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Yep went in this morning to find the whole office sat on their arses because the Severe Weather Tool has been used and its deemed unsafe. So Posties go out delivering on foot in the town centre and thats it!!!! whilst we are passed by all the other courier companies driving vans as normal. Thing is tomorrow with a huge workload we will go out on compacted ice is bloody safer today to deliver than tomorrow. I apologise any Staveley residents on here
Why would i be unhappy if i were sent home ? I'm going in about 30 mins... as always, i'll be ecstatic 🙂
The palm tree outside my office in fluttering gently in the breeze with the sun reflecting off the leaves.
Damn, when will the snow hit Hampshire so I can send my staff home ?
we have floods here .... i had a treacherous walk across the yard this morning from my accommodation block.
Most of our engineers didnt make it in till lunch (on the company bus)
Didn't even bother going in. Working from home today (after an hour sledging with the kids of course).
Couldn't make it into work on an office-bound job last time this happened in the Southeast in 2009 and I was still living in England.
Manager told me to stay at home and keep warm.
Went for a terrific snowy hill walk around Norbury Park, Mickleham and Box Hill including a pub lunch.
Happy days.
In today (Farnham); although roads were a little icy first thing it's quite nice now, and looks like plenty of people didn't go to work as roads were relatively traffic free.
But we're supposed to get it properly tonight / tomorrow / Friday so will be taking stuff home with me and not doing anything daft tomorrow if it is bad, and have instructed my staff to do the same.
I can't get the ****ing northern subby lift engineers to **** off so I'm still stuck on site. However the bike is in the van so if I get stuck it'll be pedals time...
postierich - was the weather so bad you would you have had to put trousers on??
And get yourself some yaktrax for walking on the compacted snow/ice. I have a spare set I could post you. Oh wait....
We've just been told to work from home tomorrow (just south of Reading) so you can guarantee a snow free day in that part of the world.
Which Staveley?
Been sent home = good (skis out when home) .
Bus crawling at 1mph = bad.
Should have mtb'd.
'working' from home today but tempted to go and meet Mrs OTS off the train on my fatbike.
Mmmmm
@Onzadog - Postierich is in the Lake District, so not the chesterfield Staveley that you are thinking of
The only reason i would be unhappy about being sent home would be if it meant i wasn't being paid. A salaried job means this is unlikely.
So no, I managed to make it into London today from surrey suburbia and will no doubt make it home again this evening about 15 minutes later than usual.
I’ve sent myself home and I’m very happy about it 🙂 I left Glasgow last night, and was in Durham the day before. So both times just kept ahead of the snow. I’m due somewhere else tomorrow but that just got canned so it’s three days at home for me. First time in about six weeks I’ve not been travelling or away most days.
I may organise an off-site meeting with my fellow director. Which means Wifey and I going to the nearest pub with a log fire and a proper pie menu 🙂
The managers have all gone into a meeting and I reckon they'll come out saying you can go home if you like, holiday, flexi or work the hours back. There's no way they'll let us off with the hours. Crossing fingers though.
Very happy that my flight home last night wasn't delayed any further, or I would be stuck in Stansted around now.
OTOH, its now snowing enough that the idea of cracking out the CX bike doesn't actually look like so much fun any more
Most of our place didn't come in. Snow too bad, roads dangerous, yada yada yada.
I'm paid to work and do a job, so went in. Was great having nobody around managed to get loads done without others under my feet.
I fortunately only work part time, so home now and going out to enjoy the snow and feel good about myself having got so much done!!!
Mate has just been lifted off the rig he was on in the North Sea as it was frozen solid.
My guys haven’t been in all week. Just too cold to be out on a rope at 150m attempting to apply render & then paint.
I’ve kicked the arse out of any office work I can do but have sacked it for the day now to take the dog to the pub.
All the slackers went at lunchtime. Pfft.
Snowmageddon my RRRs
its glorious in Farnborough but everyone is saying they're not coming in tomorrow... my dilemma is that i need to drive home to the north west, so do i leave tonight and assume tomorrow is a snow day or wait and see, then potentially have a treacherous journey back...
Is the answer that Boris went home early and the grown ups aren't happy about it?
my dilemma is that i need to drive home to the north west, so do i leave tonight and assume tomorrow is a snow day
what do you need to be in the NW for, and would you sack it off and stay down until the weekend if it turns out to be 'impossible' to travel tomorrow or would you be compelled to risk travelling anyway?
