I am spending the next few days in seclusion to finish my book coming out this fall from Regnery! The topic? Well, I bet you can guess. I would love your help on this! I’ll post and email here some of the holes I am trying to fill and I would love to get your feedback on specific parts.
I work for a hospice and develop instructional materials. We had to create materials to teach families how to use FaceTime, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc so they could say goodbye to their dying loved one because they were not allowed in facilities. Those families will never recover from that trauma.
2020 began with great optimism - 2019 my business partner and myself (education technology industry) had built banner years for us both & for the company and decided in 2019 to join forces to make a more prosperous future for our families after 8 years of lean and sacrifice; we thought we were poised for another awesome year. We got the call first from one of my daughters' school talking about an extended spring break (14 days to "flatten" a curve), then our formerly great governor (TX) declared some of us nonessential (2 years later we still are under "emergency powers", my wife in Costco (not for the run on TP) is scared to death by a person in a gas mask...that's right a gas mask and calls me freaking out, then the city parks decide the virus is like nuclear fallout and put up caution tape around all the playgrounds, in addition they placed 2x4s on the basketball rims (b/c the science was clear??), my other daughter with Down Syndrome lost access to months of needed therapies and friends, my business development went from optimism to not hearing from CUSTOMERS for 6 - 10 months, much less potential new clients; all new sales dried up, & in order to escape the madness of TX we fled to FL for the month of April and it dawned on me even further, this is an absolute, abject failure of public responsibility for our elected and unelected officials. In FL where we were, we spoke to a sheriff in Walton County and his quote still resonates today - "as a sheriff we will not trample the constitution b/c of a virus". Fast forward to 12/31/20 I achieved a 55% drop in my income only to recover to a mere 52% drop in 2021 (from the 2019 level) - two PPP loans later amounted to 3 months of help. Two years in a row and staring a third down now, my income in my primary industry was destroyed and may never recover. In the summer of 2020 I picked up a second job which was a God-send but that doesn't make it right from a public policy perspective. I had the grace from God to find a second job which has been income producing to a degree, I don't think that's the norm. Outside of airplanes and the 10 foot walk to my desk at my work space, I have refused and forbid my family from wearing masks unless someone specifically asked them to do so respectively and with reason. My wife almost caved to the shot after months of propaganda but after what became a 3rd job of educating myself and my surroundings as to the reality of covid and the response to it making it all worse, it produced too much unneeded anxiety in our lives. So my family by God's grace came through wonderfully, not b/c of government but inspite of it. But my business and ability to earn an income was punished from day 1 to now day 730 and counting. I'm thankful for the new friends for sure, you Mr. Hart, Dr. Cabrera in FL, Clay Travis, Alex, to name a few. But it doesn't justify the excessive destruction that I and we all warned about which would come from the lock downs et al and we will not adequately understand the totality of it for years and/or decades unfortunately. FIGHT ON! This speaks to none of the educational loss we will all have to deal with, we in TX are already lowering "learning standards" b/c of the nonsensical "mitigation efforts" of our public officials.
The lockdown was actually good for my work and income. I write courseware for college textbooks, and the sales went up hugely after colleges went virtual. Before 2020, courseware was an optional sales gimmick. After 2020, courseware became a crucial way of learning and grading.
In general the lockdown didn't bother me because I was already WFH. The muzzles are what ruined my soul and body.
Even though I managed to minimize Time Under Muzzle, every picosecond is still extreme excruciating torture. And it's not done yet. TSA will supposedly end the mandate for buses on March 18. The date hasn't moved yet, and it's getting mighty close, but I'm 100% certain they will extend it at the last minute. That's how psychopaths work.
2 hours after I scheduled my annual Mammogram 2/2021 I got a call back canceling it. I said I couldn't wear a mask. im an immune Suppressed transplant recipient. Masks are a risk for bacterial Pneumonia. Davis Hospital ( Utah) women's Imaging said I was a risk to their staff.
My mom was a medical and scientific illustrator for CDC and she met Fauci several times, so when he burst onto the "plandemic" scene with his ludicrous comments I knew we were headed in the wrong direction because my mom had told me, "He's an arrogant little s.o.b. and he's going to cause trouble some day."
