Is this reasonable?
Discussion
My better half left home at 7.10am yesterday morning to drive to work. She normally leaves at 7.30, but left early to give herself more time because of the weather. About halfway into her journey, she found she couldn't take her usual route as it was impassable due to a steep icy hill. However, not to be deterred, she took an alternative route.
At one stage she got stuck, but managed to get the car moving again and continued her journey. When she got close to her place of work, she found she couldn't get up the road, so she parked about 1/2 a mile a way and walked the rest of the way, slipping and falling twice, injuring her back in the process.
When she got into work, she found hardly anybody there, including her boss. She then phoned her boss, who was very surprised she'd even bothered to attempt to get in, and told her to go back home. She walked back to the car, only to find she couldn't get out of the parking space as the wheels were spinning. She enlisted the help of a kind passer by to clear the snow from around the front wheels, and after a short struggle, they managed to get the car out.
She then proceeded to drive home the long way round, through town to avoid the hills of her usual route. Town was completely gridlocked, so she eventually got home at 11am.
She went into work this morning, and has just e-mailed me to say she's been told that she has to take yesterday as a days holiday or she won't be paid. This has made me
! Surely this is completely unreasonable, particularly as she went to a lot of effort to get into work, only to be told to go home?
At one stage she got stuck, but managed to get the car moving again and continued her journey. When she got close to her place of work, she found she couldn't get up the road, so she parked about 1/2 a mile a way and walked the rest of the way, slipping and falling twice, injuring her back in the process.
When she got into work, she found hardly anybody there, including her boss. She then phoned her boss, who was very surprised she'd even bothered to attempt to get in, and told her to go back home. She walked back to the car, only to find she couldn't get out of the parking space as the wheels were spinning. She enlisted the help of a kind passer by to clear the snow from around the front wheels, and after a short struggle, they managed to get the car out.
She then proceeded to drive home the long way round, through town to avoid the hills of her usual route. Town was completely gridlocked, so she eventually got home at 11am.
She went into work this morning, and has just e-mailed me to say she's been told that she has to take yesterday as a days holiday or she won't be paid. This has made me
! Surely this is completely unreasonable, particularly as she went to a lot of effort to get into work, only to be told to go home?Some people just shouldn't be managers IMHO. What a complete tool. He's just pissed all over any good will that his team feel towards him or the company. Next time he needs someone to work late, or do something out of the ordinary, does he really expect anything other than "f
k off" in reply?
I phoned several of my staff yesterday to tell them not to bother coming in if it was even vaguely difficult. What is the point of someone spending hours getting to work? It's just wasted time. The good will that being reasonable generates is worth way more than the "cost" of someone not being in for the day.
k off" in reply?I phoned several of my staff yesterday to tell them not to bother coming in if it was even vaguely difficult. What is the point of someone spending hours getting to work? It's just wasted time. The good will that being reasonable generates is worth way more than the "cost" of someone not being in for the day.
miniman said:
Some people just shouldn't be managers IMHO. What a complete tool. He's just pissed all over any good will that his team feel towards him or the company. Next time he needs someone to work late, or do something out of the ordinary, does he really expect anything other than "fk off" in reply?
I phoned several of my staff yesterday to tell them not to bother coming in if it was even vaguely difficult. What is the point of someone spending hours getting to work? It's just wasted time. The good will that being reasonable generates is worth way more than the "cost" of someone not being in for the day.
+1k off" in reply?I phoned several of my staff yesterday to tell them not to bother coming in if it was even vaguely difficult. What is the point of someone spending hours getting to work? It's just wasted time. The good will that being reasonable generates is worth way more than the "cost" of someone not being in for the day.
Especially when they get in late, leave early, and spend most of the intervening time discussing (reasonably enough) why they got in late and why they need to leave early.
TheGreatSoprendo said:
My better half left home at 7.10am yesterday morning to drive to work. She normally leaves at 7.30, but left early to give herself more time because of the weather. About halfway into her journey, she found she couldn't take her usual route as it was impassable due to a steep icy hill. However, not to be deterred, she took an alternative route.
At one stage she got stuck, but managed to get the car moving again and continued her journey. When she got close to her place of work, she found she couldn't get up the road, so she parked about 1/2 a mile a way and walked the rest of the way, slipping and falling twice, injuring her back in the process.
