PA FORUM
SNOW
PA Panel
Let us know what you think by
emailing cora@executivepa.com
“Snow. Every child’s dream, every working parent’s night-
JOKE
mare! Treacherous road conditions, school closures and
disrupted transport services – it becomes hard to balance
work with home.
“I am in the fortunate position of being able to work
from home if necessary. I have the laptop, broadband
As snow was the order of the day for
and mobile phone, but somehow it can feel as if I should
parts of December and January we
have ‘made the effort’ to get to the office. Despite being
logged on for longer than I normally would be I can’t
find out from our panel how their
help feeling that I should have tried that bit harder…
companies handled the issue of
“But then there’s the childcare angle, even if I
could get in, if school is shut what do I do with them? It’s a difficult issue
snow-related absences
and of course there are always the one or two people who will use the snow as an
excuse just to not come in.
In the first week of January, as many people were “Luckily my firm has a very flexible working policy allowing staff to take holiday
returning from their Christmas holidays, the snow some- in hourly segments so if I feel I haven’t put in a full day I code a couple of hours to
what scuppered efforts to make it into the office. holiday without using whole days in January!
According to FirstCare, almost 14 per cent of the entire “I am lucky to have a very understanding boss who has school-age children, so
UK workforce stayed at home on Wednesday 6 January he faces the same issues when the weather is bad. Personally I would not want to
due to adverse weather conditions, rising to more than 15 put myself or my children in a situation of being stranded or having an accident,
per cent of the workforce on Thursday 7 January – more when I can do what needs to be done from home.”
than has ever been seen before. But, with the estimated Karen Bateman, PA to the Head of Facilities Europe for KPMG
direct cost to UK companies exceeding £2.2billion,
British firms will be looking to ensure workers do not
use the snow as an excuse for not turning up for work.
E
“Wearing the boots I climbed snowy and icy Point
Lenana, Mount Kenya to 16, 355 feet on, I set off for the
30 minutes walk to the station on un-gritted side roads.
It was fine walking on powdery snow but slippery on the
journey home when it was dark. Transport was either
severely delayed, cancelled, or at a total standstill with
some workers unable to reach their mode of transport
due to the conditions of the roads.
“At The National Gallery staff are encouraged to
make every effort to get into work. Depending on your
position employees of some companies can work from
home. However, on return, work has to be prioritised and sorted through.
“There may be those who take advantage and not try to get into work but that
will be on their conscience. Many parents have no choice but to stay at home if their
children’s schools are closed.
“At the end of the day, it is businesses that will lose out on revenue with the
Federation of Small Businesses estimating that if one in 10 staff were unable to
make it into work, it would cost the UK economy at least £600 million a day.”
Caroline D’Souza, PA at The National Gallery
42 » www.executivepa.com » Feb/Mar 2010
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