"Snow Days" at the Office

[Anonymous]

My office follows the federal government's status for office closure on snow days. My company has nicely put this in their handbook. So recently we were closed, the day after the big blizzard. Come to find out several weeks later that apparently "closed" does not mean "closed"....it means you should work from home(although that little tid-bit was left out of the employee handbook). Now granted there are a handful of people in the office, who are unable to work from home, i.e. no laptop....who were forced to take vacation time. I think that is wrong...just wrong. The one person who is enforcing it could have let the whole thing slide....but no.

When the fed is closed do the government employee's work from home?

[Anonymous]

I don't know what the feds do but my office is the same way - closed means work from home or take leave. That's within the employer's rights but they really should have told you in advance. However, not sure you want to be the one that makes a stink about it. Lesson learned.

[Anonymous]

we have the same policy and no one was expected to work from home. don't know your details, but that is how it is for us.

[Anonymous]

No. I wouldn't have thought they could force you to take vacation time?

[Anonymous]

I'm a fed gov't employee, and no, when the fed gov't is closed, my agency doesn't require its employees to work from home.

[Anonymous]

My office never closes no matter how much it snows. So I have to take a vacation day since daycare closes. If we are not in the office no credit for working from home. Vacation day even if you put in a lot of hours at home.

[Anonymous]

When my office is closed, we're not expected to do work, though I know a few people likely do some work at home, and I tend to check my work e-mail at least once. If the expectation in your office is that staff should work from home on snow days, that seems like something that should be made clear by supervisors - how can you follow a policy you aren't aware exists?

[Anonymous]

I don't think it is unfair to expect people to work at home, if it is clear that is the expectation. Much better then everyone trying to get to work. Although, are you saying that people couldn't even come to work if they wanted? But still expected to take vacation time because they didn't have the ability to work from home. That does seem wrong.

[Anonymous]

10:55 here again, if they actually somehow announced that they were "closed" I think you could have a basis for your arguent that you should not be charged leave. But who are you going to complain to? Are you prepared to sue them or something?

[Anonymous]

At least at my federal agency, if the feds close and you were already on leave, you must still use your leave. Also, if you're scheduled to telecommute that day, you still must do so, b/c you're able to get to work since you're (ostensibly) working from home.

[Anonymous]

Feds who are scheduled to be working in the office when the office is closed for snow do not work that day. If you telecommute, then yes, you are still expected to work from home. And if you were on scheduled leave, you are still expected to use your leave.

(Sometimes things vary by agency, so an agency could excuse telecommuters from working that day too, but the above is OPM's general policy.)

[Anonymous]

For our company, "liberal leave" means you can come in to work, work from home if your boss oks it, or take personal time. The very rare times the company might "close" means just that - closed.

[Anonymous]

Do you have an HR department you can speak to? I think this is worth pursuing - you may not get your vacation day back, but policies you're expected to follow should absolutely be in the employee handbook and/or communicated clearly by your supervisor.

[Anonymous]

I am a federal government employee. No one came to the office on the snow day but many still worked from home (though not required to). We have lots of conference calls with others around the country/world who were of course up and running.

[Anonymous]

Our office has the same policy as yours in that we follow the federal government. On that recent Monday when the govt closed, we were officially closed. I will tell you that the "better" employees - i.e., those who I consider to be the best contributors - did some work from home. Do I think they put in the same amount of work as they would have had it not snowed? Nope, I don't (myself included in this group). I had kids and a husband home, and we went sledding, shoveled our drive, and enjoyed some family time in between handling some emails, making some calls, and checking on a time sensitive project. One employee who lives blocks from our office walked in and manned the main phone lines which is valued since we are a service provider and our customers are all over the country. She was profusely thanked for her service, and offered some addl PTO to compensate her for her dedication (no one asked her to come in, she's just that kind of person). That being said, those who didn't work from home weren't docked a vacation day - it was treated like a holiday.

What you describe sounds to me like liberal leave, i.e., you don't have to come in, but if you stay home, you will be docked a vacation day. I agree, it seems they should publish that differently, or at least add language that it will be counted against your leave accrual.