PR battles the Beast from the East!

We look at how PR people throughout the UK are coping with this, actually quite seasonal, weather. Warning: This feature contains tales of fairly uneventful commutes to work!

London correspondents

Someone was seen sort of skiing outside W's offices:

The exterior of @Wcommlondon Towers has gone viral ⚡️ “Someone attempted to ski through London after seeing snow ��”https://t.co/0mvK2XOHZd

— W (@Wcommlondon) February 28, 2018

Meanwhile at Golin they are eating snow:

If reports are to be believed, snow tastes great. pic.twitter.com/d9OEa2obgF

— Adam Libonatti-Roche (@baconchin) February 28, 2018

Frank Marr, co-founder of agency AM+A Marketing and Media Relations: “We haven’t really been affected by the snow so far. One of our team members even just arrived back from Vienna on business and transport went smoothly enough! Here is the view from our office window in Hackney Wick of the Olympic Park.”

Charlotte Stoel, group client services director at agency Firefly Communications: “How exciting to have all this snow. Firefly has three offices (London, Paris and Munich) and we’ve being sending our French and German colleagues pictures of snowy London. It was only a couple of weeks ago that we had pictures of a snowy Munich.

“The snow doesn’t affect work, because we all take one look at CityMapper or the TFL website and make a call if it’s better to work from home or if there is a route in. We have cloud access to all documents and applications, and we communicate across Firefly Group through Skype for Business so can work from any location with good internet.”

Alexander Cook, consultant at communications agency Sermelo: “I found it really uplifting on the walk to work to go past an immaculate Buckingham Palace with a fresh white coating all over it. I feel like the snow makes the hideous temperature drop a lot more bearable personally!”

Regional correspondents  

Simon Turton, owner of agency Opera PR, based in the Peak District: “One of the benefits of having an office at home is that there’s not much of a commute, so I am hardly ever late for work.

“Today, we have had glorious blue sky and then about an hour ago we had a blizzard that descended on the village. This image is not monochrome, but you can barely detect any colour in this wintery scene. I like the way that the snow has given the photo the effect of an impressionist painting, which I think further adds to the sense of the cold.

“My general view about how we in this country perceive the weather, is that, sadly, we’re a bit pathetic. Two days of sun and there’s a hosepipe ban; more than a breeze and it’s a typhoon and four flakes of snow and the country is going nowhere. 

“But, perhaps it isn’t all our fault; if you have listened to the weather forecasters over the last few days and you would think that the world is about to end, especially with phrases like the Beast from the East (really, BBC?) and no wonder we’re all running around like Henny Penny! We need perspective on our generally mild and temperate weather, and we also need sensible, calm and informed weather reports, so that we can all behave a little more like the adults we are meant to be.”

Rachel Knight, account director at PR and marketing agency Maxim, based in Tunbridge Wells: “We’re lucky enough to have a huge garden so we made the most of our lunch break and built ‘Max (im the snowman)’. These days the snow isn’t too much of a problem as people can work from home if they need to. The office is quieter than usual and the phones certainly aren’t ringing as much, but it gives us time to catch up with desk work. We have had to cancel a few meetings which is a little frustrating but it can’t be helped. The stories of people taking three hours to travel a few miles are enough to make us realise it’s the right thing to do. The worst part of the snow is that office dog Alice can’t come in! “

Katherine Wilding, account executive of agency Skout PR, based in Macclesfield: “We have struggled to get into work and we may potentially have to go home early as it doesn’t seem to be stopping! We’re apparently of the edge of the snow showers so it’s coming down full force.”

And from the frozen extreme north!

Angela Casey,  managing director at PR firm Pagoda Porter Novelli, based in Edinburgh: “We are all working happily and the roads get gritted well in Edinburgh, including little pavement gritters – so we are very open.  I just walked in on my usual four-mile walk and it was lovely.

“Though the schools are closed and two of our team are up doing a public consultation for a windfarm in Moray, where they are really snowed in and won’t get home, but they have lots of thermals with them!”

Well done to all you PR UK for carrying on despite a bit of snow. We salute you!