Thanks and best of luck to you too. For your jobs still open, have the subs been able to source material?

Good question. I do not know. I'm pretty sure the materials in my biggest CAD job are already ordered but I'm sure labour must be getting thin. Something I'll keep an eye out for sure.

Some contractors are using it as an excuse t get the cheapest non matching crap approved claiming "there is nothing else, supply chain disruptions" this makes submittal reviews a lot harder as we have to call factories and discover that they are open and ready to ship.

wishful thinking, it will not come back in July this year.

zero chance I believe that

are all those markets hurting for you, or is there a more narrow sector taking the hit? i wish you the best of luck

Thanks. It was b/c of a school client.

Chicago here too. Had a reduction of around 10% earlier this year, just had salaries cut 20%. Other firms in city are cutting by same/slightly higher percentage from what I’ve heard, but also some other firms are soldiering on ok.

Reduction of 10% of staff that is. 10% on top of the 20% cut that just happened would really blow.

The Firm I am at, Milhouse still has open positions and has not slowed down. Mostly engineering and drafting but we have tollway, IDOT maintenance yards and other utility work. Nothing glamorous but very steady work.

My understanding is that basically construction sites can still operate, they are not getting a mandatory shut down from the government. I can see the rational - workers are not necessarily in closed and close proximity to each other, they typically wear masks / full PPE so can ensure a certain amount of non direct contact, etc. The building I live in has been getting a masonry facade treatment for about a year now, and those workers are all still on site (they’ve even started working weekends since late February).

As of today only essential construction is now allowed to commence in NYC

how many in your office, and where are you located?

Metro detroit, 15 staff and 6 principals or pms, 21 total

I don't think that's possible (or legal). That's essentially wage-theft and I'm sure MI has some regulations on it.

agreed, threeohdoor. can anyone look into this further or does anyone have any further insight?

The option is take PTO or get laid off and paid the PTO as severance. I think if in that situation I would take PTO stay on the payroll and benefits.

Yea, I'm strongly considered bailing. Since I've been laid, I've seen an immediate rise in the "collect unemployment and get paid under the table" wink-winks. It's trashy (also incredibly illegal). Hearkens back to 2009ish. I predict a lot of "oh shit, I just received a 1099" threads next year. Pathetic industry once you get below a certain firm level.

This is not the norm, most firms will be OK some make decent money on repeat corporate or government work that is not going to stop all out. But if your firm only does high end restaurants then you are probably in trouble. Diversity of your portfolio of clients is good thing.

Agreed 100%

Agreed, sorry for the news

As in no more job, or work from home?

One lost, permanently or just got the time being? You’re in the GTA area right?

South West Ontario not GTA... permanent lay-off

Thanks for clarifying. Sorry to hear. T’is be the first Canadian example I’ve seen so far.

Damn, sorry to hear that OLA. I’ve got a lot of connections to the Golden Horseshoe area, trying to check in the last few days to see how people are doing.

very helpful.

It appears that some of the financial relief proposals being considered in the USA will monetarily assist businesses that agree to retain their employees and not lay them off. I hope this comes to pass in the next 1-2 weeks.

I really hope so to, thisisnotmyname.

The belief in the government being able to print enough money to cover all these losses is terrifying to me. We had a debt issue before this....

I'm expecting some kind of loan program. Architecture firms are too small and don't have the lobbying clout to get the free money.

There’s an article in the WPost saying there is strong congressional agreement that a small business loan program with very generous repay/forgiveness terms is workable. The logic being that if a ton of people file for unemployment it will cost the same or more than if a ton of people continue to work but get paid by a forgivable loan. Don’t think of it as *adding* to the debt, archi-dude. It’s putting the same amount of debt in a different account, is all.

the idea that government debt is a voting issue is terrifying to me

Way to rub it in our faces

he got a raise, so they can use that pretext to lay him off. loser.

only losers think that way. loser.

troll is bad at trolling

what you're failing to realize is that if you get terminated, you wont get paid out your deserved PTO. your 80 hrs of "future pto" is conversational - it's not on the books.

