How BAD does the weather have to be...

...before you would call your boss and say FORGET IT! I'M NOT COMING IN!???
This winter has been brutal in so many places, with many snow storms, flooding,freezing rain etc. Why are some employers so ignorant to the health and well being of employees? Would they even care if there was a fatal accident? Even worse, why are some so worried about ticking off the boss over potentially getting in an accident?
I write this because the weather has been horrible here the last 48 hours. Snow, then freezing rain, then rain that flash froze due to a drop in temp with high winds...Now snowing and very windy, 120km gusts...It's like an ice rink everywhere.
I keep up to date with the local radio station and they reported that police are telling people to stay off highways, but have not closed them.
There were two horrific accidents within an hour of each other, and when the radio station reported that a major causeway was closed due to a flipped over tractor trailer...I could not believe the comments people left. All anyone cared about was OMG! I gotta get to work! Hurry up and clear the road! Not a comment about if anyone was hurt, or that the road was too hazardous to be on in the first place. MY GOD PEOPLE! Your job or your life eh? Choose, or fate may choose for you.
In my opinion, if the police say STAY HOME...your employer can stick a sock in it. No job is worth your life.

reply to post by AccessDenied


I'll always come into work.

But if it's bad?

I always tell my people to stay home. I'd rather have living employees than dead ones. They aren't brain surgeons. No-one will die if they stay at home. With the roads and traffic? Making them come in might actually kill them.

That being said, I was so bogged down about a month ago that I couldn't come in. One of my employees showed up in a 4x4 to take me in.

He did it on his own.

beezzer
That being said, I was so bogged down about a month ago that I couldn't come in. One of my employees showed up in a 4x4 to take me in.
He did it on his own.

Did you send him to be reprocessed? Thinking for ones self these days is almost a punishable offence!

You sound like a good employer. Gimme a job please!

VoidHawk

beezzer
That being said, I was so bogged down about a month ago that I couldn't come in. One of my employees showed up in a 4x4 to take me in.
He did it on his own.

Did you send him to be reprocessed? Thinking for ones self these days is almost a punishable offence!

You sound like a good employer. Gimme a job please!

You got clinical engineering experience?

You're hired!

reply to post by AccessDenied


I'm active duty military in DC, so unless I'm specifically told not to come in, my butt better be there. But like Beezzer, I tell my guys to stay home when there's snow.

This passed Thursday was the 1st day I didn't go in due to snow. But they told us the night before not to go in.

I think it's not unreasonable for employers to be held responsible for in-climate weather accidents if they force their employees to come in.

beezzer

VoidHawk

beezzer
That being said, I was so bogged down about a month ago that I couldn't come in. One of my employees showed up in a 4x4 to take me in.
He did it on his own.

Did you send him to be reprocessed? Thinking for ones self these days is almost a punishable offence!

You sound like a good employer. Gimme a job please!

You got clinical engineering experience?

You're hired!

I can sharpen scissors and I can tell if a laser is working properly just by looking at the beam

VoidHawk

beezzer

VoidHawk

beezzer
That being said, I was so bogged down about a month ago that I couldn't come in. One of my employees showed up in a 4x4 to take me in.
He did it on his own.

Did you send him to be reprocessed? Thinking for ones self these days is almost a punishable offence!

You sound like a good employer. Gimme a job please!

You got clinical engineering experience?

You're hired!

I can sharpen scissors and I can tell if a laser is working properly just by looking at the beam

Oh.

So an administrative-level job?

Good on you Beezer for caring for your employees! I wish more were the same. Earlier this winter we had a major storm,and it wasn't until the roads became impassable ,and the police closed the highways,that the employers in a nearby town decided to close up shop early and send employees home. By then they were stranded,and many complained. Crazy.

I was born in raised in California but i now live in a place where they don't even bother to plow the roads. People are driving on 3 feet of packed snow that has frozen into ice in -20 below or lower. This was quite a shocker for me. I learned by living here, that what one person considered to bad to come into work, is another person normal.

Conditions that used to terrify me, are now every day normal. But if you aren't used to it, then yeah, I think there is a limit.

reply to post by calstorm



Kinda the same here, not to the level you're at though. I need my paycheck. I don't go in, I don't get paid. I live very much pay check to pay check. I simply don't have room in the budget to be missing a day. If I can get through, I'm there.

Some people have no choice. Their services are needed. Like the truck drivers delivering gas and propane, food.

Plus, some places get these types of winters for weeks at a time. Can't shut down then.
I heard on the news the other day that the recent shut down from the weather in the US, cost the economy billions.

If the new trend is winters this bad, covering this much of North America more often, building codes will need to be upgraded, and people need to learn best ways of dealing with snow and ice.....

I heard one of the states say they were running out of road salt.
Dirt works just as well.

