7 Day Writing Challenge Day 6 - The Difficult Events that Preceded the Covid 19 Lockdown by @stanleynnah

Good day everyone,

Welcome to the day six (6) of the seven (7) days writing challenge organised by @steemalive. For today, I will be writing on The Difficult Events that Preceded the Covid 19 Lockdown.

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Introduction

The covid 19 epidemic came with devastating changes all around the world. Such changes were in the areas of the economy, daily lifestyle routine, businesses, education and many other sectors of life.

Events that Preceded the Covid 19 Lockdown

The Covid 19 epidemic brought untold hardship on many individuals as many companies were involved in laying off of staff in order the cope with the economic meltdown. As at the time of heights of the pandemic, I was a staff of ISON BPO international located in Dugbe Ibadan what3words. Ison was a company with high number of personnel as we had roughly 600 staffs who were divided across three work shifts, which are the morning shift, the afternoon shift, and the night shift. The number of staffs ISON had therefore made the company a major area of focus with regards to a catastrophic situation which might occur if there is a case of covid 19 in such environment.

However, not too long, despite the fact that many of the covid 19 protocols such as provision of hand sanitizers, hand washing bowls were in place, one of the staffs was said to have tested positive to the virus, and the news thus sent panic across the whole organisation as everyone of us practically use the same staff bus with little or no spacing. Not too long, the government of Oyo State decided to shut down the whole building and all staffs were asked to submit themselves for compulsory covid 19 test, with a further process of fumigating the whole building, and implementation of covid 19 protocols before business can be returned to the vicinity.

ISON staff bus

This period was devastating period for every staff of the company as there was announcements both on radio and TV stations regarding the breakout of the virus at ISON BPO international. The repercussion this had for many staffs of the company was that it created a stereotype attitude towards the staffs of the company by members of the immediate environment. I still remember vividly that some of my neighbors stayed away from me for that particular period of time until I went for the test and the results returned negative. Most of my colleagues suffered worst, as most landlords and landladies gave most of the staffs of ISON staying in their apartments quit notice to leave the building. This is not to mention the fact that the job was on hold at the moment as the business premises was under keys by the government.

In addition, this period of time had many states closing its borders to avoid individuals from other states coming in, there was also a daily curfew in the state which was from 6pm to 6am. The spate of robbery issues in the state increased tremendously and houses in many streets were asked to donate individuals to stand on night watch in the street of which I got involved in too.

Low and behold, two to three months later, ISON BPO business environment was reopened, and in the first month resumption, more than half of the staffs of the company was retrenched due to massive economic impact the lockdown had on the company.

The company has however picked up it's pace again as staffs are being recruited to cover up for the retrenchment experienced during the period of the lockdown, and many other staffs have been asked to work from home to reduce the number of people at the office.

@stanleynnah working from home

Conclusion

It important that we recognise the fact that life can turnaround at any moment, and as such, it's good to save and invest for the unpredictable rainy days. Furthermore, I will like to appreciate the @steemalive community for organising this wonderful seven days writing contest and I am glad to be a part of it.

Thank you for reading through.

Cc
@steemalive
@focusnow
@charis20

Regards,
@stanleynnah