Colleague charging electric scooter at work

[Whatt]

One of my colleagues has recently started commuting to work on an electric scooter, which is great for the environment and saves them money on travel expenses. However, the issue is that they've been using the work place plugs to charge their scooter during the day.

Now, I'm all for being environmentally friendly and reducing waste, which is something that our management team has been pushing for lately. They've switched to cheaper hand wash and toilet roll, and they no longer provide bottled water or tea, coffee, and biscuits in the staff room. I understand that these changes are necessary due to the high cost of living and the need to reduce expenses.

However, I can't help but feel like it's a bit unfair that my colleague is essentially getting free electricity to charge their personal vehicle while the rest of us are being asked to make these small sacrifices.

I'm also worried that if our electricity bill goes up, management may take away other benefits and incentives that we currently enjoy, without realizing that the charging of the electric scooter is the cause.

I'm not sure if my colleague is aware of the impact this is having on our electricity bill, but I feel like it's something that management should know about. I don't want to be seen as a snitch or cause any unnecessary conflict in the workplace, but I do think it's important to be transparent and fair.

Yabu = mind your own
Yanbu = they're taking the piss

You really need a new hobby...

Obsessing and snitching about colleagues for no good reason is just sad.

It never ceases to baffle me that there are people as petty as the OP (and others on here) amongst us.

OP, what do you think now you know the minuscule cost involved?!

How do you know they haven't asked?

It amazes me that anyone is really this petty! You must be a joy to work with.

I like your style.

OP, you are being reasonable. Charging a mobile phone and a scooter are not comparable.

we are not allowed to charge our phones at work
but i would let it go op
no idea but perhaps it needs charging in order for him to get home?

and we have to provide our own tea and coffee and milk
we would be in trouble for putting our own post in to be franked

Your workplace sounds really shit tbh.

Every thread about how working from home has “had its day” etc should be auto-replied to with a link to a thread like this to demonstrate how insane office workers can be

We wouldnt be allowed this unless the scooter was tested and charging supervised at all times for H+S reasons. This was after a fire from an unattended vape charging.

That's a good point. When I worked in an office, we were not allowed to bring in electric equipment from home for H & S reasons.

Sounds like you should start job hunting.

If your company can’t afford a couple more pound a month on its electricity bill then it sounds like staff savings is going to be the next obvious step, if not going under completely.

Do you realise it only costs pennies to charge? How much did you think it would cost?

So many aggressive responses in this thread. I see this on mn so often now. If the first couple of replies are over-the-top critical a snowball of nastiness starts.

Surely it is worth asking a couple of questions about the situation before rushing to judgement? Or pointing out the actual cost of charging a scooter, if you appen to know that? The op maywell have assumed it was massively more expensive than charging a phone. I haven't a clue what it costs, but that would have been my assumption too.

I've just returned to posting muh on MN after bailing out of Twitter, and I can see that the posting conventions of twitter and similar platforms have had an effect here. Short, sharp, cathartic bee-stings instead of discussion.

You’re not allowed to charge your phone at work?! You can’t be serious? Where on earth do you work?

If you are worried about it from a health and safety point of review - eg where its left then fine report it otherwise just let management deal with it

I'm not either

Perhaps OP should worry less about the cost to the business of charging the scooter and more about the fact that electric scooters are still illegal in the UK (except for those that are part of official rental schemes).

Why are so many people keen to "tell tales" on here these days?

There's no need to go running to management over every little thing 🙄

I'm just so glad I didn't get you as a colleague. I would even go as far to say that if you were a colleague I'd have quit before I hung my coat up because life's too short to have to know people like you.

No, don't charge phones at work (school). Not allowed as charger not PAT tested. But, surely, you don't need to charge your phone at work since you don't use it much during the working day? Mine still has 85+% left on it when I leave. No free tea or coffee in most workplaces, either.

I wouldn't snitch on him for the cost of the charge, but I might consider it if his charger isn't PAT tester or if he's driving it illegally (quite likely).

We have banned e-bikes from being charged inside our buildings (the estate is 43 different sites). The risk of a li-ion battery fire is too great. Most reputable brands should be OK, but we can't take the risk. They can go up INCREDIBLY quickly and cannot be put out with any standard fire extinguisher. You need a specific li-ion one, which has a green stripe on it.

We are also strapped for cash, management couldn't give a shit about phones being charged etc but these batteries can be incredibly dangerous. We've also now got vermiculite bins in high risk departments for batteries that start to swell etc and li-ion fire extinguishers are being rolled out across the estate.

We are looking at providing external charging points for e-bikes etc but that takes time. Until then, tough luck.

Or me! But my employer makes it very clear from day one what the rules are so no one can claim they didn’t know how batshit the whole thing is. We are not allowed to do anything personal in the office at all, including taking calls. The company is not European and follows the management philosophy of its country of origin. Pay is insanely high so I put up with the culture difference!

YES!!