ADarkDraconis
Cardinal Member
- Location
- Ohio, USA
Hey there, everyone! I just wanted to rant a bit, got into a discussion about my bike with my boss last night. He was not very open to the idea of me cycling to work. Our conversation started with me letting him know that in a few weeks when we are past the icy roads I would be riding my bike, so I asked him there was a good place I could keep her during the day.
I asked if I could store it in my office (which is very large and no clients see) and he looked at me like I had three heads! "You can't bring a *bike* into the *building*!!! I'm not letting you wheel it all over!" I pointed out that since the offices were right behind the elevator I could just come in the dock door and take it up, carrying instead of wheeling, of course. He thought that was outrageous.
I then asked if I could keep it on the dock (where my last 2 jobs let me store my old bike in their buildings when I commuted there by bike), aside from the main area there are two large unused rooms in my current building. He said, "I am *not* letting you keep a bike anywhere in here! If I had a place for you to park it then everyone would want a place to park their bikes and our loading area would be full of bikes!" (... no one bikes to work here, never has.)
So I asked where he would recommend me keeping it and he tried talking me out of biking at all! "You live so far away! You can't ride your bike all that distance! It'll take you forever and you'll be exhausted!" I pointed out that I only live six miles away (which he thought was an outrageous amount to bike) and not only was shorter than my previous bike commute but even though it was longer than my drive it was still shorter than his. He got all huffy and his reply was, 'Well, you can bring a chain and chain it up to the fence out by the smoking area." (It is a chain-link fence with a guardrail right in front of it. I will have to try something interesting to figure out how to use my U-lock and wedge the bike in there.) I asked if he could guarantee that it won't get stolen. His response was that we are in a safe neighborhood and since people park their motorcycles and they don't get stolen then it must be fine. I pointed out that you need a key for a motorcycle... "There you go, you're always thinking!" he huffed.
I guess I just was surprised at his lack of enthusiasm for my bike commuting and total shut-down of any suggestions. My city is fairly bike-friendly with new bike lanes and sharrows, and many shops have good places to lock up out front. My job is one town over, and is a more commercial town with less office and municipal type buildings but lots of shops and more restaurants per square mile than anywhere else in the US. To be fair my boss lives quite a ways away and his town is smaller, so maybe less bike-common so it may seem odd to him? But we are a 'green' company and I thought he'd be more open to accommodating people being more healthy and environmentally responsible.
My last employers were not super employee-oriented, nor did they care about health or emissions, but they had no problem with me storing my bike. At the one location one other guy also biked to work and we stashed them together, but at the second I was the only one and they still didn't mind. My boss here had a fit when I asked where I could pump after I came back from maternity leave, so I guess I shouldn't be as surprised as I am. However, I get the feeling that if I were 'one of his boys' he would have no problem making sure there was a good place to lock up. Now I also have to pick out different panniers because I had planned to leave them on all the time, but now if it's going to be out by the side entrance next to the bar parking lot next door I will not want to leave them out.
Thanks for letting me vent, everyone. How accommodating are your bosses as far as parking? Do they give you huff about locking up and cast you off to the bar alley as well? Am I being terribly unreasonable? I just got irritated that he implied that it was crazy to even think about bike commuting and would be so much better to drive, and that I couldn't 'bike all that way!'
I asked if I could store it in my office (which is very large and no clients see) and he looked at me like I had three heads! "You can't bring a *bike* into the *building*!!! I'm not letting you wheel it all over!" I pointed out that since the offices were right behind the elevator I could just come in the dock door and take it up, carrying instead of wheeling, of course. He thought that was outrageous.
I then asked if I could keep it on the dock (where my last 2 jobs let me store my old bike in their buildings when I commuted there by bike), aside from the main area there are two large unused rooms in my current building. He said, "I am *not* letting you keep a bike anywhere in here! If I had a place for you to park it then everyone would want a place to park their bikes and our loading area would be full of bikes!" (... no one bikes to work here, never has.)
So I asked where he would recommend me keeping it and he tried talking me out of biking at all! "You live so far away! You can't ride your bike all that distance! It'll take you forever and you'll be exhausted!" I pointed out that I only live six miles away (which he thought was an outrageous amount to bike) and not only was shorter than my previous bike commute but even though it was longer than my drive it was still shorter than his. He got all huffy and his reply was, 'Well, you can bring a chain and chain it up to the fence out by the smoking area." (It is a chain-link fence with a guardrail right in front of it. I will have to try something interesting to figure out how to use my U-lock and wedge the bike in there.) I asked if he could guarantee that it won't get stolen. His response was that we are in a safe neighborhood and since people park their motorcycles and they don't get stolen then it must be fine. I pointed out that you need a key for a motorcycle... "There you go, you're always thinking!" he huffed.
I guess I just was surprised at his lack of enthusiasm for my bike commuting and total shut-down of any suggestions. My city is fairly bike-friendly with new bike lanes and sharrows, and many shops have good places to lock up out front. My job is one town over, and is a more commercial town with less office and municipal type buildings but lots of shops and more restaurants per square mile than anywhere else in the US. To be fair my boss lives quite a ways away and his town is smaller, so maybe less bike-common so it may seem odd to him? But we are a 'green' company and I thought he'd be more open to accommodating people being more healthy and environmentally responsible.
My last employers were not super employee-oriented, nor did they care about health or emissions, but they had no problem with me storing my bike. At the one location one other guy also biked to work and we stashed them together, but at the second I was the only one and they still didn't mind. My boss here had a fit when I asked where I could pump after I came back from maternity leave, so I guess I shouldn't be as surprised as I am. However, I get the feeling that if I were 'one of his boys' he would have no problem making sure there was a good place to lock up. Now I also have to pick out different panniers because I had planned to leave them on all the time, but now if it's going to be out by the side entrance next to the bar parking lot next door I will not want to leave them out.
Thanks for letting me vent, everyone. How accommodating are your bosses as far as parking? Do they give you huff about locking up and cast you off to the bar alley as well? Am I being terribly unreasonable? I just got irritated that he implied that it was crazy to even think about bike commuting and would be so much better to drive, and that I couldn't 'bike all that way!'
Last edited:
I also was not too keen on her being exposed to the elements (and the public) for 12 hours at a time, at home she has a lovely warm shed.
probably won't happen anytime soon, but one can always dream, eh?
