Snow rant - An excuse for a day-off

ihatebt_2

Shame some people just saw it as an excuse to have days off. Even had work colleagues still off on the following Monday some 6 days after the snowfall. The main offenders in my company are the younger generation, none of them live in remote or rural areas.

Ok, Wednesday and Thursday last week were exceptionally bad and most people genuinely couldn't make it in. Abondoned cars everywhere, roads completely blocked, lack of gritters, etc. But by Friday, many roads were passable and many of us got back to work after a couple of days working (genuinely) from home. I was purposely sending emails to colleagues to test if they were working from home. 2-4 hours to reply proved they were not working from home. My boss was bcc'd in on each email I sent, and 2 people (complete p155 takers) have already been disciplined as a result, one of them now on a final warning as I also drove up his road to see what it was like. Ha ha. (For the record, these 2 people regularly let me down, and have caused large amounts of extra work for me, but that's another story).

My point here is, after 6 days of being at home, why haven't people shovelled the snow from their driveway and down their road, so they could get out onto the main roads. Is 6 days not enough to make an effort???? Or do people expect the council to clear the snow from their little cul-de-sac and even their garden path? Perhaps the council could even brush the snow of your windscreen whilst they're at it. :rolleyes:

I bet if every company in the country said "Not here, then no pay", you would see thousands of people clearing the streets and pavements with shovels.

Btw, many people are under the illusion that if you clear snow from the pavement and someone slips, they'll be suing you. This is an urban myth as stated by both the transport secretary in Parliament, and in the Lords a few days ago. They stated that people should make an effort to clear snow. That gives you indemnity from prosecution.

geri1965_2

What are you on about, indemnity from prosecution? Prosecution from who?

rachnbri

You must have been ever so productive working from home if you were sending spurious e-mails and driving up and down your colleagues roads! Harrassment anyone??

catflea

Define Younger Generation! I'm 25 do I count?

I was genuinely snowed in on Wednesday (snow above the bumper of my car on the drive, down our track, down the little road that goes onto the main road etc) But I've made it to work, on time, every day since (to put that in perspective, its a 70 mile commute) there are people who live less than 3 miles away who said they couldn't get in.

Same in the pre-christmas snow. Many people failed to attend, but I was in on time. BTW, this is even though the trains (my normal transport) weren't running.

My company works a scheme where if you dont attend due to snow you have to work it back. Not that that has any bearing on me - I hate owing time more than I hate owing money.

And btw, there will always be people who take the P wether it be a snow day or not. People who sit at work and play on their phone etc - its just more obvious when they are not in the building. Now, Lighten up and lets just get on with it eh? :beer:

wontfallforit

ihatebt wrote: »

I was purposely sending emails to colleagues to test if they were working from home. 2-4 hours to reply proved they were not working from home. My boss was bcc'd in on each email I sent, and 2 people (complete p155 takers) have already been disciplined as a result, one of them now on a final warning as I also drove up his road to see what it was like. Ha ha. (For the record, these 2 people regularly let me down, and have caused large amounts of extra work for me, but that's another story).

"How to lose friends and alienate people..."

piggeh

ihatebt wrote: »

I was purposely sending emails to colleagues to test if they were working from home. 2-4 hours to reply proved they were not working from home. My boss was bcc'd in on each email I sent, and 2 people (complete p155 takers) have already been disciplined as a result

Of course, not replying to an email immediately doesn't mean you weren't working. I guess they must also all have broadband at home to work for your company?

What did your email say? "please reply to this to let me know you're working?" If someone sent me that it would be immediately deleted

Lavendyr

ihatebt wrote: »

2-4 hours to reply proved they were not working from home.

Wow, that's some excellent 'proof' you have there. Perhaps they were too busy to reply to your spurious emails?

ihatebt wrote: »

My boss was bcc'd in on each email I sent, and 2 people (complete p155 takers) have already been disciplined as a result, one of them now on a final warning as I also drove up his road to see what it was like. Ha ha. (For the record, these 2 people regularly let me down, and have caused large amounts of extra work for me, but that's another story).

You sound like a very bitter person. I feel sorry for you.

Nixer

ihatebt wrote: »

My point here is, after 6 days of being at home, why haven't people shovelled the snow from their driveway and down their road, so they could get out onto the main roads. Is 6 days not enough to make an effort???? Or do people expect the council to clear the snow from their little cul-de-sac and even their garden path? Perhaps the council could even brush the snow of your windscreen whilst they're at it. :rolleyes:

Have you ever shovelled deep wet snow for more than twenty minutes? I have, I've spent about an hour and a half in total doing it this week. It's extremely tiring if you are a 5 foot 4 seven stone weakling like me.

I live up a track that is about 30 metres long. It's off a single track road that's three miles from the nearest main road. Once the road became passable to normal cars I dug my car out of the drift it was in at lunchtime and went in the next day, although driving down the track was hard work and it took me 15 minutes to get to the main road instead of 5 due to having to drive slowly because it was still very icy, and being single track you need extra thinking time in case you meet someone. A couple of days earlier we had heavy snow and a lot of people in the area tried to get to work and shouldn't have as there were loads of accidents.

Now I could have tried to go in during the times when it was too dangerous to drive and spent ages in jams or had an accident and been without my car and thus been off work for longer, or turned up at worked tired from digging my car out of drifts but I instead chose to work at home (with my employer's blessing) and did work from home, in fact doing overtime on one occasion as with the peace and quiet I didn't notice the time. You spent the time snooping on/harassing people that you don't even manage. Which of us was more productive?

DCFC79

I didnt want to take a day off last week but i had no choice, it was too icey to drive safely so i thought why bother, im not going to damage my car, i would have got the bus if there wasnt an accident on the bus route but i decided it wasnt worth it.

wontfallforit

DCFC79 wrote: »

I didnt want to take a day off last week but i had no choice, it was too icey to drive safely so i thought why bother, im not going to damage my car, i would have got the bus if there wasnt an accident on the bus route but i decided it wasnt worth it.

I think most people who made a genuine effort to attend work by some means are not at fault. And for those who didn't (which includes many of my colleagues), I don't particularly care. It's a "mark" on their employment record, not mine.

cool_pinkie

I think taking two days off for a weather event that was the worst in 30 years is not bad going! Most people had to take it as annual leave anyway so it's not liked they gained much by staying home.

Also i'd rather stay home than risk getting hurt for the sake of a day at work, they'd miss you more if you were on long term sick!