I majored in journalism in college and after my mom was killed by proper use of prescription drugs for asthma, I turned my love of writing and research to the health arena and have published several books, and co-author or ghost write for doctors.
My DIL is a pharmacist and even before the "vaccines" came out, she was reading about them and put out a decree to the family that none of us would be permitted under her watch to "take the jab." None of us took it, with exception of my daughter who travels a lot. We all had covid (I'm 77 and have COPD) and we all got thru it; my daughter had the worst case of anyone in the family, and I know if was because of the vax.
When Fauci said two of the early symptoms were loss of taste and smell, I knew immediately that those are both symptoms of zinc deficiency. I also knew that the segment of our population most likely for zinc deficiency are the elderly (and ditto for Vit. D.).
When CDC and Fauci neglected (intentionally, I'm sure) to tell the American public these facts, I knew we were in deep do-do. How in the world could they pull off their scam to lure people into the vaccine pits if people either prevented or recovered because they took some cheap supplements? (BTW, when I had covid my DIL mega-dosed me on zinc, Vit. D-3, Vit.-C, and several other supplements.)
Because so many of my friends and family were asking for info from me, I finally put up a website where I make updates daily.
So, to answer Justin's request for how has covid affected us: It has made me mad; it has made me sad; and I no longer trust any of our government agencies. It's also given me a lot more faith because now I know for sure that fear is a killer, but faith can get me through anything.
I'm a physician who worked through the early "locked-down" days of the pandemic providing emergency anesthesia care when needed. Soon after, when "elective surgery" was restarted, surgical volume started to recover. At the end of 2020 when vaccines became available to health care workers, hospital systems started considering vaccine policies, with a game of follow the leader ensuing. One after the next implemented mandates so as not to be the only one who couldn't claim a perceived market advantage of a "fully vaccinated staff." That left no place, (or a rare place) for the unvaccinated worker to find go. Hospitals were in cahoots to leave themselves with a deepening staffing crisis, and by the end of 2021, even after providing evidence of naturally acquired immunity, and requesting medical exemptions from vaccine mandates, I was dismissed from several staff appointments - unable to practice medicine after 29 years of providing care/ service to my community, with no alternative income source at the time. Good times.
Did anyone else notice that TP rolls are an inch narrower (flatter) but they made them fat to trick people. They don’t fit in TP roll stackers and the TP is skinny on the holders. Just short the damn rolls and make them the width of the holders again.
I am so sick of product manufacturers thinking consumers are stupid and don’t notice - like indented bottoms on liquid containers, for example. “New and improved.” Yeah, right. You made it smaller and think we don’t see that.
I’m an anesthetist and had a lady stalk me on Instagram and try to find out my employer because I dared to comment that you don’t need to wear a mask to walk down the sidewalk outside
My family runs an online appliance repair training school. We have clients all over the world, but mostly in North America, so we got an overview of how this was affecting in-home appliance service companies.
For the first month or so after the lockdowns, a lot of companies had to lay off techs because a lot of people were hesitant to have someone come to their home for repairs. The impact varied a lot by region. Some areas only had a brief slowdown (weeks), others took longer to come back ("blue" cities, typically). Areas with a lot of vacation rentals stayed depressed for the longest - no vacationers, no repairs needed.
But then the demand for appliance repair took off. I can only assume it is because people were spending so much more time at home, between working at home and not going out to restaurants. So the appliances got more use and needed more repairs. Also, in times of uncertainty, people will opt for repair over replacement more often.
Nearly all of our clients (service companies) were looking for more employees because they were having a hard time meeting demand.
Our training school saw a big increase in enrollments during 2020-21. About a 60% increase from 2019 to 2020, another 36% from 2020 to 2021. A lot of that came from our service company clients, but another steady stream came from individuals looking for a new career and/or to start their own business.
We often get students enrolling with us who are switching gears, but usually they come from a related field like auto mechanic, HVAC, maintenance, etc. During 2020 we got a more unusual mix of people, as some of our students came from jobs that had been impacted by the lockdowns, like the hospitality industry, fitness equipment repair, airline maintenance, and even a couple of airline pilots. In 2021, we had some students coming to us from health care, mostly nurses. Not a lot of them, but it was a noticeable increase compared to previous years. I wonder if it was due to burnout.
