Yes. I had decided to leave my job and start up a business with a friend and his wife. I took a fairly decent voluntary redundancy payment and was going to invest it in their artistic talents.
It was based on conceiving original designs and putting them on casual wear like t shirts, sweatshirts et al. It was essential to purchase the necessary screen printing equipment and using local street markets to market our wares in order to be more self sufficient and cost effective.
Of course on line potential was always in the picture but the competition is fierce and we wanted to build a more tactile live interest and build a profile from there.
She is a very talented commercial design type while he is much more a bit off the wall original concept artist who could transform ideas into templates. I myself have a plethora of ideas but not the talent to transform them. Also where I have decent business, marketing and accounting skills I am not adept with the computer tech side necessary for design.
Anyway a month before the pandemic started building up to meltdown levels I cashed in my chips as far as my employment went and was still working on the nuts and bolts of getting our business idea off the ground.
Fast forward a few months and it had all unraveled due to a perfect storm of problems caused by the Covid. (and throw in the Brexit bullshit) Fortunately I had not invested anywhere near serious money in the project and am actually doing alright off my savings and other small investments. Hardly King of the world but I can survive until I am eligible for my pension.
I can't say the same for my bro in law and my sister. They have since separated due in some way to the pressures of her working from home and him being put on reduced money while his job was mothballed. Subsequently they found themselves buried under a mountain of debt and a whole load of relationship strain as they were living on top of each other 24/7. By June this year they were separated and he is struggling on his own in a tiny bedsit barely making ends meet. My sister is saddled with the bulk of the debt and can barely afford the rent on her place. She is also on meds now to combat her depressed mental state. He is on meds because he is fighting alcohol and drug addiction ( something he had a handle on prior to the breakdown of his marriage and the world in general)
Neither of the are in good mental or physical health. Even though there were underlying problems I am certain that without the collateral damage of the pandemic the state of their univers would be far far better. My disappointment of the (perhaps temporal) crash and burn of an independent business pales compared to what has happened to my would be partners. Frustratingly although I have done what I can to help them financially I can only do so much as my own financial balance would be wobbling. The other thing is I haven't been able to even visit them or either of them me due to the lockdown restrictions.
At least I was able to give them a bit of a mental boost when I went down to visit them back in the summer then again before the latest lockdown back in early October ( we live in different cities not so far I distance but out of the allowable travel zone)
In addition I am in an acceptable bubble with my girlfriend but we are not allowed to fraternise in other people's households. (totally derailing our sex life as we were totally into an expansive sexual lifestyle relying on involvement of other guys, girls or couples)
We actually only see each other outside our homes and maintain social distancing because she has been a carer for an aged neighbour who only has a health pro visit him once a week or on call in emergencies. ( he has had to be admitted to hospital twice since November for non viral age related problems) Since he is in the higher risk category she is extra careful about her other contacts which includes me. She is also working from home due to the Covid situation and finds she is working and sleeping at irregular times as well as having to take care of her own domestic needs.
We don't visit each other's homes and see each other once or twice a week for an hour or 2 in an outdoor public space. We have a few drinks or eat a takeaway and listen to music on a portable radio. Our sex lives are alone with the help of imagination and aid of the net. (I spend a lot more time on LPSG and some porn sites and she does the same except she belongs to a different forum - she has occasionally "monitored-perused my LPSG life when she has been at my place and I have suggested she should sign up to it but although there is some obvious curiousity she is more of a hands on sort of gal when it comes to guys. (she has a definite preference to the better endowed by the way) She however spends more time sexting with other women about men or women. (she is bi but leans toward the male side especially if he has a big dick) I definetly do not tick that box but that is part of the reason why we enjoy bringing in other men into our bedroom.
I know I have strayed off piste from the pandemic work thing but it is all part of the big picture as to how it has derailed my and other people I know lifestyles and state of mind and body.
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