How do your colleagues react to your cycling to work ?

[Rig of Jarkness]

I'm prompted to ask this by the following comment that was made in The Great Fluorescent Clothing Debate - "our f***witted colleagues at that water cooler".  I have to say this startled me.  True, when I started work, in 1987, I was aware of a certain friction towards the few of us who chose the bike as our mode of transport.  But my more recent experience is very different.  Yes, we're still very much in the minority but the official line from management is one of encouragement and the overwhelming attitude of colleagues is one of genuine interest and, indeed, praise.

What is the experience of others on this forum ?

For the record, I've always worked in IT departments, initially for a large engineering company and latterly for a couple of well known Edinburgh financial institutions.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

There are 6 or 7 of us in my building who cycle in, so I'm not viewed as a lone nutter, but generally it's a sort of mix of admiration, pity, confusion and lack of understanding.

[anth]

I'm the lone cyclist, but have been for about 5 years now, so it's basically accepted that I will ride the entire year, no matter what the weather is doing. The looks of shock and pity have pretty much disappeared.

[gordon taylor]

I'm tolerated, but seen as a freak, especially in bad weather.

I work in a midlands school (a "Specialist Sports College" FFS) and only two of us cycle out of about 60 full-time staff. I think part of the problem is that we have quite a lot of free parking so it is easier for most people to just bring a car.

The management is keen, and have supported my bids for cycle parking and training, but it's all a bit tokenistic. (Is that a word?)

Many children cycle to school, (very few are driven) but they have recently been subject to a lot of well-meaning crap about lights, hig-viz and "keeping out of the way of" cars on the school driveway. The mantra "cycling is dangerous" permeates the brain cells of every non-cycling adult in the organisation.

I make a fuss occasionally but am seen as a bit of a nutter with a death wish.

[Captain Zep]

When I wear cycling longs to work in winter I've had people mutter, "Oh for f**ks sake" when I pass them on the stairs.  I don't dare wear my cycling cap until I actually get on the bike because of people passing comment aggressively.  These are people I don't know incidentally.  I've lost two cycling caps because when I have dropped them on the stairs (because I don't dare wear it until I get to my office) someone has put them in the bin rather than hand it in to reception.  I tend to leave my lights attached to the bike in the winter as the bike shelter is very secure and right at the office's entrance, but yesterday some funny person switched my lamp on and the batteries were almost flat when I came out at 5pm. 

I find that people who work in my building but I don't know by name are remarkably hostile to others cycling to work.  You'd think that I has running over their children and violating their grannies the way some of these dinosaurs carry on. 

[Regulator]

The advantage of working for the NHS is that cycling is officially encouraged.

We have showers and lockers, and they've just spent £20,000 building secure cycle parking - and in doing so took out three car parking spaces.  They don't yet do Cyclesheme but the pressure is growing.  They have no objection to me promoting CTC at work.

We have one Mr Toad in my office - he's an ex-Formula 4 driver - and when he started whinging about cyclists the boss told him to shut up and the others started pointing out how poor the standards of driving atound Cambridge are.

As well as being pro-cycling, work is also big into car-sharing.

[gordon taylor]

I should add that Stafford is a traffic hell-hole at the moment due to roadworks in the centre, new lights on the ring road and the station carpark being closed for months.

We've had trouble starting our day properly at 0845 due to car-bound staff being stuck in traffic... yet the bicycle is still seen as a problem rather than a solution.

I'm baffled.

[Ivo]

A completely different situation here. About half the staff cycles to work (if not more). Not only postmen but also part of the indoor workers. Most live within the city itself. That's for the post office in my town.
A different situation when I worked at the sortage centre about 130km away, most workers from further away came by car, but still quite some by bike (mainly living in the town next to the industrial park). I was the only one from further away using train & bike. At least during the last period when I was the only one from my area coming.
Using postal cars for the trip from the southern post offices to the sortage centre was encouraged. For the first year in Den Bosch I joined colleagues travelling to the sortage centre by car. Later on, when I was the only one from my town continueing to go to Den Bosch, I took train&Brompton. The shifts in Den Bosch were even adapted so that those coming in from the south could start earlier and head back before the traffic jams on the motorway. I was the only of the postmen borrowed to the sortage centre working standard shifts. My direct boss couldn't understand. He was behaving like I was a nutter causing problems. The manager found it a good solution that I used train & Brompton.
BTW at least twice a postal car was crashed into a barrier when the driver fell asleep after the x-th nightshift.

[FatBloke]

A few people at work have been astonished that I cycle "all that way"^* , every day!  

I work in an office of about 140 souls. I am the only one who cycles every day. Another bloke brings in his carbon Giant when it's dry and there's a girl who cycles occasionally. That's about it.