When she got into work, she found hardly anybody there, including her boss. She then phoned her boss, who was very surprised she'd even bothered to attempt to get in, and told her to go back home. She walked back to the car, only to find she couldn't get out of the parking space as the wheels were spinning. She enlisted the help of a kind passer by to clear the snow from around the front wheels, and after a short struggle, they managed to get the car out.
She then proceeded to drive home the long way round, through town to avoid the hills of her usual route. Town was completely gridlocked, so she eventually got home at 11am.
She went into work this morning, and has just e-mailed me to say she's been told that she has to take yesterday as a days holiday or she won't be paid. This has made me ! Surely this is completely unreasonable, particularly as she went to a lot of effort to get into work, only to be told to go home?
I wouldn't worry about it at all.At one stage she got stuck, but managed to get the car moving again and continued her journey. When she got close to her place of work, she found she couldn't get up the road, so she parked about 1/2 a mile a way and walked the rest of the way, slipping and falling twice, injuring her back in the process.
When she got into work, she found hardly anybody there, including her boss. She then phoned her boss, who was very surprised she'd even bothered to attempt to get in, and told her to go back home. She walked back to the car, only to find she couldn't get out of the parking space as the wheels were spinning. She enlisted the help of a kind passer by to clear the snow from around the front wheels, and after a short struggle, they managed to get the car out.
She then proceeded to drive home the long way round, through town to avoid the hills of her usual route. Town was completely gridlocked, so she eventually got home at 11am.
She went into work this morning, and has just e-mailed me to say she's been told that she has to take yesterday as a days holiday or she won't be paid. This has made me
! Surely this is completely unreasonable, particularly as she went to a lot of effort to get into work, only to be told to go home?Firstly, the HR Dept who made the ruling are probably unaware that she came into the office so wouldn't have included her if they knew.
Secondly, she was in the office and instructed by her boss to go home. That isn't holiday and cannot be classed as such.
If she's got the backbone to go to work when all else skived off then she should be able to resolve this very easily and without trauma.
Where I work you have to take it as holiday if you’re not there due to snow. If you make it in late and/or leave early due to adverse weather you have to make the time up. The employment world is a strange place… if you have a baby through your own CHOICE you get tons of paid time off, but if you can’t get to work though NO CHOICE of your own you are forced to take it as holiday. My advice to her is phone in sick next time it snows. If it sounds like too much of a coincidence that she’s sick and it’s snowing then she can tell them she fell as she left the house is hurt. On this occasion tell her to go to the doctor about her back. If the tight sods are going to get arsey about one day off then she might as well make it several weeks and teach the selfish feckers a lesson.
If I was your OH, I would simply send an e-mail to HR explaining the facts, asking for this to be placed on your record. If nothing else it is a “file straightener” that can be referenced in the future if things get messy and after the immediate furore has died down. I guarantee that with that on file, the company will back down
However,
If your OH was one of my team, I’d pull them to one side, tell to “accept” the situation and then make an agreement between the 2 of us about a future off-site meeting, working from home, or family issue, or such the like. I’ve done it before for similar things and I’ll do it again. Everyone’s officially happy. Builds the team
Sounds like her boss is a real diamond, and an appreciative one at that.
It sounds very much like she battled in without hesitation, against the rule I give my staff. If you can't get in safely, don't come in. I was anxious about not getting in yesterday as I had so much to do with work that is not currently on our system, so logging on would only give me a couple of hours work. the rest of my team called between 7 and 8am to say they were finding it difficult. They were told to stay home, do what they can remotely and we'll catch up where we can. I would never consider penalising them for something out of their control.
Personally, I would have a word in his shell like.
It sounds very much like she battled in without hesitation, against the rule I give my staff. If you can't get in safely, don't come in. I was anxious about not getting in yesterday as I had so much to do with work that is not currently on our system, so logging on would only give me a couple of hours work. the rest of my team called between 7 and 8am to say they were finding it difficult. They were told to stay home, do what they can remotely and we'll catch up where we can. I would never consider penalising them for something out of their control.
Personally, I would have a word in his shell like.
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