I think four day weekends should be the norm.

10 days of work in 8...

Kinda forgot that Easter's a bit more than a normal Bank Holiday weekend, so nipped down to B&Q, wondered why the carpark was so empty, walked up to the door... ah... closed.

Ok, I'll nip over to Tesco's... ah... closed...

Apart from that... no rain today! 🎉🥳

And.. yours?

Boss is off. Everything is chill.

So, wait, you were working in an office. Then COVID and remote work. Then fully remote. Then they move the office. Then they demand that people now return to the office?

That is constructive dismissal right there, unless you have a mobility clause in your contract. Even if you do, you could make an argument that it’s constructive if the mobility clause hasn’t been exercised before.

Seek legal rep. IMHO, IANAL, this is an offer of redundancy if I ever saw one.

Ah, but that's assuming they actually know or care how to properly run a business.

Why think about the long term when short term profits can be made?

Then use that as an example of how they instigated change and increased profitability in the company to get an even higher paying, more powerful job elsewhere. By the time the repercussions hit it doesn't matter to them.

Risky if you end up with too many leaving or it's mainly the most experienced ones that leave

If you were hoping people would quit, this is what you'd do. Time to organise, eh?

After moving the office about 100km away a while ago my employer has now issued a formal return to office order and at a very short notice. I intend not to comply and am encouraging others not to as well. Got an interview lined up later in the week too.

Tbh if they hadn't moved the office so far I would probably have been ok with going in. But I can't cycle 100km so they can go fuck themselves.

Finished building my "built-in" 3x Ikea Pax wardrobes...

Put the bed back in the room... the drawers open most of the way, but not fully... ffs.

Apart from thst, got out of the (home) office to see some colleagues at a customer's site... I miss the days when I was doing that job...

So, all in all, a little bit down... but, hey, the clocks went forwards which means summer's on it's way

And how did yours go?

I needed to travel for work, which I’m not at all keen to do these days. I never sleep well in hotels, so the weekend has mostly been recovering. I did get my car washed and various bits and pieces done in the garden, so that was nice.

Busy, but good. Oldest got a couple of offers for degree places next year, so she now has some solid choices. Got a callback for the one she really wants, so she’s happy.

All the (4) kids were part of a Stagecoach production last night - I swear someone was cutting onions in the theatre!! Got home late and lost an hour overnight so was in a rush to get youngest to a birthday party.

Cleaned out my car, after getting a £90 quote to have someone do it. I wasn’t even trying to negotiate but I spontaneously started to laugh and said “if that’s where we’re starting, we are wasting each others’ time” and then left. £90?!?! I mean, yes, kid cars get rather mucky, but come the f*** on! I was expecting £30. Took me a couple of hours and now it’s as good as new. I would have accepted £15/hour but £45/hour is a good wage so I was happy about that.

Landed a new job back at my old company (I joined a scale up turnaround and it didn’t turn-around, so lost my job and had to go looking again). It’s not 110% what I wanted to do - going back - but in this economy I know I must be grateful to have work at all.

Also, my most rage-inducing pot hole in town has FINALLY been fixed. Only took the council 4 months. So that’s a celebration if nothing else.

Hope everyone else is doing fine.

Good, hopefully yours too

You can also be called if you have been a UK resident for 5+ years, even if not a citizen (in Scotland at least).

mmm sadly true, some selection bias for those who crave dominion over the freedoms of others. Again, average citizen does make you wonder

It's not really the average citizen I'm worried about. The extremists always turn out to vote, and they'll always turn up for jury duty. Any chance to impose their views on someone else's life.

"Oh no, other people!"

I hear you though. The average citizen's voting habits does make you wonder.

I've been called, my boss wrote me a letter saying the business couldn't do without me and I got a deferral to a later date.

The later date was during my honeymoon, when I told the court that they said don't worry about it, might call you later, might not.

My husband got called a few years later and did go. There was like 24 people sat around waiting most of the time and they picked 12 of them randomly for each case as it happened that day.

You get expenses covered, you get a small fee for food and such, and yes it is a requirement that you attend if summoned by a court for jury duty, unless you give them a good reason why you can't.

The fee doesn't depend on what case it is, the crime or the profile of the case. It's civic duty to our society, not a platform to launch into fame 😁

Bear in mind that if you don't do it, the cases will be decided by people who do.

https://www.gov.uk/jury-service

Not sure a song lyric counts as evidence.

The UK is nowhere near perfect. It still can be scary for minorities. Police brutality does exist. But incidence per capita is considerably lower and the incidents that do occur are considerably less deadly compared to the us. The UK is more tolerant to minorities, but still has a lot of work to do. I've lived in the UK my whole life and have seen it gradually improve over the last 40 years, but I'm looking forward to seeing it go further. There are guns here, but not like the us. Police don't carry guns generally and the vast majority of the population aren't allowed to own a gun. Only highly specialised police units get guns and they get wheeled out as a last resort.

Consent? I hardley knew him.

Does the same type of incidents (police brutality) happen to minorities in Britain?

No. They face a whole other bag of different types of incidents with the UK's institutionally racist police forces.

They're generally not shot at or murdered by the police. Generally.

This is probably better evidence than a 35 year old song lyric.

Yes we have our issues, as does any country, but the US is way out there in terms of police brutality.

UK police are trained to a higher standard than they are in the US

This is true, but it's also a fundamentally different standard. De-escalation is much more prioritised in UK policing, and the whole idea of policing by consent doesn't seem to be a thing in the USA.