Businesses Are Still Not Back To Normal

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Currently this is something I have been noticing especially over the last 6 months as employees are covering each other due to covid quarantine regulations. I am not talking office work but general work in the logistics warehousing industry which needs to be managed .

Over the last 17 months I have been banging my head against the wall as Covid has changed businesses in more ways than you could imagine. Don't get me wrong there are massive opportunities out there, but everything is being done at a snails pace. Decision are not being made like they once were as in many cases that person is off ill and then the person you are dealing with goes off sick.

I was talking to a client today and asked him straight out why there are so many delays. He explained their company has been ravaged by the Delta variant over the last 3 months and have had a number of deaths. This kind of put things into perspective why changing a supplier is not exactly at the top of their to do list right now. I knew deaths were happening as I know a few personally but this is on another scale.

This unfortunately is where most businesses stand right now as I know of a few other clients of mine in the same position with many of them still in bubbles even though the country is "back to normal" in many aspects. There is no point kidding ourselves that this is "normal" by any standards as it is far from that. The smaller businesses are less affected as they have far less staff and those clients of mine seem relatively unscathed compared to my bigger clients.

One of my customers mentioned last week I couldn't pop in and visit due to the fact they were under strict instructions to have no unnecessary outside contact. He mentioned they had been severely hit with illness and that the owner spent 4 days on a ventilator before recovering. They have had roughly 20% of their staff off throughout the course of the last 6 months and is expected to continue until they are all vaccinated. I do understand as he is doing the jobs of 3 managers right now and is under pressure.

Only recently people are receiving their 2nd vaccine as I had my first last Friday after having Covid 5 weeks ago. At the rate they are being done this should be completed by the year end so another year written off as that is looking at it realistically. People who don't understand what the Delta variant is like will never understand. This time around there is a huge difference as for people with no ailments have been dying. My son has lost a few friends from school and they were in their mid twenties.

I have come to realise that this is going to take much longer than anyone expected to battle against and this is no joke. I was on the fence for most of this and trust me you can't knock it and say it is nothing. This particular variant is not like the one before and is taking fit and healthy people out. A friend of the family was an extreme sportsmen who did mountaineering and succumbed last month after just 3 days.

The business is what it is at the moment and growing it customer by customer is taking far longer than first envisioned. A normal client to onboard would take anywhere from 2 -6 weeks, but lately anywhere up to 6 months and counting due to the unique circumstances we find ourselves in. Many are covering and doing the jobs of employees off sick so me bugging them will only put their backs up.

Companies are struggling which is rather obvious as the expenses never drop but the turnover has. Throw in the riots from 2 months ago and you wonder how many are still around. This year is not over yet and possibly we will still see some more closures.

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