100% attendance for OcUK staff today

rypt said:
And it is the responsibility of the councils to keep the roads fit for purpose, and they haven't done that.
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I think they have done what they can within reason. We can all blame someone or something but as I said, it's the individuals choice to live distances from their workplace. I'm in this category.. I can walk the 3 miles to the railway station but if the trains aren't running then i'm stuffed and him been. For me it's get in or holiday. That's the choice I made when i decided to work in London. I made provisions this week to either sleep in the office or hotel if needed be.
 
Rich_L said:
I
I suppose on the 7/7 bombings people should have taken a holiday when they couldn't get into work too. Sheesh.
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That's far, far different from people using snow as an excuse. Somepeople can get it and chose to have the day off work (people have done that here). Somebody blowing the Underground up is not the same.
 
rypt said:
And it is the responsibility of the councils to keep the roads fit for purpose, and they haven't done that.
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Interesting you argue against blam culture when it comes to schools closing and yet use blame culture when it comes to employees getting to work.

The council has not once ever gritted our street and I've gotten to work fine. Helll I've even driven to work once or twice this week and getting off our street is like driving on an ice rink.

Council cannot grit everywhere.
 
It's good to hear everyone seems to be making it into work at the store, and without any major issues :)


rypt said:
And it is the responsibility of the councils to keep the roads fit for purpose, and they haven't done that.
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The councils have done a fairly good job, given this sort of weather is unusual, and the equipment/grit cost to buy, and store enough to do every road constantly is high (not to mention the grit is not much use in the really cold weather - iirc it's only effective down to about -6, we've been getting -7 to -20 in many areas).
There is also the minor matter of having enough staff to keep all the roads clear*, and in a number of cases no matter how much grit etc is put down they won't make a minor road safe (or a road on a hill), especially with some cars (and it only needs a few abandoned/crashed cars to really screw up many roads).
From what I've heard on the news they've used several thousands tons of grit a night at the moment, something along the lines of more than is mined in that time.

It's basically a compromise for the councils, spend a huge amount on equipment, storage, and staff training (and wages to then keep the now better qualified staff, who can move onto a better job), requiring an increase in the bill to the tax payers (or reduced services elsewhere), or plan for the normal expected conditions with some leeway, and prioritise when it comes down to unexpected conditions.

*The councils can't really keep dozens of spare HGV drivers on standby to drive the gritters for the few days a year when they would be needed (which is one of the reasons in a lot of areas the drivers of dustcarts also do the gritting when needed).
 
Admiral Huddy said:
Blimmy, can't a GM thank his staff publicly without an general inquest. QUOTE]


Yes, but when they insinuate that people who haven't made it in just haven't tried, then it does risk getting some people a little riled.

Personally I agree that some people will use any excuse to have a day off, but if you hire the right people and have the correct culture at your company then you'll have staff that put the effort in when they can. Its a two way thing.
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rypt said:
Snow causes no danger of death or serious injury.

And how do you kill yourself sledging, I've sledged down steep stuff in frozen ponds without any seriously injury ... how the hell do you kill yourself?
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Well, sadly it is possible. A 20 year old died over my local park yesterday sledging. Accidents happen.
 
rypt said:
So she killed her self by using a car roof, and going though a barbed wire fence and then being stopped by another fence that stopped her falling into a flowing river.

Which part of that can be covered by being killed while sledging sensibly? It's natural selection at work.
I guess the only reason I never killed my self was because I wasn't an inbred moron and only went down steep slopes and foot paths and into a steep banked but solidly frozen pond and not though fences and into flowing rivers.
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If I'd read this moronic post I wouldn't have replied previously. Dear me.
 
Like I said the other day. I couldn't get my car out of my car park at home, phone the office and said I would keep trying. When it turned out there was no chance of the car moving, I offered to walk in and wad told to stay at home for the rest of the day.
 
merlin said:
Getting into work is the employees responsibility, not the employers.
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Missed by many I feel...

alexthecheese said:
Surely you have to take everyone's location into consideration?
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Why should where a person lives be my problem, it is something I can not control. While I agree that where a person lives is nothing to do with my company, it does become a problem if it inhibits their ability to do a job for me. See the point above.

kgi said:
Low staff turnovers is what managers should be commented upon, not attendance. Attendance is artificial and could be happening for many reasons, beyond actual job satisfaction. Low turnover cannot be created artificially and is only based to actual job satisfaction.
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Turnover is often lowest in companies that are badly performing, it is a more artificial a metric than attendance. Managers should be judged on a number of metrics but it starts with performance and this shouldn't be forgotten.

This isn't a black and white issue of course, there needs to be pragmatism on all sides but it is a fact in my experience that MANY workers are lazy sods and will do everything they can to get out of work. It may not sit well with people but it is, in my experience a fact. The hard workers end up working harder because of the slackers around them and that too is unfair but if you let the slackers get away with it they WILL take more and more liberties.
 
Spie said:
As per yesterday, all OcUK staff have arrived safely to work. No accidents, no problems, no fuss and no big risks were taken. They just set off earlier. It just shows what can be done if you try.

This means that all your orders will be picked, packed and shipped.

Maybe the weather is worse in other parts of the UK but around OcUK HQ it's just the side roads that are icy. Fortunately none of our staff live in very remote areas.

I'd like to thank all OcUK staff for making an effort :)
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Threatening to send the mob around to break their legs if they don't get in to work acts as great motivation! :D
 
LordSplodge said:
Council cannot grit everywhere.
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Other countries beg to disagree, or at least they manage to plough and grit far more.
Many side roads to not require gritting, they require ploughing anyway, and the councils have made no attempt at this.

Werewolf said:
The councils have done a fairly good job, given this sort of weather is unusual, and the equipment/grit cost to buy, and store enough to do every road constantly is high (not to mention the grit is not much use in the really cold weather - iirc it's only effective down to about -6, we've been getting -7 to -20 in many areas).
There is also the minor matter of having enough staff to keep all the roads clear*, and in a number of cases no matter how much grit etc is put down they won't make a minor road safe (or a road on a hill), especially with some cars (and it only needs a few abandoned/crashed cars to really screw up many roads).
From what I've heard on the news they've used several thousands tons of grit a night at the moment, something along the lines of more than is mined in that time.

It's basically a compromise for the councils, spend a huge amount on equipment, storage, and staff training (and wages to then keep the now better qualified staff, who can move onto a better job), requiring an increase in the bill to the tax payers (or reduced services elsewhere), or plan for the normal expected conditions with some leeway, and prioritise when it comes down to unexpected conditions.

*The councils can't really keep dozens of spare HGV drivers on standby to drive the gritters for the few days a year when they would be needed (which is one of the reasons in a lot of areas the drivers of dustcarts also do the gritting when needed).
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Councils have done all they could?
Are you joking?

Oxford (as a city) has a total of 2 combined plough and gritters, with the wider county not having that many more. They have also basically run out of grit.

The fact that we have had a decade with relatively warm winters does not mean that all the cold winter provisions needed to be scaled back, in the 70s and 80s there were PLENTY of cold, snowy winters and the country managed to function much better due to the local authorities being far better prepared.

So councils have not done all they could, because they scaled back the amount of expenditure and equipment they had for these kinds of events due to there being a mild winter decade - believing it to continue as implied by the whole global warming mantra.

EDIT: Hell I personally remember '95, when there was about a week of snow in London in winter, and yet all the buses were running fine, cars were driving fine, shops were open, people were at work as the roads, even minor ones within London, were gritted and ploughed.
Last year, when the conditions in London were not that different from what I remember of '95, the city came to a standstill and there were few functioning buses.
 
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