So, residential appliance repair has been in high demand the past two years. The first few months were stressful, as companies tried to figure out how to keep both the techs and the homeowners "safe", involving various amounts of PPE. But in our tech forums, we heard that many customers relaxed after those first few months, and more often than not didn't even care if a tech wore a mask. Some, as you can imagine, were paranoid and insisted on masking and distancing, etc.
Supply chain issues - getting parts for the repairs - eventually became another challenge. Instead of the usual day or two to get a part in, it could take weeks. That leads to unhappy customers.
I hope something in this is useful. By the way - I was at the gathering in NH last December at Emily Burns's farm!
On March 13, 2020 - I was 14 weeks pregnant with my second child and remember going to the grocery store for a couple items to "get us through the weekend." I was met with what is best described as a "run" on the grocery store. So many empty shelves, so many people commenting they thought we wouldn't have food or be able to get supplies for the next several weeks. I went in for maybe 5 items total and ended up with $200 of pantry staples. I remember standing in line to check out going through thoughts such as "Good God, what if I can't eat enough to sustain this baby? Where will we get food?" When I got home, I really cried for 20 minutes and it was the lowest point of the pandemic for me. Possibly the lowest point of the pandemic for my husband who had to watch me cry.
My son's daycare shut down 10 days later and he was home for 15 weeks, while my husband and I were both working full-time. I cried several times in those subsequent weeks, mostly because I was frustrated I couldn't go out and was left at home with a needy toddler all the time.
There were some good times during that initial "shut down" period. We had so much one-on-one time with my son before his sister was born August 2020 and I'm grateful for that. I'm also glad that it was my second pregnancy because trying to navigate all of the prenatal care as a first time mom during the pandemic would have been so challenging. I'm also thankful that I gave birth during the late summer when things were more "normal" in Massachusetts.
My work is in e-commerce and this early pandemic period of March - June 2020 really helped my company's earnings. I'm one of the very fortunate where that was the case, and I always kept in mind the small businesses who were decimated and the millions of people who were out of work.
My attention was drawn to initial reports and videos from China on twitter in January…..people collapsing on the streets, trucks spraying bleach throughout neighborhoods late at night.
It seemed absolutely surreal and I thought “this is really serious”.
One of my companies is in the cycling industry - fitting and customizing high end (3k-10K+) bikes for competition or serious training. While low-end (<1k) rec bikes sold out quickly in '20 due to locked down folks looking for anything to do, high end stuff lasted a little longer then completely disappeared. As did almost all componentry. Carbon frames, all made in Asia, dried up as various countries went through various shutdowns over and over again. Everyday things like chains (and anything made from Asian steel), tubes, tires disappeared. For several months at a time. This is still the case. Higher end component groups show random delivery dates into 2023. One of my major frame suppliers had essentially no frames in 21, and 22 frames are delayed but there are rumors some are starting to show up. But then even if a frame appears, in many cases there are no components. I hear of large annual shop pre-orders being totally cancelled, while some of the same brands are selling what they have direct to consumers, bypassing the bikeshop networks they have relied on for decades. So shops are collapsing. When you can get items, costs have been jacked up while msrp raised less so. I run a boutique low-overhead model so nothing is forcing me out of business, but I spend 2x the time to generate 1/2 (or less) of the margin, and I have to turn away sales beacuse the items don't exist and next delivery date is unknown. The bike biz normally runs on a very set annual schedule with preorders in the Fall, new bikes delivered by Spring, and components available as needed year round. This system has been totally upended and will not normalize this year, and its unclear if it will for 2023.
I am an electrical engineer in the construction industry. The company I work for specializes in designing the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems for data centers for many of the hyperscale internet companies plus other smaller data center clients, as well as traditional retail, education, and commercial projects. We also have a large team who commissions data centers (functional testing at the end of construction to confirm the designs and installations meet the project requirements).
We spent the initial two weeks worrying about what we would do with construction projects shut down, no traveling, etc. Then our data center clients began realizing the lockdowns were not going away so construction could not just wait things out and had to resume (and make up for the lost two weeks, of course). The switch to remote work and more online ordering meant even more data center work. A nationwide home improvement client also discovered that white collar workers stuck at home meant many people finally renovating their ugly kitchens and bathrooms; and then the housing market took off leading to more renovations.
