what do you do if you cannot get into work due to the weather?

[Marshtit]

obviously you cannot work from home
do you make up time
do you come in early
do you take leave

i offered to work from home in the evening but was told No.
my newish micromanager, micromanages and is quite tough

You'd be put on leave or unpaid I assume.

unpaid is a good idea
micromanager probably would allow that.

I dread ice and snow now. Community nurse and obviously vulnerable/unwell people need seeing regardless, so I just hope the gritters do their job and it doesn't snow when I'm due on shift!

I was out last night, minus 1 degrees and some of the rural roads were hairy to drive on 😖

You should check the policy for Inclement weather
If it’s absolutely impossible for you to get in .. so not possible to drive , public transport not running , no local 4x4 offering help etc then it’s not reasonable to use up your AL , I’m NHS and would not be asked to have unpaid leave or AL .

Annual leave or unpaid leave.

According to the MAT wide email, that was sent 30 mins before we broke up for Christmas, we should book into a hotel close to school, if poor weather is forecast overnight.

Forgetting 1. That costs more that my days pay, and 2. Some of us have young children, who also have to go to their school, back near home.

Apparently, this is on us, as we chose to not live and work in the same town.

We had once where the school opened in a snow weather warning. One student slipped and broke his elbow. Another time, we battled in (over an hour for a 20 min trip, only to have so few students arrive, we were all sent home by 10am.

Can't win, really.

What a ridiculous suggestion, I genuinely wonder about some organisations.

i took public transport today but it took an hour and a half and more than 2 hours to get home,
tempted to do that again tomorrow.

i meant to say micromanager might not even allow that,such is her attitude

I think if public transport is running it's reasonable to expect you to get in.

If you have the kind of snow north east Scotland has seen in the last few days (all schools shut, buses cancelled, amber weather warning) then companies should have the sense to leave the roads as clear as possible for essential services.

Drifting snow has made it impossible to get anywhere at points. But this is rare even up here.

Do you do a job that can be done from home and they don't want you to or something that requires you to be physically there?

My husband is latter and never normally off but as none of their supplies can get in, or products out, even they have done reduced hours/local staff only. Unless you can walk in there's no way of getting there.

Edited to ask why it would be working from home in evening and not your regular hours if can be done from home? Is this just one part of the role you'd make up in additional time?

Could you feasibly work from home and they just won’t allow it or is it the sort of job where it’s not an option at all?

Teacher.

i get up and listen to the radio.
can’t take annual leave or work from home.

if school is closed then I don’t go in.
if not then I look at the weather and make an assessment.

i did once drive 40 mins in bad snow only to be told they’d shut the school ten minutes ago as I arrived and had to drive back.

these days I’m more of a fuck it, if it’s not safe I’m not going in.

I remember years ago when i was a school dinner lady and i went to work it was quite hairy but school was open and they decided to close but we would make sandwiches for the kids that were waiting to be picked up. Fair enough but my friend asked me to stay so that she wasn't alone and like a silly bugger i did. I eventually told her i was going as it was still snowing. It took me 2 and a half hours to do a journey that normally took 10 minutes. My dh kept ringing to check i was ok. The road was so busy because the side roads were all closed.
When it snowed the next time i stayed home.

How long would it normally take you to get there on public transport?

If you normal commute is an hour plus, then I don't think it's that unreasonable to expect staff to anticipate longer journeys due to a very temporary bout of poor weather conditions. By the same virtue in the summer /school hols we all benefit from quieter roads and quicker journeys, it's just part of life that some days it'll be bad and some it will be good.

If you live 2.5 miles from the office, and it took you 2 hours to get home when it would normally take 15-20 mins then that's a bit rubbish.

It’s in our handbook as it’s happened before that several staff can’t get in. The office is up quite a steep sheltered hill from the nearest town but some people live closer so don’t have to negotiate the treacherous hill. You can come in if you safely can, take unpaid leave, owe the company hours to be worked back or take annual leave. On one occasion they opted to close the office completely, order us to stay at home and everyone just got a bonus day off.

We used to pay people but on one occasion we said enough is enough. Member of staff always off if slight snow. I looked at everyone who lived near her and all were in so she was told it was without pay ... she was not a happy bunny.

Is that because they dont deduct pay?

Usually you can choose from the three options you’ve provided.

I manage a big team and our view is that we’d like people to try to get into work but if they genuinely can’t, they can ask their direct manager if they can work from home.

Seems like a lot of people open the curtains, see the snow and think ‘nah, not going in’ but for us, that doesn’t automatically equal a snow/home day. I ask them to give it a go, clear the car and if it’s not safe, fair enough, go back home but just deciding you don’t think it’s safe based on a Daily Mail headline, is not a justifiable reason for not turning up.

We’re in an industry where WFH is possible but as we’re hybrid and have lots of in-person meetings, we prefer people to come in if they can.

When I used to had to travel into the office full time I put all weather tyres on my car which got me through some pretty bad routes where everyone else was struggling but I got past them. I fortunately can work from home now so I don't need to travel in bad weather, but that's what I did.

So you can get to work?

Obviously, therefore you should go to work, or expect to face a disciplinary.

I would expect flexibility of start/end times, with your choice of making up the hours or taking unpaid or annual leave should the working time missed be significant.

If you can't go in for childcare reasons (their school is closed, and there's no other possibilities for care e.g the other parent wfh), I'd expect you to take annual leave or unpaid leave.

I'm confused! Your post says 'obviously you can't work from home' but then says you offered to wfh in the evening?

In the days before I could wfh we were expected to attempt the journey by any safe means.
Making up time for being late wasn't expected but bailing needed to come with proof eg. that trains were cancelled, roads were unpassable. Ultimately, it's us as employees that have chosen where we live and work so not being able to get in isn't an employers problem to solve.

Dunno.

after doing that horrible drive I decided I’d rather face a day unpaid and or a disciplinary than ever face that sort of weather in a car again.

I had to crawl at about ten miles an hour and there were multiple times I thought I’d spin off the road.

i’ll take alive and unpaid and a telling off over dead any day of the week.

Not always If you live in a housing association property you take what you are offered. Same if you have been signing on at the Job Centre

I work freelance and from home, but there is much put upon people presenting themselves. It’s not always easy I’m in a rural area and a lot of colleagues live 15miles + from home along rural roads that arent gritted. Ok from people who live in town but management need consideration.