I do agree though, that when the roads are really icy, in the communities that aren't prepared for it, people should be given the option to stay home without punishment (except wage loss in some cases). Too many people stuck on the roads makes it extra hard for essential services to get around, and also the road clearing and sanding crews.

reply to post by AccessDenied


All employers aren't that way. Though some are...like maybe, say Wal-Mart.

One thing that I have always done is if that I feel my life or those I led is threatened for a menial job. I refused. And I was in the Army until recently! (Oh, and retired with a honorable). My peoples lives were more important.

Going out on missions to help those in need were another story.

What a conundrum.

snowspirit
I heard one of the states say they were running out of road salt.
Dirt works just as well.

They are running out of salt here in the Cleveland area. Home of the Carhill Salt Mines. Many towns are using cinder to coat the roads.

If that ain't irony, I don't know what is.

Im in emergency response, so I have no choice. Im there for people like yourself who call for help. Im always there, no matter how severe the weather.

beezzer

You got clinical engineering experience?

You're hired!

Plenty of both HR and tactical experience. I can be a prickly SOB when need be.

And if it pays $21.50 a hour or a salary of $44,000 plus. You want me. Admit it. you want me.

But with that caveat, there will be some who love me, and some who hate me. But I will make them do their jobs. Or replace those who don't.

reply to post by AccessDenied


This is how I do it on my end (Michigan here) : If I get up at 5:00am my time, and see that the roads are horrible, then I at least try to make it in to work. There were days where I had to do 20mph in places that went 50mph, but since getting new tires, I found I can usually get to work in an hour. I make an effort to more or less prove that I didn't just wake up and say I didn't feel like coming in to work. If I slide more than 7 times coming in to work, then I turn around and work from home. So far, I have only had to call it once, and that was when we got 6 inches of new snow in the morning.

At my company, they have a policy where "if you feel like your life is in jeopardy, then work from home" - the problem with this is that if I said my life was in jeopardy every time the roads iced over, then I wouldn't be working at the company. Even with the ice I drive like the little old man I will become, because with slower speeds I can stop, prevent "fish tailing", and all the speed demons out there can go around me. Also, you don't tick off the boss if you want to stay employed - most bosses are understandable enough that if the weather is bad, it's expected that you will come in late or not at all. But if he says you need to be there, then you probably should be there.

-fossilera

mysterioustranger
Im in emergency response, so I have no choice. Im there for people like yourself who call for help. Im always there, no matter how severe the weather.

So, I'm curious...In your line of work is it mandatory to have better driving skills for winter weather? Some type of defensive driving course or such?

reply to post by AccessDenied


if it's 75 degrees, sunny, with a cool breeze..... i'm calling in.

ha ha ha ha

reply to post by subfab


Must be nice...

reply to post by AccessDenied


If I called in because I felt my life would be in danger, due to bad weather conditions, many others would not get to work and some would not receive the essential emergency services they may need during said bad weather. I clear roads so there is no calling in at my job. The thing is, I don't own the trucks used to clear the roads (we use standard dump trucks with a plow blade and a salt hopper we throw up in the back) so I have to drive to the shop to get the truck first. This is not always fun...that might just be the understatement of my life...lol.

I live in VA. The other day it was 10 to 15 mph all the way to work...at 3 am. I spent the next 30 hrs behind the wheel of that truck....Zero breaks! I am still exhausted.

And to answer your question about "better driving skills", courses one is "required" to take. As far as I know, there are none. Not in VA anyways. A CDL is required to drive the larger state trucks but that is because they own them. They subcontract much of the work to local companies with the capacity to clear roads and spread salt....there are no "safety courses". I find it amusing when I am considered a "professional". I was basically thrown to the wolves....it went something like this. Me- "I am not sure I know how to drive/operate this plow/spread salt/etc on these horrible roads".....the boss man- "Learn as you go....wreck my truck and don't show back up because you're fired"......Me- "10-4". Experience is a great teacher, the only teacher imo.

Like another said, what is horrible to some is normal to others and once you are accustomed to driving in bad weather conditions it isn't as frightening as it may have once been. I need not say that even after driving in said conditions many many times.....there are those moments when I think to myself....wtf am I doing out in this? And then I remember, someone has to do it.

I will add though, that I rather enjoy heading out when most are hunkering down. Going out and working in conditions that others cannot even function in....I guess it's a pride and ego thing...I can admit that. It is also an adrenaline thing....it can be and IS often a rush. Sort of akin to tornado chasing, except when chasing tornadoes, the "rush" is usually fairly short lived and the storm caught is here and gone rather quickly. When "chasing" snow and ice over a period of 20 or 30 (sometimes more) hours...it is stressful and the rushes come in waves....depending on the roads.

Many times, traffic is more of an issue than the roads. Ignorant people pretending the roads are slick, driving like there is nothing on them, unaware that my plow blade is MUCH wider than the truck.....giving me ZERO room on the mountainous back roads we have here (many times no guard rail and sheer drops of hundreds of ft)....
So be aware....give the plow guys some room will ya. (Got me a little rant in there too)