Get to work you lazy gits!
Posted on December 3rd, 2010
The ‘Big Freeze’ is supposedly costing the economy anything from £1.2bn to £1.5bn a day in lost work time. I’m pondering instead how much work time is lost to Brits whinging about ungritted roads, wimpish colleagues who refuse to brave the ungritted roads, and feckless children who think snow is another word for ‘holiday’. 
Of course it’s highly satisfying to have a good moan. For those who like to indulge you can read an enjoyable rant here: ‘Our parents were reluctant to skip work because in those days it usually meant being docked a day’s pay. If we were cold, we put on an extra jumper and ran around more.’ Some people don’t get paid these days either. The question ‘Can my boss dock wages for a snow day’ in our Ask an Expert section has had a lively response. The TUC replies: ‘While you should make every reasonable effort to get into work, you should not attempt to travel if it is not safe… If your boss insists on penalising you and colleagues who did not make it in, you should try to reason with him, pointing out that many other employers have ‘bad weather’ policies.’ TiM readers’ almost uniform verdict is: ‘Come off it. Why should you get paid for watching the telly? You lazy git!’ So are people staying home just idle layabouts helping to damage an already fragile economy because of some unseasonal snow? Don’t any of them deserve a bit of sympathy – especially those short of cash and worried about not getting paid? Some people really are trapped at home by impassable roads or train lines judging by all the pictures of mountainous piles of snow on the TV. Others have a note from teacher saying school is out and they are lumbered with their own childcare until the thaw begins. And then there are those organised types who are all set up to remote-work from home. Also, what about those who face an honest dilemma? The commuters who pull back their curtains to a thickly white landscape, listen to the travel news issuing stern warnings against ‘unnecessary journeys’, and genuinely agonise about what to do. Perhaps they’ll just have a long and uncomfortable journey – but perhaps they’ll get stranded in a blizzard on an A-road. In the end, the decision is probably less about laziness than which is the more worrying prospect: the boss and colleagues making snide comments when you don’t show up, or emergency service workers calling you a reckless idiot when your car gets stuck in a snowdrift. (I’m writing this in the office by the way.)
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Tags: Work, Work Lazy
Filed under Financial Tips |