Going to break lockdown rules

[DoOneCovid]

Please be gentle with me I am really worrying about this.

DP and I stick to the rules, we don’t socialise, we hardly go out and definitely no parties.

Our son lives on the other side of the large village we live in, around a 15 minute walk away. We live in the old part and he lives in the newer part.

His internet is not very reliable, he complained to BT several times but is pretty much told it’s tough, there is no room in the cabinets and what he has is the best he can get. It’s pretty rubbish.

We on the other hand have fantastic broadband, very reliable, hardly ever drops out.

Son is being investigated at work for dropped calls, where his internet has cut out during a phone call with a customer, which I am sure is very frustrating for the customer.

His team leader who likes him has suggested he puts steps in place to tell the disciplinary what he is doing, it’s still 50/50 if he will be sacked.

One option is to work from the office, but they have reduced the office size to a maximum number of people, some people work there full time still. He went of Friday but the office was at capacity so he had to come home again. The problem with this is that he has a desktop so has to dismantle everything to take, monitor, keyboard etc so it’s not a quick process.

His only other option is to work here. We have stable broadband, but it’s breaking the rules. Son needs to work to pay his mortgage. DIL works part time as the have a young child (my grand child who I have missed so much during lockdowns) so her wages won’t cover the mortgage.

I am really worried about it but don’t know what else to do. I feel his company are being very unfair. He had 10 dropped calls in 8 weeks so roughly about 1 a week.

Please reassure me that if the neighbours inform the police that the police would be understanding, we don’t know what else to do to help him.

We will be breaking the rules but my anxiety is going through the roof because of it.

Regular poster but name changed as it’s a lot of info about my son.

I'm an absolute stickler for the rules and guidance but this sounds sensible and yanbu to do it.

As his manager I would be much more understanding in a disciplinary if the person explained that they had internet issues and if the company could help. A permanent desk on the office or a WiFi dongle.

Completely reasonable don’t worry at all, but his employers are being completely unreasonable. It’s their responsibility to ensure he can work from home right now, they should be getting him a dongle.

Dongles only work where mobile reception is good.
Op I'd do it.

I would do that. Alternatively he could pay to upgrade his broadband speed

If his employers are so cross about the calls, they need to sort the internet problems imho.

But your solution is absolutely fine, he can’t work from home so he’s “going into work” at your house.

Not really breaking the rules is it? because people are allowed to travel to work/work outside their home if they cannot do their work in their own home...

What is the difference between him going out to work and using a room in your home and traveling to his office where he would be in contact with a lot more people?

His employers are completely unreasonable by the way unless they pay for his internet and provide IT support they should accept that people relying on standard home internet set-ups might have the odd technical glitch.

His employers are completely unreasonable by the way unless they pay for his internet and provide IT support they should accept that people relying on standard home internet set-ups might have the odd technical glitch.

Absolutely, the world and his dog is currently working from home, as well as mass home learning, of course there will be times that internet connection gets wobbly. They need to put in alternative arrangements if they feel there is an issue, be it an alternative phone, place of work, whatever.

I have major issues with my connection to the work portal, it is not my responsibility to resolve it if they are expecting me to use my internet connection and my personal laptop.

If you CAN wfh you should, otherwise you should go to work. In this case your son cannot do his job from home so he should go to work. The onus is on his employer to provide a safe and appropriate workspace. It may be that they need to review who else us in and why.

It is not for you to start breaking the rules. It is for him to go to his employer with the problem and for them to sort it out.

I think it unlikely the police will visit you but, if they do, they won't find it acceptable for you to break the rules because of your son having rubbish broadband.

Give it no more thought have him work at yours.

@ChocOrange1

I would do that. Alternatively he could pay to upgrade his broadband speed

How do you do that @ChocOrange1? Where my parents has a similar issue, some parts of their village have really good broadband but others have some kind of issue to do with the box that the wires come from. They've been told that there's no way round it so interested to hear of a solution.

@allthatfancypaintsasfair
It may not be possible. I know with ours I wasnt able to log on to work, so we contacted our broadband provider and upgraded the speed, but if you've tried that and said it's not possible then maybe not. You could try contacting a different provider like virgin where they can do fibre optic broadband
I'm no expert unfortunately!

Disciplinary who are these people (employers?). The worlds gone even more mad if we are now taking legal action against people who are doing their best to wfh but encountering infrastructure issues.