Unscheduled leave for "evacuating" after earthquake?

[Anonymous]

I am a Fed, and as soon as the quake hit, I got in my car and headed home to see about my dd and my mother. Most people were still standing around looking at each other trying to figure out what was going on, and what should they do next.

In most situations, like snowstorms, 9/11 and other emergencies, it seems the Ones In Charge take forever to get around to letting the staff go. I've found that if I wait until "official dismissal," it can be a) hours after the emergency has begun and b) hours into traffic gridlock. My agency dismissed yesterday at 4 pm. My biggest fear is getting stuck and not being able to be home with my baby and family.

I will be charged leave for going home early, but I would do it again in a minute. Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Probably. And you probably should be since others stayed for the official "dismissal." But, this is what leave is for. You did what you felt you needed to do in the situation. If you are happy with your decision then don't sweat the few hours of leave that you chose to use.

[Anonymous]

That's what leave is for. And I feel fortunate to have leave. People who work for hourly wages lost some of their pay check yesterday.

[Anonymous]

What are you getting charged? Are you getting charged for the time between when you left work and 4pm? Or for the whole afternoon?

I walked to my child's daycare from my office to make sure she was okay. When I got there, I was informed by daycare that they were closing until the building was cleared by an inspector. At that point, I emailed my office to tell them I wouldn't be back (and why I wouldn't be back, because we had people who just left and went to happy hour early as well, which I didn't think was appropriate). I did about an hour of work on the phone while stuck in traffic, but other than that, I'm getting charged for the whole afternoon, minus the half hour that the building was closed anyway.

Generally speaking, I think that it's reasonable to leave when you know things are going to close anyway to beat the rush. Of course, that is what causes the rush to be 3 hours long, but that's not relevant. Unless your office is forgiving everyone who left early though, I think it's reasonable that you get charged for the time between when you left and when the office closed.

[Anonymous]

I think it is ok as long they charge only the time when the office re-opened and 4-5pm (your usual leave time). Not the whole day or even the whole afternoon.

[Anonymous]

OP here-is anyone else frustrated about how long it takes for the decision to dismiss?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here-is anyone else frustrated about how long it takes for the decision to dismiss?

Not really. That's how government works. They have to balance things like service delivery (depending on what part of the feds you work for), vs. employee need, vs. area commuting issues/METRO/etc.

[Anonymous]

I can see you getting charged for the entire afternoon, even after the evacuation, and it actually doesn't seem unfair to me.

Normally, administrative leave is granted to employees who reported to work and are working at their duty stations when the leave starts. So if you're teleworking, in most situations you'd be expected to continue working, and if you were already on sick or annual leave that day, you'd still be charged. Technically, you went on leave when you left your office and you did not plan to return, so you were already out on leave for the remainder of the day when the emergency administrative leave was granted.

If you had scheduled a doctor's appointment for 2pm and were not planning to return to work that afternoon, you'd be charged sick leave for the whole afternoon even though your office closed b/c of the earthquake. If you took one hour of sick leave and were scheduled to return to the office and it closed, you'd only be charged one hour of sick leave. This is kind of the same thing - you went on annual leave when you left your office for the afternoon with no intention of returning. It doesn't matter if your office was closed & you couldn't return. What matters is that you were already on leave, even if that leave wasn't pre-planned and you started it an hour before the emergency. If you happen to be on annual leave during a blizzard and the office closes, you still get charged annual leave.

I think this makes sense. As a whole, we are supposed to wait for official instructions. People who have pressing concerns like childcare or elderly family members to check on might choose to take leave so they can go home right away. But if there's an emergency and everyone in the agency just walks out and goes home, thinking the office is "probably" going to close anyway, how is an agency supposed to account for all its employees, communicate necessary information, and ensure continuity of operations?

[Anonymous]

you started it an hour before the emergency.

meant "an hour before the emergency dismissal."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's what leave is for. And I feel fortunate to have leave. People who work for hourly wages lost some of their pay check yesterday.

Your concern for the unwashed is touching. Also, driving your car after an earthquake can be very dangerous. People in this area reacted to yesterday just as stupidly as they do to hurricanes, snow, and high heat and humidity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here-is anyone else frustrated about how long it takes for the decision to dismiss?

Gee, maybe it takes a while to determine whether building is safe to occupy. How fast do you want that done?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's what leave is for. And I feel fortunate to have leave. People who work for hourly wages lost some of their pay check yesterday.

Your concern for the unwashed is touching. Also, driving your car after an earthquake can be very dangerous. People in this area reacted to yesterday just as stupidly as they do to hurricanes, snow, and high heat and humidity.

People like you are the reason so many people hate DC.

[Anonymous]

Totally appropriate to be charged unscheduled leave for leaving early yesterday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's what leave is for. And I feel fortunate to have leave. People who work for hourly wages lost some of their pay check yesterday.

Your concern for the unwashed is touching. Also, driving your car after an earthquake can be very dangerous. People in this area reacted to yesterday just as stupidly as they do to hurricanes, snow, and high heat and humidity.

People like you are the reason so many people hate DC.

I agree! While we chuckle to ourselves a little bit when a hurricane is coming and we are telling our neighbors how to prepare (grew up in SFL). I also realize that it took us some time to understand how to deal with snow and now we are learning about earthquakes. I don't think I reacted stupidly. Maybe ignorantly, but only because I have never lived where earthquakes are considered to likely occur.

I also think the school are a little funny about how they handle the high heat policies for sports only because we would have never practiced or had games if the same rules applies in SFL schools. On the other hand, I realize that many people are acclimated to that type of high heat/high humidity in SFL so it doesn't affect them as much.

Try understanding these situations from other peoples' perspectives and maybe you won' t be so grumpy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's what leave is for. And I feel fortunate to have leave. People who work for hourly wages lost some of their pay check yesterday.

Your concern for the unwashed is touching. Also, driving your car after an earthquake can be very dangerous. People in this area reacted to yesterday just as stupidly as they do to hurricanes, snow, and high heat and humidity.

People like you are the reason so many people hate DC.

I agree! While we chuckle to ourselves a little bit when a hurricane is coming and we are telling our neighbors how to prepare (grew up in SFL). I also realize that it took us some time to understand how to deal with snow and now we are learning about earthquakes. I don't think I reacted stupidly. Maybe ignorantly, but only because I have never lived where earthquakes are considered to likely occur.

I also think the school are a little funny about how they handle the high heat policies for sports only because we would have never practiced or had games if the same rules applies in SFL schools. On the other hand, I realize that many people are acclimated to that type of high heat/high humidity in SFL so it doesn't affect them as much.

Try understanding these situations from other peoples' perspectives and maybe you won' t be so grumpy!

pp here - I also agree that OP made a decision that worked for her, but she should be charged leave for the entire afternoon based on the policy that a pp mentioned.