Signage of the week: just spotted on the BBC news, illuminated sign on a main road, telling the traffic -
"AVOID ROAD TRAVEL"
what do you need to be in the NW for, and would you sack it off and stay down until the weekend if it turns out to be ‘impossible’ to travel tomorrow or would you be compelled to risk travelling anyway?
NW is home. Much rather be up there the extra day than stuck down here!!
'much rather' isn't the same as must though. I know what you mean, it's a PITA but it's also a balance of risk thing. If your wife was in imminent labour, you'd probably drive anyway, or more sensibly go home now in case. But if it's the choice between possibly being stuck in the south until Saturday and what could be a risky drive 'just' so you can be where you'd prefer to be - possibly not worth it.
Sounds to me like you should either go now, or accept there's a fair to middling chance that you won't be home until the weekend and make your choice on that.
Sent myself home after getting from wakefield to harrogate and finding harrogate subby had binned it, got home tried a ride but gave up before end of road in blizzard. possibly same again tomorrow fingers crossed...salaried and living the dream
Office is in the garden so the commute was snowy but short.
in a display of uncommon common sense, my wife, a nurse, has swapped Dr’s Practices tomorrow with the nurse who works where we live, and lives where the wife works.
Today was always going to be a WFH day - What was a pleasant suuprise was being told the VPN was maxxed out preventing front line staff in getting access to deal with emergencies. As a result we were told to "log off if you can" - well yes, I think that should be manageable...
Just been called and advised to leave home early for work tonight (6pm) as there is a red weather warning in place.
We never get sent home and I have been in Royal Mail since 1980 even when back in the 1983 when there was loads of snow on the ground in Cheltenham in Gloucestershire and it was -10 at Lunchtime we had to push our bikes out to the rounds which took ages least now we all have vans the managers down here have now got some bottle at last and call a stop to it for a few days which they never did and have done twice already this winter and in my case they don't send me out in the Cotswold hill towns collecting mail till it clams down still work in the town though and have never been sent home.
... aaaaand breathe.
Not today, but tomorrow - the forecast is so bad that my smallest Kid's school has decided to close, it seems really odd given this is the current view from my office window!
Still, it'll likely just be a Daddy Daughter Snow Day as they'll send out Mountain Rescue or the Police to help my Wife get to work if needed and the High School is, for the moment, staying open.
I think we'll do some baking, make a den and maybe fit some brake pads to my bike.
Yea, I don't get it. Wife's been a postie since October. In the last bout of snow in Glos they decided on the morning it lay, that it wasn't safe to deliver (fresh snow), but the day after it was deemed safe to deliver on pathways covered in compacted ice. You have to wonder if it's more to do with reducing risk to the van than the person.
The RM snow/ice policy often loves to let posties make the call and then lay the blame hard on the postie if anything happens to them and/or their vehicle. If in doubt, make the call yourself and don't travel anywhere that looks risky. We were told today that there was a real possibility of management not letting Southampton depots deliver tomorrow and maybe even Friday too, depending upon what happens overnight tonight... It's already -4C, feels like -12C in Midanbury! 😮
I never get sent home from work .
I'vespent all day ploughing and shoveling snow , essential works too so even though we have a red warning and no matter how bad it gets I have to try and get in 🙁 .
Our site has to stay clear because when something like this happens, it's where it gets controlled from.
We have to go in to work. Policy is that up to 4 miles ( IIRC) we are expected to walk no matter the conditions and as I live locally I am on alert to be called in if others don't make it even tho tomorrow is my day off
Wife’s work (QA Hospital in Portsmouth) just sent a text saying they should take overnight stuff with them if on shift tomorrow & that lack of child care if schools close is not an excuse to be off...
Never sent home. Over an hour to do the last mile home then had to stop and jump out and dig a neighbour onto his drive as he was blocking the road. Other neighbour in car behind just sat there for 10 minutes whilst we ran round getting shovels and grit.
A colleague of mine a good few years ago was working in small rural hospital up north. They got snowed in and she worked 7 days straight 24/7 as the only registerd nurse in the place. No replacements could get there. Mind you she ended up with over a months salery for the week as it was 40 hrs normal rate, 40 hrs double time and the rest triple time
Wife’s work (QA Hospital in Portsmouth) just sent a text saying they should take overnight stuff with them if on shift tomorrow & that lack of child care if schools close is not an excuse to be off…
Pretty sure it is an excuse. It’s a brave or very ignorant manager that puts something like that into writing.
I gave my lot the day off . What is the point in them risking coming in to work in their MVP ( car ) only to be sent home 2 1/2hrs later as its lobbing it down risking their MVP again?