Our company has increased our headcount from 100 to 150 since January 2020 on our way to 200 by the end of this year driven mainly by the data center industry's insatiable growth. In the meantime, we never returned to our offices and closed them all permanently.
We are seeing all kinds of labor and material constraints in our construction projects. Skilled labor is, of course, a problem (and had been since 2008). I general contractor in a NY state project told me he was happy about NYC's vaccinate mandate for workers because it meant several guys got kicked off an NYC project and could move to this NY state project.
There have been many equipment shortages including random things like water fountains (every store, office, etc. is required to have at least one of them by code). Last fall roof insulation was a problem resulting in switching to alternate materials (due in part to the deep freeze in Texas screwing up petroleum by products). Currently, there are long (and growing) lead times for rooftop HVAC equipment and electrical panelboards. These delays sound like they're due to both labor and material shortages at the manufacturers. Two years in to this the equipment lead times and labor shortages seem to be getting worse rather than better.
the business I worked for lost around 20-40% of their computer repair flow since the lockdowns started.
it'd seem weird considering the work at home demand, except for the exceptionally high cost of fixing the (parts made mostly in China) overpriced fashion accessories... as I'm still employed, I can't disclose exactly which major billionaire brand I'm certified to repair while I badmouth the candy glass screens and construction paper strength internal cables.
regardless, if not for being able to live on 50% of my $14/hr previously full time salary, I'd probably have lost my house.
I was lucky enough to see the issue as non-temporary back last March, quickly obtaining a second part time w2 online-only random hours at my discretion job and two 1099 data entry/transcription "jobs" to further fluff my income.
I lost about $9000 last year from my drive-to-the-place projected income (assuming full time 40 hour weeks.) in 2020 I only lost $4K, that little because of being laid off for a month while eligible for the $600 weekly Bernie Sanders unemployment boost. nothing like that this year.
If the Corporation didn't gouge so hard on repair costs, and my employer didn't follow suit with out of warranty markups, maybe the computer repair business wouldn't have tanked so badly. but it did, and I'm glad to have had the foresight to obtain other sources of income.
I'd rather work from home anyway, now that I've found options for that. maybe I'll be able to say bye-bye to poorly written operating systems and hardware engineering quality seemingly being overridden by weight and cost concerns.
I work for a hospice and develop instructional materials. We had to create materials to teach families how to use FaceTime, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc so they could say goodbye to their dying loved one because they were not allowed in facilities. Those families will never recover from that trauma.
2020 began with great optimism - 2019 my business partner and myself (education technology industry) had built banner years for us both & for the company and decided in 2019 to join forces to make a more prosperous future for our families after 8 years of lean and sacrifice; we thought we were poised for another awesome year. We got the call first from one of my daughters' school talking about an extended spring break (14 days to "flatten" a curve), then our formerly great governor (TX) declared some of us nonessential (2 years later we still are under "emergency powers", my wife in Costco (not for the run on TP) is scared to death by a person in a gas mask...that's right a gas mask and calls me freaking out, then the city parks decide the virus is like nuclear fallout and put up caution tape around all the playgrounds, in addition they placed 2x4s on the basketball rims (b/c the science was clear??), my other daughter with Down Syndrome lost access to months of needed therapies and friends, my business development went from optimism to not hearing from CUSTOMERS for 6 - 10 months, much less potential new clients; all new sales dried up, & in order to escape the madness of TX we fled to FL for the month of April and it dawned on me even further, this is an absolute, abject failure of public responsibility for our elected and unelected officials. In FL where we were, we spoke to a sheriff in Walton County and his quote still resonates today - "as a sheriff we will not trample the constitution b/c of a virus". Fast forward to 12/31/20 I achieved a 55% drop in my income only to recover to a mere 52% drop in 2021 (from the 2019 level) - two PPP loans later amounted to 3 months of help. Two years in a row and staring a third down now, my income in my primary industry was destroyed and may never recover. In the summer of 2020 I picked up a second job which was a God-send but that doesn't make it right from a public policy perspective. I had the grace from God to find a second job which has been income producing to a degree, I don't think that's the norm. Outside of airplanes and the 10 foot walk to my desk at my work space, I have refused and forbid my family from wearing masks unless someone specifically asked them to do so respectively and with reason. My wife almost caved to the shot after months of propaganda but after what became a 3rd job of educating myself and my surroundings as to the reality of covid and the response to it making it all worse, it produced too much unneeded anxiety in our lives. So my family by God's grace came through wonderfully, not b/c of government but inspite of it. But my business and ability to earn an income was punished from day 1 to now day 730 and counting. I'm thankful for the new friends for sure, you Mr. Hart, Dr. Cabrera in FL, Clay Travis, Alex, to name a few. But it doesn't justify the excessive destruction that I and we all warned about which would come from the lock downs et al and we will not adequately understand the totality of it for years and/or decades unfortunately. FIGHT ON! This speaks to none of the educational loss we will all have to deal with, we in TX are already lowering "learning standards" b/c of the nonsensical "mitigation efforts" of our public officials.
