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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]And, let me add,  people who don't have to care for other family members are significantly benefitted on snow days compared to those whose dependents' activities are cancelled and who must take leave to provide some or all of this care.  I miss the old days of actual OPM-mandated closure for all.  Now that was fair!!![/quote]

This issue came up at our agency and sparked an interesting conversation. Our snow policy is that [b]if you are telework ready, you must telework on snow days[/b]. Our [b]telework policy says that you must have childcare arrangements[/b]. So, what were we supposed to do for parents who were stuck at home, expected to work, but now dealing with kids at home due to school closures? On my team,  January and February are insanely busy times for us. Technically, those employees were supposed to take annual leave if they couldn't get childcare (impossible with everything closed), but that would have seriously and critically delayed our work, so in the end, our supervisors let people with kids at home keep working. Nobody noticed any lack in productivity; our work still got done just as it would have in the office. If they had told everyone to stop working, we would have likely missed some hugely important due dates and we'd have a team of disgruntled people who, though no fault of their own, had to use a ton of annual leave to sit at home and do nothing when they could have been working. I'm sure this common sense, people-first approach violated a bunch of rules, but it seemed to work well for everyone.[/quote]

Thanks for posting.  That was interesting to read and yes, it does seem as though the two policies conflict completely.  That is why this really isn't a black and white issue.   Flexibility males the most sense to employees and the least to HR and the lawyers.  [/quote]

What PP posted makes sense, expect that employees with small children, without childcare in place are not telework ready. Therefore, they are not subject to the "must telework on snow days" policy. If the government was closed on those days, they should have been granted administrative leave, not forced to take annual leave. One days when the government is open, but with liberal leave options, if these employees can't make it in or sign on - then it's annual leave. [/quote]

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