I will be travelling in at some point. I was trying to type an email today and it was a heady 1.2'C at my desk .
The girls in the office however seem to think the room has to be 24'C so they can wear summer blouses and moan about the cold wind .. go figure
Flaperon - its not really. these are essential workers so its not OK to say you have to stay home with your kids unless there really is no option.
I'm a postie in Leeds, we got sent out and the (not) well maintained van decided its battery didn't have enough juice to get things going again after the first loop. It took the manager an hour to get a van out to us so we took nearly a full duty back.
@fossy thought they had to let you have time off for childcare, god bless the NHS! Or leave them on their own until social services get involved FFS.
https://www.gov.uk/time-off-for-dependants
I've found myself in the unenviable position of managing a team of 19 field technicians this quarter...for the first time in my life I've found myself looking out the window each morning and hoping the snow isn't too bad 🙁 Takes all the fun out of it!
Clear now but forecast to be bad all day, and I've just seen a 02:30 email from a guy saying he is still out on an emergency call so he will be in late tomorrow.
So I've just reorganised the days work in my head and in the morning I'll have to change the guys around to keep them on local work otherwise they'll all get to site and by 10am we'll all be worrying about how to get home and the day will be a washout!
Poor sods the lot of them, puts it into perspective when your wife complains how hardly any of her colleagues got into the office whilst my team spend most of their time in the street! So far this week my team have had 0 snow days, just a few late starts and one gentle poke in the ribs from someone trying it on!
Our predicament isn't work related, we're meant to be going down to the Gower for a weekend away, but not sure whether to risk the normally three hour journey with the forecast the way it is.
It’s not too bad in the Midlands, but I’ve booked today off. 45mph winds means it’s too bad to ride, the trains are unreliable and there’s enough snow that the busses won’t work properly.
Going to see what happens with the kids school and either go sledging with them or to the pub with the Mrs.
Ive booked tomorrow off too, but I’ll decide on that in the morning. I think it’ll still be too snowy for the bike though, last night was a bit iffy.
My postie is still wearing shorts. Nutter.
Well if you get to Gower you probably won't find any snow. We stick out into the sea watching everyone else enjoy the snow waiting in vain for it to get to us...
My postie is still wearing shorts. Nutter.
sounds like we have the same postman!
I have been told my office is shut today so I am to work from home. Its a 20minute walk.
However, it looks like I will be spending the first part of my morning cleaning up cat crap, as they have messed in the hall a foot away from the provided litter tray. Joy.
My other half has just set off to work in full on winter mountaineering kit! 2 1/2 mile walk to work as no buses running here in Edinburgh.
We're blocked in apparently. Our neighbour rang to say that the top of the lane was drifted in, he'd get the snow plough out later to see if he could clear it. (Yes, he really does have a snow plough, it's an attachment for his mini-tractor) The last time the lane drifted in, it took three hours to clear it. Might be a day at home.
TJ,
Sounds familiar, I walked home near Edinburgh in yesterdays blizzard.
This morning I skied 5 miles into work !!, the few others who made it in are amazed.
sounds like we have the same postman!
Same as us in Boroughbridge then!
I phoned work at 06.30 this morning to see if my minibus run was still on. 'Boss' says, 'well...your'e supposed to make the effort to get here (15 miles) then if we don't need you we'll send you home'
Now I know there'll be at least 3 spare drivers up there, who all live within 3 miles of the depot, (because the schools they normally do are closed)
So no, I'm not coming in.
It's belting down now here in Cardiff, the forecast has improved if anything, but they've upgraded the warning to red.
Still, first day of Spring today!
I'm going in. Unfortunately I can't bring bikes home to repair! I had a great ride in the snow yesterday and the ride in is all downhill! Happy days!
It’s an interesting one, TJ. But ultimately if staff can’t make alternative arrangements, which is quite likely given snow affects everyone, what are they supposed to do with their kids? Bring them to work?
Yep, currently sat in Stepps Premier Inn as the Cumbernauld factory I've been servicing this week is shut. I've sent the French engineer back, but I doubt he'll get an earlier flight from Glasgow and its not looking like I will either.
There's not even a Corby trouser press to fiddle with!
Started snowing in parts of Norfolk on Mon morning, i gave myself the week off 🙂
TJ, then provide them with childcare and 4x4 shuttle services instead of forcing them to choose between a disciplinary or social services and asking them to walk 4 miles in blizzard conditions, a lot of people are idiots and will give themselves hypothermia.