The lockdown was actually good for my work and income. I write courseware for college textbooks, and the sales went up hugely after colleges went virtual. Before 2020, courseware was an optional sales gimmick. After 2020, courseware became a crucial way of learning and grading.
In general the lockdown didn't bother me because I was already WFH. The muzzles are what ruined my soul and body.
Even though I managed to minimize Time Under Muzzle, every picosecond is still extreme excruciating torture. And it's not done yet. TSA will supposedly end the mandate for buses on March 18. The date hasn't moved yet, and it's getting mighty close, but I'm 100% certain they will extend it at the last minute. That's how psychopaths work.
2 hours after I scheduled my annual Mammogram 2/2021 I got a call back canceling it. I said I couldn't wear a mask. im an immune Suppressed transplant recipient. Masks are a risk for bacterial Pneumonia. Davis Hospital ( Utah) women's Imaging said I was a risk to their staff.
My mom was a medical and scientific illustrator for CDC and she met Fauci several times, so when he burst onto the "plandemic" scene with his ludicrous comments I knew we were headed in the wrong direction because my mom had told me, "He's an arrogant little s.o.b. and he's going to cause trouble some day."
I majored in journalism in college and after my mom was killed by proper use of prescription drugs for asthma, I turned my love of writing and research to the health arena and have published several books, and co-author or ghost write for doctors.
My DIL is a pharmacist and even before the "vaccines" came out, she was reading about them and put out a decree to the family that none of us would be permitted under her watch to "take the jab." None of us took it, with exception of my daughter who travels a lot. We all had covid (I'm 77 and have COPD) and we all got thru it; my daughter had the worst case of anyone in the family, and I know if was because of the vax.
When Fauci said two of the early symptoms were loss of taste and smell, I knew immediately that those are both symptoms of zinc deficiency. I also knew that the segment of our population most likely for zinc deficiency are the elderly (and ditto for Vit. D.).
When CDC and Fauci neglected (intentionally, I'm sure) to tell the American public these facts, I knew we were in deep do-do. How in the world could they pull off their scam to lure people into the vaccine pits if people either prevented or recovered because they took some cheap supplements? (BTW, when I had covid my DIL mega-dosed me on zinc, Vit. D-3, Vit.-C, and several other supplements.)
Because so many of my friends and family were asking for info from me, I finally put up a website where I make updates daily.
So, to answer Justin's request for how has covid affected us: It has made me mad; it has made me sad; and I no longer trust any of our government agencies. It's also given me a lot more faith because now I know for sure that fear is a killer, but faith can get me through anything.
I'm a physician who worked through the early "locked-down" days of the pandemic providing emergency anesthesia care when needed. Soon after, when "elective surgery" was restarted, surgical volume started to recover. At the end of 2020 when vaccines became available to health care workers, hospital systems started considering vaccine policies, with a game of follow the leader ensuing. One after the next implemented mandates so as not to be the only one who couldn't claim a perceived market advantage of a "fully vaccinated staff." That left no place, (or a rare place) for the unvaccinated worker to find go. Hospitals were in cahoots to leave themselves with a deepening staffing crisis, and by the end of 2021, even after providing evidence of naturally acquired immunity, and requesting medical exemptions from vaccine mandates, I was dismissed from several staff appointments - unable to practice medicine after 29 years of providing care/ service to my community, with no alternative income source at the time. Good times.
Did anyone else notice that TP rolls are an inch narrower (flatter) but they made them fat to trick people. They don’t fit in TP roll stackers and the TP is skinny on the holders. Just short the damn rolls and make them the width of the holders again.
