Can I please get your opinions on the behaviour of my friends boss?

Snow: If you stayed at home will you get paid?

Although I have some sympathy with the mixed messages, she does sound like a bit of a drama queen tbh.

Well, it depends on the context. If she has a history of absenteeism, or others from the same area have got in and she hasn't, I think her manager has a point. It's not unreasonable to expect someone to re-evaluate the situation throughout the day IMHO. After all, if you can't work because you're snowed in in the morning, but then the snow eases, or the roads are gritted, what's your excuse then?

Re the driving - if she was that nervous she should have told him about that yesterday. He then may have been able to pick her up himself, arrange a lift share pay for a taxi etc. It's about self responsibility, really.

She's not a drama queen and neither does she have a history of absenteeism. Having spoken to her, it appears that many of her friends and neighbours in the village couldn't get in, including her husband.

I think what's upset her the most is the fact that he later drove by to check on her, and as a manager myself I feel that this is unacceptable behaviour.

Interested to find out for my friend and myself as to what other companies are doing with regards to wages and time off due to bad weather.

I suppose her boss may be wondering why if she couldn't get in yesterday, and the situation had worsened overnight (ice on roads etc.) how she has managed to get in today, and that she perhaps should have made more effort to get in yesterday?

Did he suggest that staff should re-evaluate throughout the day?

There were a lot of people off yesterday, and many businesses in london sent staff home early because worse weather was forecast. I'm down south, and I wouldn't have gone to work in the pm if I'd made the decision not to go in the am (my husband did get in, but his uni closed at lunchtime). I don't know what it was like in leeds though.

I guess I'm thinking that it isn't unreasonable to decide you're staying at home once you've made the decision to stay, but if your boss has explicitly asked you to reconsider if the weather got better, then it was unreasonable.

In any case, his behaviour sounds a little odd.

I would regard driving by to check as inappropriate myself. I'd be really disappointed that my manager had that little trust in me. That said, I know there are a lot of working environments where the managers do have that little trust in their staff.

I don't think it's acceptable for a boss to drive past an employee's house to check up on them, how intimidating. I wouldn't be surprised if that could get the boss in to some sort of trouble.

In fact, I'd probably advise her to speak to HR.

Also, to beg the obvious question, if he could get in why couldn't she get out?

I think he's not handled the situation in the most diplomatic way but, I have to say, if my business had all its margins squeezed and I thought my workforce were taking the piss then I would have something to say about it.

Of course you're only giving us one side of the story, so it's hard to give an unbiased view.

I think the fact the boss drove past, smacks of him not trusting her. was she the only person not to go in? Has she been off regularly before.? that said, she should have re-evaluated throughout the day. I am off this morning, but am planning on trying to get in later, as the sun has come out now and am hoping there may be a bit of a thaw.

I was wondering that myself. It sounds as though the boss was put out because he/she made the effort to get into work, presumably along with other members of staff, and the employee in question didn't. It could be that other people managed to get in from a similar area as the employee so putting doubt in to the bosses mind as to just how bad conditions were really. I don't think he/she has handled it at all well but it's very hard to tell with only limited facts to go on.

I would probably be a little intimidated by the messages throughout the day, but if the manager could get to her house, then she should have been in work. Living in a small village is no excuse; it isn't her employers fault she lives in a small village, it is her responsibility to get to work. In my opinion, if the office is open then the time should be taken as unpaid or holiday.

She admits that she doesn't like to drive in the snow. She's mid 20's and has a little Fiesta, boss in his 40's and has a 4 x 4 - I know which I'd rather have in this snowy weather!!

Personally, I don't like the fact that he drove past her house. As a manager I don't think it's a professional thing to do - a certainly seems to work well at alienating and upsetting people. Not good behaviour!

Looking at it from another point of view, is it a disciplinary offence would you think? There were plenty of people that couldn't get to work yesterday for one reason or another, and equally plenty that could.

Well given that my boss has a 4 x 4 (new landrover discovery) and she has yet to arrive at the office this morning and I have a Renault Clio and got in at 8.50 I'm not entirely convinced that just having a big 4 wheel drive is the answer, you have to know what to do with it as well I guess. ?

My theory hot down in flames ?

He drove past her house in the afternoon when conditions were probably optimum. Seems strange behaviour to me.

I doubt it's a disciplinary offence in itself. However, if there were issues with absenteeism (which you said there is not, so I guess it doesn't apply) then it could be used as additional evidence.

A lot depends on the size of the company too. When I managed large teams in the public sector, I would have let it slip under the circumstances (assuming the above doesn't apply). However, now I run my own small business there is no way I could let it slip, and I would be very upset that my employee had treated me with so little regard.

Claire, I would suggest that your friends nips this in the bud straight away. She could write/email/speak to her boss along the lines of: "It seems that you think it was unreasonable that I did not come into work yesterday. I *am* nervous driving in snow and this was what drove my decision to stay at home. I am disappointed that you felt the need to text me throughout the day and felt the need to check on the conditions in my village, in fact, had I known you would be coming to my village, I could have arranged with you to have some work brought to me at home."

