any brick and mortar is worth less.  The acceleration of middle class mall decline is here.

3).   Bloated secondary education is taking it right in the gut.  Brick, mortar, dorms with spas, gyms and pools, and curricula that requires debt but can’t repay debt (a cocaine and hookers and meth party that’s nearly two generation old).

4)    Bank branches, already on life support, go away (this is, ironically, good for banks and a consumer choice).

5)    Automobile sales decline by a similar proportion to the drop in office workers.

I’d be interested in the thoughts or observations of others ...

Edited March 25, 2020 by Neo

[dudacek]

@Neo

Telemedicine.

Return of the milkman (grocery home delivery).

Final nail in the coffin of newspapers

 

[Stoner]

Taking forest baths

Virtual Volunteering

Armies of the Immune

Vote by mail/phone

[Fishtree]

On 3/24/2020 at 1:15 PM, PASabreFan said:

Is the jig also up on expensive brick and mortar colleges and universities?

 

14 hours ago, Neo said:

Megatrends ... this will accelerate great change.  Much was already in the works.

3).   Bloated secondary education is taking it right in the gut.  Brick, mortar, dorms with spas, gyms and pools, and curricula that requires debt but can’t repay debt (a cocaine and hookers and meth party that’s nearly two generation old).

I’d be interested in the thoughts or observations of others ...

Assuming that Neo means post-secondary education, so lumping both of these together.

Honestly, this has done nothing so far to show that distance learning is in any way superior to in-person classes. I'm currently teaching out of my basement, recording lectures and assigning readings to be worked on asynchronously by the students. It's impossible to recreate the dynamic of having students in class to discuss what we're talking about; message boards don't allow for rapid conversation, student's home schedules don't allow for twice or three-times weekly in-person chats online. There's no way to go off on an interesting tangent after a student asks a thought-provoking question in the same way. Frankly, I'm doing my best, but it's nowhere near my usual standard. My juniors and seniors in my Cancer Biology course, I worry less about since they'll know to message me or email me and we can have some form of dialogue, albeit lesser; my first year students, who are still scared of even coming to office hours, I worry about them and how well what I am doing is preparing them for the more challenging 200-level class they will be taking in the fall (hopefully!). As for the teaching lab - not even close. The instructors are trying our best to put something together that makes a rough approximation of what the students would have been doing in lab, but it's not the same as hands-on experience. We just feel fortunate that they've had *most* of the experiences a little bit. But these are your future doctors, physical therapists, physician's assistants, pharmacists, medical technologists and science researchers; hands-on is kind of important for them.

Maybe it's different in different fields and different sized universities, but for a small/medium sized college in biology, there's no comparison: this is hugely sub-optimal and says nothing other than "let's get back to in-person as quickly as we can."

[Neo]

1 minute ago, Fishtree said:

 

Assuming that Neo means post-secondary education, so lumping both of these together.

Honestly, this has done nothing so far to show that distance learning is in any way superior to in-person classes. I'm currently teaching out of my basement, recording lectures and assigning readings to be worked on asynchronously by the students. It's impossible to recreate the dynamic of having students in class to discuss what we're talking about; message boards don't allow for rapid conversation, student's home schedules don't allow for twice or three-times weekly in-person chats online. There's no way to go off on an interesting tangent after a student asks a thought-provoking question in the same way. Frankly, I'm doing my best, but it's nowhere near my usual standard. My juniors and seniors in my Cancer Biology course, I worry less about since they'll know to message me or email me and we can have some form of dialogue, albeit lesser; my first year students, who are still scared of even coming to office hours, I worry about them and how well what I am doing is preparing them for the more challenging 200-level class they will be taking in the fall (hopefully!). As for the teaching lab - not even close. The instructors are trying our best to put something together that makes a rough approximation of what the students would have been doing in lab, but it's not the same as hands-on experience. We just feel fortunate that they've had *most* of the experiences a little bit. But these are your future doctors, physical therapists, physician's assistants, pharmacists, medical technologists and science researchers; hands-on is kind of important for them.

Maybe it's different in different fields and different sized universities, but for a small/medium sized college in biology, there's no comparison: this is hugely sub-optimal and says nothing other than "let's get back to in-person as quickly as we can."

An informed insider!  Let me be clear.   I prefer face to face for any interaction.  I think we are wired this way.  My comments, and I do have my biases, are grounded in cost effectiveness, sustainability and common sense.   We've built a system where the end users can't pay for the product.  When I see this, I begin to trim the product at its edges until its critical elements remain.   You've described critical elements.  My criticism of the academy, my prediction that it's trajectory will change, doesn't lie in science classes, professors and TAs interacting, and gatherings for debate and dialogue.  It certainly doesn't lie in "lab".

I am the last person to say "virtual anything" is better.  I'm a salesman.  My wife's a hero teacher, like you.

[dudacek]

My daughter, a 20-year-old poli-sci student, and my sister, a 38-year-old mom who has gone back to university for her teaching degree, both agree with @Fishtree's general sentiment. Learning from home has not been an upgrade.

Both say the experience varies from class to class. Both would be more than happy to continue with the current situation if it meant more money in their bank accounts.

The idea of "going away to college" seems to  be a treasured American cultural experience. It seems to be powered more by tradition than maximizing opportunities to educate.

Edited March 26, 2020 by dudacek

[Broken Ankles]

16 hours ago, Neo said:

Megatrends ... this will accelerate great change.  Much was already in the works.

1).   China loses big.

2).   Any brick and mortar is worth less.  The acceleration of middle class mall decline is here.

3).   Bloated secondary education is taking it right in the gut.  Brick, mortar, dorms with spas, gyms and pools, and curricula that requires debt but can’t repay debt (a cocaine and hookers and meth party that’s nearly two generation old).

4)    Bank branches, already on life support, go away (this is, ironically, good for banks and a consumer choice).

5)    Automobile sales decline by a similar proportion to the drop in office workers.

I’d be interested in the thoughts or observations of others ...

#2 -  your take is in line with one Carl Icahn.   Amazing what Wall Street will create for investments. 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/13/icahn-reveals-his-biggest-short-position-amid-market-turmoil-commercial-real-estate.html