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?

The fact it was carefully planned makes it even worse.

@Pinkyyy a lot of people have been staying home with absolutely no money coming in. And now they need to start going out and earning again.

I can't believe how little notice was given.

Here in France it was announced 4 weeks ago that the lockdown would be lifted on 11th May, if certain conditions were met.

Then 2 weeks later they gave a much clearer outline of how it would happen (including having red zones and green zones, limiting travel to 100km if not for work and limiting class sizes etc.).

Then on May 7th they gave more precise details, some of which include:

• fines if not wearing masks on public transport
• public transport in red zones during peak hours requires an attestation from your employer stating your work hours, address etc. If its not for work or medical reason you can't use it
• public transport blocking every other seat, distances respected on platforms etc.
• can't travel more than 100km without it being for work, or for family emergency
• no restaurants or bars opening. We'll find out end of May if and when they can open
• no closed sports centres or sport in groups etc.
• no groups of more than 10 people at your home

Can someone post a link to the transcript where he said ‘tomorrow’?

I don't think it's overstating the case to say that thousands more people are going to die because of Johnson's latest decision You might be right. But people will also die if we continue lockdown.

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

People won't die because of Boris' decision, it will be because of their own. They are choosing to get on a bus that's already too full to social distance. He told them to SD on public transport.

Eh??

Employer tells you to go to work

You do not have a car to drive to work and it’s too far to walk.

So it’s their fault for taking public transport And ‘failing’ to social distance?!?

I'm not sure how many pp who are struggling with the concept of needing income have ever lived through a situation where they literally could not meet basic costs. It is horrible. I'm not talking can't afford a Sky subscription or nice shoes, I mean not enough income to pay the rent, gas, electric, water and buy food. You can't eat determination, you can't heat your house with a sense of duty.

If employers say to people "come in to work or you don't get paid"- as many will start to do this week, what options do people have? You can call it selfishness or stupidity if it suits you, you can target your anger and blame at them, but that does not change the reality of the situation.

We now need to stress that anyone who can’t work from home, for instance those in construction or manufacturing, should be actively encouraged to go to work.
And we want it to be safe for you to get to work. So you should avoid public transport if at all possible – because we must and will maintain social distancing, and capacity will therefore be limited.
So work from home if you can, but you should go to work if you can’t work from home.
And to ensure you are safe at work we have been working to establish new guidance for employers to make workplaces COVID-secure.
And when you do go to work, if possible do so by car or even better by walking or bicycle. But just as with workplaces, public transport operators will also be following COVID-secure standards.
And from this Wednesday, we want to encourage people to take more and even unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise.

This is what he actually said. Putting all the blame responsibility on employers, public transport and the public. Where is the testing, tracing and robust rules to protect people from unscrupulous employers. Just get out there and get on with it.

He should have made it clearer that those businesses that were told they couldn’t continue trading at the beginning of lockdown should remain closed. On my work group chat everyone was confused as to whether we would open or not.

I don't think that's what he said. He said from... So employers could start making changes.

DH is now off furlough but has no work, sat at home waiting. His employer has said they are re- working their plan to get some back to work, in office and at homes. But won't be making many changes until the end of the month.

I have told clients I will go back to work, unaccompanied jobs only. With 3 days between tenants leaving and my going in.

A couple of shops have announced this morning that they are opening their shop doors, with constraint, they now have screens for the till area. Others can't, and have said they remain closed.

We all have to work with what we have. And getting to work today isn't what we were asked / told to do. Start returning if we safely can...

Can someone post a link to the transcript where he said ‘tomorrow’?

He didn't, he said:
And the first step is a change of emphasis that we hope that people will act on this week.

We said that you should work from home if you can, and only go to work if you must.

We now need to stress that anyone who can’t work from home, for instance those in construction or manufacturing, should be actively encouraged to go to work.

And we want it to be safe for you to get to work. So you should avoid public transport if at all possible – because we must and will maintain social distancing, and capacity will therefore be limited.

So work from home if you can, but you should go to work if you can’t work from home.

Today was implied, because he then went on to say:

And from this Wednesday, we want to encourage people to take more and even unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise.

The BBC immediately afterwards stated that the return to work was from today. I'm not aware of any call from the government to say that was wrong.

It’s madness.. not because he’s saying people should be encouraged go back, but that it’s only 12 hours notice. Why couldn’t he give the guidelines and rules to businesses first then make the announcement or even do the announcements and guidelines all on the same day but say something like this should start from say 2 weeks from now so people have time to get things ready.

www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/video-matt-lucas-mocks-boris-johnson-coronavirus-speech-a4436796.html

But he didn’t say everyone should be back first thing this morning. He said people should return to work, and that they were going to give employers guidance on how to make workplaces safe. It was Keir Starmer who said BJ said everyone had to be back today.

It makes no sense to tell people to go back to work if you can't work at home, but not to use public transport. Because a lot of people need to use public transport. If they are not keeping the 2m distance (which they won't be), then the whole social distancing thing is a farce.
Makes you wonder whether the UK government does not really want to follow restrictions, but have been forced to by the international community. Really, they are more worried about the economy than people's lives.

MrSheenandMe - I also agree with what you're saying though about how lockdown could also end up being more dangerous to life. It's a difficult situation and the government don't seem to know what to do.

I don't think I believe it, at least not to the extent it's been reported. People have been using public transport in London all through this.

How can news from yesterday evening have been implemented by employers by this morning?

That said, nothing about "the rules" surounding work actually changed and I do know of some businesses who closed initially, but could have continued, who were already planning to go back after the BH, I.e. at the end if the last 3 week period.

@Ifailed

I watched the news too and that’s where I got from Monday as I only caught the last 5 minutes of the actual announcement so caught up with it on the news special immediately after. Maybe the bbc was wrong to say that. Either way, Monday or Wednesday it’s still not much time in terms of making sure people can travel into work safely and actually work in a safe environment

It's like someone sat down and said "right, what is the most confusing and illogical way we can plan to end lockdown and communicate this to the people?"

I am laughing at those people trying to insist that Johnson's message was completely clear and there is no confusion.

And when you do go to work, if possible do so by car

I wonder if they plan to make all parking free then.

Really, they are more worried about the economy than people's lives.

Yes of course they are just like the only reason the lockdown was introduced was to stop the NHS being overwhelmed.

Surely everyone knows it wasn't through their kind hearts and concern for you dying that they did it.

Why should they care?

Pinkyyy

@OhMyDarling because, quite simply, anyone who sees a full bus and steps on it is an idiot.”

People will be waiting for a very, very long time for an empty bus in cities. Hope their employers are understanding of employees turning up mid morning.

There should ave been at least a week's warning to allow people to obtain protective equipment, and employers opportunities to make arrangements for safe working conditions.

Throwing people back into the deep end like this is both very unfair and dangerous.

@rozzyraspberry

Thank you for saying this. Nothing has changed there and my husband has continued to open his business because that was the guidance. He couldn’t get any financial support if he just decided to close for the hell of it. Yet now it’s made out to sound as though he’s had staff in who shouldn’t have been there which isn’t the case. I imagine he may have some quite p*ed off staff today who get the impression they shouldn’t have been there, which is a shame when he’s always had good relations with them and has done his best to furlough those who wanted to as he understand how’s stressful this is for everyone.