I am so sick of product manufacturers thinking consumers are stupid and don’t notice - like indented bottoms on liquid containers, for example. “New and improved.” Yeah, right. You made it smaller and think we don’t see that.
I’m an anesthetist and had a lady stalk me on Instagram and try to find out my employer because I dared to comment that you don’t need to wear a mask to walk down the sidewalk outside
My family runs an online appliance repair training school. We have clients all over the world, but mostly in North America, so we got an overview of how this was affecting in-home appliance service companies.
For the first month or so after the lockdowns, a lot of companies had to lay off techs because a lot of people were hesitant to have someone come to their home for repairs. The impact varied a lot by region. Some areas only had a brief slowdown (weeks), others took longer to come back ("blue" cities, typically). Areas with a lot of vacation rentals stayed depressed for the longest - no vacationers, no repairs needed.
But then the demand for appliance repair took off. I can only assume it is because people were spending so much more time at home, between working at home and not going out to restaurants. So the appliances got more use and needed more repairs. Also, in times of uncertainty, people will opt for repair over replacement more often.
Nearly all of our clients (service companies) were looking for more employees because they were having a hard time meeting demand.
Our training school saw a big increase in enrollments during 2020-21. About a 60% increase from 2019 to 2020, another 36% from 2020 to 2021. A lot of that came from our service company clients, but another steady stream came from individuals looking for a new career and/or to start their own business.
We often get students enrolling with us who are switching gears, but usually they come from a related field like auto mechanic, HVAC, maintenance, etc. During 2020 we got a more unusual mix of people, as some of our students came from jobs that had been impacted by the lockdowns, like the hospitality industry, fitness equipment repair, airline maintenance, and even a couple of airline pilots. In 2021, we had some students coming to us from health care, mostly nurses. Not a lot of them, but it was a noticeable increase compared to previous years. I wonder if it was due to burnout.
So, residential appliance repair has been in high demand the past two years. The first few months were stressful, as companies tried to figure out how to keep both the techs and the homeowners "safe", involving various amounts of PPE. But in our tech forums, we heard that many customers relaxed after those first few months, and more often than not didn't even care if a tech wore a mask. Some, as you can imagine, were paranoid and insisted on masking and distancing, etc.
Supply chain issues - getting parts for the repairs - eventually became another challenge. Instead of the usual day or two to get a part in, it could take weeks. That leads to unhappy customers.
I hope something in this is useful. By the way - I was at the gathering in NH last December at Emily Burns's farm!
On March 13, 2020 - I was 14 weeks pregnant with my second child and remember going to the grocery store for a couple items to "get us through the weekend." I was met with what is best described as a "run" on the grocery store. So many empty shelves, so many people commenting they thought we wouldn't have food or be able to get supplies for the next several weeks. I went in for maybe 5 items total and ended up with $200 of pantry staples. I remember standing in line to check out going through thoughts such as "Good God, what if I can't eat enough to sustain this baby? Where will we get food?" When I got home, I really cried for 20 minutes and it was the lowest point of the pandemic for me. Possibly the lowest point of the pandemic for my husband who had to watch me cry.
My son's daycare shut down 10 days later and he was home for 15 weeks, while my husband and I were both working full-time. I cried several times in those subsequent weeks, mostly because I was frustrated I couldn't go out and was left at home with a needy toddler all the time.
There were some good times during that initial "shut down" period. We had so much one-on-one time with my son before his sister was born August 2020 and I'm grateful for that. I'm also glad that it was my second pregnancy because trying to navigate all of the prenatal care as a first time mom during the pandemic would have been so challenging. I'm also thankful that I gave birth during the late summer when things were more "normal" in Massachusetts.
My work is in e-commerce and this early pandemic period of March - June 2020 really helped my company's earnings. I'm one of the very fortunate where that was the case, and I always kept in mind the small businesses who were decimated and the millions of people who were out of work.
My attention was drawn to initial reports and videos from China on twitter in January…..people collapsing on the streets, trucks spraying bleach throughout neighborhoods late at night.
It seemed absolutely surreal and I thought “this is really serious”.
