Post Typhoon Woes Continue

Commuter chaos in Tai Wai on Monday Morning, after Typhoon Mangkhut

This morning I went to my hairdresser Joanna to get a trim. I asked her how she fared during the typhoon.

She said it was fine, but it was the next day, Monday's commuter chaos that was terrible. Joanna lives in Yuen Long and in the morning her clients were texting her to see if she was still keeping their appointments. She hadn't kept up with the news on the transportation issues and said she should get to the salon on time.

Trees fell on cars and streets, making some roads impassable

But when she got to the station she realized it would be a long wait. In the end it took over two and a half hours to get to Central.

Her colleagues in Sha Tin had a trying time -- there were massive lines already outside of the station trying to get in.

"They decided to lower the typhoon signal from T8 to T3 at 6am," she says. "Why couldn't they have just waited a bit later and then we would get to work by the afternoon?" she asked.

That makes a lot of sense. Did the Hong Kong government think about that?

Then there would be time given to the army of cleaners to clear as much of the streets as possible and for electricity to come back on in some areas, and as a result some more buses could be on the road.

Some say people should not be complaining to Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor about their transportation woes -- they should really be directing them at their bosses to have a bit more understanding.

Glass strewn on the streets from blown-out windows

One example is a Facebook post by the union at Radio Television Hong Kong or RTHK saying their bosses forced them to use their annual leave on Monday if they didn't show up for work. Eventually RTHK backed down and employees didn't have to claim the day off.

Sometimes there are acts of God that you cannot control -- but yet we have the best of intentions to come to work -- or you don't believe us?

It's high time employers have more faith in their workers to do their utmost to come to work. Most of us just want to come in, do as good a job as we can, and then go home, then repeat the next day.

The vast majority are not slackers, though there is a small minority of them. We all need the job for money, so why not trust us to show up for work?

Treating us better would go a long way in terms of productivity.