10-minute travel

What say you on the issue below?

WHEN you give someone an inch, he’ll take a yard, so goes the saying. No, we’re not talking about fat-cat bankers. Nor about MPs whining about how the expenses scandal has reduced them to nothing more than petty accounting clerks.

It seems that some British bureaucrats have not learnt their lesson as far as thieving from the public purse is concerned.

The expenses furore has hardly died down, and already there are reports about a municipal council dishing out thousands of pounds every year in what is known as the “lift allowance” – this beggars belief. Imagine being paid for “travelling” time – from the office building entrance to the work desk – for the past 20 years! The workers must be laughing all the way to the bank. For all we know, it could have been one of the most flagrant abuses of public funds.

It doesn’t matter that the allowance is under review by the Rochdale Council’s Municipal Office. The burning question is: Why was it paid in the first place?

The argument that old, creaking lifts have caused staff to clock in late on their own floors despite arriving on time at the front door hardly holds water. And the fact that they have been claiming expenses for “lift time” of up to 10 minutes – from the ground floor to their floor – makes a mockery of the whole system.

To put it simply, they’re been paid extra for “travel” expenses just because they spent five to 10 minutes standing in a lift.

It’s amazing they can sleep at night with a clear conscience, knowing that all they had to do was to wake up earlier and get to office in good time.

Well, it’s easy to blame the rush-hour traffic, train or bus delays, the slow-moving lifts, the high floors, literally everyone and everything – except themselves. The point is, wherever you work, the golden rule has always been that you’re at your desk at your start time, not walking through the doors or at the bottom of the lift.

In other words, your coat must be off, coffee made and computer booted up. How long it takes you to get there is irrelevant. If there are anticipated delays, leave home earlier.

Hence, lift travel to the work floor must be counted as part of the journey, just as much as getting to the office building itself.

Get real. Earn your wages, not squander taxpayers’ money on ever more obscure expenses.

Perhaps one way is to leave a tad earlier and arrive at your desk in good time. And instead of standing waiting for a lift, you could do a little walking to keep fit – by climbing the stairs if your office is on the first few floors. After all, the whole point of turning up at work is to arrive early enough to be at your desk, department or station, ready to start work at the time given.