Are you a firefighter, police office, rescue worker, doctor or road maintenance worker? Well first of all, thank you for doing an extremely important job during one of the toughest times of year. Second of all, this post isn’t about you.
For anyone else, read on!
There are some nasty storms moving across the country right now and I am fairly certain they won’t be stopping. If you’re in an area like Portland, winter weather means being completely paralyzed. And while the drivers here in my fair city are partially to blame, the road crews here are woefully unprepared to deal with the more serious winter stuff that comes our way once every four years.
I went to school in a place that had snow on the ground from late October through finals. They knew how to deal with it there and they were equipped. Even in well equipped areas though, some nasty stuff would shut things down once in a while. My in-laws received two feet of snow in 24 hours.
In all of these situations, there always seems to be these people that feel their job as an accountant, public relations specialist or human resources manager necessitate the need to risk their life and try to get to work in vehicles inadequatly equipped to deal with the weather.
Here’s the deal: if you can’t drive in crummy weather and you don’t have the mass transportation system necessary to carry you to work, don’t try to go to work.Your job isn’t that important.
Stay in, drink a cup of hot chocolate and even play with your cats if absolutely necessary. Nobody should blame you for not going to work in dangerous conditions and if they do, you have my permission to get in their face about it.
What I advise companies to do in this situation is pretty simple:
- Have a clearly written inclement weather policy that everyone is made aware of.
- In that policy, state that you will always be open except in extreme weather conditions and tell them resources you’ll use to communicate a closure.
- Those who can use mass transit or walk will get to work.
- Empower your employees to make the call for themselves and back them up on their decisions.
That’s it.
Do you have experience with anything else that works?
{ 1 trackback }
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I totally agree and especially about the play with your cats part.
I totally agree, especially about the hot chocolate part. In fact, I’m buying hot chocolate today. HR Guy – doing his part to boost the economy.
Okay – I so wish I ever worked at a company that had such a policy. But, the one day I did go to work and my car broke down because of the snow, my boss bought me a new car – so, it ended up working in my favor! : )
Great Article.. And True! If everyone has a lap top or can access work email through their home computer, this is a no brainer.
Lance, interesting juxtapose to this email on Totally Consumed (http://totallyconsumed.blogspot.com/2008/12/optional-snow-days-work-fail.html) which states that giving employees the option just doesn’t work. I tend to agree with your line of thinking more than the TC article.
‘What I find most amazing was how many emails were going back and forth on an HR list-server I belong to about whether or not to cancel production plants in RI. People were like, “We’re closing at 4 today to let our workers get home safe.” Oh really? The storm gets heavy at 2 and plows won’t do much until 6 or 7 – how does that help?
People (employers… HR, specifically) need to just do the right thing and close down plants when the whether is dangerous. A dead or critically injured work is far less productive than one who misses a day of work due to a snow storm!
- Chris
Here in Maine, getting to work against all weather odds is a badge of honor. That being said, our policy is, get to work when you feel safe doing so. If you need to be late tending to weather related urgencies, call us to let us know so we won’t worry about you being in a ditch somewhere or worse. Attendance policy rules default into no fault for the day.
Our mass transit options are sketchy to nonexistent. Many production workers drive 4×4 trucks. Heck, a couple of them even snowplow for the extra cash. AWD vehicles for the rest of us is very common.
The HR Guy, that’s me lives nearly furthest out. Two other employees live deeper into the woods than I do, but they have quicker access to turnpike. That being said, I still nearly beat my boss in this morning. That after getting up at 4 AM to snowblow the driveway.
Bottom Line – we treat our loyal & dedicated employees like the adults they are. In turn, we have exceptionally reliable attendance.
Winter here in Maine is about ten months long, summer is the day we play baseball.
I think there is about 8 or 9 inches of snow at my house across the river from you right now…with about an inch of ice on top of it. I ain’t goin nowheres, yo!
We were discussing how best to communicate weather related closures/delays to our employees in case we ever need to. Facebook and twitter came up as good options. I work for a tech company and most of our employees are active social media users. The times of notifying the local radio station are coming to an end.
A couple of real-life scenarios/questions that have come past my desk as a result of “optional” work days:
1) people who live down the block, with chains and four wheel-drive say it’s “too dangerous” to come into work; while those who live four towns away and have cars with bald tires and no four-wheel drive come in and say the “roads are fine”.
2) Who decides what jobs are “important”? If my job isn’t “important” enough to need to come to work during bad weather, should I be surprised if I’m on the top of the next layoff list?
In my experience, when work attendance is “optional” dedicated employees take risks and try to come in while lazy employees use the “optional” day to avoid deadlines and responsibilities.
@ Totally Consumed – If the feeling is “dedicated employees take risks and try to come in while lazy employees use the “optional†day to avoid deadlines and responsibilities” then the solution seems pretty evident:
What are you doing with the lazy employees the other 259 working days?
Lazy employees abuse vacation, sick, FMLA, OFLA and disability benefits as well but nobody suggests getting rid of those as a reasonable solution. I think of optional days along the same lines. What do you do with lazy employees that abuse these other policies? People that abuse optional days should be treated the same. Managing up or out lazy employees during the year would be optimal. The best employees should not feel like they have to “keep up appearances” and take unnecessary risks to prove to management that they are dedicated. Their work the rest of the year should be sufficient.
As for necessary employees, it depends on your facility and customer needs really. The management should figure out what they would need in order to operate under inclement weather where employees and customers might be limited. Most of the time though, operating under inclement conditions is a short term status. Just because all we need at our facility during inclement weather is security personnel doesn’t make everyone else expendable. Ultimately, somebody has to make money and make products to keep those security people employed.