Why is everyone rushing back to work this morning?

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It's being reported London buses are rammed when they've been relatively quiet until now.
Why have people rushed back yo work today regardless of the guidelines?

It is balance. (Suicides, DV, delayed NHS treatment from other conditions - all increase if lockdown does not end. Decreased life expectancy due to poverty)

A second, worse, peak won't reduce most of those risks, and that may well be what we're heading towards.

I had to go out to a doctors appointment this morning. London is still absolutely deserted as far as I could see.

Yes NotAnotherUserNumber I had a look at a few London webcams this morning and they look like it's pretty quiet

@blueheaven97 so obviously those people will have to continue to stay home. The instruction was to only go to work if you can social distance. Of people ignore it we will be straight back into lockdown. No individuals need to work comes above the whole country beating this virus.

@Pinkyyy This makes the big assumption that we are all simply making our own decisions about whether or not we can go to work, and what hours we can work, without any decisions being taken by our employers. Plus, as I interpreted it, the instruction was "go back to work if you can't work from home", not "only go back to work if you can social distance."

The fact is that there are many people who will now be asked by their employers to return to work, and they'll have no choice but to use public transport, often at busy times - and yet for some reason you're insisting that this is somehow their own free choice and their own faults.

The problem is not everyone works for good employers or even reasonable ones. Plenty will have heard the briefing and then called staff and said "back in tomorrow" with no planning as to how it works safely.

I'm always fascinated by Mumsnet's insistence that people have so much control over their working lives.

So, is this some sort of strange plan to test the vaccines? Get the virus numbers up and see what happens.

Lockdown looks broken.

Sadly a lot of people will need to die to get the fear of the virus back again.

Our forefathers and foremothers lived through bombings and worse for years to keep us safe.

We couldn't be arsed staying inside for a couple of months to keep them safe.

Shame on you Britain.

Sadly a lot of people will need to die to get the fear of the virus back again.

And do you think the vast majority of the country were frightened of it?

We couldn't be arsed staying inside for a couple of months to keep them safe.

This is such misleading bollocks.

@blueheaven97 obviously that's where the issue lies then. You and I have interpreted it differently, so no doubt many others have too. I hope things get cleared up tonight.

If he wanted people to return on Monday, he could have made the announcement on Thursday or Friday so people had time to prepare to return. By prepare I mean adjust shopping day, sleeping hours etc. Employers might want time to organize cleaning, thinking of some new policies and routines for how things work eg one person in the office kitchen at a time

Absolutely.

Such short notice doesn't give employers or employees time to prepare and sort out safe practices.

Employers that are at risk of going out of business would have taken Boris back to work message as a green light for back to work. Boris did also say from tomorrow meaning Monday morning, which was really stupid because how was TFL meant to prepare to take more people going back to work. Very worrying that BJ didn't think through his advise.

All businesses have had 7 weeks to work on a variety of plans for getting their workforce back working.

I don't know anyone, any age, with or without kids, who hasn't got some clue how their employer is working on getting people back to work. They aren't all happy, but they do know why their employer has been working on.

There are some right unsympathetic/unfeeling/thoughtless (daft?) wankers on this thread.
People are just workshy/don't want to go to work (really?).
Just wait until an empty bus comes along (sometime/never)
Go by bike (even if you don't own one/can't store one)
Walk (even if you live 15 miles from your workplace)

The problem with Johnson's announcement is that it gave no-one - employers or employees - adequate time to make appropriate arrangements/ensure safeguarding is in place.

Still, be aware... and we'll all be fine.

All businesses have had 7 weeks to work on a variety of plans for getting their workforce back working.
That's not the only issue though, is it? Childcare is an issue, travel is an issue. Not for everyone, but for many.

Magic money trees, that's what we need!

All businesses have had 7 weeks to work on a variety of plans for getting their workforce back working.

What are TFL doing?

Sadly a lot of people will need to die to get the fear of the virus back again
Newjez

What a truly peculiar comment. There is no vaccine. Nobody knows if or when one will appear. The impact of the lockdown on the economy is catastrophic. The NHS has effectively suspended treatment, two million operations cancelled. The oncologist Karl Sikora is warning that 60,000 could die as a consequence of delayed cancer treatment and diagnoses. There are myriad negative consequences to continuing lockdown. Waiting until the virus is vanquished is not realistic. Why do you hope for lots of people to die to reinforce fear of the virus? Is that how you think the UK or the rest of the world should respond to this situation? Do you think house arrest and the cessation of economic activity should be continued indefinitely?

So... are all businesses supposed to do nothing until every business can get every worker comfortably back to work?

Schools are going back, starting with those that are most difficult to replace with child care... assuming, as we must, that all goes well over the next couple of weeks.

Employers and employees need to talk. Granted not all will come to an amicable solution but it has to start somewhere. We can't wait until the most complex of issues is identified and resolved.

Thanks be honest @foggy, like many I don't really care what TFL are doing.

My local public transport is doing what it can, has been throughout.

Borris’s speech was so vague & disappointing I wouldn’t of bothered. From what I could gather he did say people can go back to work if they can’t do their jobs from home. Despite knowing numbers could soar again.

@CuriousaboutSamphire

I so agree.

I can't understand why everyone is up in arms. Employers have had plenty of time to prepare. Especially during the last couple of weeks when all the media has been pressing the government for its exit strategy.

Also would anyone seriously just listen to Boris last night and rush back to work without having been in contact with their employer first to sort out when and if to go back to work.

Anyone that has to use public transport should surely use some common sense. If the bus or trsin is too full, don't get on it. Nobody is forcing you on it with a cattle prod. Wait for the next one that isn't full. Why start the commute at the same time you did before the pandemic? Change start and finish times if you can or walk part the way and get on the bus, or tube when it's less busy.

It is time to stop being molly coddled and take some responsibility for your own health and safety.

There are too many posts sounding like children thinking of any and every excuse for not going back to school. The holidays are over, and time to start inching back to work like a lot of us that never stopped, whether it was working from home, in a supermarket, care home , office etc.

Unless you are a vulnerable person or shielding, others will have to start being part of society again whether we like it or not. Going out before the pandemic had risks, albeit they were minimal ones. Going out now has increased ones but we have to still venture out, minimising the risks where we can using common sense.

Well my DH line manager rang him last night pleased it was "all over" and they can all get back to it..

Your DH’s line manager is a idiot then. There was nothing stopping them being back before!

@CuriousaboutSamphire you don't have to care about TFL but they are a business, one of those that have had 7 weeks to work on a variety of plans for getting their workforce back working So if TFL haven't managed it I don't think it's particularly out there that other companies haven't.

I posted upthread that DHs work has told them to wfh for months which is a similar message been given by lots of firms in central London. Largely because of public transport.

The local bus company managed to make their own partition shields, acquire hand sanitiser and masks for drivers who want them. They have responded to local feedback about which services to continue running at what frequency, and put stoppers on every other row of seats and opposite to make it really easy to follow. They did it within 3 working days.

Anyone that has to use public transport should surely use some common sense. If the bus or trsin is too full, don't get on it. Nobody is forcing you on it with a cattle prod. Wait for the next one that isn't full. Why start the commute at the same time you did before the pandemic? Change start and finish times if you can or walk part the way and get on the bus, or tube when it's less busy

Are you that privileged that you don't understand that there are plenty of unscrupulous employers who won't tolerate their staff changing their hours, or turning up late, etc... & employees who will tolerate it because they need the job. How do you suggest they take responsibility for their own health & safety under these circumstances?