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U.S. power industry may ask key employees to live at work if coronavirus worsens
- misiti3780 7y agoMy girlfriend's mother works at Rockefeller in NYC and they told all essential employees to be ready to move on campus, indefinitely . Update: typo
- gpm 7y ago> and they told all non-essential employees to be ready to move on campus, indefinitely . Do you mean all essential employees?
- misiti3780 7y agosorry, type yes essential employees.
- war1025 7y agoCould you clarify what institution you mean by "Rockefeller"? I did a Wikipedia search and it looks like there are several options in New York.
- wefarrell 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_University
- misiti3780 7y agothis link is correct.
- robbyt 7y agoI assume, Rockefeller University. It's a large hospital on the upper East side.
- madhadron 7y agoNot quite. It's a graduate school and research institute next to Cornell Medical School. It has a tiny research hospital (ten beds or so). Source: I went there for grad school.
- misiti3780 7y agoshe works in a lab.
- madhadron 7y agoThis isn't as big a deal at Rockefeller as it might seem, as they already have attached apartment buildings that most of the graduate students and much of the faculty live in.
- taylodl 7y agoWeird. This is normal. I work for a large electric utility in the United States and we already have employees sequestered. This is pretty much par for the course.
- michaelt 7y agoSo how does this work - do they sequester a large number of employees? Enough shifts for people to get a decent amount of time off? Do they sequester people on site, or just book out an entire local hotel? Are the living quarters and food appealing? Is there good bonus pay?
- taylodl 7y agoThey're working in two-week shifts. Pack your bags and move in for two weeks. They need to keep them sequestered with no contact with the outside world so they don't get infected. Then they'll be replaced by another crew that comes in for two weeks. Each of the members of that crew will be spot-checked for infection (utilities maintaining national critical infrastructure don't have special access to coronavirus testing kits like the NBA apparently does). When offsite you're to maintain physical quarantine in your home. The facilities where they sequester typically have a small gym, showers and a kitchen. Food is provided. Think of it more like a fire station. The quarantining part is new, but the sequestering part isn't. Utilities do this when facing extremely large storms and other such events. This is how we do business continuity planning to ensure the lights stay on even in the midst of a storm, natural disaster, or pandemic. Those that sign on know it's part of the job and they're compensated for it - though I can't speak to how well they're being compensated.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dang 7y agoUrl changed from https://energycentral.com/c/ec/covid-19-news-nuclear-workers-may-live-site-during-virus-crisis https://energycentral.com/c/ec/covid-19-news-nuclear-workers..., which points to this.
- catalogia 7y agoWhat kind of housing to they have? The article mentions bedding, blankets, etc, but not what sort of living quarters are provided. I hope they don't have people sleeping under their desks. Putting trailers in the parking lots seems like a good idea, to keep morale up if nothing else.
- est31 7y agoYeah there is also a hygienic threat to the workers. The 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed more people than WW1, found breeding grounds in the dense cantonments built for soldiers. https://youtu.be/fLGNrC9k418?t=2494 https://youtu.be/fLGNrC9k418?t=2494
- yread 7y agoI've heard rumours about a high-frequency trading shop doing that, too
- closeparen 7y agoWeird. Can't they work from home?
- pengaru 7y agoMost home offices don't have 16 displays attached to the desk
- leetcrew 7y agomine would if I made that kind of money.
- kevin_thibedeau 7y agoI'm waiting for someone to bring the vertically curved video slot machine displays to market for general use. Those would make a nice personal command center.
- tachyonbeam 7y ago16 displays so you can save the time it would take you to switch desktops and physically move your chair around to look at different windows instead? I bet it looks really fancy and cool.
- pengaru 7y agoI was mostly kidding, though they do tend to have what amounts to a videowall attached to the trading desks from what I've seen in photos shared by friends working in HFT. What I suspect is a larger barrier is their paranoia. It'd surprise me if any HFT firm was comfortable with equipping the homes of its traders with everything needed from the bespoke software to appropriate hardware etc. They're very protective of their trade secrets and wouldn't want that stuff sitting around in the homes of employees where it can be either copied or otherwise scrutinized.
- uoaei 7y agoWhat a wonderful time to attack the US power grid and cause mass mayhem. Would certainly destabilize the world's leading superpower.
- dillonmckay 7y agoI am curious what the strategy is for linemen, particularly if a natural disaster occurs (inclement weather), in conjuction with the ongoing ‘war’.
- mandelbrotwurst 7y agoProbably just send them out, no? Do they even end up particularly close to other people even in normal times? People tend to avoid power lines that are being actively worked on.
- dillonmckay 7y agoYes, they work in crews and travel to different states. They have to eat, and stay in hotels for days or weeks.
- mandelbrotwurst 7y agoOh, interesting, I would have thought at least every few counties would have their own crew. Huh.
- hinkley 7y agoIf you work with a fixed crew and equipment, you'll have whole teams down at once, but other teams won't have been exposed at all.
- dillonmckay 7y agoExcept they interact with hotel staff and Walmart and grocery store cashiers. Also, part of my friend’s job is transporting equipment to various teams.
- korethr 7y agoNot surprising, and I'm glad it's being done. I'd be more worried if the headline was something like "Power companies wait too late to sequester plant operation crews, personnel shortages mount as employees catch COVID-19" or similiar. I got a taste of something similar to this years back when I was a NOC monkey. I worked a weekend shift. One time, the news reported that big snow storm was coming that weekend. When I showed up that Friday, the site manager gave me the info for the hotel they were putting me up in for the weekend. Yes, he knows I have a relatively short drive to work along routes that will be the first ones hit by the plows and salt trucks. Yes, he's glad I have a fresh battery and snow tires on my car. No, none of that matters, we need to guarantee personnel on site, and the hotel's closer. Companies that provide important services usually have plans in place for events like this if they have their shit together. Usually.
- hinkley 7y agoThey probably have an underwriter who won't pay out if any of those t's are not crossed.
- 6gvONxR4sf7o 7y agoI sure wish people who are being asked to go above and beyond during this crisis would be compensated above and beyond for it. The idea of people putting themselves in danger for the rest of us for a shitty wage is so depressing. (I'm thinking healthcare workers, grocery clerks, etc. Not that the power folks are necessarily putting themselves in danger)