My wife is responsible for the finances of a nearby business that is in fact ten separate registered companies including three trust funds, a wedding venue with accommodation, an estate-owned organic farm with a new herd of cows, sub-let farming land, many estate properties let to employees and other tenants and a canal-side marina.
There are about 50 employees, full-time, part-time or hourly contract. Many of the charges for the employees and other assets are cross-charged between the ten separate organisations.
Having almost finalised the annual budgets and started to prepare tax returns, she is now required to analyse and re-forecast following every new government measure announced, and these are arriving several times a day.
She is working from home, and yesterday spent the best part of thirteen hours at the computer, starting at 03:30 to get figures prepared for a virtual meeting at 09:30, and interspersed with a visit to the stable yard to feed and care for the two horses for which she is responsible in her “spare time”. She finally finished work at around 19:00, had dinner and fell asleep on the sofa.
Most of the previous day was spent re-calculating and running the payroll after the “furlough” situation for many of the employees.
This morning she was up again at around 04:30 to carry on. Working from home is not an easy option!
When I worked from home I used to start around 07:00 when my wife left for work and finish around 18:30 when she got home, but it was nothing like her stressful workload at the moment.
However, unlike many British workers, she does at least know that her wages will be paid in full and she is unlikely to be laid off.
General Whiskers' semi-historical wanderings 