COVID-19: who’s going full doomsday prep on this?

FoxRidersCo

FoxRidersCo

Sanity is not statistical
link1896 said:
That is a really good idea.
Woolies CEO the other week had to ask what AdBlue was. JFC mate you run a business that is failing in an instant without trucking, fuck that’s got to be one of the biggest truck fleets in Oz. . Shameful.
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In his defense.

He's kept very busy counting the billions that Woolies makes each year from being the largest pokie machine operator in Australia.

12,000 machines, that's a lot of bean counting

Priorities... :D
 
Haakon

Haakon

has an accommodating arse
Squidfayce said:
Its a shame that career bureaucrats aren't required to do something similar.
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Career bureaucrats do tend to move around a lot, but it’s all still within the bureaucracy. What I think you mean is that there should be no career bureaucrats and I agree.

Im in the minority in having had a career or two before joining the public service - many come in straight after uni via the graduate programs where you get trained up and fast tracked for promotion. I would love to see this canned and only hire people for their skills and experience in the actual job (like I was…), and not just breed interchangeable public servants…
 
Squidfayce

Squidfayce

Eats Squid
Haakon said:
Career bureaucrats do tend to move around a lot, but it’s all still within the bureaucracy. What I think you mean is that there should be no career bureaucrats and I agree.

Im in the minority in having had a career or two before joining the public service - many come in straight after uni via the graduate programs where you get trained up and fast tracked for promotion. I would love to see this canned and only hire people for their skills and experience in the actual job (like I was…), and not just breed interchangeable public servants…
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I don't have anything inherently against career bureaucrats, even in the scenario you describe. I just think they need get their hands dirty.

The ideal scenario is exactly Private > public.

After what I've seen with public through, I'll never do it. Rather poke my eye out with a stick.
 
Haakon

Haakon

has an accommodating arse
Squidfayce said:
I don't have anything inherently against career bureaucrats, even in the scenario you describe. I just think they need get their hands dirty.

The ideal scenario is exactly Private > public.

After what I've seen with public through, I'll never do it. Rather poke my eye out with a stick.
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So how would that work? Secondments into the private sector? Not practical I think.

Just need to not hire straight out of uni and have people build up their skills out in the world first.

Entirely depends on what area of the public service you’re in. I’d last five minutes as a cop, and working in centrelink I think I’d slash my wrists! But find an area dealing with something you’re actually interested in and it can be very rewarding.
 
Squidfayce

Squidfayce

Eats Squid
www.theage.com.au

US shortened COVID isolation over fears essential services could break down

The Centres for Disease Control thought America’s record Omicron surge could shut down supermarkets, mail delivery and factories as well as health services.
www.theage.com.au www.theage.com.au

The guidance by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention “was based on the anticipation of a large number of cases might impact societal function,” the agency’s director Rochelle Walensky said in an interview. “There were starting to be limitations in society, not just in our health-care workforce but in other parts of society. We were seeing infections in many places that we realised this could be a harbinger of many other essential workers we needed.”

I believe there is a Prepper scenario for "societal break down due to pandemic". Bet those guys are doing a bit of AR15 polishing with a smirk on their face right now lol
 
Squidfayce

Squidfayce

Eats Squid
Haakon said:
So how would that work? Secondments into the private sector? Not practical I think.

Just need to not hire straight out of uni and have people build up their skills out in the world first.

Entirely depends on what area of the public service you’re in. I’d last five minutes as a cop, and working in centrelink I think I’d slash my wrists! But find an area dealing with something you’re actually interested in and it can be very rewarding.
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yeah in the current structure its not practical. It would require a rejig of the fundamentals of how it all works. I guess straight out of uni hiring freeze would be most practical. THough budgets are developed and maintained around the types of hires departments get. So funding and or resourcing would end up being the new impracticality.

Re the cop scenario - they already offer these types of programs. Its called "Ride with me" in VIC think. It lets people who are interested spend time basically on shift with cops. My wife did this and had some really powerful experiences that have shaped her.
 
C

Cheka

Likes Bikes
Squidfayce said:
I think you've made my point on that. Cant get a RAT in most places if you even want one. Slomo has already said "not a federal responsibility". Might be a cyncial perspective, but what has this sort of language been a prelude to before? Already washing his hands of yet another emerging debacle. The differences between the countries has less to do with it than what we've seen already happen here when things "arent a race" or when "it's up to the states and territories". Given that, I'm fairly confident in my assumptions, though would absolutely love to be wrong. Tomorrows cabinet meeting will give us a bit more clarity.



Is it though? think more recently. Like in the last 24 months. Goalposts have been shifting pretty regularly. Each shift eroding more of an individuals ability to manage their own risk appetite in the face of this. All because it was getting too hard, or not enough resources to manage. But overpay for civil projects by a factor of 10-20? sure no worries. We went from having it relatively under control to "we'll all get it anyway and we have to learn to live with that" when really that didn't have to be the case.

View attachment 384334

The above shows over a year where we basically had it under control. Then all of a sudden it's like we looked to other countries and decided that those outcomes were somehow better. You have to wonder for who...