^* 2.2 miles.

[rower40]

There is major conflict raging at my workplace.  There is nowhere near enough car parking for any of the 5 buildings, spread randomly around a huge business park.  So once the motoring co-workers have arrived in the morning, they then walk from one building to another as that's safer than losing their car-parking space.  The ones who arrive when all the parking is taken have to park at a local hotel, or the Park-n-Ride.

The roads on said business park lock solid at 5pm each evening, and whenever there's football on.  All said roads have 4-m wide dual-use pavements, usually separated from the road by a wide grass verge.

I bike 3 miles in, shower and change.  If I need to visit another building, it's a 3-minute pootle (in my smart clothes therefore taking it easy), rather than a 10-minute walk.

Several train-commuting colleagues have asked me for advice on bringing a bike on the train.  Some are even considering the 2-bike method: leaving a bike at the local station permanently, and using that for the trip from station to work (0.75 mile), as then they've got transport for going into town at lunchtimes.   I've spotted 4 different Bromptons on various occasions - not bad for a building that only has 80 attendees.

The other cyclists and I are in SMUG MODE^TM.

[GruB]

I am seen as a nutter with a death wish also.  A couple of others cycle, but not throughout the year and nowhere near as far each day.  I often attend meetings at different stations and will always be asked "Did you cycle here too?"

[Rig of Jarkness]

My reply was "Why the hell are you telling me about this? Do you whinge on to everyone at work who drives a car everytime you've seen a driver doing something you don't like?"

Yes, quite !  As my dentist used to say, before launching into one of his customary monologues about cyclists, "If the cap doesn't fit, don't wear it".  At least, I think that's what he meant.

[Julian]

They're not all that keen on the cycling clothes, but generally more positive than not. 

[tonycollinet]

Mostly grudging respect - with a certain amount of friendly piss taking.

[MSeries]

My colleagues really don't care what mode of transport I use. Never any comments passed by them or anyone else in the building. I part my bike in out office and walk past the other offices in the building, occupied by other companies, ready to ride. My management don't reside in the same office but when they visit they don't make any comment either, except maybe passing the time of day type comments.

[Jacomus]

Mine think that I am a nutter and there are the obligatory comments about cycle clothing, the same as RJMcB.

When I wear cycling longs to work in winter I've had people mutter, "Oh for f**ks sake" when I pass them on the stairs. 

[her_welshness]

I used to work in a building where approximately 40% of us commuted in by bicycle, on a regular basis. About 30% of the lodgers that rented space from my ex-boss also biked in, but then again it consisted of a bunch of urban designers, masterplanners, engineers and architects, so preaching to the converted 

[Pancho]

I've never had a negative comment or vibe from colleagues in 20 years of working.

The issue I find in a management context is that by riding a bike you are declining to use the symbology of power and position that, at least in provincial companies, is the motor car.

This can't be easily dismissed - at a certain level in an organisation of any size then everything is about politics, relationships and symbols. Fortunately, where I've been, there seems to be an acceptance of the "eccentric" and, if you're happy to wear that hat, then you can get away with a lot - including riding a bike to work.

Boris Johnson is probably a good example.

[FatBloke]

Mine think that I am a nutter and there are the obligatory comments about cycle clothing, the same as RJMcB.

When I wear cycling longs to work in winter I've had people mutter, "Oh for f**ks sake" when I pass them on the stairs. 

A swift punch in the mouth usually sorts that! 

[Palinurus]

Generally OK now. The company is under new ownership, they like employees to cycle to work- as long as no-one needs to do much to encourage them to do so. There are four of us out of about 150 employees.

The old Technical Director often made comments about me hanging cycling clothing in the cloakroom in the gents, however ignoring him worked fairly well. No-one else gave a toss.

Once the company received a Queen's award for the environment (for doing something that was legally required anyway). Some nob with a sword visited to present it to the management. The TD insisted my bike was hidden in a garage as it was "cluttering up the place". At the end of the day I had to hunt the bastard down to get the key. There were other incidents etc.

I miss him in a way. I liked being able to annoy him just by turning up in the morning.

[ian]

There are several cyclists in my office, so it's not seen as that mad - heavens, we have pet fixie riders who spend their evenings orbiting Hoxton Square waiting to be it hit on the head with something trendy.

That said, as a cog in the machinery of modestly senior management, I suspect it's viewed as a slight eccentricity in a same light as minor transvestism or kleptomania. I do have one colleague who always, sotto voce, advises me be very, very careful as I leave in an evening. Like I am heading out to fight dinosaurs with a feather duster.

