As snowbound Britain gets back to work the truth about why so much of the country ground to a halt is starting to emerge: skiving.
A survey of 2,000 workers by the onepoll.com has found 12% admitted pretending to be unable to get into work because of the snow. So if you have any skiving to confess, then step this way …
Of course, many people genuinely couldn't get to work, and many others had to stay at home looking after children after thousands of schools were closed. But some of those absentees were unabashed skivers, even though the London mayor, Boris Johnson, said the snow was no excuse for a mass skive. Clearly, many simply ignored him.
"Great day in the snow before it all melted – it felt really relaxed just like on the weekends, yet with an extra edge of 'bunking' off," said the suitably anonymously named Louise Smith, on the microblogging site Twitter. Craftybird from Tottenham confessed to "A hard day of bunking off in the snow followed by steamed toffee pudding and custard = bliss!"
The TV presenter Phillip Schofield was stranded in Oxfordshire leaving his co-host Fern Britton to present Monday's This Morning progamme alone. He posted a picture of himself making a snow angel with the caption "am spending enforced day off working tirelessly".
Piehead, from an unnamed advertising agency in central London, said he or she is back in the office after taking part in London's mass skive. "Actually the day turned out into something of a spontaneous party, after a couple of intensive hours competitive snowman building (hats off to the team that built the full-size igloo!).
The workers of Clapham did what anyone would while "working from home" – and went to the pub.
Many of those left in the office were understandably resentful. Katie Foster, from Cambridge, complained: "The snow is crap here. A light dusting. Yet people from night shift are bunking off claiming they've been 'snowed in'! >:/"
While others were left working from home. "The combination of internet and being self-employed takes the fun out of bunking off because of snow," reports Tim Diggins.
And as for the rest of the week, the weather forecast sounds tempting to Charlie Morgan: "More snow tonight, collective skive tomorrow? he asks.
Have you been "working from home" this week? Are you now or have you ever been a member of the mass skive?