That is true, but you stay on the company benefits, and you postpone unemployment benefits which are time limited and not likely to be a 100% income replacement for the average salaries in our profession.

i heard ncarb was adding a sterilization surcharge for any records accessed this year

We've had a huge problem with slow paying clients since the middle of last year and so I didn't pay my 2020 AIA dues in January to conserve cash. I got an email last week saying they are giving me until sometime in April to get current.

I think my association moved dues deadline from march to june.

I believe the email stated if anyone's rolling clock is affected they are offering a 90-day grace period addition. But only for those that it directly applies to.

NCARB's Coronavirus updates page (https://www.ncarb.org/press/2020-coronavirus-update) indicates that all candidates will receive a 90-day rolling clock extension as appropriate. The FAQ clarifies that it will apply to everyone who's rolling clock is ticking, not just those who's would expire during the next 90-days. If you haven't passed an exam, your clock is not ticking.

I work in a structural engineering office part time, have no sick time and was told not to come in...so no pay...our billing has been slow since December

That sucks man.

started WFH today. system went live last thursday. some have been home since last friday, others are still in office today.

We're all still in the office except for one team member. The office says we can work from home but they prefer we come into the office because working from home isn't as productive due to distractions. I pointed out it's only less productive because we're not set up to work remotely so our personal computers are slow to use remote desktop. My input was not appreciated.

Been WFH since Wednesday. I'm plenty busy on this project but starting to get a little concerned about the lack of projects to jump on next month when this one is no longer a full-time commitment .

Same. Have two that in getting close to finishing up, then looks like slowness beyond that

G onna start WFH tomorow the province where i live legislated all non-essential business shut down.

This is my first full week of WFH. I've been pushing for that for awhile and had gotten nowhere. Changed pretty quickly when schools were closed and the chances of the full office showing up to work dropped pretty dramatically.

Not sure there is much of a productivity drop-off, but I'd def. prefer to be in the office for social reasons if nothing else.

Yeah I don't think productivity would go down as long as I had a computer system and remote access capabilities. Heck my wife works from home year round managing a part of huge company and she's really productive.

Started WFH one week ago. We have one person staying in the office to keep an eye on the place and get deliveries and mail.

I've been WFH for two weeks now. Today 3/23 is the start of week 3 for me.

I’m building 2 projects...working from home and on site outdoors half. Told owners to not come on site until were gone. Workers all wearing masks and gloves.

I’m a germaphobe so, been carrying alcohol soaked paper towels in a zip lock in my back pocket.

huge pet peeve of mine is when people say that architects can't work from home because our work is "so collaborative" or "so complex." Yet somehow many other industries can do it. I think this will be an eye-opening experience for many of the geezers who have been very resistant up until a week ago.

We outsource much of the work to consultants and others anyways. Our work is actually IDEAL for remote work. Been doing it for 8 different firms over almost 5 years. Come join me!

Now I'm doing it while running 1st grade and preschool homeschool. Just hire women if the men can't handle it. :)

Exactly. I'm not even an optimist, but I believe there's going to have to be a whole bunch of incentives for the healthcare and development/ construction industries to start employing people again once the dust settles.

Curious - in the GTA? Or surrounding towns ?

State of Michigan and New York... and they are both at large companies.

FTFY.

^ took me a minute.... pretty funny

Oh, Sneaky, LOL.

...

I can't believe I missed this earlier. Sneaky, you win the internet for whatever day you posted these.

Can someone write a Chrome extension to do this automatically?

Great, just what we need ... a bunch of firm owners forcing people to still come into the office because the governor said it was essential. I could see your work being essential if your office does critical infrastructure or healthcare projects, but even on those the majority of people can stay at home to complete that work on the design side.

Our province just closed all non-essential business effective today until april 13th. Construction still open but I don't think any offices are. At least not anymore.

NS my office is still open (in Toronto)

gwharton, this article doesn't mention architecture as an essential profession. The closest you could get is construction for essential public works.

It's the smaller firms that have been staying open, since most of them never invested anything in creating remote working infrastructure and have no way for their staff to work off-site. The larger firms all sent their staff to WFH weeks ago, about the same time Microsoft, Amazon, and Expedia closed their offices.