It does figure more highly in client meetings. Though never nastily, and again it ticks all the minor eccentricity flags - especially with Americans - and makes for the usual conversations about car drivers and my tenacity in the teeth of that ferocious English weather (but it's drizzling!). I don't do the lycra thing, so generally you only know I am cyclist by the dangling safety bonnet and slightly windswept appearance.

Pancho sums it up. I am become Boris. Oh my. Not a toff though and I don't have a fringe.

[John Henry]

A lot of people cycle at my place, and as there's not enough car parking it's officially encouraged. And it's a public sector organisation, so it probably feels it has to put its money where the government's green mouth is. So good cycle parking, showers, lockers, a communal repair kit, a cycle loan scheme etc. I don't know what the figures are, but at a rough guess I reckon cyclists would be around 10-15% of the workforce.

Colleagues react generally positively, and any 'you must be mad' stuff is made in the spirit of harmless banter. A few people occasionally trot out the tired old moans, but the cyclists around are generally confident enough to give as good as they get.

Contrast this with a friend of mine, who was asked not to cycle to work, as having bikes around the site would lower the status of the company of the eyes of its customers. He was also warned that it would affect his career prospects as he would be seen as less professional than those who drove flash cars. To his credit, he ignored this advice.

JH

[Cudzoziemiec]

When I was teaching in Poland, I don't remember anyone other teacher and only one or two students cycling in any of the schools I worked at. But equally, nobody minded at all. I always used to park my bike in the "teachers' room" or "social room" (where the tea and coffee are) and nobody complained.

When I was editing, one other person said he was going to cycle in once he'd moved house and got his bike out of the cellar, but I left before he did that. Still, we had a cycle rack in a locked car park which only the top bods got to park their cars in. I think someone once passed comment on my long legging things one winter's day, but it was more ribald than animositive (shit, what is the adjectival form of "animosity"? Brain failure!)

Here in India, I'm again the only cyclist out of about 250 employees, though I know many employees of the other companies on our "business park" cycle. They work for companies like IBM and Microsoft (I work for a completely different firm which has somehow found itself on the same development). One other guy asked me for advice about buying a bike (and then ignored it, but I think he's happy with what he's got, so that's ok) and was going to start cycling once we'd moved office, as was one woman, but neither of them have. Perhaps they were put off by my crash and hospitalisation which unfortunately coincided with the move, but I don't think so. I think a bigger factor is the free cabs Indian employers provide! No one regards me as strange though, and there's no animosity.

But eccentricity is definitely a factor - when you're A Foreigner you can get away with a lot more, especially when you're A Crazy White Man (or Woman) in India. And the English have a reputation ofr eccentricity anyway, though I'm not sure why.

[Marco Stefano]

Mostly fine; some cyclists in our dept., but they live 45 miles away in Norwich. Some cycle to car-share from a supermarket carpark.

Covered bike racks available (wheel-benders, but you can't have everything...). Two other irregular cyclists on Ambrosios, but I don't know who they are. Work is about 4 miles away from anywhere, and 20 miles for me each way, so lycra is the order of the day. Good showers & a drying room available, and cycle to work scheme up and running.

Off the bike, sort locks, lights & luggage, stripe through barrier and then put on helmet, hi-vis and safety glasses to walk 150 yrds across site; get some strange looks & grins then. Safety culture is paramount; still waiting for a "discussion" as I ride off without hi-vis & helmet...

[MattH]

Our UK site has around 300 people. Of these, around 10% are fair weather cycle commuters. Half a dozen of us use our bikes regardless of weather, split 50/50 lycra or normal clothes. Our industrial estate has a very good free shuttle bus going to town (stopping right outside the train station) in the mornings, lunchtime and evenings. That is well used, and probably reduces the number of cyclists - I know people who live close to town who walk in to catch the bus who would probably otherwise cycle.

We have a dozen sheffield stands in a covered (but not secured) bike shed. In the summer you often find that you have to share stands - by which I mean two bikes per side, not two per stand! In the building we've got three showers.

We are pretty well tolerated; a couple of us who commute in lycra regularly don't change until we've been in work for a while (taking time to cool down first, and also to avoid queuing for showers) - nobody ever passes any comment within earshot. There are some who express interest or surprise at the winter commutes in poor weather (surprise especially when I comment that I could drive in in the Jag, but actually the bike is more fun!).

Our country manager commented favourably on my cycle commuting a couple of months ago - he'd heard that I was saving large amounts of money by using a bike when at our Swedish office rather than taking taxis like everybody else. The most comments I've had are actually in Sweden, a place where cycling is generally more common. Over there I'm considered an oddball because I do a 50km round trip commute by bike!

Thinking about it, the people who do regularly cycle are all pretty senior, which probably helps with the acceptance.