Coronavirus Responses & Impacts Bioeconomy Survey Results – March 2020

Notes

Morale has changed, no doubt about it — 80-90 percent have shifted downwards in their attitude. Personal impacts have worried staff with families and operations staff.  Company impact is more on the mind of top management, middle management, customers and suppliers.

Now here’s an interesting thing. Overall, companies report very low levels of panic “around here” which is to say in their local circle of colleagues, suppliers and customers. The panic, they feel, is “out there”. 39 percent of the local community is in panic mode, but an average of only 8 percent at “our house”

Reader comments were personal and illuminative. Especially we were drawn to the comment that younger workers feel more isolated, living alone, and are more impacted in morale by lockdowns.

Comments from readers

• EVERYBODY IS PANICKING ABOUT THE VIRUS
• panic buying and resulting in low or no store supplies of critical items
• What’s the difference between Suppliers and Outside suppliers?
• Daily life in Europe impacted a lot. UK lagging behind. The US is about to be hit big time
• I have noticed a distinct difference by the age of my workers Younger ones are definitely struggling more. They are very scared and feeling isolated since many of them don’t live with people they are close to. Also, we have seen sales reps/etc laid off at our vendors. Some of them even emailing us from personal gmail accounts to let us know.
• Panic buying and resulting in low or no store supplies of critical items