^ we're not small, by our city's standard size office, but not large enough to have a permanent WFH network but we scrambled at the last minute to get one up and running. Not sure how most are doing but traffic right now is slowing it to a crawl. I guess I'll go clear the dinning room table and mark-up these A0 drawings. Not sure if it's worth doing this tho, how am I going to get the corrections to the right staff? Eugh.

Using Bluebeam Studio to do markups virtually works pretty well. No paper involved, but still fairly fluid and intuitive.

I LOVE Bluebeam, and our medium-sized firm was able to pretty easily switch to WFH in part because of it and MS Teams.

I have been amazed at how well our mid-size firm has adapted. Our physical office still remains open for anyone that needs to use it (printing, meetings, etc). But nearly everyone is now WFH. Skype, MS Teams, and BlueBeam Studio Session for mark-ups is creating a fairly seamless work flow. I can't speak for the rest of my office, but my remodel/reno projects have all accelerated at owner's request now that the buildings are virtually empty.

Yes. And one downtown tower project I have in shoring and excavation right now is going to have their hole dug 6 weeks faster than scheduled because there is no traffic blocking truck trips anymore.

I am essential to getting some measurements for a project in CA, but delayed because permitting/inspections shut down, so the contractor isn't on site anymore.... I've gotta go to the site tomorrow for some measurements. The project you ask? Retail/restaurant rehab... yeah, you know those things that are closed due to Covid, but sure, it's really important to know if we've got 7' clear or not

To work from home our employer requires that we use our own computers that can run Revit. :(

Wow..... Make sure you write that off on your taxes later.

With the standard deduction that Trump implemented I can't.

You are not required to take the standard deduction. Go ahead and itemize away if it makes you feel better!

is your work paying for both an in-office and at-home revit license?

You mean the standard deduction that went from 6k to 12k? Not following.

Chad we are able to remote in, so I’m working ON my office desktop but using/through my home laptop. My home laptop dies not have Revit.

Trump and the GOP tax cut did away with the unreimbursed employee business expense deduction: https://www.hrblock.com/tax-center/filing/adjustments-and-deductions/unreimbursed-employee-expenses/ and https://www.irs.gov/publications/p529

If you were getting more than 6k in unreimbursed expenses and you didnt quit....

It was only a piece of the itemized deductions. So no, not 6k in unreimbursed expenses alone, but there were usually a few bones I could add to the pile.

The larger point is that these tax write offs that some people are claiming you can make don’t exist anymore for employee’s business expenses. Maybe if enough of us call our representatives they’ll add them back in the stimulus bill. Really hard to type that last part with a straight face, lol

Most of those deductions still exist, especially the home business ones. But there is a cap on how many of them you can claim now, depending. Go talk to a tax accountant instead of making random claims about it. Using your home and personal computer for work is not an "unreimbursed business expense."

Yes, you should talk to a tax professional ... but I'm not the one making random claims. I offer my claims with citations so they aren't random. You could follow suit and maybe we could get somewhere. For using your home for work see my comments in the other thread. 

Perhaps I assumed too much when Chad mentioned needing a home computer capable of running Revit. I assumed this meant he might be thinking of purchasing one, which if not reimbursed as a business expense from his employer, would have been perfectly placed as an "unreimbursed business expense" prior to the TCJA.

Ugh, I'm sorry... 

I'm also in southeastern PA and working contract-to-hire at a firm that does multi-family housing. The firm has hired a ton of us lately (I got hired 2 months ago, 1 person got hired a few weeks after me, there are 4 or so who where there before me)... most of us have had our hours/pay cut while the rest of the office who isn't contract-to-hire is still at full time. At this point I'm just waiting for further cuts for us contractors.

So...wouldn’t it be better, from an employer perspective, to hit this thing fast and hard. National 30 day shutdown then it’s over, rather than half ass prolonged shutdowns that will likely drag this out for several months.

Most companies could more easily handle a 30 day total freeze over a 18 month partial painful slooow down.

there is a fair chance there will be waves, where we go back to doing stuff, then someone starts spreading it again and we have to shut down again, rinse, repeat.

A 30 day total shutdown probably wouldn't work. And curt's right that until there is a reliable treatment regimen and vaccine, this is going to keep springing up in waves until enough people get it that we have herd immunity.

