Celebrities during the pandemic: a gravedigger, a courier or a bus driver

A big change compared to the previous years are remote work offers, which becomes the trend in more and more companies. This term refers to the demand of companies for employees who would permanently work from home without going to the office. The applicants, on the other hand, are showing the greatest interest is in administrative job positions. As a rule, if a company publishes an offer in this sector, an average of about 50 people will respond to it.

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“Job offers for maids, receptionists and other hotel staff have almost completely disappeared. We also do not register job offers for waiters, nor offers in services such as a hairdresser, make-up artist or designer. Moreover, we have noticed a decline in professions typical for organizing social events, i.e. hostesses, event marketers and many other positions,"

Nikola Richterová, PR manager of the Profesia.sk portal, said for LP-Life.com.

Actors and singers have been out of work, and therefore without income, for almost a year. But bills still have to be paid. Many of them, therefore, had to find an alternative source of income. Who ended up where?

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Peter Bažík as a courier

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Slovak musician Peter Bažík is currently earning some extra money as a courier for a pet store. Since celebrities also have to eat, he decided to try a different job than music. He followed his childhood dream and started working in a pet supply store because he has loved animals since he was a child.

"I like to make people happy and I like to meet new people, which this work has enabled me to do. Shortly afterwards, the company also started a delivery service, so they offered me a job as a courier, "

said the Orava native.

"I was happy to accept it, because driving a car is one of the activities I enjoy. But I haven’t stopped singing and composing music. I keep working on new projects and I believe that once the pandemic is over, I will be able to fully return to creating beautiful experiences and emotions on stage, "

said Peter.

Diana Mórová as a medical worker

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Slovak actress Diana Mórová, known for example as a jury member in the TV show Česko Slovensko má talent, where she was very popular with the audience, also fulfilled her childhood dream. At a time when acting opportunities aren’t pouring in, she decided to help others. In addition to taking care of the household and spending a lot of time with her son, she also helps in the hospital in Kramáry, Bratislava, as a medical worker.

"I help in a hospital. My friend is a paediatrician, and when I have time off, I help her during the week. She has an outpatient clinic for small children, who come there for regular check-ups or as patients. I enter the results of blood tests in the patient's card, or when the children come for a check-up I record their weight and height, I measure their pressure, I write everything down. I help her mainly because she has more work than she can handle. I really enjoy it, because I also wanted to be a doctor,"

said Mórová.

Other Slovak celebrities also joined the ranks of first-line workers and helped with testing - among them singer Juraj Bača, singer Dominika Stará, tennis player Dominika Cibulková or internet comedian Fero Joke.

Tomáš Novotný as a gravedigger

The theatre was closed, and so he retrained as a gravedigger.

"I decided not to sit at home and took a retraining course as a gravedigger. I know some may find it strange, but I don't take it that way. It's a job like any other."

Tomáš isn’t afraid of physical work. According to his words, the work of a gravedigger is not just about digging graves.

"There's a lot of theoretical knowledge that I had to learn, pass a test and then demonstrate it,"

he said, adding that next to the basic safety rules, a gravedigger has to know the rules and procedures of the mourning ceremony and burial of bodies or the size of graves and tombs.

"So if we could never get back on stage, I wouldn't mind being a cemetery manager,"

he explained.

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Bára Basiková as a side job hunter

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Bára Basiková took any side job she could get during the pandemic. She worked at the post office, in a pharmacy, in a home for the elderly, where she handed out food or made the beds.

"I usually found those side jobs through friends. I never thought I could lose my job, but it happened. But one has to make a living somehow, "

Bára told us.

Václav Kopta as a public transport driver

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As a child, he longed to drive a bus. Now his dream has come true - he has become a Prague public transport driver on a line in the Dejvice area.

"I really enjoy it and it makes me happy. Even in this not-so-happy time, I feel that my life has a meaning. I'm not just sitting on my ass at home, watching pigeons fly outside my window. It took me several months to pass all the medical exams, psychological tests and get all the necessary permits. Now I can say with a clear conscience that it was worth it,"

said the actor.

Everyone is sewing face masks

All fashion brands, including the luxury ones, delved head-first into sewing face masks during the pandemic. World-famous brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Zara, Dior and Prada have all included this product in their offer. Influencer Zuzana Plačková or singer Lucie Bílá, who is a trained seamstress, have also been sewing face masks.

A huge number of couriers was needed during the pandemic, e-shops could barely handle all the orders

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DPD

DPD's turnover increased by 42 percent in 2020 compared to 2019. Due to the fact that the company hadn’t had time to prepare for the increase in demand during the pandemic, taxi drivers have been helping out its couriers. The record fell in November 2020, when the company delivered 13.9 million packages worldwide. More than 20,000 new employees have been hired.

PPL

At PPL, the enormous number of shipments also required extra hands. Within three weeks, the company had to increase the number of couriers from 1,300 to 1,600 - an unprecedented increase.

Alza

Thanks to a significant increase in orders, Alza's turnover was much higher as well - by hundreds of percent.

