Do you have them?
Forecast is 10-14"s starting later this afternoon. My office is closing at 1pm due to the weather. We get 4-5 a year in Maine of all places. I can see closing in Buffalo type events, but shutting down before it starts seems over the top.
I work just north of Toronto. We’ve never had a day where they close the office due to snow.
What my company does is sets up a phone line you can call into to see if the office is closed that day. What they say is “if you have the ability to work from home (ie, you have a VPN token) speak to your manager and do what you feel is best”.
My manager is great. He tells me to stay home. Other managers are not great.
Do you have them?
Forecast is 10-14"s starting later this afternoon. My office is closing at 1pm due to the weather. We get 4-5 a year in Maine of all places. I can see closing in Buffalo type events, but shutting down before it starts seems over the top.
Well I think the idea is to get the vehicles off the streets before conditions get dicey as you can count on a lot of people driving like idiots and causing accidents. I was actually surprised when I moved to Maine how many people drive dangerously in the snow. I figured that was just a mid-Atlantic thing due lack of experience but apparently not.
As stated above, early dismissals are a way of getting the bulk of traffic off the roads for when conditions worsen and removal procedures begin. Then again, you should recognize that it’s the last few hours before a long holiday weekend, so no one is really working anyhow.
Do you have them?
Forecast is 10-14"s starting later this afternoon. My office is closing at 1pm due to the weather. We get 4-5 a year in Maine of all places. I can see closing in Buffalo type events, but shutting down before it starts seems over the top.
Well I think the idea is to get the vehicles off the streets before conditions get dicey as you can count on a lot of people driving like idiots and causing accidents. I was actually surprised when I moved to Maine how many people drive dangerously in the snow. I figured that was just a mid-Atlantic thing due lack of experience but apparently not.
This. Here in Minnesota if they don’t do it, it can extend rush hour by hours.
**Do you have them? **
For schools yes - usually due to the fact that in our area, a decent percentage of kids are bused to school. If the buses are cancelled the school is cancelled as well. However, the schools are usually open and they run with skeleton staff for the kids that do show up - some parents have no option to other care, so their only option is for the kids to go to school.
For work - rarely. Hard for me to say. I work at home and my commute is up the stairs to my home office from the kitchen!
As BleP pointed out - with technology now. Many can telecomute. In the GTA many have insanely long commutes, that can chew up massive amounts of time. Add in delays and further slow-downs with snow, and it’s absurd to even consider driving into the office. There’s also the safety factor to. Despite the fact we get a real winter here, many drivers drive like idiots, like there is no winter!! - but that’s a whole other topic
We don’t have official ones but we tend to get the hell out of dodge and work from home the rest of the day.
We don’t usually get really bad snow but traffic tends to get fubar’d. It is nice to be able to avoid turning a 30 minute drive into 2 hours.
My company goes the cop out route. The CYA route. They aren’t willing to close the office, they are saying speak to your manager and use your judgement.
Do you have them? I can see closing in Buffalo type events, but shutting down before it starts seems over the top.
Hah! Come to The Triangle (Raleigh-Durham) where they freak out when one snowflake hits the ground - everything shuts down in a second. Snow management? Snow management around these here parts consists of laying a salty liquid solution down a day or two ahead, then it rains before “the happening” and washes the solution away. Then, the 1 snow plow that is shared by 5 counties is dispatched to somewhere where it hasn’t snowed (I seem to think Miami Beach) to wait out the .33" snow fall.
Here in the Denver area, schools have them, but generally only use one or two a year. Work, nope, because we can work from home almost as effectively.
In Ottawa we actually know how to deal with snow. Since I work for myself often if I get enough cancellations I just give myself a snow day but it’s extremely rare.
I think with my daughter I’d manage to get her to daycare no matter what the weather was like.
I teach in a public school. We sometimes cancel the entire day, but the better deal is a “2-hour delay”.
The school district only “budgets” for one snow day per year, so if we happen to take two or more, they add those days to the end of the school year. (Must be some sort of contract requirement.) But some families have already made plans for the day after the end of the school year, graduations were already scheduled, and a lot of kids just don’t show up. The days added in May tend to be a waste of time.
However, the “2-hour delay” is normally enough for the roads to be cleared. Classes and lunch are 15 minutes shorter, but unless I have a lab exercise or a “big test” scheduled, that’s normally not a problem. We get credit for having a school day and everyone still gets to go home at the normal time.
Other managers are not great. ]
That I simply do not understand (and that includes those (not all but most of them) useless HR folks as well)
They are increasing significantly the commute time due to the very bad conditions, resulting in more than likely more stressed and not in the mood employee further impacting productivity.
They are also putting their employees in greater risk of having an accident.
I really really do not get it!
Obviously it is different for folks that are working in stores or are expecting to see patients/clients.
I live in South Carolina. We’re very likely going to have to cancel school and shut down businesses just because you started this thread.
hah, good one!
Here in Nashville, we send people home if it is raining and the forecast is for temperatures to drop into the 30’s. The traffic here is actually worse before it turns to snow. If you wait until it actually turns to flurries (which only happens about 20% of the time forecast), you can usually drive home on empty roads.
I teach in a public school. We sometimes cancel the entire day, but the better deal is a “2-hour delay”.
Does that mean you get to go in 2-hours later? My wife teach public school as well, but she’s required to be in on time even when there is a 2-hour delay in effect.
I live in South Carolina. We’re very likely going to have to cancel school and shut down businesses just because you started this thread.
My family moved several times between Nova Scotia and Greenville, SC when I was a kid. I found the 2 snow days we had during my time in Greenville very amusing. Both times snow was falling but the ground was too warm for it to accumulate.
I now live in rural Ontario. The kids get typically 3-6 snow days per year. For work there are no snow days but if the roads are closed by the police and you live driving distance away then you simply can’t come in. You work from home. By the same token I had a ‘snow night’ where the cops closed the roads while I was at work and I got to spend the night sleeping in my office.
Hey! I am from Maine too 
Yep. I’m in Greenville and nothing’s changed. We cancel based on a forecast.
Three are built into school schedules. We dont use them most years. More often for terrible roads (glare ice) than for blizzards. I agree that the 2 hour rule needs to be used more by school districts not entire days.