@curtkram - yes. loss of revenues. 

the question of developer work is, as mentioned, on a project by project basis. if your leasing strategy was for a hotel, you're not going forward. if it's for a majority retail, it could be iffy. 

overall, i'm not sure if a 30 day "shutdown" is as simple as we all take a break and then it's back to 100% again. there will be a lot of businesses hurt enormously by a 30 day shutdown. 

WOW! @gwharton and I agree on something?! Color me purple!

Not so fast, b3ta! I'm sure we can find a way to turn this into a bitter disagreement as well if we try!

You know what's cool? How medicine can facilitate herd immunity with vaccines. It doesn't even take 60% of the populace catching it! But this will require us not overwhelming the system charged with creating and administering it. So don't go swimming in the Senate pool just yet.

@gwharton, I'm sure if we work, at a minimal pace, we can MAGA - Make Archinect Great Again.

We will have the greatest threads on Archinect. Believe me!

Bigly!

*plays invisible accordion*

Heller Manus? I know some folks who work there. Hope they're ok.

well SneakyPete, they're not okay - 25% pay cut in any of the Top 5 major US cities gives you a spending budget of like $10-20 per day including weekends

yes as to them working overtime to place people before it turns. we've gotten so many calls...

"Are they trying to place someone asap and collect the talent fee before things get really bad?" ...probably. Recruiters are garbage. Middefolk siphoning off the fat of the system.

Loans. Not grants. Up to 1,540 per week, for 6 weeks, for each employee still on the payroll. I'm not sure how many employers will take that if they hear clients are parking projects for 4-6 months. Seems much more applicable to restaurants, retailers, etc.

Not seeing much for sole proprietors tho

nope. nothing.

Where is this mythical hiring firm?

The great white north. It regularly gets to -40 during the winter here, so it's not all rainbows and unicorns.

Our main developer in pharma and bio sciences shelved anything without funding today so it's already happening. Went from a backlog of about 100 million to zero...

Interesting - did they give a reason why (beyond the general economic fears)? It just seemed to me like that would be one of the market sectors in architecture that would want to ramp up.

That's what I was hoping but that sector is full of zombie companies operating on loans and investments. So investments dried up and poof!

Most of that is definitely restaurant workers.

Absolutely, I doubt there is a single waiter employed right now in the entire country.

gov here says they got (pinky finger up) 1million EI claims so far... and we're like 10% of your size.

ski resorts got hit hard, hotel workers, drivers, lift attendants, restaurants, gear shops.

Big box stores like Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, and Target are hiring in our areas for stock positions. They're having trouble keeping shelves stocked and needing extra staff to help unload and stock inventory. Hopefully some of those looking for positions can get temporary help at places like this.  Supposedly they're scheduling people so there are more shifts but fewer people each shift to help with the distancing.

anything hospitality and/or travel related is the bulk. then retail (depending on the type as noted).

I think airlines have not laid off flight staff and operations as they have to hold their routes or lose them to competitors.

If nothing else, this crisis has provided an opportunity for me to agree with Thayer. :)

Aw Sneaky that's sweet. We all have more alike than our differences.

As liberal as I am, Im going to advise myself and my kids to distance from the oppressive Chinese regime. Nothing against the chinese peoples or immigrants (who are themselves escaping from that regime)

If you're salaried and working 12 hours each day instead of 8 you're effectively taking a 33% cut in pay. If both you and a co-worker are doing it (total 8 hours a day extra), you've just taken away someone else's job. I know this is simplistic, but don't work for free. 

A little overtime is fine and normal, but don't consistently work that many uncompensated extra hours. If you're hourly and getting paid for it, go for it, but also don't overwork yourself. That many hours is not sustainable.

If it saves them a dollar you get laid off no matter how hard you work.

Rick, that's it - It' to cover the time to go to the store and get in line, VPN disconnects

code, Rick, that's understandable. 

Also, for those in a leadership or management position in your firm, consider that your email at 8pm might send the message to the employee receiving it that you expect them to be working that late too. They may not have the same distractions as you, or choose to manage their time differently, and can easily put in 8 hours before 5pm. 

Wording can make a big difference. "Please make these changes to the model..." can read differently at 8pm to the recent graduate than, "In the morning, please make these changes to the model..."