It's snowing - can I refuse to go to work?

[Deleted]

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As heavy snow affects large swathes of the UK, many people are finding it hard to get to work on Thursday.

Commuters have been warned of major disruption on the road and rail networks after the "beast from the east" brought more snow, with Storm Emma expected to make matters even worse.

So if getting to work is impossible, what are your rights?

What's your opinion

[Dreadstar24]

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What's your opinion

That's totally your decision. If you get fired it's on you. I live in -20 degree weather constantly with consistent snow and it doesn't effect my ability to get to work.

Move to china or russia or some other foreign socialist nation oh wait you all ready are in one.. ha. United Kingdom of Muslim Brotherhoooooood! Alah AHKBAR

infracted - trolling

[StayTuned]

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What's your opinion

As long as it's within reason.

My employer has a special rule that if weather conditions impact (public) transport to a point that your commute would either be too dangerous or above 2 hours in one way, you can do home office without the need for a request.

If your job doesn't allow for home office and weather conditions are that extreme that, again, it would be too dangerous for you to go to work, you can just stay home as if you called in sick.

[Swalload]

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What's your opinion

Where I live during the winter it happens that there are days where it's near impossible to get to work so it's very understandable and expected. But also we are equiped to deal with most of it, your extreme weather is most likely nowhere near my average weather lol. It all depends on the clash between the average vs the special situation, like in the warm states of the US when they get like 2 inches of snow they can't get out cuz no one has winter tires on. Here we drive in over a feet of snow on a regular basis so it takes much more to stop people from going out.

[Lochton]

As a dane, the answer would be, 'how bad?'. Yes, you can refuse to go to work if it endangers your health and others but that'll need to be a lot of snow. And no, you can't refuse just because bad weather makes your drive to work take longer.

[Enfilade]

I live in an area that's on the fringes of "lake effect" here in the US. Almost everyone here has an AWD or 4x4 car here because of the sheer amount of snow we get each winter. I've only ever seen where work "closes" and no one should risk driving through the snow once, and it was last winter when it snowed 39 inches here.

More on topic, you can tell your boss that you don't feel it's worth risking an accident if you don't have a suitable means of transportation (a la the aforementioned AWD cars). It might work.

[melodramocracy]

You're an adult, you can do whatever you like.

[PhantasmagoriaX]

We had a nice snow storm last year where I couldnt make it into work. My job didn't really care cause a lot of people couldnt make it in, I took a PTO day so I wouldnt be short on hours. Snow where it sticks is kinda rare here so it doesnt affect us to bad.

[Armakus]

That's totally your decision. If you get fired it's on you. I live in -20 degree weather constantly with consistent snow and it doesn't effect my ability to get to work.

Move to china or russia or some other foreign socialist nation oh wait you all ready are in one.. ha. United Kingdom of Muslim Brotherhoooooood! Alah AHKBAR

Cringiest thing I've read in a long time.

[Shadowferal]

We have a policy that pretty much states if management can't make it, then no one else needs to.

[schwarzkopf]

Well - you can refuse to go to work because you just don't want to go.

The consequences are that you might lose your job.

The real question is probably - can they sack me for not going.

My answer - they probably won't if you are unable to get to work, but probably not if you just don't go.

[Antiganon]

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What's your opinion

If I would be risking my life to get there, I'm calling out.

Luckily, my job is remote tech support, which I can do from my PC at home just as easily as my PC in the office. I am bringing home an IP phone tonight as a precaution for this same storm about to hit the northeastern US.

My wife does the same, but she can't work from home, she just calls in sick.

Then again, when I worked retail, I led multiple employee walkouts due to bad weather conditions. Enough of us agreed to leave that management had to close the store and send us home with pay (because by state law, when the store closes, you must be paid through the end of your scheduled shift).

[jcf190]

Every reputable place of employment has policies concerning weather. Refer to those policies. Why are we speculating?

[Sunseeker]

Lets assume that the forecaster has put out some warning along the lines of "If you go outside you might die!"

I would think that, if your employer terminated you over that, you might have good standing to sue.

Are there legal protections around that? Depends on the country, in the US I'd say no. Doesn't mean you don't have legal recourse, it just means there's no established legislation on the issue.

Your employer is typically paying you to do work, not risk your health or safety or damage to your property. If the weather conditions are significantly hazardous, and asking you to travel to work is asking you to risk your life to say, flip some burgers or file some papers, again, you may not be covered by a law, but you may have legal recourse if terminated.

Though I doubt this affects anyone with a job of any significant standing. I'd probably quit any low-paying job as fast as they'd fire me if they demanded I come in under life-threatening conditions. I mean, imagine getting fired for not showing up to McDonalds during Hurricane Harvey!

[Endus]

Usually, the police will issue a warning if roads are too dangerous to safely travel on. It's not an order, just a recommendation, but it gives you grounds to say "they're saying it's not safe, so I'm not coming". If they haven't, then get your ass to work.

[Puupi]

There was this news yesterday (?) about a Finnish woman living in Scotland, she was laughing her ass off when her town went on lockdown due to having 5cm snow and -5c. All schools and businesses closed.... driving not recommended. People were also recommended to stay indoors.

She was walking around the town thinking "you got to be kidding me".

[Deleted]

haha a little snow and you can't go to work?

[Hiricine]

If you go under the assumption the high snow months are January/February/March, you might be led to believe that driving in the snow is actually safer than driving without it.

https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api...ication/809855

Best Data I could find on this, but it suggests (pg 8 is best) that the highest fatality months are summer months and "holiday" months, when more people are driving (if you allow for December as a "snow" month, which it mostly isn't, its still outnumbered by quite a few non-snow months).

I don't think you can make an argument for safety that its unsafe to go to work in winter weather, at least not by any metric that doesn't apply greater in summer months. Of course, the argument that its overly inconvenient to be traveling is another story, or more risk for vehicular damage (as compared to death)

[Saraza Starclaw]

Snow in some parts of the UK is considered an extreme weather event because it happens so very rarely. We don't have the infrastructure, or the practice, to cope unlike places in northern Europe or snow prone areas in the USA who face snow on a more regular basis. I live on the south coast of the UK and we might see snow once every 7 years or so. We got dusted today with about 1-2 inches and its shut everything down, all public transport is gone and roads are pretty treacherous with cars being abandoned.

Another thing to consider, if the area you live in has a red weather alert and you drive your insurance no longer covers you.

[Dr Assbandit]

That's totally your decision. If you get fired it's on you. I live in -20 degree weather constantly with consistent snow and it doesn't effect my ability to get to work.

Move to china or russia or some other foreign socialist nation oh wait you all ready are in one.. ha. United Kingdom of Muslim Brotherhoooooood! Alah AHKBAR

I love reading comments like these because they remind me to thank my parents for an education and also how sane and adjusted I am . You should definitely keep up comments like these both online and offline since judging by your comment history im sure it's going to work out just splendid for you in the long run .

OT: If the snow is way too hazardous to make it to work then your company would have a policy in place for storms since they are liable to be litigated if they rack up an accident count by people on their way to work.