Saw the new jimmy carr special on netflix tonight and he has a joke

"who here has had covid?"
crowd cheers
"Who here thinks the whole covid thing has been overblown, overreacted to?"
crowd cheers
"the survivors would all agree with you"

of course there the economic side of this argument that has to be considered, but surely we were already the envy of the world. Lower unemployment, lower deaths, lower cases etc. I'm fairly certain we could have come up with long term solutions to manage through the scenario rather than risk the emerging one we've witnessed in other similar countries.


You're right, so much truth in this. I generally think we fucked up enforcement really early on. It was made a joke of by all the non compliers consistently, loudly and very visibly. This prolonged the poor outcomes for everyone else and in the end bred such resentment in the complying population. SO the only solution to force compliance now would be inconceivable to anyone who hasn't grown up in a communist or authoritarian regime. There's no fix to this one unfortunately.

My issue is that my choices in how I manage my risk are being taken away with each decision the govt makes. The biggest one is I cant choose to work from home (even though I can, and have done for 18 months) unless the government stipulates that I can/should. This one small change would not be a huge impost in the current state of affairs, but the decision not to use this wording is purely an economic decision to drive people back into business centres to hopefully spend, keep offices space occupied etc.



Yea it was just a random thing to chuck in. Context - some industries (like the one my wife works in) pay you for covid related time off. It's unlimited. It's separate to your sick days. Full pay, and if your shift naturally accrued penalties (night, public holiday, weekends etc), you get those too if you were unable to attend due to covid related reasons. Tax dollars pay these wages by the way.

At her work place. there are already RATs done at the door before you enter the complex. There is literally a WhatsApp group where staff of all levels are sharing what materials they're trying up their nose to force an inconclusive or false positive result. With tests currently taking up to 6 days at the moment, if you're lucky you can get a week of fully paid leave for a couple hours wait in a line if you're successful fudging a work place RAT.

Right now, she gets a call every day she's not working to see if she wants overtime. There is a pool of about 50 "spare" staff that have to be placed throughout the complex every day which is supposed to cover normal operational absences - sickies, injuries, leave etc. For her to get a call every day she's off should give you an idea of how endemic fudging RATs already is.

What I was refering to was scenarios where such staff get a positive from a PCR when they actually get covid, you can bet those same people will extend their 5 day isolation to at least 10 or beyond by doing the same from home with higher success rates. Free money. if you're not doing it, you're behind.
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I'm envious of your wife and her conditions. I work frontline health and if we test positive then bad luck go home and use your sick leave.
Management argue that we provide you with PPE so if you contract Covid it is more likely to be outside of work. I reply that I do not drive around with confirmed Covid positive patients in my personal vehicle as I do at work and when on days off I only leave home to ride my bike or have my Dan Murphys order delivered to the boot of my car.
Meanwhile all our anti vax colleagues who refused to get jabbed are sitting at home on full pay (including average penalties) whilst their claim for exemption is processed. We are short staffed and under the pump but they get a tax payer funded Xmas/NY break which does not affect their leave balance. Several of them have stated that should their exemption not be granted then they will just get the jab and return to work as if nothing happened.
 
Mr Crudley

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
Cheka said:
I work frontline health and if we test positive then bad luck go home and use your sick leave.
Management argue that we provide you with PPE so if you contract Covid it is more likely to be outside of work.
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What an utterly stupid line of thought from 'management'. You are potentially exposed to 100% festy people for what, 40-60+ hours per week but it has to come from someone at the local shopping maul that coughed Covid chunks. I really feel your pain on this one.

Meanwhile, we wonder why frontline health have had jack of it all.
 
K

K.C.

Likes Dirt
FoxRidersCo said:
In his defense.

He's kept very busy counting the billions that Woolies makes each year from being the largest pokie machine operator in Australia.

12,000 machines, that's a lot of bean counting

Priorities... :D
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i thought they de-merge the gaming and alcohol business into seperate entity on ASX a couple moons ago, no?
 
Brow

Brow

Big Block
Squidfayce said:
I don't have anything inherently against career bureaucrats, even in the scenario you describe. I just think they need get their hands dirty.

The ideal scenario is exactly Private > public.

After what I've seen with public through, I'll never do it. Rather poke my eye out with a stick.
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But in the public service there will be someone you can get to poke your eye out for you - with the right forms filled out of course!
 
pink poodle

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Nambra said:

A close what ScoMo? :oops:
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Must be thinking of himself more than usual.

Minlak said:
So apparently an almost national approach to covid testing and isolation coming from midnight tonight.
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So I was thinking about this today...only a few weeks ago active community cases of covid were almost unheard of in Australia outside of NSW and Vic for the duration of this pandemic. Has this been good management by the other states or pure luck? Either way most are now blasting numbers that were considered outrageous in the middle of this year. This new national position seems to be a bit of a "ahhhhhhh fuck it" approach. I haven't decided if I think chairman mark is being an arsehole or a genius for his captives/citizens in WA.
 
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