Training away from the office

sangie595 · 30 May 2017 at 9:10AM

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

Her normal commute shouldn't come into it. If the training centre is an hour away from the office, then with a 45 minute normal commute it could take her 1hr and 45 minutes to get from her house to the office if it is in the same direction, not 15. Or do they measure the distance from everyone's house to the training centre? They shouldn't. It's the distance from the normal place of work that matters.

This really doesn't make any sense at all. If they are doing that, and if that is what you asked for, then you asked for something ridiculous that is now backfiring on you.

Really not going to engage in this thread any longer as the OP wants an argument, not advice. But for others reading this - sorry, if I am reading you right, you are incorrect. It is actually very common in the public sector (can't comment on the private, but I'd suspect is also the case) that the distance is measured from home, not the office if that is where you set off from. The normal commute does come into it. If your normal commute is an hour and your journey to the training centre is 30 minsites, you don't get anything. It is the excess over and above what you normally commute that is usually counted. This is perfectly reasonable - it is the amount of time and money that is additional to what you would have to do if you had gone into the office. Anything more than that becomes a taxable benefit, and that introduces a wonderful whole new layer of payroll that nobody wants, trying to figure out when mirage is taxable and when it is not. The only way that your suggestion would operate is if someone did actually go to the office first, then the journey would be office to training centre.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser · 30 May 2017 at 9:31AM

I stand corrected on that then as I have never worked in the public sector. My experience has been that anything like this is always measured in terms of the office, as it's assumed that you do go to the office first. If you choose not to you are presumably doing so for your own convenience, and are not going to start complaining about getting home early.