[Closed] Employer actively discouraging cycling to work!

TFL? SouthEastern railways? They both seem pretty Anti Bike...

Could the coat stand be inserted up fat tosspot's rectum, in any way? (eg. sideways)

way to go impressing your colleges in your new job. You've been there a month, and so far, you've identified one as a fat tosspot, other people have complained about your behaviour and you're resolution to this is to carry on regardless?

You must be fun to work with.

Solution: don't take a change of clothing into work. Sit there in sodden, stinking dirty bike gear and see how that goes down in the office.

Find somewhere else to keep your shirts, folded in a drawer? Buy your own coatstand?

Make do with one shirt a week, or take the shirt home and bring a fresh one in with you each day. Shouldn't be difficult.

Sounds like a shit place to work.

I'm drying this mornings commuting kit on the radiator, nobody complained about the noise of the shoe dryer (and a few others have bagsied it after mine are dry)

Take in a fresh shirt each day ? I do this and it's fine.

You could always bring clothes with you! Shirts don't weigh much - I've always brought shirts with me.

I wouldn't say they are actively discouraging cycling to work. It's perfectly reasonable to expect a cyclist to travel with their own clothes tbh.

http://www.firebox.com/product/4435/Shirt-Shuttle

Although I used to roll mine up (top tip for travelling light, roll your clothes up)

In today's modern 'paperless' office what else is your filing cabinet for, if not to house a selection of socks, shirts and underwear.

[img] [/img]
http://road.cc/content/review/48058-commuter-technologies-shirt-shuttle

Eagle Creek Pack-It

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There's no drawer space here for storage. Just a miniscule pedestal with each desk, just about big enough to keep a toothpick.

My solution seemed like the most obvious one.

Although I used to roll mine up (top tip for travelling light, roll your clothes up)

I've heard that a few times, does it really work?

Why did you ask for a coat stand and not a locker/cupboard/wardrobe?

[i]I keep my weeks' supply of shirts at work, hanging from the coat stand.[/i]

Can you not just fold them and put them in a drawer?

Maybe get a suit bag so they can all go in there? If you hang each shirt from the cross bar of the hanger above they take up a lot less space.

I'm not sure having a week's supply of work wear in full view is something I'd want to have in an office.

My solution seemed like the most obvious one.

Can you stick a plastic hook onto something under your desk and hang them off there?

TBH I'd wonder about your capabilities as an employee if you're not proactive enough to solve your own problems and expect other people to do it for you. (NB this is mostly but not entirely tongue in cheek)

I've worked in a lot of offices and never had shirt storage provided. I never asked for it either - just got on with figuring out a system that works!

[i]My solution seemed like the most obvious one.[/i] to you.

but clearly not for some of your colleges...

Look, it's very simple, discuss your requirements with the people that it affects and reach a compromise. Happy smiley faces all round.

No wonder some office environments are seething cess-pits of passive aggression.

flaps - for anything other than things like blazers/Dinner jackets yes, works great.

You can even roll up a whole change of clothes like a swiss roll: socks, in knickers, in shirt, in jeans.

Fold collared shirts in a "classic" shop shelf way first, then turn over and roll up with the collar last on the roll.

Some places just don't see why people would want to cycle in to work.

Place I used to work at had a new facility built; a great opportunity to fit it out as they wished and make it a great place to work.
Requests for a small shower room were ignored by management and all other attempts to make the place cycle friendly were ignored.

It took months and months to get a bike stand approved and they basically bought the cheapest one they could find in the 'industrial supplies' catalogue and plonked it freestanding in the car park with no cover and not even bolted to the ground. Completely useless.

But, none of the management were interested in it. They didn't see it as a way to improve staff conditions or encouraging cycle commuting, even though many staff lived locally.

Annoyingly, at the head office down the road, the financial director at the time was quite a keen road cyclist. They had a nice, covered, secure bike shed and showers were already installed there. Plus, when he decided he'd quite like a new bike the cycle to work scheme got pushed through in double quick time where previously it had been discounted as too expensive to administer.....

You need to just find work arounds, as it's unlikely you will win. You need to remove the reasons for people to complain about 'that one who cycles in'. As most people think you are a complete mentalist for cycling to work, rather than driving.
When i used to cycle 12 miles to work and back, people at work used to talk about it like I was some kind of cycling god; it was impossible to get through to them that 12 miles twice a day wasn't really a big deal.

