(Found this in my inbox as I was clearing out before leaving my old job.  Is particularly appropriate given the snowy weather of the last couple of weeks.  Made me laugh.)

 

Quote from the Institute Handbook, “During periods of adverse weather, aAll Employees must make a reasonable effort to attend work..”

A fuller description from one of the scientists…

Q. What is a “reasonable effort” to attend work?

A. This is a grey area. It is perhaps best illustrated by a series of examples. Waking up tomorrow morning, opening the curtains, observing white flakes and getting back under the duvet, is probably not a reasonable effort and will raise the ire of your workmates who sat in 5 mile tailback on the A14 to make it in. On the other hand hiring a team of trained huskies, and trekking over the snow encased Gog/Magogs or the Essex uplands whilst chewing on energy rich dried venison maybe going too far, and will incur ridicule. Strike a balance somewhere in between.

Reasonable
—————-
- if you can make it to Tescos, probably you could have come in the whole way.
- sitting in a tailback for 30 minutes or so.
- scraping ice/snow off the windscreen before starting up on a well salted thoroughfare

Unreasonable
——————-
- flagging down local yummy mummy in SUV on the school run, dragging them from the driver’s seat and commandeering the vehicle to make the journey across the white fields that are the only route not obstructed by abandoned cars.
- sitting in a tailback for three days, only surviving by eating your partners arm and listening to emergency reports on Terry Wogan
- setting our to your car with the words “I’m going outside, I may be sometime”.

Q. On campus green day, is it reasonable to come into work in I will have to burn three times as much fuel as normal getting here?

A. You better had, or you won’t get entered in the raffle. Pick up a few car sharers from the abandoned vehicles on the roadside as you go to guarantee entry.

Q. When would it be “clearly unsafe” to make my journey in?

A. Only you can judge this, but to help you along H&S have prepared a website which will allow you to make your own risk assessment for your individual journey. Remember the Institute has a safety culture. In some cases it will be unclearly unsafe. For instance, if you cannot see the tip of your nose through the snow.

Q. If the snow starts falling later in the morning, I have made it into work and now I can’t get home, will there be any overtime payments?

A. Of course not. We’re being funded by a charity which cannot provide these sorts of benefits. Anyway you should have had the foresight not to come in in the first place.