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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Workmates and snow!

183 replies

ACSlater · 20/01/2015 18:44

It isn't even snowing here yet but people are already saying they can't come in tomorrow because they need to stay at home to look after their 32 year old! Drives me up the wall!!!

AIBU to think they should have a contingency plan?!!!

OP posts:
forwarding · 20/01/2015 21:02

I suppose mumsnet is a UK site, so most posters will only have experienced one way of doing things. So then you think that's the only way. Fair enough. I actually get that a lot over here about different stuff and end up thinking "noooo in the UK it works like this and it's so much better!" And everyone just looks askance because they can't imagine it being any other way.

Well that's fine. No skin off my nose ??

Tinkerball · 20/01/2015 21:07

Fabulous46

I remember Christmas shopping that year and getting stuck for hours after my road home was closed...I was on the verge of putting all my shopping in the snow, it would have been fine till the morning! My colleague was actually stuck on the M8 all night, luckily I made it home!

JassyRadlett · 20/01/2015 21:07

Forwarding, as it happens, I'm foreign myself. Grin

Still interested in which bit of the UK has snow frequency the same as where you live. In the decade I've lived here, I've noticed it differs a bit.

Fabulous46 · 20/01/2015 21:08

I agree with forwarding We live in Scotland and are very remote but we plan for winter and have snow tyres fitted. If you live remotely that's a choice people make, it's all very nice in the summer however in winter you have to make plans to get to work. I personally don't think a few inches of snow is an excuse to stay at home for a snow day. If people are scared driving in snow then take a winter driving course!

forwarding · 20/01/2015 21:09

Out of interest, a quick google throws up 8 European countries where winter types must be used through the winter season and 6 where they are recommended. No reason for the UK not to be on that list. If Spain is on it, the UK can be on it!

clam · 20/01/2015 21:09

It's not that we think this is the only way. Can fully acknowledge that other countries deem it necessary. But it's not economically viable in the UK - well, possibly in parts of Scotland, but generally not.

Pipbin · 20/01/2015 21:10

Are you being deliberately obtuse Forwarding? The way it works in your country is fine, and it clearly works well in your country.
Yes the way it works here is not ideal but the number of winters when we get serious snow is minimal and not worth the financial outlay for the government, councils and individuals.

treaclesoda · 20/01/2015 21:11

Four or five years ago when we had the very very heavy snowfall, we had two cars and the one parked in front on the drive took the brunt of the ice and just wouldn't start (diesel engine, something to do with there being water moisture freezing in the fuel pipe or something). We are in a village, not out in the wilds, but we couldn't get the car towed out of the way because the road was so slippery. It was stuck there for a week. There is no bus service where we live that would actually take either of us anywhere near our place of work, or even to somewhere that we could catch another bus to work. DH was able to work from home, and all was fine. I had to take unpaid leave.

But what boiled my piss was people saying to me 'My commute is longer than yours, and I managed it!'. If someone drove past the end of the road where we live they would have thought there was no good reason for us to be stuck, because out on that road the traffic was moving, albeit slowly. But 50 metres up the road where I live, there were a dozen abandoned cars where people had got stuck and had had to leave them there. And my poor frozen car on the drive Grin

clam · 20/01/2015 21:13

Well, not only are my kids beyond the age for requiring child care, but also my HT is more than happy for us to take them in with us if necessary.
So, what do teachers on Fabulous's scheme of going to their nearest school do with their own kids if their school is closed? I think my county used to mutter about such a thing, but it was years ago before I had kids and I don't think it ever really got off the ground. And then we had a decade or so with no snow whatsoever down south.

Fabulous46 · 20/01/2015 21:13

Tinkerball I made it home at 01.45 from being stuck on the M8. I remember driving to work the morning it started and thinking "oh fuck". I never expected it to last until February though. That winter was pretty grim and I never want to face another like that one. It was heaven when the white stuff eventually thawed!

forwarding · 20/01/2015 21:13

Pipbin are you suggesting that Spain gets more snow generally than the UK?

Actually I might Google that one too....

mewkins · 20/01/2015 21:14

The problem where I work is that people travel from all over the county...it could be really bad in one part of the county and completely clear in another. I also live at the top of a hill and have to travel on county roads to get to work which are treacherous in the snow. I will give it a good go in my old banger but not with dc in the car. My mum had an accident on ice while travelling at about 5mph...it's really not worth the risk if you can help it.