My other half has just set off to work in full on winter mountaineering kit! 2 1/2 mile walk to work as no buses running here in Edinburgh.
Well, I don't know why but i came in...... only to find the building brassic. Boiler condensate pipe has frozen so first 90 mins has been dismantling that to clear the blockage, trip to Travis P to get some pipe lagging, finding it nearly impossible already to get up the hill out of the car park, and finally at my desk. Will be going home again after a 1030-1100 call i think.
Rayban - and what about the sick people we are looking after?
the reason for the kids off school is no excuse is as it has been used in the past. Daddy goes to work, mummy stays home with the kids. Daddys job is non essential but mommy's is. But mummy gets paid if she is off, daddy does not. Its to get folk to reverse that
try working on a ward that should have 10 staff on duty with 3 and watching patients suffer because not enough staff are in. You know - little things like lying in shite for hours or having cold food
we do make alternative arrangements - we have all swapped shifts around so folk from outlying areas are not on the next couple of days only local folk. I am a day off today but was on alert from 6am to be called in if staff shortages made it dangerous for the patients. We also have a system of going to your nearest hospital not your usual place of work if the snow is too bad
Harrogate District Hospital were multi texting any staff yesterday who could attend, lots of their staff live out in the wilds 'o' wanny & were simply stuck. The response from local staff who were rest days was astounding by all accounts.
My Mrs is an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in A&E, part of a team of 8 who provide cover for the dept. QAH is a hell hole at the best of times, if staff don’t make it in its even worse.
We don’t have kids & only live 2 miles away so she was never going to be off. To be fair there’s not really any snow here anyway. They just seem to like to demand things rather than maybe saying “we understand it may be difficult but please try your best” they will say “you must....”
The tone of the message is typical of them, even if the content is meant well & makes sense. But like on NYE when they messaged everyone at 6:30pm insisting all who could went in, they got 6 in out of the entire hospiral’s staff (& not a single manager).
Tj not trolling and fully understand the issue but is there a formal contractual obligation or legislation that over rides risk assessment in times of poor weather, employees rights .etc ?
My other half is a district nurse.. if the roads get shut down here later on and tomorrow they'll be prioritising their case load and donning wellies to hike out to the most urgent cases.
Cos they're nice
factory & office has just closed due to red warning issued for devon.
haven't turned the VPN & servers off and those who can work remotely are expected to...
and my son's school appears to about the only school open and staying open in devon/cornwall.
I had flights to Lanzarote booked - out today, back on Sunday for a wee bit of R&R.
I decided at the weekend, that due to work and a few other issues I wasn't gong to go.
Ryanair cancelled the flght last night - full refund. Happy Days 🙂
haven’t turned the VPN & servers off and those who can work remotely are expected to…
The VPN load has been so high that non-essential staff have been told to stay logged off.
Time for another jaunt out on the fatbike.
Kilo - its certainly policy.
We also have as individuals a legal obligation to ensure good care. Not going in to work 'cos a couple of miles is too far to walk in bad weather would give a case to answer if patients were harmed as a result.
Was sent home early yesterday and work declared a snow day to day 🙂 Have seen our local post lady out and about and a courier just delivered my chainreaction delivery, though he was in his 4X4 🙂
TJ, Im sure there are plenty of care staff married to other critical care staff. Despite your macho bluster, if the nhs wants to treat its staff like military personel, it should have the resources and plans in place for events like this....as the military does. The RAF looked after my mothers side of the family. The same service now bailing some of you lot out in a few regions.
You are making excuses for a mismanaged and underfunded nhs.
Rayban - not at all. Its just the reality of the situation and one you don,t understand.
I work in for company manufacting critical drugs for the NHS, which are always in short supply. So I know a little about patient needs.
You're attitude strikes me as devoid of empathy, and that your attitude is more a question of ego than anything else.
TJ, Im sure there are plenty of care staff married to other critical care staff.
Here! I'm on a zero day and Mrs RBIT is in work though so cool being shut isn't as big a problem as it would be next week.
Our head office just closed, nothing happening till Monday, not a flake on the ground where I am but 10 miles away there’s 30cm, wind is making driving crap so I’m taking tomorrow off to paint the kitchen and/or tidy the garage.
My other half has just set off to work in full on winter mountaineering kit! 2 1/2 mile walk to work as no buses running here in Edinburgh.
Seriously? With rope, crampons, snow goggles, helmet,, ice pick etc? Is she not risking arrest for carrying a weapon?