Hard nosed b*stard

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by Baph

Personally, I'm very very fortunate.

In the recent past, I've called in to work in person to explain issues, and the return comment was "OK, take all the time you need, we'll book it under compassionate leave, so you'll still be paid. Just give us a call when you're ready to come back."

A couple of days ago, the snow settled a little around here (only 2 inches tops), and I was repeatedly saying how happy I was about getting the chance to ride in the snow. Everyone else kept saying I was mental, but still. My boss turned around to me 5 hours before the end of shift "Your choice, you can either stay & I'll not pay you, or you can go home now & I'll pay you to the end of the shift. I'm genuinely concerned for your safety."

If I was the employer though, I wouldn't be nearly as nice. I'd be saying take it as holiday, unpaid, or work it (be that at home or the office).

What the hell do you do and where can I apply?

Haven't read this tread, but personally yes, you shouldn't have to pay them.

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by petevtwin650

And no refuse collection on Tueday either.

the biffa boys were doing 6-wheel drifting up our road on tuesday

Quick update. Person came in and hardly spoke to me for the day. Well I don't care. I have sent a message that I will not tolerate this sort of thing - everyone else made an effort and got in. I think the real issue was that person had to pay the £7 bus fare. There was a suggestion that I should pay, swiftly rebuffed.

Originally Posted by kwak zzr

Snowed in? Has Royal Mail stopped because of the snow? and dont even start me on schools

Do you know what? Schools just cannot win. On Monday we had a sprinkling of Icing Sugar, you could hardly call it snow. But parents phoned in demanding to be told why we hadn't shut the school. FFS.

The schools are becoming punchbags and it's really starting to p*ss me off. Dammed if they do and dammed if they don't.

Originally Posted by Messie

Do caretakers all own skimobiles or are teachers and students skiving ****s?

Most caretakers live on site.

And thanks for the insult [/quote]

seconded.

Originally Posted by Messie

Why are you so wound up about about school's closing? To anyone with an ounce of common sense we had no choice.

About 3/4 of our 1200 students come by (dodgy, 30 year old, double decker) buses from some fairly rural areas so hopefully wouldn't have even attempted to come in.

Many of the 70+ staff have quite a journey to get in and the police were saying don't travel unless you have to.

So we could've ended up with 300 kids in school with a skeleton staff. Snow and ice on the playgrounds and heating struggling.

How would you have felt if your kids had been hit by an icey snowball because the few stretched teachers on duty were having to deal with the kids who'd fallen and broken a bone on the ice?

We are not babysitters. We aim and want to teach the kids in our care. We cannot do that when a variety of conditions makes it dangerous.

I am confident that all the kids who had one or even 2 days off, often with their famililies playing and laughing and all manner of other good things, overall benefitted more than sitting in cold, damp classrooms.

In the brave new world, parents won't tolerate the slightest harm occurring to their kids in the care of others. Those that complain the schools are closed are probably the first that would try to sue you if they came home with a small bruise.

The kids in your care are a massive liability, and I don't see how anyone could begrudge you the decision to reduce the risk.

Originally Posted by Dave20046

What the hell do you do and where can I apply?

I do IT Support within the Gambling Industry. Unless you're local-ish to Anglesey they wouldn't be interested, but they are still actively hiring - despite the recession.

My last full-time job was an hour and a half train/tube journey on a good day. On occasion it could take up to 3ish hours (leaves on the line, snow, etc).

Now, if you're sitting comfortably in one of the seats, this isn't too intollerable... Just a HUGE drag. More realistically, you'll be one of the sardines standing up. That is until they cancel the train you're on, dump you off at the next stop that they crawl into, send you off to another platform in the hopes of catching the next train. Which gets cancelled. The next train'll be in about 20 minutes. It's packed and there's 2 train-loads of people wanting to get on.

Call me lazy, but I just CANNOT be arsed with that.

If I hear of problems with the trains I cringe, go to the station anyway to see what's going on. I make a decision. If it's looking bad I turn right round and go home, phone in to say it's utterly rubbish so I'll work from there.

As a web developer there's no sane reason on this planet for me not to work from home all the time apart from managers being paranoid about having that iron grip on staff.

My old line manager was great, he'd say ok. I'd be online all day we'd talk on msn. My more recent 'manager' after he left would get the right **** whenever I did that. And for what?

The work still got done. Makes me a little irritated to see these hard-nosed management ideas. These are people you're dealing with, not paid slaves.


I'd agree with the 'make up the time or take a day's leave' scenario. It treats your employees as grown up people.

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Messie

How would you have felt if your kids had been hit by an icey snowball

We just used to get told to duck