First snow of the year in my neck of the woods and the staff are rebelling. They want to go home. Should I advise the senior managers to let them. Rich

We are in Hertfordshire (Essex borders) and senior team decided that we will close at midday today, and possibly remain closed Monday if the snow is still bad. Staff with longer travel distances have already been told that they can go now. By comparison poor Mr Boulton has to work till 5.30 today. None of the managers have come in at all, but all the other staff have been told they need to work the full day unless they have long drive home. Run it past the senior managers and see what the feeling is. I'm off to play snowballs in a moment so have a good weekend!

Depends what your policy is and what is expected of people concerning both turning up and going home. X does not always = Y (snow does not always mean world ends). Difficult without a clear policy to do the right thing for everyone.

We're in Kirkby, Merseyside. Went out 30 mins ago to measure how much we've had and 3.5-4 inches since about 9am. Suspended FLT movements and staff banned from one side of site already. Other side isn't too bad. Another walkround at 1pm with the view of sending people home as the roads off the industrial estate are snowbound. I and a couple of others will stay longer to ensure place shut down then my 20-25 min drive to central Liverpool will take place (a lot slower than that), but as long as i get home safely i don't care if it takes 2 hrs. Pint/s will then be procured at my local ;)

We have outdoos civils sites in north wales and cheshire, they've all packed up and sent the guys home already. Me, still here till 5.00, bah humbug!

I'm self employed and home based - no problem :-)

Us Northerners are somewhat amused by you Southerners inability to cope with snow!!! ;-)

Eh up Clairel Our Lass as a Tyke myself hope that was not aimed at me?

We require people that don't arrive or who work short hours due to weather to either take holiday or make up their hours, the latter requiring the agreement of their manager with respect to over what programme they will make up the time. No-one gets a free holiday due to snow.

Not far from you and we didn't let anyone go. How is it that when the trains are stopped because of it we all moan, but when it suits are needs we need to go home. I was on my way for a sauna and the local sports centre was closed couldn't believe it. Anyway snoes just started again so I'm off.

Surprised nobody has posted this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11886185 about your rights when taking time off work due to snow.

Why does this country come to a standstill when it snows, you don't get this problem in European countries, Germany have coped for years

Interestingly I read a report yesterday (BBC site I think) that German schools don't close for snow but have closed because of excess heat in summer! We get so few exceptional snow days that we are just not set up to cope. Heard a guy on the radio from Canada talking about the equipment they had but that even one of their cities had been caught out and needed army to help when 1 meter of snow fell overnight!

Are we???

Mostly we're all North European. My son lives and works in Spain - he can't stand the heat from July to August - it's not just him. Most North Europeans can't stand the heat either. So Clairel: I simply love your down to earth posts but I fear you need to backtrack on your comment: Us northerners are somewhat amused by you Southerers inability to cope with snow. Toodly Pip Rich

Just for info, quite a few German schools closed their doors yesterday due to extreme road conditions. Unfortunately the rest of the country just had to grin and bear it so most of us spent the morning stuck in traffic on the autobahns Manny aus Deutschland

On a slight tangent. Whilst composing yet another reply to a "you haven't gritted the staff car park and I am not happy" email, I came across a company website offering every sort of gritting service you could possibly imagine. Looked very professional until they quoted " The HSE 1992 Act (now incorporating The HSE Preventing Slips & Trips at Work 2005 Act" Still, you have to admire their inventiveness! As an exiled Yorkie, I am constantly amused by Midlanders inability to cope with snow!

The problem with the UK is that we have the wrong sort of snow. I believe that a few years ago the head of the Finnish Highways agency was invited over here to give us some advice. He explain that back home that back home in the land of the midnight sun, in winter it snowed and the snow stayed as snow, so the snow ploughs could push it off the roads and then they used diggers to collect the snow off the sides of the road and dump somewhere (In Poland I have seen them dump it into rivers). In the UK the snow soon melts to form slush which is more difficult to handle( it does not form easy to manage piles) but it then freezes again to form ice which, causes a lot of the problems, which then thaws as the temperature goes up and down but stays around about freezing. The Finnish chap essentially said ‘I can’t give you any advice as your problems are different from mine and I’d prefer proper snow any time.’

A Kurdziel - Thanks for your information about the Finnish expert and his comments regarding the UK's snow. Though most people think that the phrase "wrong type of snow" came from British Rail (BR) it was apparently coined by a journalist during an interview in February 1991 with a senior BR manager. Anyhow, the UK's problems with wet snow certainly reflect the fact that the UK's maritime location causes its winter weather conditions to be relatively warm and moist when compared with those in countries such as Finland. (From experience of Finland and Norway in winter I wish I had sufficient time and money, etc. to be able to spend winters in those countries or Sweden where the climate is notably drier as well as colder than in the UK. Also, services and activities such as transport generally continue without interruption because it's easier for people and organisations to adapt to weather conditions which do not fluctuate as they do in the UK.) Another response to terry556's question "Why does this country come to a standstill when it snows" is that some areas of the UK do NOT come to a standstill when it snows. Furthermore, they actually cope well with snow provided that too much doesn't arrive too quickly. However, the coping ability of such areas simply isn't newsworthy. Worse still, it probably contradicts popular misperceptions about snow which national media sources seem to enjoy perpetuating. During my decade working for HSE in Scotland until the late 1980s it seemed to me that Scottish highway authorities were well equipped and organised to deal with snow and ice, even though some of them have large geographical patches with long stretches of road through remote locations and with significant vulnerability to snowdrifts. Also, there seems to be some truth about a North-South divide regarding snow because people and organisations appear to be less prepared and/or able to cope with snow the further south, or rather south east, one goes in the UK. However, to be fair, this is probably because they experience less snow and for shorter periods in their areas compared with Northerly areas. Also, irrespective of area, it seems that people who drive differ considerably in their attitude to snow. Some become very anxious on seeing even a light fall of snow and then either use public transport instead of driving or drive very slowly and diffidently. At the other end of the scale, some drivers put themselves and others at risk by not adapting their driving to reflect the fact that snow can reduce tyre traction and increases braking distances.

I'm a southerner, always been in this lower part of the country but if I got any further south now I'd be French! However, we have an inability to cope with snow down here because we don't get much. If we got snow all the time we would be better equipped to deal with it of course. It's like anything, the more you do it, the better at it you are.