Reason being is because we do not want to encourage cyclists taking in additional changes of clothes into the office. The coat stands should really only be used for coats.

So not discouraging cycling, just discouraging the office looking like a chinese laundry?

I keep mine in a storeroom near the dissabled toilet (which has the shower in it). Before that I just took a big rucksack in monday mornig with clothes in and left it under my desk, the storeroom just avoids strutting through the office in disco slippers and lycra.

Take in a fresh shirt each day ? I do this and it's fine.

Likewise. Roll it up along with trousers, into a drybag with my other bits and into a backpack. A few minutes of body heat from wearing it is enough for any crumpling to fall out.

I'd be asking for somewhere not in the office area to store (and dry) clothes. I wouldn't want my colleagues to be keeping a week's supply of clothing or drying their shoes on radiators near me either.

Can you not just fold them and put them in a drawer?

Maybe get a suit bag so they can all go in there? If you hang each shirt from the cross bar of the hanger above they take up a lot less space.

I'm not sure having a week's supply of work wear in full view is something I'd want to have in an office.

They won't fit in my drawer - it's tiny.

A wardrobe would be the ideal solution, but I was aiming low. I said I was going to put the coat stand in the far corner, out of sight.

Cycling with my clothes on my back is a pain. It's 10 miles each way, and I find it much easier without a bag. Plus the convenience of having shirts washed and ironed by someone else (£2 each) is the necessary incentive to keep me doing this through the winter months. Not sure why I have to compromise for the sake of a new coat stand that will be kept out of everyone's way. I'd pay for it myself if it was about the cost, but the response seems clear that they just don't want to encourage this sort of thing.

[quote=fanatic278 ] they just doing want to encourage this sort of thing.
And if all your colleagues decided they wanted to have a weeks worth of laundry hanging up in the office?

ut the response seems clear that they just doing want to encourage this sort of thing.

correct. They dont want to encourage someone leaving a shed load of laundry hanging up in an office environment. I thought nickc had covered this bit.

You're really not helping yourself or the cause of cycle commuting with your attitude at all.

I'd pay for it myself if it was about the cost, but the response seems clear that they just don't want to encourage this sort of thing.

They're only objecting to a second coat stand, not cycling.

Could a second stand be too conspicuous where its situated in the office?

I suggest you demand your own office, WITH YOUR OWN coat stand. That'll learn 'em.

Wow! I didn't expect the response to go this way from a cycling community.

A bit of perspective please.

a) I made the request for a new coat stand before anyone had made a complaint.
b) The new coat stand was going to be placed out of sight.
c) I am not proposing to turn the office into a laundry room - it's 4 freshly washed and ironed shirts, usually covered over by various coats. The rest of my cycling gear lives in a box under my (small) desk.

I still can't see why you can't keep them folded in a bag under your desk?

So in summary, you want to cycle in unencumbered, but haven't got space at work to actually do that... so in order for that to happen you think its ok to treat your fellow workers with an attitude bordering on contempt, and you're not sure why you have to compromise, but you're fairly certain they will have to, to accommodate your wishes?

Good luck with your future job hunting prospects

PS it has nothing to do with cycling, and everything to do with your attitude. HTH

the response seems clear that they just don't want to encourage this sort of thing.

I wouldn't want to encourage employees to treat the office as an extension of their bedroom either to be honest.

That isn't anti-cycling, it's just pro-professionalism.

Cycling with my clothes on my back is a pain. It's 10 miles each way, and I find it much easier without a bag.

Get panniers or a post-mounted bag (Carradice SQR)?

Plus the convenience of having shirts washed and ironed by someone else

Ask the laundry to fold them. In my experience, most places will, although some will charge a bit more than they will for hung. 4 folded shirts in plastic bags will just disappear into a small cardboard box under your desk.

🙂

Wow! I didn't expect the response to go this way from a cycling community.

Fuming! I'll carry on monopolising the existing coat stand then - they only have themselves to blame.

I didn't expect the response to go this way from a cycling community.

we all own bikes. It doesnt mean we're all anti social too.*

* except for binners. You cant take him anywhere.

People get very possessive and territorial about stuff like this.

Your new. Your pissing people off. You are on a hiding to nowhere.

You have options:

Store in bags under your desk, you could even use vac packs if there is so little space.