Tinkerball · 20/01/2015 21:23

Me neither fabulous. The problem is I dont live that far away from a main road to Glasgow...its just getting out of my scheme thats generally the issue when Im driving, my boss lives somewhere in Glasgow with good transport links..we dont have a train station and that year the buses were all off for a few days when it was at its worst. There was only one actual day I couldn't make it in, the next day it took me 3 hours for what is normally a 30 minute journey, I felt like a hero when I walked in! Grin

hairymuffet · 20/01/2015 21:24

This makes me laugh ............. I live in the country, work 20 miles away and have never had a snow day.
Hospitals don't shut because it snows, just as well eh ??

Pipbin · 20/01/2015 21:24

Forwarding. I clearly missed the bit where I said anything about Spain.
I also missed the bit where I get to make the laws saying that people have to get snow tyres.

JassyRadlett · 20/01/2015 21:28

A wee bit disingenuous to talk about 'Spain' when there are no national laws on the issue, and chains/winter tyres are only mandatory in certain areas where it is marked by road signs. Such as the Pyrenees...

Pipbin · 20/01/2015 21:30

Forwarding: When driving in Spain, you will need to have winter tyres fitted if you spot a traffic sign indicating that winter tyres (or snow chains) are compulsory in that area.

So rather like in the uk snow tyres might well make sense in Scotland but not in Surrey. But you seem to be suggesting that the whole country should have snow tyres because one part of the country need it.

forwarding · 20/01/2015 21:31

So why not at least make chains or tyres mandatory in Scotland or other areas with a higher average snowfall?

Anyway it's all getting a bit academic now.

Actually interestingly the area of the UK with the lowest average annual snowfall is....... the inner Hebrides! Who'd a thunk it?

Pipbin · 20/01/2015 21:33

So why not at least make chains or tyres mandatory in Scotland or other areas with a higher average snowfall?

Because I don't make the rules. I imagine, as said above, that people who do live in parts of Scotland where they get snow for months on end have the intelligence to put the correct tyres on themselves without needing a law to tell them so.

JassyRadlett · 20/01/2015 21:37

Lack of snow in the Hebrides is hardly surprising, is it?

pieceofpurplesky · 20/01/2015 21:37

Fabulous. In 10 years living here there have been 2 days when I couldn't get out - both exceptional weather. Hardly a problem when DSs school has been closed anyway.
Forward there used to be a time here when teachers went in to local schools when it snowed but laws with CRB now mean it is impossible. Teachers here don't necessarily work within the same borough and maybe where you are they do.

clam · 20/01/2015 21:39

And it's not people who live in areas of the UK where they get a fair bit of snow who are posting complaining about "a few flakes of snow" resulting in "mass closures" of schools. We're talking about further south, with traditionally mild winters.

BiddyPop · 20/01/2015 21:44

Our school has a "snow team" of parents, who have. Role to clear the main paths around school, put down salt and make the school safe in the hour from 07:30-0830. School then opens 30 mins late at 9am. I am part of the tam, but we haven't been called out much.

In 2010, when Dublin had seriously bad snow, all the schools locally closed for more than a week. Our school close for 1 day when the boiler broke' but it was fixed by next day.

In our family, we have winter gear and outdoor gear. So we just get on with things when the weather is bad. We grew up in rural areas, so we know about keeping stores and keeping warm.

When the snow starts here, even though we are urban, there is a very steep hill that's gets very sloppy so buses stop very quickly. Slippy. Stop as in stop running, not slide or skid. So I tend to drive up one hill and down the next, park the car rather than drive all the way to town and get the bus. Because the buses will run to the top of the next hill and I can walk back down that if they stop running all the way. And we need te car at home more than stuck in town.

I have never not gone to work apart from one day that dd was actually sick, so not a snow day but an illness cover day. I have arranged to work from home one day in the midst of it one year, but my work allows me to do that occasionally.

It does annoy me though when others don't come in who gave a lot easier commute. Usually it's the people far out or int he hills who make it in, but the ones living close to the city or who generally walk who can't make it. But then again. They don't have the coping skills that us country folk have ....

clam · 20/01/2015 21:48

"They don't have the coping skills that us country folk have ...."

Well, there's a generalisation if ever I saw one!

Hulababy · 20/01/2015 21:53

My 12y doesn't like to be left home alone for that length of time - would be from before 8am and not home til about 5. She gets bored and lonely and her friends are not in walking distance.

However, this has never stopped me from going to work. Luckily her primary never closed for snow, but not sure what her high school will be like.

Regardless, she can either come to my school with me or we can get her to a friends house on our way if necessary.

Definitely no difference at my work regarding childrens ages - none of those with older children seem any worse affected than those with young children. Its all dependent on how far away they live and what type of journey they have, and some parts of the city ar emore affected than others.