Or not.
In case it has escaped your attention, the weather has been colder than average this week. There´s been snow, sleet and freezing conditions and as a result the country has more or less come to a standstill.
There has been a lot of debate in the news about this. Some suggest that Britain´s reaction to the wintery weather has been an embarrassment. Others say the weather is so out of the ordinary that we can´t be expected to plan for it.
Ultimately this seems to come down to experience. The main reason the nation has struggled with the snow is that we just aren´t used to it. Our drivers – private car owners as well as taxi and bus company employees – don´t often come up against treacherous conditions. Even if there was additional investment in our snow defences there are still many people who would be unhappy to drive.
I´m not suggesting that the situation is hopeless, just that perhaps we need to think of more creative solutions to the problem. The problems on 2nd February caused 20% of the population to stay at home – costing the economy £900 million according to one expert.
I´m not ashamed to say I was one of those 20% – because I did continue working. I can access my business email account remotely, which means working from home is easy for me. Admittedly this won´t be a solution for everyone, but at the very least this might help employees who live out of town – for whom snow is more likely to stop them coming into work.
This could be a year round solution to the problem of transport to your offices. If for just one day a week employees could work at home remotely it might help ease congestion, and may be hugely beneficial to some workers – particularly anyone with families or any form of disability. It´s not just people who sit at a computer typing all day who can work from home; there are schemes in place to allow teleworkers to do their job in their living room.
As I said, this won´t work for everyone, and it´s just one idea. But with gloomy times ahead for the economy can businesses really afford to not consider ways to keep their staff working, whatever the weather?