Community Chat

[DiAnne]

If people need their job they stay.

[Oznell]

When I lived in New Orleans, I worked for the state of Louisiana, and they had a typically lenient policy for employees when a hurricane threatened.  As much as I love N.O. for so many reasons, I always felt uneasy during hurricane season, and hated taping my windows and making all the preparations.

I marveled at the people who happily threw "hurricane parties" in the Quarter!

[gmkb]

DH just texted me that he is going home. We are inland but wind is getting stronger and he was told to go home. Breathing a sigh of relief.

[Mominohio]

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@chrystaltree wrote:

Work? Who the heck would go to work at grocery store or dry cleaner's or when their safety or the safety and well being of their family is at stake?   I work for a hospital but I do not work in patient care; I'm not a nurse or physician or lab tech or xray tech.  So, work would not even be on my horizon.  We knew a week ago that FL was going to be in the bull's eye and we knew that this was one huge, historical storm the likes of which we have not seen.  So, like most of my friends and aquaintences, we would have left FL and headed north days and days ago.  We certainly wouldn't have waited for the roads to be impassable or for gas to run out.  My husband is a nurse but has an administrative job now.  He's stand up guy so it's real possibility that he would have gone to his hospital to do whatever needed to be done but he'd have stayed there for the duration.  Hospitals always arrange sleeping space for staff and they need everyone.  If he decided to stay, I would leave alone or with whoever wanted to come with me.  My family would make room for anyone I brought with me.  Essential jobs aren't grocery store clerks.  Essential means patient care, fire, police, ambulance, utility workers.  

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I can tell you who would risk it or be struggling to decide about risking it, and it is those that have fewer options than many here. I know many people who have jobs like you listed, who feel they don't have much ability to get anything else or better, and need every single dollar of their paycheck. They are truly only a paycheck away from being homeless, and live very close to the wire.

I was raised by a mother that never finished high school (as she had to leave where she lived to avoid being abused and molested when she was in the 10th grade) and worked jobs in grocery stores and dry cleaners and other low paying positions all her adult life. She indeed had the kind of boss that would have expected people to work until the last hours before the storm and I can imagine the struggle she would have faced trying to decide what to do and when to do it. 

It is usually the people with the lowest paying jobs, and the least education and opportunities that have to face these kinds of dilemmas. 

[Laura14]

My place of business just closed for tomorrow.  I need my paycheck so I am going to run down and clock in and work from home.  As long as I have power, I'm good and so is my paycheck.  

[Mominohio]

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@chrystaltree wrote:

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@Lucky Charm wrote:

If the governor declares a state of emergency, then anyone on the roads is breaking the law. 

Unless you are an essential employee at your company.

You would have either/or a document stating such or a sticker on your employee badge.

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      I assume if you are dead, you don't have to worry about losing your job and since this the type of storm that can kill you....I darn sure wouldn't care about some convenience store job or being their so people stock up on chips and water.  Let the owner stay.

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Consider yourself blessed that you have never lived in the financial position where you weren't forced to have to care. Many people do, and it bothers me that many may have wanted to leave days and days ago, but may have felt they had to stay. 

[qvcfreak]

@Mominohio, I worked for the state in the IT department. When hurricane Gilbert hit we had to go to work in the morning but the winds were already hard and it was raining hard. They were releasing us by cities closest to the cost. I worked further from the coast but lived closer to the coast. It was terrible driving against wind and rain, barely seeing anything. We had to go to work because we had to cover all computers with hefty bags and down the servers in several offices. It was a horrible experience. 

[conlt]

I am in home health care an we are in the path of Irma, in fact I am experiencing high winds and rains right now. We have to make sure all of our patients have a plan and emergency numbers. We instruct them and set them up with the county emergency operations when we admit them. Once a storm is approaching we notify all of our patients. Since they are elderly, some are not aware a storm is approaching. Once a hurricane warning goes up we cease operations. If employees need to leave they leave. We all come back after the storm and try to find our patients. Some are evacuated, so over a period of days, we are usually up and running again. 

[RoughDraft]

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@Mominohio wrote:

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@chrystaltree wrote:

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@Lucky Charm wrote:

If the governor declares a state of emergency, then anyone on the roads is breaking the law. 

Unless you are an essential employee at your company.

You would have either/or a document stating such or a sticker on your employee badge.

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      I assume if you are dead, you don't have to worry about losing your job and since this the type of storm that can kill you....I darn sure wouldn't care about some convenience store job or being their so people stock up on chips and water.  Let the owner stay.

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Consider yourself blessed that you have never lived in the financial position where you weren't forced to have to care. Many people do, and it bothers me that many may have wanted to leave days and days ago, but may have felt they had to stay. 

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Are we losing track of what a natural disaster is here?  Even though the areas affected have had several days to a week or more of warning about these storms, nothing on God's green earth can stop them once they're moving.  

Whether you have a high paying job or work in a convenience store, the simple fact is that one of these storms can wipe out not only we humans but the buildings/stores/hospitals/first responder headquarters, homes and condos, so the question of keeping one's job is moot at that point.  

I've worked in a university hospital where when disaster is at the doorstep, employees, doctors, nurses, etc. are required to stay put.  Same goes with all first responders.  However, it they are destroyed, those people are also victims.

The first obligation is to survive, then help others, then rebuild.  There will be jobs.  They might just be different kinds of jobs.

[jaxs mom]

Not currently in a hurricane zone but my husbands company which is headquartered in another state, has an emergency notification plan in place and they monitor local conditions of the branches. They have an automatic call system in place that notifies employees that the offices will be closed. When bad snow storms are predicted everyone that has a laptop is expected to bring it home so that they can work from home if the office is closed. The system keeps calling if you don't answer the phone. Even though it leaves a message also.