"The closure of part of the stone shops and the restriction of public life in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic had a significant effect on the shopping behaviour of customers. Czechs and Slovaks are intensively moving to the online environment and choosing e-shops as a safer variant of shopping - the year-on-year turnover increased by more than 70% in both countries, by more than 100% in Hungary, and by over 300% in Austria,"

said Kateřina Daňková from Alza’s PR department.

Amazon

While others are struggling for bare survival, Amazon has earned more during the pandemic than it did before Christmas. The company has sold more than $ 50 billion in merchandise. Even before Covid, Amazon was one of the largest companies in the world, but recently it has been hiring new employees at a speed unparalleled in the company's history. However, this giant is struggling with record demand, so its customers have had to get used to longer delivery times and problems with placing orders on Amazon's overloaded website.

Due to the overwhelming number of online orders, shortcomings in the logistics and supply chain became apparent. While in the past Amazon used to hire around 1,500 workers a day, during the pandemic the number went up to 2,800. Such massive recruitment is completely unprecedented in the history of private companies, not only in the United States.

“Historians and labour economists say the closest equivalent is the hiring of entire industries carried out in wartime, such as shipbuilding in the early World War II, or the construction of houses after the soldiers returned,"

reported the New York Times.

Amazon's total revenue went up to $ 88.9 billion, well above the forecast, which projected $ 81.6 billion. At the global level, however, tensions between Amazon's management and its warehouse staff are growing. The employees claim that the company didn’t do enough to protect them from the coronavirus. Nearly 20,000 Amazon employees in the United States have tested positive for Covid-19 or are thought to have been infected. The company defends itself, claiming that the rate of infection of its employees is well below the level of the general US population.

You won't find a bike other than Kellys in Seychelles

Kellys has made the most out of the pandemic. This is evidenced by profit, which increased by up to 237 percent to 3.1 million euros and sales, which went up by 39 percent to almost 45 million euros (1.2 billion CZK). This is a massive shift compared to 2019, when the company's sales reached 32 million euros. Within two months into the pandemic, they sold out their bikes all around the world.

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"If you approach us today asking for a certain type of bike, we'll tell you it will be ready in more than two years,"

claims Michal Divinec, director of Kellys.

This means that if you order a bike now, it is possible that you won’t receive it until 2023. Allegedly, it’s caused by the fact that component manufacturers are behind with production.

Some artists were earning money even during the pandemic

During the pandemic, some artists try to bypass the restrictions on cultural production by launching online performances. While some were charitable and gave concerts for free, others weren’t so eager to perform without royalties.

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While singers Miro Žbirka, Peter Nagy or Robo Opatovský performed for free, Rytmus (CZK 77.58 for online access) or Marián Čekovský (CZK 51.63 for online access) demanded money for their production.

"The difference between these concerts is that I will have a light and visual show in full swing in the best club in Slovakia. It will be shot by 5 cameras, all quality and technology included, "

said the rapper.

Majk Spirit prepared a similar show, but his was free of charge.

Hotels, restaurants and tourist resorts are not doing well at all, they’re waiting for measures to be released

Tourism, gastronomy and hotel resorts have experienced the worst quarter in history. Catering facilities are currently still closed, they can only operate in a limited mode (food delivery).

According to the Slovak Tourism Association, losses caused by the coronavirus crisis in this sector will reach up to half a billion euros. The president of the union, Marek Harbuľák, believes this can result in the loss of up to 68,000 out of a total of 160,000 jobs in tourism.

"If we can't open in the summer months, the vast majority of businesses won't survive,"

said Harbuľák.

What will be the impact of the crisis on startups?

Young innovative companies have been affected by the pandemic differently depending on the sector in which they operate. The revenues of some companies, such as Zoom, have risen radically. However, for many startups, the pandemic has complicated the situation, especially if their pilot projects were related to sectors that were hit the hardest. A great number of projects are being cancelled or postponed. During the pandemic, over 20 percent of new startups were founded in the healthcare sector. This trend is unparalleled in any other industry. This includes, for example, the Velmio startup, originally focused on pregnancy counselling, which developed a Covid-19 contact tracking application used in Estonia and Australia.

Bankruptcies caused by the pandemic

Flybe Airlines

Flybe, one of Britain's largest airlines, went bankrupt due to the pandemic. Forced administration was imposed on the company. Four senior employees of the consulting company EY became the new managers. The airlines based in Exeter in the southwest of England have faced long-term financial problems due to low demand and tough competition. These were exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, they joined the Connect Airways consortium, led by British airline Virgin Atlantic, but failed to recover.

Aurum Jewelry

Aurum Jewelry also went out of business due to unfavourable financial situation.

The established clothing brands Kara and Pietro Filipi have ended their activity as well.

Sometimes, changes in our lives are a positive thing. Many celebrities have proven that although they’re not overly excited to go to work like ordinary people, one has to pay their bills somehow and needs to accept what life has to offer. Let’s wait and see where fate will take them…