Carry a fresh one in each day. They weigh nowt.

[i]I'll carry on monopolising the existing coat stand then [/i]

Result;

a) your colleagues will resent you

b) a memo will be sent round 'one coat per person on the coat stand only'

and you'll have

a) no friends

b) still nowhere to put your shirts

As has been said repeatedly: Find a solution that doesn't inconvenience your colleagues and doesn't make the office look like you're living there.

Cycling with my clothes on my back is a pain. It's 10 miles each way, and I find it much easier without a bag.

MTFU then. A shirt weighs hardly anything. You can still keep the trousers in your pedestal and the shoes under the desk. With your lock left at work you've got a bag weighing virtually nothing, much less than a camelback with 2l of water in it that you'd take MTBing.

Yes, it would be nice if they'd put facilities in for you but it's not a huge deal really. Your OP did come over rather hysterical, to be honest.

Fuming! I'll carry on monopolising the existing coat stand then - they only have themselves to blame.

No, they have you to blame, you're the one who wants to leave shirts in the office when it's not necessary. Shirt storage is not essential, and you don't have a right to it. You sound like you have a strong sense of entitlement. Guaranteed to annoy people.

You can't ride 10 miles wearing a bag with a couple of shirts in it?
There are several solutions to your problem, and none of them involve your employer...

Carry on with your attitude and you wont need to worry about where to but your shirts but will need to worry about where to find a new job

wwaswas - Member

Maybe get a suit bag so they can all go in there? If you hang each shirt from the cross bar of the hanger above they take up a lot less space.

I'm not sure having a week's supply of work wear in full view is something I'd want to have in an office.

This ^

Suit bag is a fantastic idea, nice simple black one. Not one of the big bulky ones. Just get one off ebay for a few quid. You can then store your spare undies and socks etc in the bottom too and it won't look out of place on a coat stand.

+1 to get a pannier too. This is exactly the kind of thing they were invented for!

Suit-bag-thing? All shirts in one black bag hung up on one peg. Job done.

Knackers - that's what happends when you get distracted by work midpost.

Good luck with your future job hunting prospects

PS it has nothing to do with cycling, and everything to do with your attitude. HTH

Bit of give and take required form everyone ...at his work and this thread.

I work in a very cycling friendly office (shower, good bike rack, boss is a cyclist) and know for certain that if I left 5 shirts on the coat stand at work a quiet word would be had suggesting this is not on. My solution is to bring a suit bad which contains all the shirts along with a suit and undies and hide it in an unused cupboard at the top of the building. Could you find a rarely used cupboard to stash your gear maybe? Or, if you must use the coat stand, keep it all in 1 suit bag so it doesn't take up as much space?

I have a similar length of commute to you, and take a shirt in each day. Our office is a cyclist's paradise. Half the office cycles, we have showers, bike mags in the meeting room, company cycling kit, a secure bike store (x2) etc. you get the idea.

It doesn't mean we want the place to look like a Chinese laundry.

The 4 shirts are in a shirt bag, hanging from a single hook. Currently I cannot even see them beneath the pile of coats, and I'm sitting 5 metres away.

This has got way out of hand. Discussions of my attitude and job prospects are uncalled for.

Moderator: please delete the thread.

Moderator: please delete the thread.

Oh dear! Cup of tea and a hobknob anyone, this could be a long thread! 😀

OP - are you still contracting?

WTF do you need another coat stand for then?

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lol proper flounce.

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Good job I'm not a diplomat then. 😆

As many folk have pointed out, OP attitude isn't helping himself, and as he's been at the work place for just a month, it doesn't look great...

OP, re the "fat tosspot", hope he doesn't read singletrack, eh? 😉

[i] It's 10 miles each way, and I find it much easier without a bag. [/i]

It's not really that hard to carry a bag. I do 20 miles each way and always carry a waterproof rucksack in winter. I don't notice any performance difference on the days I don't carry a bag. It's somewhere else to hang a rear light anyway.

If you have a box under your desk then put folded shirts in that.

You're the one making this into an issue to be honest not your employer. What if everyone in the office wanted their own coat stand?

tbh if someone new at work started and within a month they were hanging their shirts all over the office I'd think they were a little bit nutty.

let alone asking for another piece of office furniture especially for their shirts. Thats just barmy.