[theflyingguy]

What a timing for this thread.

I was working for a major airline when the Covid hit. The airlines across the world shed jobs like there is no tomorrow. Almost 60% of staff was wiped out and the salaries also were reduced by 60% with work from home enforced. Only a bare minimum team to keep the lights on was retained.

It was very difficult time for all the colleagues who had become close friends. Almost no one was sure if you would have a job next week. Every now & then, the news of entire team being fired was hitting the floor. Everyone was anxious and it was sad to see your friends being let go with many having unresolved financial liabilities, kids in schools, sole earners in the families.

The worst case scenarios laid out by the airlines was luckily way over the top. The industry recovered much earlier than expected. Many of the colleagues who were let go were rehired. The salaries also came back to normal after around 15 months.

While many of survived in the job, the confidence in the industry hit rock bottom. So when things started looking bright, many of us left and joined a stable industry. Since there were not a lot of colleagues available around, I learnt a lot about many aspects of my industry as well as multiple products. Overall, I learnt a lot and also learnt a valuable lesson that your financial freedom can be taken away at almost no notice. I closed off all loans and promised myself to not get into a debt again. Created alternate sources of income (at minimal now but will grow in future).

On the personal side, lost many near and dear ones to Covid who were from middle class families like me. They were also saving most of their income for that uncertain future but did never got to see or enjoy that future. Hence, decided to scale back on investments and spend the money/ resources on enjoying the present. This pandemic changed me and my family in more than one ways.

[speedfreak01]

I run a small manufacturing and retail business comprising of 8 employees and have 2 offices in Delhi out of which one is mine and the other is on rent. Thankfully, there has been no debt on me or the business ever. So things were going pretty smooth till Feb 20 and my daughter who was 3 was supposed to start her formal school from April 20. But then covid struck, so all of us including me, wife and daughter were confined to our home. My wife is a dentist and her boss shut down her clinic temporarily due to which my wife had to let go off her job. There was literally no income from my business whatsoever and I had to also pay for my employess salary without any sort of deductions. Thankfully, I have some sort of rental income to rely upon where I have 3 tenants and 1 of my tenant asked me to reduce the rent and I happily obliged since it was a tough time for all of us. The other 2 tenants never asked for any relaxations. Wife was still out of job, and her boss had no intentions of reopening her clinic soon. We kept our expenses low since not much money was coming in, and it was kind of a hand to mouth situation for us. But somehow the first wave ended and we managed due to god’s grace.

When the second wave hit, we were kind of mentally and financially prepared as in my manufacturing business we had got all the raw materials before hand and I had asked my employess to continue with the work and they all agreed since they were getting paid in full. Also the local authorities this time were a bit lenient and they had allowed the work to go on, not like the first wave where it was a complete lockdown. I lost few of my distant relatives in the second wave as well. Financially, this wave didnt leave a big impact as revenue from my business was still at 40% alongwith the rentals coming in. Also I had stopped making any new investments since the first wave had struck.

Now third wave comes, and with god’s grace this time also we sailed through smoothly. The work is a bit low, still havent recovered to pre covid times but touch wood due to no debt burden and no unforeseen expenses creeping in we have been able to manage this time as well. All of my 8 employees are still working with me, wife hasn’t resumed her job as she has been focusing full time on our daughter during her online classes and stuff. Now whenever her school starts full time, wife will again resume her practice.

Lesson’s learnt
1) always have a 6 month’s emergency fund ready in cash or savings account.
2) have multiple sources of income if possible.
3) always help people who are dependent on you. Their good wishes will always come back to you in unimaginable ways.

[sukhbirST]

The fortunate should not forget the less fortunate ones or even plain unlucky ones. Agree that simple life secrets have been brought into focus once again along with caring for nature and others. No credit or EMI is one thing which worked well for me and it should be true in future also. Discretionary spend was very less but then a lot of people suffered because they depended on this(our spend).

[autohead666]

Both me and my wife have been fortunate enough to retain our jobs without salary cuts.
But during covid I have certainly prioritized my health. When I reached 102 kgs at 5'7 height, I decided to take control of my health, especially. I have lost a good 15 kgs of pure body fat and gained muscle mass. My strength, stamina are at all-time high and I feel much fitter than before. Started with gym but with rising cases shifted to home workouts.Bought adjustable dumbells,barbells and weights and started on my weight loss journey, subscribed to an online fitness platform and hired a coach to guide me. With strict diet (with occasional cheating) and daily workouts I feel younger than ever before at the age of 45. There is a long way to go but results are encouraging.

[Venky03]

I started a PC building venture back in 2018 when I was studying engineering, everything was going well; I firmly believed that I won't compromise on quality no matter what the situation and it reflected on our growing sales. Did not have to spend a single rupee on digital ads as the mouth publicity from our existing customers helped us acquire new customers. We suggested the best cost to performance ratio builds, used the best quality TIM available on the market, cable management was on point, overclocked the hardware to safe limits so that customer could extract every bit of performance for the money that they paid for without being tech savvy and personally stress tested the PCs for any thermal issues before handing them over to the customers.

