When do you stop trying to get to work?

[Skarossinkplunger]

I live in a rural area and the snow is really bad here this morning. Most of the schools in the county were closed yesterday and it looks like it will be the same today.

I work in a school in a city 30 miles away, which obviously fares better in snow and will most likely be open today.

Yesterday’s commute which normally
takes an hour was 2.5 hours of steering wheel gripping hell, which included getting stuck in a blizzard on a motorway and a 180 spin on the road out of estate.

I’m now looking out of the window and thinking I have to do it all again. When do
I just say ‘I can’t get in’?

Local NHS trust has just cancelled all outpatient appointments for today. Presumably because staff can't get in & prioritising inpatient care.

I work for the NHS and used to do shifts on the wards. Luckily we had decent management who would look at the forecast and ask if people could change shifts so people who live far out don't need to come in. They'd never make anyone who didn't feel safe come in by themselves. They'd always send a 4x4.

Currently broken down (?brakes) on way to work. Community NHS worker. I did try and get in. All I can hear is sirens. My mate has posted on Facebook that a car went down her road straight into a neighbour's garden because the road's not been gritted. We are in London.

Wow, 4' deep (I bow to that). I am in East Anglia.

We had a good cycle ride. Cars are creeping around & most businesses are closed. The country lanes are better than the town, actually. In town there's sort of crusty hardened slush, whereas the snow is packed down hard in country lanes so a bit safer. Was like cycling thru treacle on the bridleway. Although even the drifts here are no more than 8 or 10 inches at moment. More snowfall is expected and the wind is picking up.

DC have built 5 good size snow people so far!

I feel it’s perfectly acceptable not to go to work if adverse weather makes it challenging ,
However someone mentioned using public transport instead , this is where my dh is employed , how does he decide whether to go to work ? If bus drivers don’t turn up due to adverse weather ( or train drivers or taxi drivers ) and that means limited public transport I reckon the public generally would be a bit fraustrated

Busses here are either running a limited service or are not running at all. Schools are closed... My uni is even closed.

I think it's fine not to go to work if it's dangerous. I get that some occupations this is trickier than others definitely -
emergency services and the like.

I'll never forget when we had really bad snow back in 2010. I worked for a private company, no life or death consequences if they had to close for a day, just a loss of money obviously.

Snow was in the feet, not the inches and I'd only just passed my driving test two weeks previously and had never driven in snow. Only had a five/six mile drive but I tried to take my (twenty year old tin can banger) out and I slipped and slid all over the place. No way was I driving, there was no public transport or taxis running so when I called in to say I wouldn't make it in what was their answer? Walk. In over two ft of snow, for five/six miles, and home again after work when it was dark. I couldn't work from home, but I had an admin job, nothing that would have missed me for a day.

Their argument was people were getting in from further away (people who had 4x4s mostly) and they were saying the same to everyone. One of the managers had walked in from four miles away and got to work on time (it transpired later that it'd taken her hours and she'd left at something stupid like 4am) so everyone else just needed to do buck up the same. People who didn't would be disciplined.

Turns out they weren't too keen on disciplining over 50% of the staff, so no one got disciplined in the end. I never forgot the absolute lack of care shown though and when I ran my own department there later I never treated my staff like that which didn't always go down well. I'm glad I don't work there anymore!

I set off at 6.15 this morning and after 55 minutes had gone approx 5 miles. I work 40 miles away from home. I came back...

I don't think it's actually bad where I work but getting there would be dangerous this morning. It's only the second time in 10 years I've missed because of snow and I live rural.

Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

I live in the sticks and started out but had to turn back, as the screen was icing up and I couldn't get past the drift in the road.
When I rang work, I found that few people had made it in and everyone was advised to get to their nearest office rather than attempt to travel between towns.
We are on amber warnings and schools have closed, public transport is stopped and the police have advised to stay at home if poss.
I don't feel like that much of a skiver today...

I work for a university and got sent home at one so people would be safe on the way home. We've got a red warning from 3, so they wanted to leave time for people taking buses to get home.