Heavy snow causes chaos for people commuting to work today

The Highways agency is urging people not to travel today unless absolutely necessary. Is it "absolutely necessary" to commute into work today? Maybe not if you are one of the lucky workers who can work from home.

Here is another good reason to enable flexible working - preventing unecessary commuting. Today heavy snow has fallen over much of the country causing chaos on the roads, airports and train services preventing many people from travelling and causing people to be late for work. Doubtless many will either have to leave the office early tonight to ensure they get home in one piece or will leave at the normal time but have a hellish and maybe dangerous journey home.

Not only is this problematic for the individual, but commuting on days like this costs the economy: David Frost, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: "The impact of this weather forecast on Britain will be huge. "It is expected that the lateness and loss of work hours caused by transport disruptions will cost the British economy up to £400 million."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6338151.stm

If workers were able to work from home today, not only would they avoid the hassle and discomfort of travelling today, they could also be working instead of wasting hours on the train/bus/car journey. This would benefit the company who would otherwise be losing a large number of man hours due to people being late for work.

It would of course also be helping the environment by reducing the amounts of carbon emissions, which have probably been partly responsible for the change in weather conditions due to climate change - but I’m no expert - just seems common sense to me.

Written by Anna Kavanagh 8.02.07

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