I'd personally offer to take the day as unpaid leave/holiday, and then ask them for a lift into work in their 4x4 next time it snows (or at least to drop in a 4 pinter of milk when they were next spying on me.....

It seems quite odd to me. If he was going to drive to her village and go past her house, why didn't he offer to bring her some work she could do at home or pick her up?

Just because he thinks the conditions are fine to drive in, doesn't mean that someone who is less confident of their driving ability or their vehicle is going to think the same.

I've stayed at home before because at the time I had a rather old, unreliable car, and I'd rather be stranded at home rather than at work or somewhere between the two places.

I don't think it's that unreasonable of your friend's boss actually. Why shouldn't he drive past her house? Perhaps he was going that way anyway. How does she know that he was going there to check up on her? And if he could get there, the conditions can't have been that bad.

I don't think being nervous of driving in the snow is reason enough in itself not to go in either. She could have called a taxi or made some other arrangement. Also, I don't think it taking her an hour to get into work today can be used as vindication of her point about not being able to get in. Plenty of people travel for a lot longer than that every day to get to their office.

I don't know about the texting, etc. It depends what her job is/how urgent their business is/whether she was able to work from home or was taking unpaid leave.

Did he drive past as it was on his way home / where he was going?

I'd certainly be putting in a complaint about him driving past her house if he has done so purely to prove she should be in. I'd be bloody horrified that someone like that knows where I live (and how did he find this out? Getting such information from HR or using his priviladged position as her boss to get it is not only an abuse of power but unprofessional)

If he felt she should be in but she wasn't, then he should shut up, leave her alone and follow the disiplinary procedure for unauthoruised absense when she is next in the office. He is opening himself up to a wealth of accusations.

WHS - obviously if he had asked her to reassess the situation during the day, then it's a bit different, but if he actively went out of his way to check up on her than that's really not on. How does he know where she lives? Presumably he could get there because the thaw had set in and conditions were better towards the end of the day.

I dont see the problem with him checking up on her. he s perfectly with his rights as an employer to do so.

this whole mass skive thing has really angered me. and so many schools closed in lancashire when one ONLY road was closed, meaning that parents of those children could not go to work and had to stay at home to look after the children. fucking irresponsible, petty, pathetic and ridiculous behaviour of school heads, imo.

Why wouldn't her employer know where this person lives?? Seems to be perfectly normal to me, my boss knows where i live and vice versa. In fact i know roughly were all of the people in my firm live (granted i am in an island but still). We chat about our lives outside work to our colleagues during the day and somewhere along the line where we live comes up.

We've not had anywhere near the amount of snow here that you have had in the UK but even still all our schools have been open (despite the school bus service being cancelled this morning) and people in general have been getting on with it and going (albeit slightly slower and more carefully) into work.

As dooby said, i think its weird that someone is even asking "how does he know her address?".

What exactly is "fucking irresponsible, petty, pathetic and ridiculous" about deciding not to take risks with large numbers of children that you're legally responsible for during school hours? Surely the exact opposite is true?

an employer has absolutly no rights which involve them coming to your house to "check up" on you when you have informed them you will not be at work. As I said before, unauthorised absence can go down the disiplinary route when she returns to work.

In my company HR will not give an employees address out- we discovered this when we wanted to send a card to a co-worker. However I think it makes sense as I have worked for two companies where women have been "stalked"(for want of a better word) by admirers they had rejected.

The decision to close all schools in Birmingham was just that - there were no travel problems in the area for starters. However that decision was down to the local authority rather than individual schools.

I'm probably being naive here Mr Jk but what was the actual risk caused by children attending a school?

I'm actually with Nickj on this i've has my day right royally fucked about by the mass 'skive'

i thought it was obvious. one road only closed due to snow, virtually no snow whatsoever in the county, yet tens of schools closed. that is irresponsible in the extreme. it means those parents who should have been at work couldnt go, hence more economic loss, for no reason. there is virtually no snow in lancashire yet these morons decided to close the schools "as a precaution" and that my old son, is pathetic.

I suspect someone who actually works in school admin can supply much more detail, but two things spring immediately to mind:

1. I believe schools have to maintain a minimum staff:pupil ratio - and if even a relatively small proportion of the teaching staff can't get in, they may not have sufficient staff to cope.

2. There is clearly a significantly greater risk of serious accidents happening in playgrounds and elsewhere, which means that (1) is even more important.

Another point is that this is a judgement call that had to be made very quickly and very early on Monday morning - parents would have been ringing schools to find out what was going on at 8am or earlier. (I know we were). And given the snow situation would have been at its worst at the time the judgement was made, it's hardly surprising that heads (and local authorities) decided to play safe.

See my point above about the time the decision was taken. I strongly disagree with your "irresponsible in the extreme" stance - my own take would be "overcautious in some cases, but with considerable justification."

Just out of interest, have you ever been responsible for the welfare of large numbers of children? I'm guessing not, but it would be interesting to know for sure. (My own experience is limited to a Christmas party with about forty guests under five, and that was hair-raising enough!)