No power all day, in tier 3 & WFH??

[Ethelfleda]

Office isn’t open, we have had a letter to say the entire street is being cut off on Friday from 9am until 6pm. I WFH Mon - Fri...
We are in tier 3 so no household mixing or cafes open to work in... and obviously not supposed to travel to a tier where I could sit in a cafe.

What on earth am I supposed to do??

I’ve had the same on two separate days during lockdown. Aside from it being completely shit in a time we have nowhere else to go... send your manager a copy of the notice, get a phone dial in for meetings (zoom etc have a phone dial option), hotspot in through phone data, if you have someone in bubble work from their house. There’s not much you can do otherwise!

Do you have a mobile phone with unlimited or high amount of data available? If not enough then could you contact your provider and temporarily increase the data allowance? Assuming you have a laptop you could then tether it and get a few hours of work in (depending on how long your laptop battery lasts).

In this situation, though not warned in advance, I tethered laptop to mobile. Though wouldn't do a video call My end to reduce usage. Then when laptop was flat moved to work tablet and did the same. I also did some home office filing/sorting.
With a week's notice I'd move as much as possible to other days.

I would definitely look at buying a portable battery charger now that charges laptop and phone. They are handy to have if power lost in storm or for travel

I’ve had this but with a pre-booked virtual training course on the day of the power cut. I pre-charged my devices and used phone data to connect. But as this is Wales, I was able to pop over to a very quiet cafe when the house got freezing cold.
If I hadn’t had the training booked, I would have taken leave.

I’m amazed at all the people bending over backwards here at personal expense.

If the power went down in your office you would not be able work. If there was a fire alarm you would not be able to work.

Due to circumstances beyond your control, for one day, you will not be able to work. The end.

@everythingthelighttouches I completely agree with this. I would tell my employer I needed to work in the office that day and if they said no I'd expect to be paid whilst being unable to work frankly.

If you office had to close because of electrical work, would you expect your employer to force you to take annual leave?
If not, then how can they treat this situation any differently?

I cannot believe someone has suggested sieving somewhere and working in your car!
You can't work for one day. End of. Move meetings, send a copy of the letter. Done

*driving

@Ethelfleda

Office isn’t open, we have had a letter to say the entire street is being cut off on Friday from 9am until 6pm. I WFH Mon - Fri... We are in tier 3 so no household mixing or cafes open to work in... and obviously not supposed to travel to a tier where I could sit in a cafe.

What on earth am I supposed to do??

You have to tell work you can't be contacted and do what you can. You can't personally fix the world.

In these circs I would download as much work as possible to do offline, and charge up everything the night before. But I have both customer-facing and back office tasks. Is this possible for you?

Or can you take a day off and make up the hours by working at a different time?

You can't fix everything, the world's a mess!

Scan or take a phot of the letter and email it to work and say you will be working with no connection to mains wifi and no electric that day. They can't argue with it, but may have dongle or other solution for you if you are required to work as a necessity. There should be a back up plan for this kind of thing. Most big firms now have this sort of thing in place .

@LilyPond2

OP, is your work categorically not allowing anyone into the office or would you be allowed in if you explain why you cannot work from home?

This seems to be the case although there has been no official announcement of post lockdown. The office has technically been shut since March but in July, they started letting those ‘with a need’ to travel to an office go in. I was one of those for mental health reasons. Then at the start of this lockdown they sent us all back again. Many people were upset as they really struggled last time! And it seems they won’t be letting a soul back in the building until well in to Spring. But that’s another story...

Thanks for the suggestions all. I will speak to my line manager tomorrow and see what she says.

We've authorised people to go into the office for a day or two in circumstances like yours. I'd ask about it.

@sparklefarts

I cannot believe someone has suggested sieving somewhere and working in your car! You can't work for one day. End of. Move meetings, send a copy of the letter. Done

Really it depends how important it is that OP attends the meetings? How close the company is to making redundancies? How much OP values her job?

It's not normal times, and OP asked for suggestions.

Are there any co-working offices/business centres in your town? Tier 2 and ours are open.

How far is your nearest tier 2 area? Can you travel to find somewhere? Or sit outside a friends house and use their wifi?

I certainly wouldn’t be using leave for the day. I’d explain the issue to my boss, if they don’t let you in the office that’s their fault not yours.

This exact thing happened to me in April and work let me have the day off without taking a days leave. Worth asking!

I can't believe someone suggested sitting outside a friends house! It was 4 degrees here yesterday!!

"Or sit outside a friends house and use their wifi?"

Seriously op you've done everything you can.. Just call your work and explain the issue. They will in all likelihood say take the day off paid.. Its a one off!

I wouldn't be looking for extreme solutions

@XiCi

I'd just make sure my laptop was fully charged and explain that I may have to make time up outside normal working hours

This ^^ Also, if you haven't done so already, download Teams onto your phone and use that for meetings.

I agree that having a portable charger is a good idea.

Work is going to have to understand.

If that was me I would be telling work I can’t work that day, I can’t magically pull some wifi out of my arse?? OP has no wifi for the day and I wouldn’t be paying for unlimited data on my phone.

It is what it is.

*If that was me I would be telling work I can’t work that day, I can’t magically pull some wifi out of my arse?? OP has no wifi for the day and I wouldn’t be paying for unlimited data on my phone.

It is what it is*

Absolutely agree with this. Work can either facilitate you going into the office, or send you out a dongle, or a sim card for a laptop, or work mobile with internet; or you can't work.

@stillfeelingmad if it’s between sitting outside a friends house or losing a days wages there may not be a choice!!