The do I or don't I, go to work thread

Spie said:
Did I say I wanted people to risk their safety? No, I didn't.

What I am saying is that a number of people make little or no effort to get into work when weather conditions are bad. They look outside at their drive and give up. That's wrong.

People should get to work by any means possible including - walking, lifts, taxis, buses or trains. A lot of people don't even bother to consider these alternatives.

There is over 2 feet of snow where I live and there are some very steep hills. People park as close as possible to where they live but if that means leaving their cars at the bottom of hills they do so. They then walk the rest of the way. In the morning you see people with snow shovels just in case their cars are stuck. They make an effort and they all get to work.
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Taxis, buses and trains are out of the question when they're not running. Walking would take hours. I don't know anyone in the area who could give me a lift, because they're in the same position as me. I don't own a shovel, snow-shovel or otherwise. It's not that people aren't trying, they're trying and failing. Sometimes with disastrous consequences; I'd be very surprised if I don't read of at least one death in the news today because of people taking risks to get to work. Of course, I do appreciate that there are some who don't even try, and I agree that's wrong, but my gut feeling tells me they're in the minority.

On another note, I bet the people who have 4x4s and live in suburbs are feeling pretty smug right now. Finally, they have a day which justifies their purchase. :D
 
Spie said:
There's no such thing as "bullying" people to come to work.

People should turn up for work, by any means available to them. Unfortunately many don't even bother to try which is indicative of the poor attitude to work of many people in the UK.

I have personally experienced this a few times when a member of staff said it was impossible to get into work only to find that it was actually rather easy and they hadn't really tried at all.

Nobody is off at OcUK today due to the weather. Nobody risked their life - they just left a little earlier.
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I agree that people should turn up for work but you need to take in to account people who live in the sticks (like me) who physically can't get to work today. We have around 1.5ft of snow on the back lane (where my car is parked) and nearly 1ft on the other roads in my area, living on the middle of a rather large hill is also hindering progress. Please don't tell me I should have parked my car at the top/bottom of the hill as the top is 1.2 miles away (and in the totally wrong direction to work, with unpassable roads between there and the nearest main road) and the bottom is over 2 miles away, with another hill to get up the other side of the stream... which I'm imagining will be unpassable today.

Busses also have to go up/down the same hill so I can't take a bus and work is 27 miles away so I can't walk there. Short of sleeping at work I couldn't have got there today, fortunatly for me I work for an IT company and we are able to work remotely - I can do 95% of my job from home, the only thing I can't do is visit customers sites but remote support cures that problem.

If you had a member of staff in my position what would you have said/done? Do you have any provisions for remote working?

Craig
 
No doubt employers will be happy to pay overtime to all the poor workers who braved going into work yesterday and consequently spent the night on the A3 at Petersfield last night.
 
Jono8 said:
But doing that is still a big risk for their own safety and others if you ask me.
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What part? Shovelling snow? Walking up a snowy hill? Where's the 'big risk'?

I've never seen truly bad weather in this country, only bad coping. If you have a rear wheel drive car, get a taxi. I used to live in Germany and they seem to cope fine with weather five times worse than this. Likewise when driving up a mountain to go skiing in the French Alps, no problems at all (but then people want to go skiing, they don't want to work ;)).
 
Well our council ran out of grit a while ago, it snowed very heavily yesterday, froze overnight and my missus still got into work 18 miles away. Your all pussies. If a woman can do it then so can all you supposedly alpha males :D
 
Can't even get on the national rail website at the moment to look at what trains are running either :(
 
I had great fun hooning the van around in the snow on the country roads this morning.
Then my boss rang and told me not to bother, so I hooned around a bit more, got stuck in a snowdrift and came home after a dirty great quad pulled me out :D:D
 
Robbie G said:
What part? Shovelling snow? Walking up a snowy hill? Where's the 'big risk'?

I've never seen truly bad weather in this country, only bad coping. If you have a rear wheel drive car, get a taxi. I used to live in Germany and they seem to cope fine with weather five times worse than this. Likewise when driving up a mountain to go skiing in the French Alps, no problems at all (but then people want to go skiing, they don't want to work ;)).
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Believe it or not, the country does have different areas which do not always have exactly the same weather conditions :rolleyes:

Yes you were probably prepared for the french alps because you knew about the conditions and it is something the people have lived with since they were born.

Sorry all these people taking the **** about others not making the effort really gets to me. Go slide off in a ditch or something then well see who thinks its worth the risk.
 