One of my companies is in the cycling industry - fitting and customizing high end (3k-10K+) bikes for competition or serious training. While low-end (<1k) rec bikes sold out quickly in '20 due to locked down folks looking for anything to do, high end stuff lasted a little longer then completely disappeared. As did almost all componentry. Carbon frames, all made in Asia, dried up as various countries went through various shutdowns over and over again. Everyday things like chains (and anything made from Asian steel), tubes, tires disappeared. For several months at a time. This is still the case. Higher end component groups show random delivery dates into 2023. One of my major frame suppliers had essentially no frames in 21, and 22 frames are delayed but there are rumors some are starting to show up. But then even if a frame appears, in many cases there are no components. I hear of large annual shop pre-orders being totally cancelled, while some of the same brands are selling what they have direct to consumers, bypassing the bikeshop networks they have relied on for decades. So shops are collapsing. When you can get items, costs have been jacked up while msrp raised less so. I run a boutique low-overhead model so nothing is forcing me out of business, but I spend 2x the time to generate 1/2 (or less) of the margin, and I have to turn away sales beacuse the items don't exist and next delivery date is unknown. The bike biz normally runs on a very set annual schedule with preorders in the Fall, new bikes delivered by Spring, and components available as needed year round. This system has been totally upended and will not normalize this year, and its unclear if it will for 2023.
I am an electrical engineer in the construction industry. The company I work for specializes in designing the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems for data centers for many of the hyperscale internet companies plus other smaller data center clients, as well as traditional retail, education, and commercial projects. We also have a large team who commissions data centers (functional testing at the end of construction to confirm the designs and installations meet the project requirements).
We spent the initial two weeks worrying about what we would do with construction projects shut down, no traveling, etc. Then our data center clients began realizing the lockdowns were not going away so construction could not just wait things out and had to resume (and make up for the lost two weeks, of course). The switch to remote work and more online ordering meant even more data center work. A nationwide home improvement client also discovered that white collar workers stuck at home meant many people finally renovating their ugly kitchens and bathrooms; and then the housing market took off leading to more renovations.
Our company has increased our headcount from 100 to 150 since January 2020 on our way to 200 by the end of this year driven mainly by the data center industry's insatiable growth. In the meantime, we never returned to our offices and closed them all permanently.
We are seeing all kinds of labor and material constraints in our construction projects. Skilled labor is, of course, a problem (and had been since 2008). I general contractor in a NY state project told me he was happy about NYC's vaccinate mandate for workers because it meant several guys got kicked off an NYC project and could move to this NY state project.
There have been many equipment shortages including random things like water fountains (every store, office, etc. is required to have at least one of them by code). Last fall roof insulation was a problem resulting in switching to alternate materials (due in part to the deep freeze in Texas screwing up petroleum by products). Currently, there are long (and growing) lead times for rooftop HVAC equipment and electrical panelboards. These delays sound like they're due to both labor and material shortages at the manufacturers. Two years in to this the equipment lead times and labor shortages seem to be getting worse rather than better.
the business I worked for lost around 20-40% of their computer repair flow since the lockdowns started.
it'd seem weird considering the work at home demand, except for the exceptionally high cost of fixing the (parts made mostly in China) overpriced fashion accessories... as I'm still employed, I can't disclose exactly which major billionaire brand I'm certified to repair while I badmouth the candy glass screens and construction paper strength internal cables.
regardless, if not for being able to live on 50% of my $14/hr previously full time salary, I'd probably have lost my house.
I was lucky enough to see the issue as non-temporary back last March, quickly obtaining a second part time w2 online-only random hours at my discretion job and two 1099 data entry/transcription "jobs" to further fluff my income.
I lost about $9000 last year from my drive-to-the-place projected income (assuming full time 40 hour weeks.) in 2020 I only lost $4K, that little because of being laid off for a month while eligible for the $600 weekly Bernie Sanders unemployment boost. nothing like that this year.
If the Corporation didn't gouge so hard on repair costs, and my employer didn't follow suit with out of warranty markups, maybe the computer repair business wouldn't have tanked so badly. but it did, and I'm glad to have had the foresight to obtain other sources of income.
I'd rather work from home anyway, now that I've found options for that. maybe I'll be able to say bye-bye to poorly written operating systems and hardware engineering quality seemingly being overridden by weight and cost concerns.