WHEN the UK Government sent out a mobile phone alert to millions of Scots, warning them of the imminent danger from Storm Éowyn, a lot of people thought: What about work tomorrow?
Several businesses across the central belt, where the red warning had been issued for, had already announced their intention to close or were working on communicating to both staff and customers their plans.
However, many had no intention to close.
Many expected staff in the next morning, and failed to communicate any of this directly, effectively, or confidently to their employees, despite the Met Office specifically warning of a "danger to life".
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The Sunday National spoke to two workers, who are both to remain anonymous, about their experience during Storm Éowyn.
'I was driven to work and then told to make my own way home'
SUPERVISOR Leah had been working on the Thursday evening when she heard a siren coming from a customer's phone, and then another, and then another.
At 6pm, the alert had been delivered and staff found it surreal at first, nervously laughing, but then began to question if they should come into work the next day.
"It was hilarious because the last time I'd heard that was for the test that they'd done years ago, but that was the first time we've actually heard it for a reason," Leah said.
"We put it into the manager chat, and one of our lead managers said, 'You know how fast Scottish weather can change', but we were starting to get annoyed on shift because we had never had an alert about it before".
After a regional manager instructed managers to make sure that people get to work safely, including if a supervisor was on shift who wasn't driving, Leah reminded her boss her car was in the garage.
"I said, 'Why don't we wait to see what the weather is like in the morning because then we can have full control on whether we're going in or not,' but she said she would pick me up and give me a lift because she had to get in to do a food order for the Monday.
"She was just scared as well about upper management being annoyed at her."
Fast forward to the Friday morning at 5.30am, Leah checked her phone to see if any plans had changed. They had not and her boss was on her way.
She described: "So we went and opened up emails, but nothing had been sent yet from the regional manager, and we had an email saying our food delivery order was cancelled, which was the only reason my boss really wanted to be in there, to do the order and receive the order.
"I knew for a fact it was going to get cancelled. Big trucks were going to get cancelled. It's common sense, but clearly, management didn't have that."
Leah texted her other three colleagues due to work that day that she did not feel safe, and if they could, to make an excuse as to why they could not come in, telling me: "I was going behind everyone's back, but I didn't care because I wanted to get home. I said 'I'm not safe here' and they phoned in sick".
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By 9am, the lead manager called and told Leah and her boss that they were getting worried but no one in the area could get in touch with the regional manager to confirm stores could close. Leah was still not sure why the regional manager was unavailable, but suspected they were sleeping.
Leah was able to go home just after nine in the morning, before the storm warning came live officially. Her mum came and picked her up.
She said: "The better thing would have been is to tell us not to come in at all and we'll analyse it in the morning.
"I generally think if you get a red warning and the likes of Tesco's, McDonald's, and Starbucks say they are shutting, let us shut.
"There's no need to open. It does feel very money-making."
Later, Leah checked if there was any guidance in the company's risk assessment document, and found one line about bad weather. It said: "In adverse weather conditions, consideration should be given to postponing or cancelling car journeys".
Leah will be paid for the shift she was scheduled for.
'We're not lazy. The storm was serious'
BRIAN was also alerted to the storm from the alert on his phone.
"I already didn't feel good about opening. Then we got the big alarm thing, and I said to my line manager, this sounds bad, right?," Brain shared.
"I said it for obviously my safety, but it was mostly because I don't want to be encouraging people to go and risk their lives and risk the lives of others to go to the gym, that's stupid."
Brian works in a gym, which is one of several across the central belt. Edinburgh had already announced they were to close, as well as one in Glasgow. The other in Glasgow were adamant they would stay open.
Brian's manager told employees: "We are definitely opening all day, 100%".
READ MORE: Met Office says, Storm Eowyn 'strongest to hit UK in 10 years'
As Thursday night carried on, Brian decided to write a note to his manager, urging them to close. As he was, he checked social media to see what others were saying.
"On the Glasgow Reddit, loads of people were slating businesses that said they were going to open. There was a 'name and shame' list going around," Brian shares.
Then he checked Instagram, and on the gym's social media page, they had told followers they were to close.
He was livid. He said: "I messaged the management group chat because I was supposed to be up at six o'clock in the morning to open – and nobody has bothered to tell me if I'm supposed to do that or not.
"So, is someone going to actually communicate with the staff on tomorrow if we're working or not because I shouldn't have to find this out on Instagram."
A couple of the other duty managers also discovered the update this way and told bosses they would appreciate being told themselves.
Hours passed, and at 10pm, Brian finally got confirmation that yes, they were closing.
"When you're up at 6am, 10pm is a really late time to tell me. I easily could have been asleep.
"I just think that the communication part of it was really ridiculous."
Brian added: "Our concerns didn't matter. The safety of us didn't matter. The safety of, honestly, even the people who come into the gyms and use them didn't matter.
"But it's once they saw that reputations were starting to be damaged, they changed their mind."
Brian also suspected that as the gym is a large UK-wide company, the top bosses were unaware of the seriousness of the weather.
"They didn't get the phone warning, and they weren't in a red warning.
"Part of me thinks it's probably the highest ups, who are ignorant to the difference here, and thinking we're being lazy or scared or whatever over a little storm, and us Scots just want to close that and have a lazy day. But no."
Brian is not going to receive any pay for the shift he was scheduled for.
What can the Scottish Government do?
THE Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), Scotland’s largest trade union body, has said: "Workers shouldn’t be left guessing or begging to stay safe when there is an emergency alert system in place.
"A starting point should be the STUC Severe Weather organising guide, and the Scottish Government and STUC joint Fair Work Charter For Severe Weather."
The union highlighted what "proper protections" could be put in place, citing changes the Spanish Government made after 220 people died in the floods in Valencia last year.
The new protections for workers include paid leave for up to four days because of recommendations, restrictions or prohibitions on movement by public authorities, and severe weather alerts.
Richard Lochhead MSP, who was minister for just transition, employment and fair work when the Severe Weather: Fair Work Charter was drawn up alongside the STUC in 2018, told the Sunday National: "We’ve always argued employment law should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament to allow us to have that option.
"What we have done is we have led on the principle of fair work because without legal powers over employment law, the one option we do have is to promote the culture of fair work and try and incentivise that across the country.
"So that’s worked well compared to the rest of the UK, with the number of employers and employees who benefit from the living wage for instance and therefore we will continue to argue we should have the responsibility for employment law."
