Community Chat

[CrazyKittyLvr2]

Where I am in NE PA we are to get 6 to 12 inches of snow tomorrow on top of the sleet mix we had today. Although I am retired I was wondering how flexible your employers are in bad weather.

Do you have to be there or else,  do you work from home or do they say stay home?

Luckily, everyone I have ever worked for said don't kill yourself to get here. We are in a rural area with a lot of side roads and work it almost always 20+ miles around trip.

However, in my late 30's I did work very briefly weekends at a video store.  I thought it would be fun, it wasn't. We had a blizzard and there was a state of emergency. You could be fined for being on the road.  Too bad, you had to be there.

Will you get to work tomorrow?

[roeroe1005]

When I worked in corporate, we HAD to be there.  Our President had transferred from Zurich.  So we all had to suffer.  The secretary next to me grew up in Rochester, so she would pick me up.  No working from home for us.  

Things were certainly different when I worked in a school district!  Loved those 2 hour delays and snow days!

[LilLadyNJ]

I work in corporate and we're advised to use our best judgement and to be safe. Needless to say, I will be working from home (in NJ). 

[Nonametoday]

In the medical industry where people who are bleeding or having heart attacks are braving the weather to get to the hospital and doctor offices, with heart attacks, bleeding and children with pneumonia, etc., you know why you signed up ---- it's your chosen profession and you're a policeman or a fireman, that is when you are the busiest as well.  So you just suck it up, buttercup and forge ahead.

[mac116]

My husband is still working full time here in snowy Minnesota. He can go in late, or work from home, BUT the time/day is deducted from his vacation days. So he goes in most bad weather days. 

[jeanlake]

Working at a college, I've seen my share of paid snow days when my corporate husband had to make it into work or take a PTO (personal time off) day. We even have early release if it's been snowing all day and evening classes are cancelled. The focus is college students' safety.    

[Mz iMac]

I had a golden rule in my department......

Snow/sleet/ice type weather - Safty comes FIRST before your job!

[libbyannE]

I had a career in journalism. Deadlines are deadlines. We had to get to work. 

[chrystaltree]

Workers are expected use common sense and think of their own safety and the safety of others on the road.  I work for a hospital, hospitals never close and hospitals don't have snow days.  However, even though management cannot say it, there's a difference between those of us who do administrative work and those of us who are in patient care roles.  My husband is an RN, his primrary job now is as a case manager but he has to go in regardless of the weather because if the hospital needs him to cover and care for patients, that's what he will do.  They arrange sleep space at the hospital and there are several nearby hotels that are withing walking distance and his hospital (and mine to) reserve rooms.  RN's and other patient care staff are expected to be at work even if it means arriving hours early.  They also cannot leave until there is adequate coverage.  Administrative people who can work from home do so when during inclement weather.  Those who don't have access to the hospital's system at home, are expected to use common sense.  If the governor advises that non-essential workers stay home, they are expected to stay home and the hospital pays them.  Otherwise if they stay home, they have to take a vacation day.  Having said that, it never fails that someone who isn't essential by any stretch of the imagination will drive into work or take public transportation into work and spend the next years boring everyone to death with her  "it took me 4 hours to get to work" story.  There are people who just think they are indispensible.  I don't anyone who has ever been pressured to come to work during a snow emergency.  I've never heard of an employer telling a customer service rep that you MUST come to work during the blizzared with hurricane force winds and 30 inches of snow.  

[Nonametoday]

---

@chrystaltree wrote:

Workers are expected use common sense and think of their own safety and the safety of others on the road.  I work for a hospital, hospitals never close and hospitals don't have snow days.  However, even though management cannot say it, there's a difference between those of us who do administrative work and those of us who are in patient care roles.  My husband is an RN, his primrary job now is as a case manager but he has to go in regardless of the weather because if the hospital needs him to cover and care for patients, that's what he will do.  They arrange sleep space at the hospital and there are several nearby hotels that are withing walking distance and his hospital (and mine to) reserve rooms.  RN's and other patient care staff are expected to be at work even if it means arriving hours early.  They also cannot leave until there is adequate coverage.  Administrative people who can work from home do so when during inclement weather.  Those who don't have access to the hospital's system at home, are expected to use common sense.  If the governor advises that non-essential workers stay home, they are expected to stay home and the hospital pays them.  Otherwise if they stay home, they have to take a vacation day.  Having said that, it never fails that someone who isn't essential by any stretch of the imagination will drive into work or take public transportation into work and spend the next years boring everyone to death with her  "it took me 4 hours to get to work" story.  There are people who just think they are indispensible.  I don't anyone who has ever been pressured to come to work during a snow emergency.  I've never heard of an employer telling a customer service rep that you MUST come to work during the blizzared with hurricane force winds and 30 inches of snow.  

@chrystaltree   You must live in a privileged community.