Even got the opportunity to build a few commercial Pfsense firewalls, everything was going so well and I was all set to expand the business at a second location(Hyderabad) with a friend, and then the combo of covid + silicon shortage hit us, there were lockdowns everywhere; delivery of non-essential goods was stopped and by the time it was restarted, the GPUs were costing as much as an entire PC.

People now preferred laptops instead of desktops, gamers were buying prebuilt gaming PCs from big players as small players like us couldn't even get our hands on the new GPUs neither from AMD nor from Nvidia. Scalpers were selling new GPUs for around 1.5-2lakhs. Had to shut down the business permanently as it was no longer viable and stuck to freelance jobs for a while.

Started a new venture by late 2020 with the aim to service high end laptops and desktops, close friends who believed in the idea joined in and we got a good response initially but then were hit by second wave and took a pause. In the meantime we sorted out our supply chain and strategies, and have slowly started to resume business now.

[RGK]

Luckily my IT job did not get affected due to the pandemic. We moved to our native and stayed with my father for almost a year. As said by many, regular monthly savings is very very important in life.

I bought all our groceries, veggies and other essentials from local shops, street vendors and I felt very satisfied. Stayed in my place continuously for 11 months after 22 years which I enjoyed thoroughly each and every bit of it. Thanks to the internet penetration in all towns and cities. Before we moved back, I did inform about my departure and everyone was sad. Now, we have made a habit of doing one-week trips once in 3 months.

People who had been hit economically in rural areas:

1. Bus drivers & conductors
2. Laundry shops
3. Hotel workers
4. Small cab owners
5. Cab drivers
6. Textile shop owners and workers

Heard things are becoming normal for them as well.

Veggie, grocery and medical shops minted money during this period.

[ksmrsm]

A very interesting thread. As we are approaching the second anniversary of the lockdown, let me share my experience.

Occupation: Hotelier

I was heading the operations of a domestic brand and also running a restaurant with a couple of friends. Going was good and then the "Lockdown" was announced.

Result: I was laid off along with a huge number of other staff. Restaurant was shut down though we still had to pay rent for the space.

What did I do: Became a hospitality consultant and leveraged my skills and knowledge to help hotels who were looking to reinvent themselves during the forced closure. Trained to become a Life coach.

How did we survive: Luckily there were no loans, so no EMI's. Wife working as a teacher helped. Small consultancy projects that came my way also helped.

Where am I now: Two years without a steady job. Restaurant closed and huge losses incurred. Surviving and hoping for the hospitality industry to find its feet. Also trying to get coaching assignments to expand into this area.

[Turbolove]

I work in Digital Marketing, I'm responsible for the ads you see online.

Things literally exploded for us, with people spending more time indoors, we had to spends alot more on running ads and also started to get alot more revenue from it. I was fortunate enough to switch jobs with a decent hike because of this. Both my firms had record revenue due to covid, one being a digital firm and the other a niche real estate firm. Being single allowed me to fully enjoy work from home, with 2 workations in Himachal with friends. Saved on a tonne of rent by staying at home for a while too.

[am1m]

Feel very sorry for theater owners and shop owners in malls in Bangalore. The state government regulations for covid-appropriate entry are still killing their business while all around them "covid-appropriate behavior" is going for a toss.

Went for a movie over the weekend- so they check your vaccination certificates at 2-3 points. Then they insist on an N95 mask, if you don't have one, you have to buy one from them. Then you can't eat inside the hall, only outside. And at several times during the show someone walks around to check everything. No wonder the movie was almost empty and no one was buying food, even on a Saturday. Normally that show would have been packed. I'm not going for a movie again either till these regulations are removed, it's supposed to be a fun experience, this is certainly not. And the funny thing is before coming to Bangalore last week, I watched a movie in another state at a theater run by the same chain and there were no such restrictions. Outside the theater in Bangalore too, no one was worrying about any such things. So why continue to enforce these on the soft targets and continue to ruin their business even now, after already 2 bad years.

[dipdawiz]

I am being a salaried person in a large Indian MNC, I was not directly affected. But if I look carefully, some of the things affecting my career indirectly

- no hike in last two years, so that affects future increments/income/bargain power
- though I am not pressured to work more or at least I try to maintain balance of work and home (staying at home), there are some undetectable pressure when you work from home, I can feel, I am stressed easily now.
- Sort of fell in a comfort zone, finding it very difficult to face change. This happened in these two years. Not motivated, just taking a day at a time.

But have seen far worse affected people mentally. I am lucky enough that so far none of my near and dear one had faced any issue as such neither do I. Did not face losses, people faced in first two waves. But different indirect issues, large and small, that impacted a larger section of people and wrecked havoc; its not talked about enough.