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Snow wasn't too bad around here, I managed to get into work at normal time using public transport, but apparently no one north of me could get to the train station, the normally overcrowded train had about 10 people on it when it arrived, and very few people waiting to get on. Obviously some people didn't even try

nationalrail site has way too much traffic to handle as people are checking if the trains are running, been unusable since I woke up this morning
 
Robbie G said:
What part? Shovelling snow? Walking up a snowy hill? Where's the 'big risk'?

I've never seen truly bad weather in this country, only bad coping. If you have a rear wheel drive car, get a taxi. I used to live in Germany and they seem to cope fine with weather five times worse than this. Likewise when driving up a mountain to go skiing in the French Alps, no problems at all (but then people want to go skiing, they don't want to work ;)).
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Countries that get a lot of snow are good at coping with it shocker :rolleyes:
 
Robbie G said:
What part? Shovelling snow? Walking up a snowy hill? Where's the 'big risk'?

I've never seen truly bad weather in this country, only bad coping. If you have a rear wheel drive car, get a taxi. I used to live in Germany and they seem to cope fine with weather five times worse than this. Likewise when driving up a mountain to go skiing in the French Alps, no problems at all (but then people want to go skiing, they don't want to work ;)).
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Thats amazing that. People in the French Alps being more prepared for snow and all...:rolleyes:

In the south of this country we get snow normally for a few days of the year, so it would be silly to spend loads of money preparing for it. better to lose a few business days.
 
Jimmy1983 said:
A work collegue has said if we dont go in we have to take the day of as annual leave. :( Anyone anyone else in the same situation?
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Bloke on BBC news just said that usually employers can't force you to take snow days as annual leave if there's no public transport running. Didn't go into specifics however.
 
Im not sure if i'm going to go in or not mainly cos I fear trying to get home later tonight!

My way into work involves going down country roads which are crap at the best of times I doubt they will be cleared and by time I get out of work it would have no doubt started to freeze after snowing for the rest of the day!

There's no point in just saying "EVERYONE SHOULD GOTO WORK RA RA RA" lets be honest a lot of our roads are pretty damn awful! I have to navigate a silly amount of road abouts and even doing 2mph you start to slide as they are so damn tight in places.

There's also the fact that if you do turn up for work is there going to be anything there for you? We wait on deliveries and I doubt there will be many if anything at all! So what's the point in risking getting into work when there more than likely be nothing to do?

*edit*

and lol at robbieG of course people in the french alps are prepared for snow lololololol
 
Robbie G said:
What part? Shovelling snow? Walking up a snowy hill? Where's the 'big risk'?

I've never seen truly bad weather in this country, only bad coping. If you have a rear wheel drive car, get a taxi. I used to live in Germany and they seem to cope fine with weather five times worse than this. Likewise when driving up a mountain to go skiing in the French Alps, no problems at all (but then people want to go skiing, they don't want to work ;)).
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Yeah a 50 mile taxi, that would be worth going to work for. Sometimes it's just not worth the effort. The lads I know that commuted from here to luton that work for another airline tried it, drove to the A505 which was then shut because of a huge accident. They travelled half way to work, got stuck on the 505 and then waited for the police to open up the road to turn them back.

It took them from 6am until 5pm to get halfway to work and then home again.

Sometimes It just isn't worth the effort. I'd rather take that unpaid tbh.

Not everyone lives in the same cicumstances where they can leave the car and walk to work.
 
Kona* said:
I agree that people should turn up for work but you need to take in to account people who live in the sticks (like me) who physically can't get to work today. We have around 1.5ft of snow on the back lane (where my car is parked) and nearly 1ft on the other roads in my area, living on the middle of a rather large hill is also hindering progress. Please don't tell me I should have parked my car at the top/bottom of the hill as the top is 1.2 miles away (and in the totally wrong direction to work, with unpassable roads between there and the nearest main road) and the bottom is over 2 miles away, with another hill to get up the other side of the stream... which I'm imagining will be unpassable today.

Busses also have to go up/down the same hill so I can't take a bus and work is 27 miles away so I can't walk there. Short of sleeping at work I couldn't have got there today, fortunatly for me I work for an IT company and we are able to work remotely - I can do 95% of my job from home, the only thing I can't do is visit customers sites but remote support cures that problem.

If you had a member of staff in my position what would you have said/done? Do you have any provisions for remote working?

Craig
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I have always said people should get in to work by any means possible. Clearly in your case there is no possible way of getting in.

This is not the case for a large number of others who make little or no effort to get in if they cannot use their car.
 
I got to work about 5 minutes later than normal. But then we did leave 10 minutes later than normal. Empty main roads, well gritted and hassle free. Bit disappointed, I wanted to ring in and say 'Snow day'. Stupid council keeping the roads clear.
 
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