To ask whether snow day = fully paid day off for you?

[temporarynamenothingtoseehere]

I am following a row on Twitter with a lot of high-profile teachers getting very cross indeed that they are expected either to use snow days for PPA (planning and assessment admin) or lose a day's pay.

I do understand that losing a day's pay is horrible if your place of work is closed and you don't have the choice of whether or not to work.

However, I'm surprised by the expectation that professional adults should expect a fully paid day off with no work when it snows. I've never worked anywhere where that was the case - you don't come in if it's dangerous to do so, but you either work from home or lose a day's pay.

AIBU to think that's the norm?

I'm honestly not sure if I'd get paid, because I work in the NHS and somehow we are expected to get to work, literally no matter what. I don't fully understand how so many professions 'cannot' get into work, but NHS staff are just magically able? The topic of someone not getting into work has genuinely not even come up in my unit this week.

If my work place shut I would be paid, if I couldn't get in to my work place which was open I would not be paid and would take a/l or toil. I am slightly surprised that isn't standard, it isn't your fault you aren't working if they have shut the building.

We have to take annual leave if work is shut because of snow or you can't get in.

The official line in the schools here is teachers attend school if possible, and work from home if not.

Unofficially they take the day off. And why not, Tbh teachers work way above their paid for hours as it is.

Note, I'm not a teacher.

3 jobs when it's snowed to the point office is shut. Always had to take it as annual leave or unpaid!

Wherever I've worked you would either be expected to work from home or attempt to get it whatever the weather. If neither is possible generally people pretend to wfh but after that would be annual leave or unpaid.

The NHS point is a good one. I certainly think people should try 60 minutes walking through snow to get to schools or the old rule - you go to a local school you can manage to walk to if your is shut and put in a day's effort there.

We had no snow this time but run a business! If there is heavy snow and we deem it unsafe then we close the office and pay all staff who would normally work! If not too bad but some are not happy coming in then they work from home or take holiday! We all love fairly close to work so no major discrepancy on conditions.

I work in a school, not teaching staff though, we still get paid if the school is closed due to snow. Fairly sure the teachers were advised to take the time today to do PPA.

However I still chose to go in today despite it being closed as we have over 200 school Christmas dinners to be served tomorrow and the prep needed to be done.

DH works in an office, he can work from home but if he couldn't he either has to get in or lose pay / holiday entitlement.

Do you understand that PPA cannot be easily completed from home? And that PPA time is used for meetings/physically creating resources that cannot be done on a snow day? So therefore by taking it away, you’re forcing those teachers to just do MORE unpaid overtime?

Most of the teachers I know do the vast majority of PPA from home anyway.

I have always worked in an office and done some from home so we are just expected to work from home. I remember one year being explicitly told not to go in as the car park was so treacherous. I don’t see why teachers shouldn’t do what they can from home if the school is shut.

My husband is a police officer and he has to go to the nearest station if he can’t get in to his normal one - or officially lose a day’s pay/take annual leave. However, there are things he can also do from home on rare occasions so imagine he would do that if it really was impossible to even get to the station 3 miles away (it’s never happened!).

I work for the NHS, we don't get snow days.

If we absolutely, genuinely can't get in, we are expected to use our annual leave, carers leave (if childcare issue) or take it as unpaid.

Luckily as seen on tv, local 4x4 car owners came to the rescue of many staff members.

I don't fully understand how so many professions 'cannot' get into work, but NHS staff are just magically able?

They're not all magically able. I used to work for the NHS and I remember doing a 24 hour shift one year because so many people were "snowed in" there was no one to relieve me when my shift ended. I've also had appointments cancelled because of HCP's not making it into work due to severe weather.

Of course they should be paid. Most will still be doing several hours PPA anyway - even if they allow themselves an hour to go sledging with their own dc.

I can work from home so not an issue for me, but I would expect to be paid if my office wasn’t open. I wouldn’t expect to be paid if I just couldn’t get in.

In poor weather where we are, teachers are expected to go to their nearest school if they can't reasonable travel to their own. Teachers are often travelling further than pupils so this sort of works, it works enough that there is enough cover in most schools for them to provide for the children who have turned up anyway. Ours school was taken by surprise with a heavy early morning fall of snow and it resulted in teachers not making it in and the school was shut for a day. Despite continuing poor travel conditions, the schools were re-opened the next day with "local" teachers. Doesn't always work clearly but it's a solution to having to take a day unpaid.

Teachers are expected to go in if possible even if school shuts. Even if they can't get in and school is shut it's not a day off.

We have to set work for our students to complete at home online, answer a million emails and then assess work the kids have handed in online.

This then impacts on planning so then we need to change our lesson plans and schemes of work. If our own kids are off school, we do all this while entertaining them.

I work in a school that is closed today. I'm not a teacher and my role doesn't allow working from home. I've spent my paid snow day so far sledging, baking and playing board games with DD and catching up on a bit of housework

I regularly stay late for meetings, training and to deal with urgent safeguarding issues as well as coming into work in the holidays to attend CP meetings, support kids on exam results days, paint my office etc etc and I don't get paid for any of it. So I'll be damned if I'm going to feel guilty for being paid to stay at home when I've been told to stay at home and have absolutely no choice in the matter!

I think if your place of work is closed then you should not lose a day's pay. When my office moved into a new building several years ago we had a lot of teething problems and would have to close the building because of power failures/no heating/toilets not working. Everyone was sent home and we were paid.

If you can't get into work but your building is still open then yes, you should have to take it as annual leave.

If you can't get in - use annual leave/unpaid
If the place if employment is closed - paid

Believe it or not, when I was in the Military I had a number of snow days when they closed the camp and sent all but Duty/Guard staff home. In 2010 I was sent home at 11am on the day the snow came down and we didn't have to go back in for 3 more days. Fully paid. Amusing really when in some cases I actually lived on the camp, so it's not like I couldn't get in to work!

Now I work in a school. It closed at lunchtime on Friday and opens tomorrow. The MAT High School is still closed. Everyone is being paid.

I mostly work from home. But when I had to go to the office every day, I would get a day off with pay if the governor declared a snow emergency either in the county I live in or the county in which my office is located. If I just felt that I couldn't safely get to work, I would either have to take leave or take the day off without pay if I didn't have sufficient leave to cover it.

We are expected to work from home and in anticipation of that our Head has given some guidance on what she'd like us to do in the (unlikely) event that we are off.

I noticed when other schools in our council were off that many of them had posted (briefly) the work for their teachers to do or where to find it. I don't know if that's just to show parents that the teachers are working though!

In reality if I was off then I'd be spending the day with my son but would then be expected to get the work done in the evenings or something.

I have just had two snow days and it's my PPA tomorrow afternoon. If when I arrive at school tomorrow the Head tells me that I won't have my PPA because of having had 2 days off, then fine. Fair enough.

When I worked for a homelessness charity management took a list of all those who lived within walking distance so we could be relied on to run services if other workers couldn’t get in due to snow. No allowance was made for the fact that if schools were shut because I lived within walking distance I would have to work despite childcare issues...luckily I had family who could help but used to be jealous that they all got to go sledging and I had to go to work! Staff who couldn’t get in didn’t get snow days though, a/l or unpaid.