Government Figures Out To End Traffic Deaths: Lockdown FOREVER!

OK, some bored columnist decided to write a tongue-in-cheek article. Let's see how many bite...

LMAO

Sadly some politicians might actually think it is a good idea. As long as it didn't apply to them of course.

I didn't read the article, but on premise, there's something to be learned in this lockdown. There are TONS of jobs that operate via remote operations. They do not need to live and travel into offices every single day. My company has realized a substantial lift in production since 95% of our workforce went remote, vs. only 30% or fewer before. I don't hear of any business that switched to remote complaining about their company's performance. What that leaves are those jobs that still require travel and in-person attention.

But this greatly reduces traffic and should reduce insurance claims. AT the same time, I get it that industries like fuel, commercial construction and leases, food establishments and services that rely on office business, office supply companies, etc will be impacted as well. but smart and savvy companies will figure out ways to adjust.

The problem with remote work is security of client information on devices over which you have no system-wide control. We monitor the history of all internet traffic within our system. We--yesterday--terminated an employee who upon arranging internet sales was funneling the owners' information to a friend in the insurance industry so that person could make a pitch with all the documents pre-slotted. We also have a concern that a client could take advantage of an employee by information gleaned during video conferencing.

Matt, your employee issue could have happened just as easily if he was in the office. Working from home just make it a little easier.

I've been teleworking now for almost two months. I use a government issued laptop, and connect to the internal network via an encrypted VPN. My laptop hard drive is also encrypted. I use a soft phone though my computer and am using my normal desk phone for business, but I also carry a government issued cell as well. I don't use any personal technology to telework, other than my personal Internet access. Any non-public information I might have on my computer is as safe working from home as it is when it's sitting on my docking station in the office. Maybe even better, since no one outside my family can even touch it, let alone it walking off by someone intent to find something.

"Matt, your employee issue could have happened just as easily if he was in the office." Yes I know, except that at work, it's more difficult to hide in theory, but we think we have a major issue with that store that this incident opened up.

The crazy cretin was actually brazen enough to have the insurance agent tell the customer that the dealer (1) recommended her office because of her low rates and (2) that we had sent their information over.

We paid 1 month car payment and insurance payment to placate each of 7 customers and we asked them to be quiet assuring them that we were pissed off and on it. I spoke to all 7 personally.

I enlisted my father in law who has a different last name than my dad--and who lives in the area--to specifically ask for the teleworker because he had heard how nice she was. Duke is straight out of Texas with the drawl and the charm. He arranged for a sale and we made sure the transaction happened in cash.

He probably said something like "Growin' up out in the dusty fields of Lubbock my daddy always told me if you can't pay cash you can't afford to buy it, son. God rest his soul." because I've heard him say bullshit like that. He was raised in town by his mother. No dad in the picture. I can hear him smooth talking. Within 4 hours of him taking delivery--I won't say the brand--the agent was on the phone. Sunday, when we were barbecuing, he asked how long said car would be in his driveway because no way in hell would be be caught driving one. The car in question will become a courtesy car.

That's why the family and I went down to Indio Friday. The dealer is in one of those desert communities and I wanted to be a part of the shock and awe. Our dealer website has a complaint number and email that does not go to the dealer but is instead routed to the group just in case the dealer is out of step with us. We've invited the management team to stay home for two weeks and we have management people siphoned off of other dealerships to come in temporarily while we determine whether heads will roll.

So instead of driving to Newport Beach once a week, I'll probably be driving to Indio because we believe there is more here obviously and you sure as hell do not want me on your ass for cheating the company.

Matt, this means that you have some security issues at hand. Lots of companies issues encrypted laptops and they are connected via VPN. You need to have employees with good work ethics. Not all industries can have it.
Your company business is to sell cars and I see why you are biased towards this article. There are plenty of jobs where people can work from home and there are others that do require on site presence.

We bought this dealer 6 months ago and when we buy, we keep the old name and observe if the store's numbers are OK. If the store's numbers are bad or if there is seething dissatisfaction, we immediately do the "under new management" thing with a full exorcism. If things are OK we can learn its dynamic and be more precise in our changes.

The previous owner just wanted to retire. Sales were OK. Customer satisfaction was middling.

Prior to COVID none of the work by sales and finance at any of our stores was done remotely. Employees physically came to work to do their jobs, aside from texting with customers. With COVID and sharply reduced sales we had to punt quickly and to their credit, our employees have been extremely honest in working from home during their contracted hours. We had no choice but to scramble and we knew there would be risks.

The idiot in the desert was physically doing the shenanigans from work not remotely, but then again who knows. She would put the information into an email to the insurance agent and we have that evidence because she used her work email.

Coincidentally, today we are shutting down at-home work and will not put that back into place until we (1) decide the extent to which we want to implement and (2) get laptops. Some of the board want laptops as "preparation" only with work done physically at the dealers except in times of emergency, while others want to do the "cool" thing. I side with the former.

We are also going to widen company cell phone deployment so that sales staff are using our phones universally.

Just after one day, our temporary management staff has uncovered a pattern of "fuck you" attitudes behind the scenes. We "outted" ourselves purposefully yesterday with this situation and detailed our corrective measures.

A mass email went to our customers for the past three years and letters will be sent through US Mail to follow up.

We were planning to begin remodeling of the dealer and letting it be known that the dealer had been taken over when COVID hit and our contractor got jobs to install sneeze barriers and we were OK with putting some lag into our plans.

We have two other dealers in the general area that we have not pulled management from, but we may need to do that going forward.

In a staff meeting, I personally fired two people for standing up for the person who was improperly giving customer information to a third party and had them escorted to their cars. The staff was stunned by our approach of zero tolerance for anything that is not above board which indicates we will have to fire more and hire better.

COVID-19 will have lasting effects on roads. Milan and Oakland and Vancouver are already planning to close some lanes and some roads to allow more space for bikes and pedestrians while preserving physical distancing. I can see this spreading to other big cities worldwide. Other nations are extending restaurant seating space into the street or public square. It will be different and we will all have to adapt.

And then when life goes back to full work, the socialist idiots will have worsened the traffic flow.

When Matt does not know what to say, he start calling people idots. He should look at himself in the mirror sometimes.

No, socialists are idiots.

Due to COVID a lot of companies are realizing they don't need to pay for all that brick and mortar space for employees. Going to really hurt the commercial real estate market especially office space.

From a security standpoint often your biggest risks are right under your nose.